TV - Tray Volentine

RS - Riya Sharma
TV: Hi, this is Trey.

RS: Hi my name is Riya Sharma and I'm a part of the Prosper Career Independent Study
Program. Do you have a moment to answer a few questions about business law?

TV: Yeah sure, absolutely

RS: Thank you so much. So could you provide me with a quick overview of what your average
day in business law looks like?

TV: Yeah. So I don't know if I have an average day you know, it's every day is kind of different.
So my firm specializes in litigation. So businesses that are, you know, suing each other over
breach of contract disputes or um, you know, trade secret disputes or some kind of employment
dispute.

And as well as a lot of transactional work, so helping businesses either, you know, sell
their business or finalize deals with other businesses or draft agreements that the business
needs to operate, you know, such as employment agreements and things like that. So. My day
really consists of, you know, those two things that, you know, either working on a litigation
matter, whether that's, you know, preparing discovery, appearing in court, you know, drafting
pleadings for court or working on a transactional matter.

So getting on calls with clients, opposing counsel, you know, the client, other
professionals that they work with, like accountants or CFOs. To help kind of finalize, kind of
finalize transactions and then, you know, of course sitting down and drafting agreements.

RS: Okay, yeah, I'm actually also interested in business law. That's the career that I want to go
to when I'm older. Could you share the most memorable story from your career that has had a
lasting impact on your approach to business law?

TV: Good question. So what I tell people, I have one client who came to me initially to help set
up an entity for him. So usually the first thing that people do when they want to start a business
is they go set up some sort of entity like an LLC or a corporation. I had that person help that
person set up an entity.

I think he was one of the first clients I think I might have ever had. And over the course of
the last five years, he's come back to me several times. And each time it's because his business
has grown. So he's, you know, needed employees. He's needed employment agreements
because he's hired employees.

He needs leases reviewed. You know, he's needed things that demonstrate that his
business is continuing to grow. And so that, I, I think about him a lot because it's, it's, That's a
the really rewarding part of being a business lawyer is helping individuals kind of start their
business and helping them put the legal framework together to help their business grow The
most fun I ever had as a business lawyer was actually in the litigation sphere was getting to
work on an appeal a couple years ago and actually getting to argue the appeal in front of the
Dallas Court of Appeals.

That I would say, you know, certainly getting that, I think about that particular individual
and getting him into the business structure that he needs to grow his business.

RS: Could you share more about your time in litigation?

TV: Yeah. So I have pretty much from day one started and have worked on litigation matters.
So for me, that's included handling, you know, just normal matters that go through district courts.
So you know, a case gets filed, for example, in Collin County District Court and works through
that process all the way up through, through trial, whether that, that trial be before a judge or a
jury.
Handle pretty much all matters of litigation, whether that be a contract dispute between
businesses, one, you know, one business has accused the other of breaching the contract that
they had some sort of trade secret dispute where one business has accused the other business
of stealing his confidential information or an employee is stealing confidential information.
You know, when that employee was terminated or resigned and as well as just all
manner of other issues. I've also had the ability to or had the opportunity to do several
arbitrations whether that be in the breach of contract context or in the employee injury context,
I've had, I've defended companies whose employees have been injured on the job.
And, and had the ability to do some appellate work as well in the event that the trial
didn't go in our favor or didn't go in the other side's favor, and they appealed it. So I've done all
those things.

RS: Oh, wow. So you said you work on handling matters between businesses, like breach of
contracts. Could you tell me more about that?

TV: Yeah. So, a large part of my practice is actually building contracts for companies that they're
gonna use either with other businesses or with their employees and so forth.

So, you know, a big part of my practice is sitting down with a client and then telling me,
Okay, I have a potential business deal that I want to enter into with this other business. Here
are some of the terms that we've come up with. Can you help me put a contract together? So I'll
sit down and draft that.

That's kind of, that's kind of the, the transactional side or kind of the general counsel side of, of
my practice. The other sort of contract-related work that I do is typically in the litigation sphere
when companies have accused each other of breaching their contracts. So uh, let's say, you
know, you have I could try to use a real example.
So, you know, you have a landlord, right? And then your client, so your client's, the landlord, and
then it has a tenant. And I typically do commercial litigation when it comes to landlord tenants.
So we're talking big long term leases. So your client is the landlord and its tenant is an
Applebee's restaurant that, you know, that's paying rent to stay at that particular property.

Maybe the tenant, you know, breaches its lease, doesn't pay its rent, you know, doesn't make
the renovations it's supposed to make pursuant to the lease. And so you go in and you sue
them. And you allege that, hey, you breached the contract, you've caused us damages. And you
take it all the way to, take it all the way to a judge or jury and let them decide if you're right.

RS: Could you provide more insight on enforcing contracts against non-compliant parties or
debtors?

TV: Sure. So one of the things, usually the first thing that you'll do is, you know, obviously, so
let's say a contract.
The other side has breached it. You know, what do you think I should do? The first thing
I always ask people is how much money are we talking about. If it's 150, it's not likely worth
hiring me to go after. It's going to cost you more to hire me than it is worth you doing. I mean,
you only lost 150, right?

