Gary Dordick (00:00):
I tried a case with my son, we got a verdict. The very next I day, I started a case with my two daughters and they were fighting about who was going to get the bigger verdict and the competition between them and the experience for me to be back-to-back trials with my kids was just amazing.
Bob Simon (00:19):
You've run the office for a very long time. I mean, you're the operations. You've done all the behind-the-scenes stuff. Why did you decide to go to law school?
Nava Dordick (00:26):
Well, I always wanted to go to law school from early, early on, and then life happens. You get married, you have kids. I got to a point where I was like, it's either now or never.
Gary Dordick (00:39):
But we know for sure the money doesn't matter. And what's important is your health and having family and friends that care about you, that's all that matters.
Bob Simon (00:47):
So, Gary's like, "Look, the most important thing for you is your family or happiness, your marriage. She said, take one day a week to be with your wife, to be with your kids, and don't think about anything else."
(01:19):
Welcome to this episode of Bourbon of Proof, where we like to interview those that were successful at law and life. We do it over a lot of spirits, some high-proof spirits and some of the Mauro spirits. We're a little bit, we'd like to talk about type situations. So, first we have our colorful co-host, Mauro Fury. Once again.
Mauro Fiore (01:37):
As usual at your service, Mauro Fury.
Bob Simon (01:39):
And we have, this is the Dordick family episode. We're going to hear about how these two wonderful human beings started a, would you call it a dynasty, Mauro?
Mauro Fiore (01:48):
Dynasty. For sure.
Bob Simon (01:49):
Dynasty.
Mauro Fiore (01:50):
A dynasty.
Bob Simon (01:51):
A dynasty. So first of all, thank you to the Bike Shed, Charles Liu, Thomas Hardy for letting us have this forum, it's a beautiful-
Mauro Fiore (01:58):
Incredible space here in downtown Los Angeles.
Bob Simon (02:00):
Downtown Los Angeles. So, to the royalty of Los Angeles, we have the Jack Daniels.
Mauro Fiore (02:11):
One of Gary's favorites.
Gary Dordick (02:13):
My favorite. I almost brought my own.
Nava Dordick (02:14):
It's Sinatra Select [inaudible 00:02:16].
Mauro Fiore (02:16):
It's Sinatra Select.
Gary Dordick (02:17):
It is a fine bottle.
Bob Simon (02:18):
The first time I ever had this bottle was whenever the two of you hosted a party. And this was a party favor. Do you remember this?
Gary Dordick (02:24):
Yeah, I think I forgot the event.
Mauro Fiore (02:27):
As you can tell, my name is engraved on that bottle because I got it from Gary at some point. Gary sent me a bottle of this with my name on it.
Bob Simon (02:35):
So you guys did it as a holiday gift. This is five or six years ago. Do you remember this? No. You guys do the best of [inaudible 00:02:41].
Gary Dordick (02:40):
Well, what I can say is we know that to be a fine bottle and it was a long time ago. So can we all agree for sure that he filled it up with the cheap stuff since then?
Mauro Fiore (02:51):
I've been saving it for five years.
Bob Simon (02:52):
The bottle was open.
Mauro Fiore (02:53):
I've been saving this for a special occasion. I figured what better than Gary's favorite Sinatra Select when he graces with his presence with his beautiful wife Nava, on our Bourbon of Proof show.
Gary Dordick (03:04):
Well, we really appreciate that. This would be such a good time if Nava actually drank bourbon. But-
Mauro Fiore (03:11):
She will. We're going to have-
Bob Simon (03:12):
Try it.
Mauro Fiore (03:12):
You're going to have to wet your beak Nava.
Gary Dordick (03:14):
Make sure you have a zoom in on Nava when she tastes what that tastes like.
Nava Dordick (03:21):
Drank it the way Michelle taught me.
Bob Simon (03:23):
This was your gift in 20, probably 16.
Nava Dordick (03:27):
Oh, wow. Okay.
Bob Simon (03:28):
For the holidays because we drank my ... where our family drank the whole bottle that holiday season.
Gary Dordick (03:32):
You drank it that night.
Bob Simon (03:33):
That night. Actually, I said-
Gary Dordick (03:34):
You drank it the whole thing in one night.
Bob Simon (03:36):
We did.
Gary Dordick (03:36):
Good friends, good times, good health. Thank you very much.
Mauro Fiore (03:40):
And this being the Sinatra Select, you know what Frank Sinatra said-
Bob Simon (03:47):
That's fantastic whiskey. Easy.
Mauro Fiore (03:49):
Bob, you know what Frank Sinatra said? This is the Sinatra Select. Sinatra said, "Booze, broads, or a Bible, whatever gets you through the night."
Nava Dordick (04:00):
Booze, broads, or a Bible.
Mauro Fiore (04:02):
Whatever gets you through the night.
Bob Simon (04:03):
So if Gary had blue eyes, he would be old blue eyes to the Rat Pack of Los Angeles because he's our mentor and leader.
Mauro Fiore (04:10):
Oh, that's so beautiful. Isn't it so good?
Bob Simon (04:12):
But what I said, or the whiskey?
Mauro Fiore (04:14):
Both things.
Bob Simon (04:15):
You didn't even hear what I said.
Mauro Fiore (04:16):
Gary is our mentor always.
Gary Dordick (04:18):
So what that means is I'm the leader of the Rat Pack.
Bob Simon (04:25):
The Bratz Pack.
Gary Dordick (04:26):
It's a low level, but I'm the leader of the low level-
Nava Dordick (04:29):
Of the rats. Got it.
Gary Dordick (04:30):
Yeah. The rats.
