Trapping O.J. Simpson: An Atypical Lawyer and His Methods
by Mary Waldron
By accepting the challenge to constantly find new, creative solutions to cases, Polak keeps his practice fresh and his own work interesting and stimulating. His most current case involves representing the Goldman family in obtaining O.J. Simpson's rights to publicity. Simpson owes them and the Brown family $33.5 million from a 1997 wrongful death civil case for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
From the time that he began to excel on the debate team in high school, Polak knew that he was cut out to be a lawyer. He earned his B.S. in Political Science and his J.D. at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. Attending the same university for law school that he did as an undergraduate was a valuable experience for Polak. "It allowed me to take advantage of some of the relationships that I had already built there," he said.
While Polak was at SMU, he was active in student government and eventually served as student body president during his senior year as an undergraduate. He also participated in the school's law review during law school. Although working on the law review was not the most thrilling activity for him, he gained an abundance of legal knowledge and understanding. "I got to work with some really smart people, and I think that's the best thing about practicing law. You get to be around a lot of really smart people, and you can learn a lot from them," he said.
One of the smart people that Polak learned a lot from was his mentor and teacher, Professor Kobylka. Kobylka was one of Polak's undergraduate political science teachers, and he has had a great deal of influence on the ways Polak tackles issues in law. "He was just so smart about the way he analyzed issues. Even though he was not an attorney, he had a very lawyer-like approach to the way that he looked at civil rights issues and those types of issues where law and politics intersect."
Polak got a jumpstart on his career when he clerked at a couple of law firms the summer before he graduated from law school. He was offered jobs with both firms upon graduation from SMU School of Law. Polak accepted an offer from a lawyer he had worked for who was transferring to another Dallas firm called Harder, Hadden, Johnson, and Bromberg.
After two years with Harder, Hadden, Johnson, and Bromberg, Polak made the decision to change his pace by moving to a litigation boutique firm in Dallas called Calhoun & Stacy. This move was crucial to his future success because he was given a variety of opportunities to try cases and really dive into litigation. "In the span of the two or three years that I was there, I took probably 150 to 250 depositions and tried about 10 or 12 cases. I really was able to cut my teeth on a true litigation practice," he said.
Once Polak and his wife decided to move to Indiana to start a family, he began working for bankruptcy and real estate firm Dann, Pecar, Newman & Kleinman. It was here that Polak took his practice and its focus to a whole new level. Building his firm's intellectual property department from the ground up, Polak became a master in that area of law.
Last February, Polak became the chair of Sommer Barnard's intellectual property department in Indianapolis. Close to 70% of his current work is devoted to intellectual property litigation and consulting.
Some of Polak's latest cases in the area of intellectual property rights have concerned the estates of late high-profile celebrities—such as Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, and Duke Ellington—and his clients' battles to keep their rights to photographs and uses of late celebrities' names and likenesses.
In 2001, putting a twist on his intellectual property practice, Polak joined forces with Karl Manders, who owns a private investigator firm in Indianapolis called Continental Enterprises, Inc. Manders initiated the idea to help the Goldman family obtain O.J. Simpson's rights to publicity in order to satisfy the payment that he has owed them for almost 10 years. "Rather than chasing the money after it's been paid, which is really a lost cause, we want to take possession of the property right that enables him to go and do these signings and get money," he said. This means that if the family wins this case, they will receive all payments earned by Simpson's name and likeness until the judgment payment amount is met.
"He has thumbed his nose at the legal system for so long; going out and striking deals and doing signings and autograph shows, never really giving the Goldmans the benefit of any of that, even in part," Polak said.
Q. What are your interests and hobbies? A. When I get a chance, I love to play with my three kids. I've got a nine-year-old and a six-and-a-half-year-old little girl, and I've got a little boy who's about two and a half years old. Occasionally, I'll get out and play a little golf.
Q. What CD is in your CD player right now?
A. I listen to Nickelback, and I recently downloaded my favorite band from high school, Iron Maiden.
Q. What is the last magazine you read?
A. ESPN Magazine
Q. What is your favorite television show?
A. 24
Q. Who is your role model?
A. As corny as it sounds, both of my parents are truly my role models.
Although Simpson was found not guilty in a criminal trial for the 1994 deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, he was found guilty in a wrongful death civil case in 1997.
The Goldmans' case actually went to court last October but was denied by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Linda Lefkowitz because she claimed that it would harm Simpson's right to privacy…although Simpson does not appear to be attempting to lead a low-profile life.
When news of an upcoming book release by Simpson arose and quickly disappeared, Polak and the Goldman family were taunted yet again by Simpson's failure to make payment. He reportedly pocketed $1.1 million for his hypothetical account of the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, If I Did It, which was recently pulled from release. According to Polak, Simpson created a "sham entity" called Lorraine Brooke Associates (based on the middle names of two of his children), in which he has been stashing his monetary gains in order to shield them from the Goldmans.
Fingers are also being pointed at the companies that contributed to Simpson's payment for the infamous book and the TV interview that was set to discuss the book. "The real villains in this are the people who acted in concert with him who you would expect better from—companies like HarperCollins, Fox Broadcasting, and News Corp.," Polak said.
As Polak and the Goldmans prepare to take the issue on appeal, Polak said, "regardless of whether we are successful or not, we intend to push the envelope as far as we can to see how far judges are willing to protect a killer's assets. Whether he was ever put into an actual jail cell or not, he will remain in a virtual jail cell as long as the Goldmans have anything to say about it and certainly as long as I am their attorney, and we are going to continue to tighten our grip around him and his assets and make that jail cell smaller and smaller and smaller using legitimate legal procedures that are available to us."
If the Goldmans do win and Simpson decides to hide away in seclusion, the Goldmans will still be justified in their actions. "The Goldmans are in the perfect position because we get victory either way. If he continues to go out and have public appearances and the like, we will be taking action to capture those funds. But if he never goes out and appears in public again, if he stays in that virtual jail cell that we put him in, then we will, at minimum, have the moral victory of putting him in there," Polak said.
Throughout his career, and specifically with the Goldman case, Polak has come to discover one of the keys to enjoying the practice of law. "Stay creative about the way that you approach clients' problems. When everyone else is telling you ‘no, you can't do that,' there's always a way to find a way to do it. You just have to be creative, and you've got to be aggressive, and you've got to find a path because that path is out there," he said.
"It's really easy to fall into the tried and true practices, but what makes layering fun, if there is such a thing, is to go places no one has gone yet and to find ways to do things that no one else has tried and then to be successful at it…because then you are making law, and that can be really fun."
Because of his active interest in seeking new ways to solve cases, Polak has managed to keep his passion for law alive and thriving, paving the way for a continuously exciting career in law.
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