#2.9: Alejandro Blanco in The Heart of Law

EPISODE #2.9:  The Heart of Law with Alejandro Blanco

So what does Antoine De Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince have to do with Mirena’s special guest in this episode of The Heart of Law? Fittingly enough, Alejandro Blanco, architect and godfather of Trial Structure, reels us into an empirical conversation about how to effectively win a trial with the mind and the heart.

Our facile host hits the nail on the head. Alejandro can prodigiously “talk about anything.”  A native of Argentina before his folks furloughed to the US (and a gifted child who fluently spoke English in three months then later accelerated into 4th grade at just six years old), Alejandro received an enviable, cosmopolitan education between the two countries. After attending Berkeley, he returned home and studied law in Argentina—completing a seven-year law degree in merely three years. He subsequently worked as the Chief of Protocol to the governor of his home state because of his inclination toward International Law. However, disillusioned by the graft within the Argentinian local government, Alejandro finally immigrated to the US a year later to take the bar in California. Despite being a young, broke, "punk," he cleverly volunteered as a proctor for the bar exams so he could utilize review materials. “I studied like hell for eight months while working part-time, and I took the bar just to practice … to see what it was [like]. And then I got this letter signed: ‘Congratulations!’ “  Whoosh … and the rest is history.

As Alejandro and Mirena chat about their common immigrant struggles of setting their roots while chasing the American Dream, we see how their interests intersect. They live in the legal world: Mirena in the business/finance sector and Alejandro in the profession/trial district. Interestingly enough, Alejandro opens our eyes to the trenches and intellectual aspects of Law. He introduces us to the Philosophy of Law, Sociology of Law, Evolution of Law, Comparative Procedural Law, Administrative Law and … akin to medical doctors, lawyers who decide to dive deeper into the study of Law become “Doctors of the Law” to “heal the ills of society … [and] affect how the government works within the structure of dealing with the citizens so [we] don't have lawsuits to make the government, you have adequate administrative procedures … affecting wide-ranging changes. ” 

In other words, while Alejandro points us to seemingly lofty and scholarly pursuits, he actually uses philosophy and interdisciplinary approaches from Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Jacob L. Moreno, and even Steven L. Winter as conduits to point us to the deeper recesses of the heart. The critical reasoning and pragmatic methodologies Alejandro learned become practical tools to improve an unpredictable process: TRIAL—the ultimate stage where lives hang in the balance. He creates and provides a surefire, scholastic formula for lawyers to use. He calls it “a Systems Approach vs. a Talent Approach.”  Most importantly, we hear his axiom behind helping everyone. He approaches plaintiffs the same way Mother Teresa of Calcutta compassionately helped the poor: representing them without taking their faults and imperfections against them. Intellectual altruism, so to speak—an enlightened logic deciding not to discriminate against others.

Well, it seems we have much to learn. We can all choose to become students of our circumstances! How, indeed, do we “utilize betrayal” and live magnanimously in the midst of loss? For Alejandro, the “artistry of trial work is to be able to experience that pain and to let go.”  Now we come full circle. Because of what he allowed us to discern, Alejandro has become the utopian guest for The Heart of Law’s Episode 2.9. When we learn and truly understand, we open our hearts. Then we have to agree with The Little Prince: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

EPISODE SURVEY:

• [00:13:13 - 00:16:33] In Living the American Dream
• [00:20:35 - 00:23:55] Why Alejandro Loves Law
• [00:23:57 - 00:34:48] Alejandro Philosophizes
• [00:35:35 - 00:49:08] About Trial Lawyers College and Trial Structure
• [00:50:40 - 01:04:32] Dealing with Loss & Pain
• [01:07:09 - 01:12:07] The Next 5-10 Years for Alejandro
• [01:12:07 - 01:23:30] Women Power
• [01:24:43 - 01:28:15] Advice to Other Lawyers

QUOTABLE QUOTES:

• "We are called to heal. We are called to right the unrightable wrongs."
• "It is one thing to see the nuances that the mind loves to play with. It is another to take care of the hunger and the needs and “the cholera” and the wars that are going on. So healing always comes first."
• "Give me a case. Any case."
• "You can't do your best if you're numb … the artistry of trial work is to be able to experience that [client’s] pain and to let go."
• "[In trial] I can … rest knowing that I gave it all. I'll just feel the pain–breathe it in, then breathe it out–And I'll stand again because so many people need our help … There's no way around it. You just have to stand and do it again."
• "Climbing is akin to trial work. Every case has a move that you have to execute perfectly. We call it the crux. If you do not execute the crux perfectly, you die. And as a trial lawyer, you learn the few times that you don't execute [the move], you die. [Ask yourself,] "What [is it] about me that is not able to make this move?"
• "The jury wants to do the right thing. The defense wants to sell a fake narrative or an absurd narrative. What kills that? What trumps … and cuts through that morass? Truth! And Caring! When you come to the court and you leave it all, if you don't win, then nobody can win."

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

• Godfather of Trial Structure
• Handled over 100 civil and criminal trials 
• Lecturer for
  • New Jersey Association for Justice Boardwalk Seminar 
  • Consumer Attorneys Association for Los Angeles
  • Minnesota Association for Justice
  • Alaska Association for Justice
• Specialty: Complex, traumatic brain damage cases
• 2014 CAOC Trial Lawyer of the Year Finalist
• Article The Heart Must Go On © 

LINKS FROM THE SHOW: 

• Books Alejandro Recommends:
  • The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious  by Carl Jung
  • The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
  • A Clearing in the Forest: Law, Life, and Mind
• Visit Mirena's savoir-faire website and  LinkedIn
• Shownotes and podcast production by Caryl Veloso and her team at Writers’ Ink