So, not worth it. So that's usually the first thing I try to get an understanding of, okay,
what, what's the amount in dispute? And then I really try to get an understanding of what,
What's the relationship of the parties? You know, are they friends? Are they business partners?
That's very common. Are they, you know, just in a business relationship?

So they have a business, and the other person has a business. I try to get a sense of the
relationship between the parties. And then, I try to get a sense of where the relationship stands
currently. Are they fighting each other? Has it been a pretty good relationship up until this point?
And that helps me decide.

What's the best way to proceed? Because my goal is always to get the issue resolved
and get the client money, if that's what they want, right? It's not to, it's not to create a dispute
where one doesn't already exist. So I try to understand some of those dynamics before I just
proceed. If the relationship is, you know, been fairly good up until now, up until the point where
there's been some recent tension I may, in the background, help the client try to resolve the
issue, but I may have the client take the lead on it.

A lot of times you'll find when attorneys insert themselves into issues, it creates a
problem where one wouldn't exist. So I may help the client kind of, I call it ghost negotiating, so
the client's the one who's really dealing with the other party, but you're helping the client kind of
behind the scenes.

If the relationship is already soured and they're to a point where involving a lawyer sort
of directly is not going to really make it much worse. You know, if you're at that point where you
need to have a lawyer step in, typically the first step that I take is to write what's called a
demand letter.

So it's, you know, you know, Mr. Smith, I represent Mr. Johnson. You understand that
you have this agreement. Here's what the agreement says you're supposed to do. Here are the
times when you haven't complied with it. My client, you know, hereby demands that you pay him
15, 000. That's due right now. If you don't, we may take further action.

That's usually the first step in trying to enforce the contractual agreement. If that doesn't
work, then, you know, I typically talk to the client about pursuing litigation and that's the step
they want to take. You follow, you follow what's called a petition in state court. You tell the court
this is what the other side's done.

And then you go through the litigation process until you get the final trial. And if you win,
the court gives you, you know, a piece of paper essentially that says, you know, bad guy, you
owe trade client money. And then it's up to you and your client to go and try to enforce that
judgment and try to collect money from the other side.

RS: Oh, okay. Moving away from more of the litigation side, could you tell me about what your
career track was that brought you to business litigation? What did you take in college?

TV: Yeah, so I went to Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. I majored in economics.

So I have a bachelor's of business administration with an emphasis in economics. When

I went to law school, I really was not looking to do business law. I was looking to actually. Maybe
be a prosecutor or do some other type of law. I, I've never when I was in law school, did not
intern with a law firm or didn't do any of those things.

And I did take some business classes in law school. So most law students will take a
class that's called business entities or business organizations. And I took some tax classes and
things like that. So I had a general gist of what business law was, but I didn't take any contract
drafting classes or anything like that.

After I came, after I graduated law school and passed the bar I, you know, found the
current firm that I'm at, applied, and I've been there ever since. So it wasn't a planned career,
but I've, I've enjoyed it. We, you know, the firm that I practice at, we have a good variety of
practice.

We do a lot of different stuff as a business lawyer. There's just, there's not one thing that
you, you really specialize in. You have to help a client in several different areas of the law,
whether that's, you know, contract issues, trade secret disputes, employment issues. You know,
maybe OSHA compliant whatever you're, whatever legal issue impacts the business, you may
have to help deal with it on any given day.
RS: Okay. Well, I don't want to take up too much of your time. Thank you so much. You've been
so helpful. Is there anything you want to ask me?

TV: Yeah, so I'm curious how you found out, how you found me and our firm. I know you
wanted to talk to Jane, maybe initially.

RS: Yeah, so I am researching different business lawyers in the Frisco area. And a lot of
business lawyers are often very busy, as I'm sure you are as well. But the receptionist actually
referred me to you so that's how I got to you.

TV: Great, okay. So, what year are you in high school? Are you a senior?

RS: I'm currently a junior.

TV: Okay, so you're ahead of the game.

RS: Yeah!

TV: So you're looking to go to law school and work in business law?

RS: Yeah.

TV: That's awesome. Yeah, it's a fun job. I've really enjoyed it. I would say if I had to give you
any advice I wish I had taken more like finance and accounting classes.
I don't really know why. Oh, and I was a business major and I took some accounting, but for
whatever reason, I'm not great at the accounting part of it. And I, I don't need to know a lot of it
to do business law, but I'm currently actually currently working on a large transaction and had a
call with an accountant yesterday.

Some of the stuff goes over my head, so I would definitely advise you to take some accounting
classes. Where are you thinking about maybe going to undergrad?

RS: I want to go to UT Austin.

TV: Yeah. Well, it was nice talking to you.

RS: Thank you so much.

TV: No, thank you. Appreciate it. Good luck to you.

RS: Have a good day.

TV: Good chatting with you.
RS: Also, before we leave, would you mind if I contacted you again in the future if I had any
more questions or wanted to talk again?

TV: Absolutely, yeah, you can just call, if you just call our firm office, they can forward you to me
RS: Thank you, great to talk to you. Happy Halloween.

TV: You too, bye.

RS: Bye.