Mauro Fiore (04:31):
I mean, Gary's been around the personal injury business in LA 40 years, Gary?
Gary Dordick (04:35):
I have.
Mauro Fiore (04:37):
I've been involved in the personal business 25 years. And when I started, Gary was already such a well-known figure, beloved figure 25 years ago. And since then it's just been, he's expanded on that exponentially a hundred times.
Bob Simon (04:50):
So the Dordick family is one of the few that have not only 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 figure verdicts, but 10 figure verdicts. And with your daughters on the 10 figure verdict, right?
Gary Dordick (05:04):
Yeah, both of them were on that case. My daughters are relatively new in terms of our kind of experience. They're three years, four years, five years practice. And they really like the sexual abuse cases because it's an area that the clients really need someone to fight for them. And I think often they're more comfortable having a woman litigator fighting for them, given the nature of the abuse these folks have suffered in the past. So my daughters love fighting for them and they like having a team of aggressive women to fight for them. And I am so happy to be a part of the team and to guide and mentor my daughters in the fight for justice, for the victims of such terrible abuse.
(05:59):
So it's great the type of case. And for me as a father to have my two daughters in court with me next to me fighting side by side, there's no greater experience. In fact, I tried a case with my son, the very next day we got a verdict. The very next day I started a case with my two daughters and they were fighting about who was going to get the bigger verdict and the competition between them and the experience for me to be back to back-to-back trials with my kids was just amazing.
Bob Simon (06:37):
So how did, Nava and Gary, how many of your kids are at the practice now? Just so the listeners and viewers understand the dynamic?
Gary Dordick (06:45):
Well, we have five kids. Three of them are lawyers, two of them went astray and Nava graduated law school just a few months ago and she's making-
Bob Simon (06:57):
So round of applause.
Gary Dordick (06:58):
... the February bar.
Bob Simon (06:59):
Wow, wow, wow.
Gary Dordick (07:00):
February bar. When Nava started law school, they announced-
Bob Simon (07:05):
Loyola Law School graduate there.
Nava Dordick (07:07):
Yes.
Gary Dordick (07:07):
Loyola Law School.
Bob Simon (07:08):
Not hard to get into and certainly...
Gary Dordick (07:10):
We can talk about the dedication coming up in a couple weeks also. It's a big honor for us. But when Nava started law school, they announced the age range of the students. They announced-
Nava Dordick (07:24):
The youngest.
Gary Dordick (07:25):
... the youngest and the oldest. And Nava was the oldest student in the law school. But obviously you can't tell. So when they announced it, Nava was looking around, "Who's that old [inaudible 00:07:33], where is she?"
Mauro Fiore (07:33):
Where's that old lady at?
Gary Dordick (07:36):
Jesus. What's wrong with her?
Bob Simon (07:38):
Because you look younger than most of these law students that are there. I mean honestly, Mauro-
Mauro Fiore (07:43):
Most of them area rag too. I mean you're put together.
Gary Dordick (07:47):
But you know what? Nava, when she first started law school was kind of taken back by the number of young people. And in class they're all typing the whole time and it's click, click, click, click, click typing and Nava's looking around like, "I don't know what they're all typing." First off, the lectures are recorded and they're not saying anything but they're-
Nava Dordick (08:06):
And PowerPoints.
Gary Dordick (08:07):
And they never stopped typing. And she's like, "How are you doing all that typing?"
Bob Simon (08:11):
I know what they're typing.
Nava Dordick (08:13):
I know, there was someone dictating.
Bob Simon (08:13):
But Nava, why did you decide to go to law school? I mean you've run the office for a very long time. I mean you're the operations. You've done all the behind-the-scenes stuff. Why did you decide to go to law school?
Nava Dordick (08:24):
Well, I always wanted to go to law school from early, early on and then life happens. You get married, you have kids, the kids need you. Then when they're doing their thing-
Mauro Fiore (08:37):
Gary needs you.
Nava Dordick (08:38):
Gary needs me, the practice needs me. And then we just got to a point where, I got to a point where I was like, it's either now or never. So I made that commitment, didn't tell anyone, just Gary knew. I started studying for the LSAT. Even our kids didn't know. And then one day Gary decided to announce it on a webinar.
Gary Dordick (09:01):
With 9,000 people.
Bob Simon (09:02):
Oh, shit.
Nava Dordick (09:03):
So there was no pressure. This is just studying for the LSAT. So then now the pressure was on to get into a school.
Gary Dordick (09:10):
But you know, Nava had that window where the kids were out of diapers and before I'm in them. So she just had to take advantage.
Mauro Fiore (09:18):
That was-
Gary Dordick (09:18):
A pre battle because-
Mauro Fiore (09:20):
... as a dad of small kids I could say for sure. Kids need their mom. So I understand where you say they need their mom for a long time, not just a couple years. They need their mom for a long time. And then at some point then you can focus on yourself. Right?
Nava Dordick (09:34):
Exactly.
Mauro Fiore (09:35):
And you decide to focus on yourself.
Gary Dordick (09:36):
But I wanted to make the point that Nava was really intimidated by these young people and all their typing and clicking. And then as time went on through the first year and second year of law school, Nava was realizing like in real property, these young people are asking questions like, "I don't get what's a mortgage? How does a mortgage work?" And in real property, many of them were clueless to the real world where Nava's lived in the real world for a time that she was so far ahead of the curve and practical experience, real world experience that we went to the law school prom, what was it called? The ball?
Bob Simon (10:14):
Barristers' Ball.
Gary Dordick (10:15):
Barristers' Ball.
Nava Dordick (10:16):
Law prom.
