Forming a lasting bond with clients

By Olivia Clarke

When Carol Genis’ clients describe her, one word pops up numerous times during each conversation — trust.

They trust her to represent them, protect them, and help them navigate through any potential or actual legal issues. She too values that trust within her own career and life.

”In my life, I surround myself only with people I can inherently trust, and it’s something I value,” said Genis, a partner at Bell, Boyd & Lloyd. ”But not only do I value it, I require it. I absolutely require it in my life and in my practice.

”When I get a new client and we’re getting to know each other, I insist on it. They hear nothing but the truth from me. It’s completely unfiltered. They don’t always hear what they want to hear, but they know they will hear the truth.”

Genis grew up in Indiana, and earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University in 1985, and her law degree from Northwestern in 1988. She’s spent her entire career at Bell, Boyd & Lloyd.

She started in the litigation department, and has built an intellectual property, entertainment law, and transactional practice. Some of her clients have included Kraft, 20th Century Fox, LaSalle Bank, Relativity Media, and singer and songwriter Michael Bolton.

”I spent 10 years in the litigation department here at Bell Boyd, where all I did was litigation,” she said. ”That is my core. It’s always been my core … I always approach deals with the eyes of a litigator.

”When you litigate over issues, you have a different way of putting deals together so that it doesn’t result in litigation.”

Believing in justice

Genis grew up in a political family. She began working in campaign offices at an early age, distributing fliers and stuffing envelopes, and saw the amount of work that goes into a campaign. That taught her early on the importance of having a strong work ethic.

She decided at a very young age that she wanted to practice law.

”I was 10 years old. I was the daughter of a politician and I visited the governor’s office and got to sit in the governor’s chair and it just had this whole kind of legal feel to it,” she said. ”At that moment I just thought, ‘I’m going to pursue law,’ and I did.”

She said she’s always pursued justice throughout her life — whether on the playground as a child or in the courtroom as a trial lawyer.

At Northwestern University School of Law she took every type of litigation-oriented class. She also worked in the law school’s legal clinic, which helps people who cannot afford traditional legal services.

”That experience was remarkable to me because the situations that I encountered with clients were so heart-wrenching, and the types of problems that I encountered are far different from what I am encountering today,” Genis said.

She still remembers many of the clinic’s clients. For example, she worked with a woman in bad health who couldn’t pay her rent.

”I remember that I couldn’t accept that her problem was so enormous,” she said. ”I remember taking her to government agencies because she didn’t know how to fill out forms. I remember going to her apartment and it was the most horrific place I have ever seen with mice, cockroaches, and filth.

”It is so important to see that. There is so much suffering that goes around … You can’t forget that there are clients who need you out there who have real survival problems.”

She credits Northwestern with helping her become so much of who she is today. She learned during her time at the university to never to give up on whatever she pursues — whether in life or in protecting the interests of her clients.

”Doors will close, but you have to find a way to open new ones, and that is what I do,” she said. ”I am actually grateful for every closed door because they only brought me better things.”

During her time in Bell Boyd’s litigation department she worked with Frank Higgins, a partner who was then head of the department. He mentored her, and she said she immensely respects him.

Higgins said he’s followed Genis’ career from day one, and has found it remarkable how multi-dimensional her practice has become.

”She’s a terrific lawyer, and I think she was able to get into intellectual property pretty much of her own volition,” he said. ”This is a lawyer who has gotten great results from numerous different fields. She’s a great litigator, a great trial lawyer, and a great IP lawyer.”

Genis said she loves working at Bell Boyd, and thinks of her colleagues as family. She never considers leaving, she said, because the firm gives her the freedom to build a practice in line with her own vision.

She concentrates her practice on all areas of intellectual property law, with a particular focus on entertainment law. Her expertise includes federal trademark, copyright and other IP litigation.

She has represented a broad range of clients including film and television studios, mutual fund companies, banking institutions, food manufacturers, golf manufacturers, major Hollywood entertainers, newscasters, liquor manufacturers, authors, insurance companies, pet product manufacturers, and toy and game manufacturers.

She splits her time between Chicago and Los Angeles. For example, she took 45 roundtrips from Chicago to Los Angeles last year, and considers it a second home.

