Around The Community: Remembering my friend, Jon Teller, Z"L

“I hope you’re taking notes.”

I was an inexperienced lawyer, new to the field of personal injury. Through a mutual acquaintance, I reached out to an accomplished lawyer with decades of experience. I needed help with a detail on one of my first cases, and reached out to him hoping he would be gracious with his time and knowledge.

Hard truth. He wasn’t. He was rude and demeaning. His impatient, “I hope you’re taking notes” ensured that I never called him again. He wasn’t the first or last jerk I encountered in the legal space. Big surprise right!?

Contrast that with my good friend, Jon Teller. Jon was a partner and trial lawyer at the Wilshire Law Firm here in Los Angeles. Jon passed away last week after a courageous battle with cancer.

I first met Jon in the summer of 2011. We had both just graduated from law school and were studying to take the California Bar Exam. There were a few of us kosher-observing students, and we stuck together during the BARBRI course, talking about Torts and Contracts in-between our exquisite kosher lunches from Jeff’s Gourmet.

I learned that Jon was from Toronto, went to law school in New York, met and married an LA girl, and was taking the California Bar so he could begin his new job on the West Coast.

Fast forward a little bit. It was the second day of the Bar Exam. Back then, the Exam was a marathon of three days. The test was administered at the Century Plaza in Century City, and I, like many other exam takers, moved into the hotel for the week. I lived close enough to the hotel where I could go home for dinner, see my family, then immediately high-tail it back to the hotel to get ready for the next day’s testing. As I did so after the second day, I took the elevator up from the lobby.

The door opened, and in walks Jon. “How was it?”, he asked me. I honestly felt like I knew the material and wasn’t as panicked as some of the other test takers.  Jon told me he had the same feeling. We both agreed, however, that the Civil Procedure essay was something neither of us were expecting. So what did we do? “Make it up!”, mimicking the voice of one of the bar-prep professors who advised us to “fake it” if we encountered a subject on the test that we were unprepared for. We both had a good laugh and gave each other a fist bump. “You got this” Jon told me as we wished each other good night.  We both passed the exam.

Fast forward some more. In 2014 I started my own practice as a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer here in Los Angeles. Around that time, I signed up a new case that had unusual facts. I posted a question on a legal listserve, asking if anyone else experienced this particular fact pattern. The first response I got was from Jon Teller. We hadn’t spoken since that night of the bar exam several years earlier, but here he was being the first one to offer guidance on how to navigate my issue. It wasn’t the last time Jon helped me out.

Jon became one of my go-to when I had questions. He was always just a text away. Jon worked hard and achieved incredible results for his clients. But he didn’t keep his accomplishments for himself. He shared them with others. He was always keen to share his knowledge and expertise with colleagues like me.

The brutal truth is that some professionals just don’t want to help others. There are a lot of “gatekeepers” in the legal profession. Some lawyers think that there is only so much success to go around, so helping a competitor is bad for business. The lawyer I mentioned at the beginning of this essay was a gatekeeper.

Jon Teller wasn’t. He viewed his fellow plaintiff’s lawyers as friends and fellow soldiers. A rising tide lifts all ships. Jon believed that helping another plaintiff’s lawyer will help fight insurance industry tactics that have worsened the pain that injured people have already suffered. He dedicated his life to this goal. I was proud to call him a friend. He was taken too soon.

Our community could use more of Jon Teller’s compassion. If you are experienced in your industry, the next time a young upstart calls you, be gracious with your time. If a colleague wants to take you to lunch to pick your brain, find the time to make it happen. If a competitor posts a question that you know the answer to, help him out. Helping another professional in your space doesn’t make you weak. Hashem sets aside enough success for everyone. Don’t be a gatekeeper—be a success-sharer like Jon Teller.

Submitted by Michael E. Rubinstein

(Michael is a personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles. He can be reached through his website at www.RabbiLawyer.com.)