Gary Dordick (10:16):
One young student-
Bob Simon (10:18):
Did they ask you, is this your grandpa?
Gary Dordick (10:20):
No, but-
Bob Simon (10:20):
Speaking of that, where's your next ball here?
Gary Dordick (10:24):
But they all went up to Nava and they were saying to her, "Oh my God, I just want to tell you, I was so intimidated by you in class. I didn't want to talk when you were talking. I was so intimidated." But at the same time, Nava was intimidated by them.
Bob Simon (10:40):
But that's going to be crazy because every one of these kids that are in law school, they know who you are. They're not going to say anything.
Nava Dordick (10:46):
No.
Bob Simon (10:46):
Oh, come on.
Nava Dordick (10:47):
No, no, no.
Bob Simon (10:47):
Because Loyola, they have a very strong plaintiff's bar for law school. They got to know who you are.
Gary Dordick (10:56):
It shows how clueless they were. What?
Mauro Fiore (10:59):
Idiots.
Nava Dordick (11:01):
It depends on the class. If it was a civil litigation type of class, if I'm taking Con Law, no. But it depended on more the professors I think knew.
Gary Dordick (11:15):
They do the grading by a number system, of course. I told her, just write your name on hearts or something on the page.
Bob Simon (11:26):
Let's go. So pour your next one, Mauro.
Mauro Fiore (11:33):
We like to have a little, we try to bring stuff on a little story behind it. This is Hirsch Select whiskey. Rich business guy from Chicago, he decides he wants to commission his own.
Gary Dordick (11:45):
Let's show the bottles to the camera.
Bob Simon (11:46):
This is-
Mauro Fiore (11:48):
He first decides in the '70s, he wants to commission his own whiskey from Michter's. So he has Michter's-
Gary Dordick (11:55):
We went to Michter's in Kentucky together.
Bob Simon (11:55):
We did.
Mauro Fiore (11:57):
He has Michter's commissioned because he's a rich guy. 400 barrels of Michter's in the '70s, right? Fast-forward, Michter's goes out of business, they go into bankruptcy. This whiskey gets lost, right? Michter's comes out of bankruptcy, comes back, and this whiskey's still sitting there 30 years later. And now they discover it and Adolph Hirsch's family, they didn't even remember he paid for it. So now this orphan whiskey comes out of nowhere and it's like legendary, this Hirsch whiskey. But it was from, this is from 1974, the Hirsch Select.
Nava Dordick (12:33):
Is it just me or is your throat burning?
Gary Dordick (12:36):
No, but it's natural.
Mauro Fiore (12:38):
Let's have a taste.
Gary Dordick (12:39):
That's why when they're lost in this world, this is kind of the stuff they give them.
Bob Simon (12:43):
It spits fire in your belly.
Mauro Fiore (12:44):
This is the Hirsch Family Select, Adolph Hirsch's own stuff.
Gary Dordick (12:48):
Just the little taste of that. You know I'm a Sinatra fan, but I'll taste it. That's a little.
Mauro Fiore (12:53):
It's pretty amazing.
Gary Dordick (12:53):
Heavy there.
Mauro Fiore (12:55):
Now how about having taste of it?
Gary Dordick (12:57):
You want me to take that from you?
Nava Dordick (12:58):
Will you drink it? Yeah.
Gary Dordick (12:59):
Yeah.
Nava Dordick (12:59):
Okay.
Bob Simon (12:59):
What a gentleman.
Nava Dordick (12:59):
My hero.
Mauro Fiore (13:00):
What a gentleman.
Bob Simon (13:03):
This is one proof. They're going to have their sixth style-
Gary Dordick (13:06):
This is poorly taste.
Bob Simon (13:06):
... after that pour.
Mauro Fiore (13:09):
Let me have yours.
Bob Simon (13:10):
Thank you sir.
Mauro Fiore (13:11):
So Hirsch Select from-
Bob Simon (13:14):
I mean Gary didn't your family had roots in Chicago?
Mauro Fiore (13:19):
Gary's from Chicago-
Gary Dordick (13:20):
Believe it or not.
Bob Simon (13:21):
I want to hear because listeners and viewers-
Mauro Fiore (13:23):
Gary is from Chicago, that's why I brought this.
Bob Simon (13:23):
Everybody thinks that Gary Dordick, born in Beverly, Hills grew up with money, started his firm, had no shortcomings, but just started his firm with a million dollars.
Gary Dordick (13:33):
Well, I tell you some interesting background. My grandparents are from old country in generally Russia, and they came across Ellis Island. My grandfather was a bookie in Chicago in the '20s. And eventually when they moved to Chicago after his days of book running were over, he became a clerk in store clerk. He actually retired from what was then Boy's Market as a union store clerk. My family never had any money. And interestingly, my grandmother started smoking cigarettes back to a day at 12 years old and drinking early. And all she drank was whiskey.
(14:21):
And I used to tell her, "They tell me in school that smoking and all this is bad for you." And she said, "Well, you know what? I'm old now and there's only two things in the world that mean anything to me. It's you kids and my cigarettes and I'm not giving up either one." But when I became a lawyer, I finally wanted to buy her something that she would like, something she wanted and I didn't know what to get her. So I bought her a really expensive whiskey and I thought, what a nice gift for grandma because growing up, all I used to remember her saying is, "Would you like a little drink?" And I'm like, "Well, I'm 12." And she said, "Okay, well grandma will just have one." And she drank all day long and smoked all day long.
Mauro Fiore (14:57):
I wish I would've hung out with her.