Litigation remains an important part of her practice.

When asked what she likes most about being a litigator, she said, ”I like to win for my clients. I like to achieve the absolute best result. And again it goes back to justice. For example, in the trial that I just finished, you have a focus and you don’t lose your focus. You stay focused. Every cell in my body was about achieving a certain result. When you go to trial, you go to war and that’s the way it is.”

In February, Genis and her legal team won a lawsuit on behalf of client Relativity Media principal Ryan Kavanaugh, a producer and financier whose recent films include, ”American Gangster,” ”3:10 to Yuma,” ”Hancock,” and ”Atonement.”

It was a six-day court trial in the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Judge James Chalfant delivered the ruling in Kavanaugh v. Sitrick in which Michael Sitrick, a Los Angeles-based public relations executive, tried to collect on a released $7.7 million judgment by claiming that Kavanaugh made a misrepresentation in a settlement agreement between them. Chalfant ruled that Sitrick is bound by the terms of his 2002 settlement agreement with Kavanaugh, and cannot execute the judgment against him.

Abe Moore, a Bell Boyd associate on the legal team, said they dedicated about a year to preparing for the case, and worked late hours in Los Angeles before and during the trial. But, he said, Genis made the experience enjoyable.

The team built a ”war room” in a hotel conference center to prepare for the case. They typically worked all night long, and Genis had a nightly ritual of ordering ice cream sundaes at midnight for the team. Moore said they would sit on the floor and eat their sundaes, and ‘’shoot the breeze.”

”What made the case the most fun was her personality and her ability to sort of liven things up,” Moore said. ”She is not only a great attorney, but I think she’s a lot of fun.

”What I’ve really been impressed by is Carol’s ability to sort of empathize with the client. Her relationship with the client is something I’ve tried to learn from. Her ability to not only provide them excellent legal service, but really become their friend in a way where you know that they are going to continue to be a client because they are happy with what she does.”

Genis represents the name and likeness of Marvin Gaye, and recently negotiated the rights for use of the singer’s rendition of ”The Star-Spangled Banner” from the 1983 NBA All-Star Game as the theme song for this year’s U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball team.

”I love my practice,” she said. ”I don’t like it, I love it. I love the people I work with … I’m literally surrounded by geniuses here at Bell Boyd who are like brothers, like sisters. They are really like family.

”It is a very serious business, but we love what we do and we have fun doing it. I consider myself insanely lucky to be doing what I am doing.”

Instilling trust

Genis said all her clients have exceptional integrity and intelligence.

And not only must her clients trust her, but she must also trust them, she said.

”I think that’s the key to my client relationships. It is an indelible bond of trust,” she said. ”They become like an extension of my family. I become [a part of] their family as well. I’m very close to my clients. We spend holidays together and we go through all the phases of life together. I’m actually kind of an old-fashioned lawyer in that way.”

Because many of her clients are in the entertainment business they keep non-traditional hours. She tries to be available for them at any time, and she may speak with them multiple times throughout the day.

”I really enjoy my clients’ success,” she said. ”I am always thrilled — whether they release a CD or a movie, whether they’re writing a book.”

”My relationship with my clients is such where we are so connected,” Genis said. ”We are connected through problems that are encountered, but we are also connected through success. Our bond is so indelible that we are there together through it all and that makes it unique and really rewarding.”

Singer Michael Bolton met Genis about 10 years ago in Carmel, Calif. A mutual friend introduced them, and when he discovered that she was a litigator, he asked for her opinion about a document he didn’t understand.

She agreed to take a look at it. She called him very shortly after receiving it, and immediately uncovered problems that were overlooked by other lawyers, Bolton said. She provided a litigator’s perspective, which he said had been missing.

He then sent her other documents, and she eventually became his general counsel.

He included this on the inside jacket of his most recent CD: ”To Carol Genis for helping me return to my music and my life. And mostly for teaching me the meaning of the word trust.”

”I use this word ‘trust’ very rarely in a positive sense,” Bolton said. ”I think the more business you do and the more time in the [entertainment] world you spend, the more you realize it is difficult and unwise to apply too much trust in anything contractual without having someone you really do trust go through those papers.”

