Both Linda Holstein and Larry Fett have tried many cases to a jury. One jury trial, however, stands out: a case for a national bank now headquartered in California, that we successfully tried to a federal court jury in Montana.

The case involved a terminated employee who sued for reverse discrimination, meaning he alleged that he was discriminated against because he was a white male. Our client, the defendant bank, had a very proactive diversity and anti-bias training program for its employees. The plaintiff believed that his termination for poor performance was a cover-up for the bank's preference for women, and in particular, for the woman who supervised him and recommended his termination.

The bank came to Linda for help after another set of attorneys defended the deposition of a key bank employee. The plaintiff's attorney was demanding a settlement "far north of six figures" and the bank representatives felt, as many defendants do, that the demand was outrageous.

Our first goal in getting a handle on the case was to understand the Montana community and the bank branch where this plaintiff had worked. On one of our first Montana trips, we noticed several pick-up trucks with fur-coated seats and rifles in the back. Pick-ups and rifles were not unfamiliar territory for us, farm kids, and this served as a symbol for the case theme that we emphasized through 4 years of litigation and a 10-day jury trial: when you're in the wrong, you've got to pay, and it's for sure nobody's going to pay YOU. The plaintiff, despite a well-crafted theme of victimhood, was awarded zero by the Montana jury. That was after a removal of the case to federal court from state court after the death of the elderly state court judge, a partial federal court summary judgment award, a partial reversal of summary judgment by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and a separate lawsuit filed against Linda personally concerning negative background information we'd obtained about the Plaintiff's prior job as a rookie policeman in California. The Regional Bank President, whom we got to know very well, and who testified at a key moment in the Montana trial, said to a group of other bank executives at the post-trial victory dinner: "there's only one thing I'm gladder about than being vindicated by this jury... and that's that Linda and Larry were on our side, not the other guys' side."