Gary Dordick (14:58):
Yeah. Oh, she was great, Jean. And when I gave her the whiskey, she said, "Oh, this is the expensive stuff." And she said, "Grandma doesn't drink. It's too expensive." And she drank the cheap stuff and she never drank the expensive bottle. Even when I gave it to her, she says, it's expensive. Grandma can't drink this. And it sat there forever.
Nava Dordick (15:22):
How old did she live?
Gary Dordick (15:22):
And she lived to 86 years old, smoking two or three packs a day and drinking all day every day. My grandfather on the other hand, never drank, never smoked, exercised every day and ate healthy. And she outlived him by 10 years.
Nava Dordick (15:37):
Cheers to grandma.
Mauro Fiore (15:37):
There you go.
Gary Dordick (15:39):
Here's to Grandma Jean.
Mauro Fiore (15:39):
Grandma.
Gary Dordick (15:40):
Grandma Jean.
Mauro Fiore (15:42):
My grandma, the same thing. My grandma drank wine, cheap wine and smoke Chesterfields every fucking day. Live till 95.
Gary Dordick (15:50):
Good. Right?
Nava Dordick (15:51):
But it tastes different.
Bob Simon (15:53):
Oh, this is much different from this. I love it.
Nava Dordick (15:57):
Yeah. Why am I tasting? Is it licorice or there's something like maple-y, there's, I mean definitely-
Mauro Fiore (16:03):
It taste a little bit of caramel in the [inaudible 00:16:05].
Nava Dordick (16:05):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (16:06):
You're just making shit up, do you?
Mauro Fiore (16:07):
No, I can taste it.
Gary Dordick (16:08):
I taste a little caramel too.
Bob Simon (16:10):
All right, good.
Mauro Fiore (16:11):
I don't making up shit. Bob, what about your tuxedo? Tell me about this. We've done-
Bob Simon (16:15):
So this is only for men, so it doesn't match yours.
Mauro Fiore (16:19):
Bob. He's trying to steal my joke.
Bob Simon (16:22):
That's what I'm doing.
Mauro Fiore (16:23):
I mean, Bob, we've done dozens of shows.
Bob Simon (16:26):
We actually, I just told before you guys came on, we thought that Gary would dress down a little bit. We said let's show him up by wearing tuxedos.
Mauro Fiore (16:34):
And then he shows up in a suit.
Gary Dordick (16:35):
Well I might say-
Mauro Fiore (16:36):
Gary always wears a T-shirt and Levi's.
Gary Dordick (16:38):
You guys are looking very, very nice today, I must say.
Bob Simon (16:40):
So we didn't coordinate this. We're both wearing kind of the same thing, which is well-
Gary Dordick (16:43):
It looks good. You're like bookends to us. At any time in the show, do you say anything that helps the audience with anything?
Mauro Fiore (16:50):
No. What do you want to learn?
Gary Dordick (16:51):
It's mostly drunken bantering?
Mauro Fiore (16:55):
Take it easy. Listen, you know-
Nava Dordick (16:57):
How did you guys meet?
Mauro Fiore (16:58):
Me and Gary?
Nava Dordick (16:58):
Yeah, you said 25 years ago.
Mauro Fiore (17:00):
I've known Gary at least 20 years now, right? At least. I'm not sure how I met him. But the one thing is for sure that he's not an easy guy to be friends with, but somehow I figured out how to do it. So-
Gary Dordick (17:15):
Relentless.
Mauro Fiore (17:15):
We're close.
Gary Dordick (17:17):
I couldn't run away far enough and fast enough.
Nava Dordick (17:19):
You are always so mean to him. I used to always say Mauro, I don't understand why you're friends with him.
Mauro Fiore (17:24):
You know that this guy calls me all the time? He calls me, this guy calls me to talk to him and he can't deny it.
Gary Dordick (17:30):
Okay.
Nava Dordick (17:30):
And then you always call us when it's dinnertime.
Mauro Fiore (17:32):
Yeah.
Nava Dordick (17:32):
Always.
Mauro Fiore (17:33):
I know what time he'd listen. If you know Gary's a man of routine at six o'clock, he's fucking eating dinner, at noon he's eating lunch. And at 5:45, I'll text him. I'll say, "Are you eating your carrots or can you talk?" Because he starts starving at 5:45, he can't take it until he starts eating carrots.
Gary Dordick (17:49):
I'm very disciplined. I have figured out at this stage of life-
Bob Simon (17:55):
But do you think that's your trial lawyer routine or was that something that you were ingrained?
Gary Dordick (17:59):
No, look, I am now 61 years old.
Nava Dordick (18:02):
Wait, what?
Gary Dordick (18:03):
Yeah, and-
Bob Simon (18:04):
He's been lying.
Gary Dordick (18:05):
... I have been through ups and downs. With my fight with the cancer and ongoing battle, I've been terminally, terminally skinny to the point where people looked at me, "Oh that dude's going to die." I've been fat and bushy and out of shape.
Mauro Fiore (18:24):
And fat and happy.
Gary Dordick (18:25):
Happy. And I've been extremely unhealthy in my diet. I love food and drinks.
Mauro Fiore (18:31):
Remember the time on Thanksgiving we went to Pink's before Thanksgiving dinner.
Gary Dordick (18:34):
Before Thanksgiving dinner.
Mauro Fiore (18:35):
And we had like 10 chili dogs.
Nava Dordick (18:37):
Do you remember the time we went to the restaurant and ordered every single thing on the menu except one thing and then they brought that one thing because-
Gary Dordick (18:43):
That might not mean his restaurants. That was just unusual for us. And now, so at this stage of life, I'm a vegetarian. I work out every single day. When I'm in trial, I might have to get up at 5:00 in the morning, but I work out at least an hour every morning. I do all sorts of, I do water sports and outdoors and hiking and jogging and weights and yoga.
