Consider the tale of a trucking company. It was a good company, but still had its share of accidents. As you might expect, the company was sometimes dragged into court. The trusted defense lawyer did a good job defending the lawsuits, but the owner was deeply troubled by the expense and disruption. After thinking long and hard, he discovered a pattern. Most of the accidents occurred when his truck was making a left turn. Within a year, he significantly reduced the number of accidents and the number of lawsuits. How? He issued a simple directive: my trucks don't make left turns.
I first heard that story on June 12, 1986. It came from Louis Brown, professor Emeritus at the UCLA Law School and the Father of Preventive Law. It took less than a minute, but forever changed my perception of the business/legal relationship.
For over a decade Professor Brown lavished time on my apprenticeship. As both mentor and friend, he inspired, encouraged and challenged me to help people avoid needless legal entanglements. His objective was no less than world peace. So far I've had to settle for helping people avoid lawsuits when they can and deal with them when they must. But as a recovering lawyer whose powers can only be used for good, I'm not finished yet.
I'm amused as I once had a car with such damage to the left fender that it could not make left turns. In spite of this, I drove the car for nearly 3 years, going everywhere making right turns only. It make for some interesting routes and forced me to take a much more "zen" approach to getting anywhere. It was truly only problematic in some parking situations. I actually came to appreciate it.
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