When I sit down to talk with legal professionals for these videos, I never know where it will go. Usually, I mine the interviewees for their stories—often about local history—and I sit back and enjoy.
But this one was a little different. The stories became explorations, discussions. We talked about moral dilemmas. We played out tough decisions headed our way as vehicle technology evolves.
David Wright, a partner at McCune Law Group,* represents clients who have suffered catastrophic injury or the death of a loved one because of a dangerous product.
His stories are gripping, important and thought-provoking.
I could see in editing the footage how I was so caught up in multiple thoughts that I had trouble making one question or sentence at a time. Apologies for all my clumsy pauses.
At the time of the interview, Wright had a case about a tour-bus crash with multiple fatalities.
We explored the legal and ethical issues at the heart of the case: When people buy a ticket to get on a car, plane, bus or boat, they have no control of or knowledge of whether the company paid extra for optional safety features.
How obligated are companies to spring for the newest and best life-saving technology available?
We discussed how the evolution of vehicle technology both affects and is affected by lawsuits like Wright tries. We speculated about the future of cars, and we agreed that where we’re likely headed will have a big effect on things like home properties and city land-use policy.
Wright has been in his current job for more than 20 years, but he gained just about every perspective a lawyer can know.
Before he joined MLG, he was a federal prosecutor in the Major Crimes Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Before that, he clerked for a judge in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.
As a criminal prosecutor, he primarily worked on violent crimes and crimes against children.
I drew a thread through his history and noted the common element was fighting for victims. He said it’s rewarding for him.
“People, whether they’re the victim of a crime or the victim of an accident, are being confronted with an aspect of life that very few of us are prepared for. They’re at a low point of their life, and if we can provide them with help, with relief, whether it’s as a prosecutor, with a sense of justice, or whether as a plaintiff’s attorney, allowing them to A) have an explanation for why this happened to them, B) provide them with resources to maybe make their life a little easier, whatever their life is going to look like going forward…, there’s satisfaction in that.”
I pointed out that he has been around grief, pain and tragedy for decades, and wondered if his job didn’t make the world seem like a sorrowful and scary place.
“Because of the work I do, I understand or am confronted with the fragility of life more than most people are,” he said. People experience the unimaginable—including losing a parent or child. “I witness that devastation from the front row.”
He said he lets go of memories where prudent, but holds on to them when they hold a valuable life lesson.
This leads to him answering the TikTok challenge, “What are five things you would never do because of your job?” He is especially emphatic about avoiding trampolines.
And then he tells more stories.
These are the stories that stick with him, he said.
“Those are the ones that haunt me.”
*At the time of filming, the law firm’s name was McCune Wright Arevalo. It was since updated to McCune Law Group, McCune Wright Arevalo Vercoski Kusel Weck Brandt, APC.
NOTE: MLG funds Follow Our Courts, but FOC operates with editorial independence to provide professional, objective news in service to all of the Inland Empire.