Nava Dordick (19:04):
Yoga.
Gary Dordick (19:04):
Mostly hot yoga. And for me, I fast every day, I finish dinner and I don't eat from seven o'clock till noon the next day, every single day. So by the time noon comes around, I'm fucking starving when these guys are like, "Oh, let's make it two o'clock." I'm all up, you have two o'clock.
Bob Simon (19:23):
But can you do that during trial?
Gary Dordick (19:25):
I do it during trial. I do it all the time.
Bob Simon (19:27):
Really?
Nava Dordick (19:27):
He calls himself lean and mean.
Gary Dordick (19:29):
Lean and mean during trial. I don't drink during trial. I don't overeat during trial and eat fried crap.
Bob Simon (19:34):
But I'm the same way-
Gary Dordick (19:35):
But it affects-
Bob Simon (19:36):
But I have to eat in the morning before trial, at least a little bit.
Gary Dordick (19:40):
No, I don't.
Nava Dordick (19:40):
He has coffee.
Gary Dordick (19:41):
I have coffee only. But I go in and I like that hungry feeling. I like that lean and mean.
Mauro Fiore (19:48):
Hungry like the wolf.
Gary Dordick (19:48):
I like-
Bob Simon (19:48):
We call him the gray wolf.
Gary Dordick (19:49):
So after lunch, I eat lunch at 12 o'clock because I'm starving, after lunch I finish by 1:00. I try not to eat a lot of crap between lunch and dinner, but I have a vegetables or something snack at three o'clock.
Mauro Fiore (20:00):
Carrots.
Gary Dordick (20:01):
So by six o'clock I am starving again. And if I don't eat at six o'clock, what happens? Because this is what you-
Bob Simon (20:06):
Hangry.
Nava Dordick (20:07):
He gets hangry.
Gary Dordick (20:08):
No, it's not that. I do-
Bob Simon (20:09):
Sounds like it's that.
Gary Dordick (20:10):
What happens is you start eating a bag of potato chips and a thing of this and a thing of that. And before you know it, you had 400 or 500, 600 Calories of shit and then you had your dinner. But if I eat at six-
Bob Simon (20:21):
But aren't you happy eating those-
Gary Dordick (20:23):
I am.
Bob Simon (20:23):
... chips and things? Some ice.
Gary Dordick (20:24):
But it's discipline that keeps me. Right now I'm not in as good shape as I was some months ago because we've had the Vegas convention, we've had all these things where I've let myself go and now I'm back in the team.
Bob Simon (20:39):
But the two of you are in incredible shape. I mean both of you are living life to its fullest. So look fantastic.
Gary Dordick (20:46):
Well, you should see us both naked. Come on.
Nava Dordick (20:48):
It's fine this side.
Bob Simon (20:51):
Production has asked the pictures of that.
Mauro Fiore (20:54):
You know that one time, I don't know what year it was, but I actually went-
Bob Simon (20:57):
1990, never.
Mauro Fiore (20:58):
I actually went to Europe on vacation. Me and Gary and Nava, just the three of us. Remember when we were for, I don't know, two weeks?
Gary Dordick (21:06):
What?
Mauro Fiore (21:06):
Wasn't that fun?
Gary Dordick (21:07):
No. Alex met us.
Mauro Fiore (21:08):
Yeah. Eventually my-
Nava Dordick (21:09):
And we went to all those Michelin's and came out of the Michelin's going, "Where can we find peace pizza? We're so hungry."
Mauro Fiore (21:14):
My fiance, now my wife, at the time could only join us for the last seven days of the trip. But for the first 12 days it was just us three. We had the best time. We went to a bunch of different countries, three of us.
Nava Dordick (21:26):
We went crazy.
Bob Simon (21:27):
We all get to enjoy these things now. But nobody here came from any means that ... We would never be able to.
Gary Dordick (21:34):
No, but that's what makes it special.
Nava Dordick (21:35):
In my world, Gary was rich compared to my upbringing.
Bob Simon (21:39):
But how-
Gary Dordick (21:39):
What are you talking about?
Bob Simon (21:41):
But how do you keep that fire in their belly?
Gary Dordick (21:43):
Hold on a second. We grew up, me-
Nava Dordick (21:45):
You grew up in Beverly Hills.
Gary Dordick (21:47):
Hold on. Hold on. My parents got divorced after first grade. My mother was a substitute school-
Nava Dordick (21:51):
Okay, were you ever evicted?
Gary Dordick (21:51):
Hold on, let me finish.
Nava Dordick (21:51):
We were.
Gary Dordick (21:52):
My mother was a substitute teacher.
Bob Simon (21:54):
She was evicted.
Nava Dordick (21:55):
I was poorer than you.
Gary Dordick (21:56):
And substitute school teacher, she thought, okay, the only chance we have for maybe some success with the kids is if we rent an apartment in Beverly Hills, at least they'll get a good education. So the last street of Beverly Hills was Arnaz and they called it, there was an article about us in the newspaper-
Mauro Fiore (22:11):
Devorah's [inaudible 00:22:12] middle school.
Gary Dordick (22:12):
Right. They called it Devorah's Row.
Nava Dordick (22:13):
The slums.