He describes Genis as a sleuth, and someone who looks outside the box. She not only studies documents with a peaceful eye, but also takes them apart as a litigator.

”Carol is fanatical about protecting her clients, in my experience and in my observation,” Bolton said. ”I think that, first and foremost, the level of trust that I feel I can place in Carol is enormous. If anyone has lived a bit or been in the business a bit, they appreciate how enormous that word is.”

”I just wouldn’t think about doing anything important without sending her the contracts and keeping her involved,” he said. ”It would be impossible for me to think about what life would be like moving forward without her, Carol, and without having the confidence of her perception and input.”

Diane Swonk, senior managing director and chief economist for Mesirow Financial, started working with Genis in 2001 when she handled her book negotiations.

Swonk describes Genis as the type of lawyer who swoops in, and becomes her client’s advocate. She expects people to be honest with her, and she’s honest with them, Swonk said. Her clients tend to be in the public domain, so she tries to help maintain their privacy.

”I wouldn’t want to sit on the other side of the table from her,” Swonk said. ”She takes over for you, and makes everything okay. She’s incredibly fierce, and strong, and she gets very involved with clients. She’s got to be able to trust you to do her job. It’s a two-way street.”

She describes Genis as incredibly intelligent, and someone who possesses a high level of unwavering integrity. She is outraged when someone is wronged, and has a love for the law, she said.

”As a friend, as well, she is someone who is there 24/7, and there are not many people in this world who you can think of that way,” Swonk said. ”It is a rare gift in this world to have someone like Carol in your life.”

Norman Bobins, former chairman of LaSalle Bank Corp., said Genis worked with him on a very difficult legal matter in representing LaSalle Bank.

”It was very complex. It had a lot of different sort of nuances to it, and I thought she understood it quite well and I thought she represented us quite well,” he said.

”She’s very professional, very analytical. I think she does a fine job sort of dissecting the issues and getting to the quirks of what the issue is all about.”

A full life

Genis is a long-time member of the board of directors at Lookingglass Theatre Company.

Spearheading the theater development project, she was primarily responsible for helping the company obtain and coordinate Illinois and city of Chicago grants of $3 million for the conversion of the Water Tower Pumping Station into the theater’s home.

”Lookingglass is an important part of my life, and one that is close to my heart because it’s a theater company founded by Northwestern grads,” she said. ”Their talents are particularly unique and the works that they perform are, for the most part, entirely original. They are all originally written and produced and directed here and I think they represent not only just the highest quality of creativity, but just a huge amount of heart goes into every production.”

David Catlin, artistic director at Lookingglass, said the theater probably wouldn’t be on Michigan Avenue today if it weren’t for Genis and other key people who worked together to get the company the needed funding.

”Lookingglass is a very collaborative organization,” Catlin said. ”It certainly wasn’t just Carol. But without Carol, I don’t know how it would have happened.”

Genis said she does a wide range of creative writing, such as fiction and screenplays. She plays golf and tennis, and enjoys running.

When asked how she describes herself, she said, ”I believe I am very true, extremely grateful, and on every level I value humor.”

She and her 13-year-old son, Brady, enjoy attending Chicago Bulls games together. She said her main hobby tends to be whatever boys her son’s age enjoy doing. She said she likes playing basketball, but is unfortunately not too good at video games.

She knows every song that a 13-year-old listens to, and bets she can name the starting five of every team in the NBA.

Her house tends to be the house where her son’s friends hang out, and she’s learned how to talk their language and understands their interests, she said.

Many of her entertainment clients want to know what type of music her son listens to or what types of movies or television shows he enjoys, because it helps them get a better understanding of his age demographic, she said. They consider him an unofficial trade secret, she said.

When describing her son, she said, ”He’s off the charts smart. He’s super-creative. He’s so funny. He’s very dry and witty. His insight is sort of beyond his years. He’s very cool. But, just so you know, he’s quietly cool, which to me is the best kind of cool.”

Kathy Brock, a co-anchor on ABC 7 News, has been friends with Genis for a couple years, and describes her as ”wickedly smart, interesting, a good friend, and great mother.”

”I enjoy spending time with Carol,” Brock said. ”She is a very interesting, very wise person and a really wonderful friend. She’s a good listener. She’s a good talker, and a lot of fun.”