Gary Dordick (22:14):
The slums of Beverly Hills. In fact, the woman, Tamara Jenkins, who made the movie called the Slums of Beverly Hills was my first girlfriend. That movie's about us because we lived in the slums of Beverly Hills and that life was me, my mom, my brother started off in a one bedroom and then later we moved to a two bedroom where we lived in that same two bedroom until I graduated high school. And everyone in Beverly Hills got a car. I was so happy to have a bus pass. I was like, "You can get on the bus anytime you want and go anywhere and transfer." I had a bus pass. Everyone else had porches.
Bob Simon (22:46):
Okay.
Gary Dordick (22:48):
But Nava was rightfully poor also. They would get evicted. Probably went foreclosed on.
Nava Dordick (22:52):
I went to Fairfax. Yes, on the other side of the track. The real tracks.
Gary Dordick (22:56):
Yes. No, we were all south of the tracks.
Mauro Fiore (22:58):
Yeah, the real tracks.
Bob Simon (23:00):
But Nava, how do ... All your kids now, my wife and I talk about this all the time. We have the fear of raising our children having money because we never did. How does that affect them? All of your kids are the most grounded people we've ever met in our lives.
Gary Dordick (23:15):
We beat the shit out of them.
Bob Simon (23:16):
That's what I wanted to hear because that's what I wanted to know. Okay.
Gary Dordick (23:19):
No, we-
Bob Simon (23:19):
Cut episode, we're good.
Gary Dordick (23:21):
We lacked discipline. We didn't discipline the kids very effectively.
Nava Dordick (23:24):
No, but I think when it came to money and it came to materialistic things that they kind of took ... They're like us. We're like, give them the shirt off your back. We don't care. Money comes and money goes. And we've not had it, had it, not had it.
Gary Dordick (23:44):
Well, we hadn't lost it. When I got cancer, we sold our big house, we sold my classic cars, we sold everything, we downsized. My law office went down to three cases.
Bob Simon (23:55):
Well, let's talk about that because this was around 2010-
Nava Dordick (23:57):
2008.
Bob Simon (23:58):
'08, right when the financial crisis happened. And everybody knew, I just knew you guys through Fable. I was a law student. I would see your ads in The Advocate and-
Gary Dordick (24:07):
The rented office from Piuze.
Bob Simon (24:09):
But that's when I first met you. Did you not know the story?
Nava Dordick (24:10):
No.
Bob Simon (24:11):
The first time I met Gary Dordick is after when it was the comeback from cancer tour. So this was 2010 or '11, 2010, '09 or '10. And when the first ad in The Advocate came out and it was Gary running out of the hospital.
Gary Dordick (24:30):
Oh yeah. Pushing the thing.
Nava Dordick (24:31):
Oh, right.
Bob Simon (24:33):
And I was, I always want to meet this guy and I was running an office from [inaudible 00:24:37].
Nava Dordick (24:36):
Oh my God, we went to dinner. Sorry, I have to interrupt you. Gary was like, "I met these people and I met, I think you're really going to like the wife and this guy Bob." And I remember you guys came to our house and Chrissy comes to me, "Oh my God, we could be like sisters." And I was like, "I love her. She's so beautiful."
Bob Simon (24:55):
And you guys are best friends now. And my wife's a good gut check like, are people good or not? And she loved you. She's like, first time I met you, I loved you guys. That article-
Gary Dordick (25:03):
[Inaudible 00:25:04].
Bob Simon (25:05):
But it's a different mentality. But when we saw that article and I saw first time I met Gary Dordick, he was wearing a tracksuit talking to Mike Piuze and I had just seen this article, I was like, "That's fucking Gary Dordick." I just saw his, it was a cartoon.
Mauro Fiore (25:16):
And unfortunately for ... I didn't know you yet.
Bob Simon (25:18):
It was a year or two later.
Mauro Fiore (25:20):
That you bring up Mike Piuze. Mike Piuze is one of the greatest trial lawyers ever lived and the greatest people ever. He was fucking great. I'm so happy that I got to know him through Gary. And a lot of people don't know who he is because he's from the old-
Gary Dordick (25:32):
But at the same time-
Bob Simon (25:33):
He was very low [inaudible 00:25:34].
Gary Dordick (25:35):
But an important point to clarify here, because that's part of what I think we can share with folks is Mike was one of the greatest trial lawyers of all time. But we learn from each other and we learn from our colleagues sometimes how to try cases and how to do things well. But sometimes we learn from people in our lives how not to do things.
Bob Simon (25:57):
How not to do them. Yeah.
Gary Dordick (25:57):
And when I saw and became close to Mike, he told me, I said, "I'm going to my kids AYSO soccer game. I'm going to a game. I'm going to my kids' Spring Sing and Thanksgiving and holiday programs." I said, "I go to all of them." He told me he never made a single sporting event for any of his kids. And his daughters were great athletes and wanted him to be there, but he never ... He was the greatest lawyer who failed as a father and failed as a husband. Later in life he started-
Bob Simon (26:27):
Tried.
Gary Dordick (26:28):
He tried to make up for lost ground, but you can't. So the fact is, if you really want to be successful, it's not enough to be a great trial lawyer. It's not enough to make money. But to be successful, the most important thing is to be a good father, a good husband, a good family man. A good human being.
Mauro Fiore (26:45):
I told you, Bob, the first time I met you, Gary called me up sometime, I don't remember when. It was a long time ago. He says, "Hey, let's go to the Santa Monica Bar Association meeting" or Surfing Lawyers. There was someone-
Gary Dordick (26:58):
Yeah. I remember.
Mauro Fiore (26:58):
And he says, "We're going to go to the Surfer's Lawyers Association meeting in Santa Monica. My friends are going to speak." I was like, "who are your friends? Oh, Bob and his brother."
Bob Simon (27:07):
No, we were just attendees.
Mauro Fiore (27:09):
No, you guys were on the panel. I remember this for sure.
Bob Simon (27:11):
Gary pour the other bottle by the way, because we're running out of liquor.
Mauro Fiore (27:14):
Gary took me there and you and your brother were speaking along with some Judge and-
Bob Simon (27:20):
O'Connell, Judge O'Connell.
Mauro Fiore (27:22):
And the first time I met you guys and after that I was like, "Oh, these guys are cool guys." I remember I told you at the time Gary was living in Century City. So whatever years that was when you were living at California.
Bob Simon (27:32):
When we first, when I met you guys, we went to your house, the one on Sunset. And my wife, I mean we were just newbies to LA and it was just this blown away by the generosity of who you guys are and your driver took us back to our house. We were so drunk. Well, I left my, I thought it was a nice car at your house. And Stevie dropped us off and it was like-
Mauro Fiore (27:48):
Was I there? I think I was there then.
Bob Simon (27:49):
Might've been. I don't fucking remember.
Gary Dordick (27:51):
But you mentioned we had, that was a great house in Beverly Hills. It was a historic house where a lot of celebrities lived there. It was on the celebrity tour. They'd stopped because Shirley Temple and all these people owned the house and passed. Lucille Ball's company owned it. And the kids used to sit on the front lawn and we had a golden and they told everyone it was-
Nava Dordick (28:12):
Marley.
Gary Dordick (28:12):
Marley from the movie Marley. That dog got more pictures and they loved taking pictures of our dog. But I think-
Mauro Fiore (28:19):
I remember that golden.
Nava Dordick (28:21):
Sorry, talking about Mike and raising our kids and how, thank you for complimenting how our kids are when it comes to the whole money thing. But we basically always told them we're spending it all. So don't plan on any inheritance.
Bob Simon (28:40):
But how did you keep them hungry? Because they're such hardworking people.
Gary Dordick (28:43):
Good point. But first I was going to say is that we've had the money. We've lost the money. We've had the money. Fortunately now we have the money because we work really, really hard and we have good values I believe. But we know that it doesn't mean anything. We have fancy cars and we've bought artwork and we have-
Bob Simon (29:05):
You guys have a dinosaur.
Mauro Fiore (29:06):
A boat.
Gary Dordick (29:06):
I like dinosaur.
Bob Simon (29:08):
By the way, my daughters, they still talk about some dinosaurs.
Gary Dordick (29:11):
But at the end of the day we get that it doesn't mean shit. It's nice, right? I mean look, people say, "Oh, you don't need money to be happy." You don't. But if you have money in Los Angeles, you have different opportunities and things and it can make your life more comfortable. But we know for sure the money doesn't matter. And what's important is your health and having family and friends that care about you. That's all that matters.
Bob Simon (29:39):
Whenever I reached, I stalked the Dordicks for just wanted to be like you guys. And when you invited me one time to your house in Malibu, we were hanging out. I was just on the beach at your beach house in Malibu, Sunset [inaudible 00:29:53]. But ask Gary-
Nava Dordick (29:53):
It's a hut. Okay, let's just clarify. It's a hut.
Mauro Fiore (29:56):
It'd pretty-
Bob Simon (29:58):
Okay. [inaudible 00:29:58]. So I was like, I was just talking to Gary, I was like, "If family's important to me, why aren't you doing these leadership things" or blah, blah, blah and Gary's like, "Look, the most important thing for you is your family, your happiness and your marriage. She said, take one day a week to be with your wife, to be with your kids and don't think about anything else." There'll be times you're in trial for six weeks, but you got to make time for things around you. Because it will be, look, we've been gone for months and you know, Nava, when we're there for the weekends, we're not really there in the middle of a trial. It's a different ... We're blank face. But it takes that dedication to be there for-
Gary Dordick (30:35):
Look, how can you work and be a law student? The answer is you have to be very efficient with your time and you have to use it well and manage. Same with family and work. Having the right balance takes time, effort, planning. But you have to make it a priority to say, look, I'm going to work when I have the work and when I have to do it. But when I have that break, I'm going to give a hundred percent to taking my family to brunch and spending time with them and making sure that they know I'm there and it takes work to make a happy family life. You say, oh, it should be easy. Well mentally you want to do it. So that part is easy, but making it work in our busy schedules takes effort and you have to make that effort.
Nava Dordick (31:24):
You know what else? That now that our kids are adults, lawyers, our daughter Michelle said to me recently, most of her memories of her childhood weren't the houses, weren't the cars, it was us taking them rollerblading every weekend on the boardwalk in Santa Monica.
Gary Dordick (31:44):
Teaching them how to ride bicycles.
Nava Dordick (31:45):
Teaching them how to ride bikes. It was all the activities and the stuff we planned and we did with them. It wasn't about the money at all, it was just about spending time with them.
Bob Simon (31:53):
I asked my kids ... We travel a lot together. I ask my kids, what was your favorite part of the day or the week or the trip? It's always something that...
Nava Dordick (32:00):
Random.
Gary Dordick (32:01):
Yeah.
Nava Dordick (32:01):
When you were with me, I was on the toilet talking.
Gary Dordick (32:03):
Exactly.
Mauro Fiore (32:05):
For me, I'm home every night except for usually Thursday nights when I go hang out with Gary. Usually Thursday nights we have dinner. This has been going on for 20 years or something. But besides having dinner with Gary on Thursday night, I'm usually home every night during the week.
Gary Dordick (32:19):
But why? Because that's where you want to be.
Mauro Fiore (32:22):
With my kids. And I tell my kids, to me, my best time of my day is I tell my kids bedtime stories.
Gary Dordick (32:28):
Yeah, I love it.
Mauro Fiore (32:29):
My kids love bedtime stories.
Gary Dordick (32:30):
Look how many of your friends-
Nava Dordick (32:30):
And you tell them really scary stories too.
Gary Dordick (32:33):
But how many of your friends call you up and say, "Hey, let's go out. Let's go to a bar, let's go drink."
Bob Simon (32:38):
No, no.
Gary Dordick (32:39):
You say, okay, but sometimes you do it because you have to or you feel obligated, whatever. But in reality, where are you guys happiest?
Mauro Fiore (32:48):
With my kids.
Bob Simon (32:50):
It's funny. I'm reading this book that a friend wrote-
Mauro Fiore (32:52):
I hang out with Gary-
Bob Simon (32:52):
... right now and it's called-
Mauro Fiore (32:53):
... one night a week.
Bob Simon (32:53):
... something Dharma and it's talked about the wheel, the blue wheel of Dharma and you have to find your wheel, what's important to you and stay within it and don't get pulled to outside of it. And I was reading this book, I'm like, "Shit, this is exactly the way everybody should feel." Define your happiness and stay within it. Because time moves fast. The older we get, the faster it moves. Remember when we were kids, we were looking up at the clock and it felt like forever until it turn. I was 2:07 I got out of school. 2:07. What the fuck? When is it 2:07?
Gary Dordick (33:20):
By The way-
Bob Simon (33:20):
Now time is so fast.
Gary Dordick (33:21):
I brought the gift to you guys. WhistlePig. I have actually never had it because I stick with my Jack Daniels, but they say it's the best-
Mauro Fiore (33:30):
WhistlePig [inaudible 00:33:31].
Gary Dordick (33:30):
It's good for you guys.
Mauro Fiore (33:31):
That's very nice.
Bob Simon (33:33):
This is a store pick, whatever's written on the ... I know you're a Wally's guy, so I want to see if this is where you got from Wally's.
Nava Dordick (33:38):
Store pick. What does that mean?
Bob Simon (33:39):
I'll explain to you soon if I open this.
Gary Dordick (33:40):
Yeah, it's a Wally's.
Bob Simon (33:42):
It's a Wally's.
Mauro Fiore (33:42):
Is it?
Gary Dordick (33:42):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (33:43):
So this is one of the harder ones to get. So stores, they do a whole barrel pick. So they'll decide they'll drink and pick the best barrel. So this is a 15-year-old WhistlePig. This label here, this is a Wally's. Once they picked for that store, they did one whole barrel. They probably did a 15-year-old, probably 150-
Gary Dordick (34:00):
Wally's able to carry some weight and get that.
Bob Simon (34:03):
So probably 150 they get out of 150 bottles out of the barrel. So I've done one where you got one out of WhistlePig got 180 a year.
Gary Dordick (34:10):
You don't have to open it. It's a gift.
Bob Simon (34:12):
I mean we'll drink this.
Gary Dordick (34:13):
Well, we can drink what else you have.
Mauro Fiore (34:14):
I'm going to drink it with your dad.
Gary Dordick (34:16):
Take it home. This other stuff we drink.
Bob Simon (34:17):
I mean this is amazing.
Gary Dordick (34:18):
Bring it with you or you guys can fight over it later. And you guys film it. I'm going to tell you something-
Bob Simon (34:23):
About to wrestle it.
Gary Dordick (34:24):
I'm going to tell you guys some good advice about raising kids. Here's the thing, you need to ... The hard part, like you say, is how do you raise kids? All of us came from no money. So we couldn't get spoiled, right? Because you got to have money to get spoiled. We could not. It was not possible. Well, I went to Beverly Hills High School as the poor kids. You knew who the poor kids were. You knew who the rich kids were. Didn't matter. We all knew who we were and it didn't matter. I was friends with all of them, but at the same time back, this was, I went to Beverly Hills High School in 1976. And cocaine was crazy and people were doing all this blow.
(35:02):
Well, we're too poor to do blow. It wasn't a problem. We didn't have any money. But you ask nowadays now that your parents, you as parents have money and you have the ability to spoil your children and you worry, the number one thing that you worry about is how do we raise good, healthy, happy kids? Well, what I found growing up too was most of the second generation money got screwed up because all their parents never had money. They came into money and they wanted to give their kids everything they didn't have. So all those kids burned out and flamed out because they had celebrity parents. They spoiled them. They grew up with a lot of problems. Their generation, their kids did a little bit better because they saw the parents that flamed out. So we learned things like you give your kids in terms of allowance and money enough in their pocket to do something but never enough money to do nothing.
(35:59):
You can't give them a lot of money. You can't let them have money so easy. Our daughter, remember Michelle, was going to her high school prom and she wanted to buy a pair of shoes and it was like a $500 pair of shoes. And I was like, "Absolutely not." But she really, really wanted those shoes and it was really important to her. And she was going to her prom and we said, "Okay, I tell you what, you want to buy those shoes? You can buy them, but you have to work at the office to pay for them." So she said, "Yes, I want them." She bought the shoes. I think they hurt her feet. She went to the prom. The prom was over. She worked the entire summer and with taxes coming out, she's like, "I haven't even paid for the shoes yet. I worked three months." We're like, "Yeah, exactly." You understand that, you see how hard and how long you had to work for a pair of shoes that she really didn't even care that much for. But it taught her some values.
Nava Dordick (36:52):
An allowance is hard. It's hard to do. I think that really what helped a lot with our kids was that all of them did sports, some kind of sport that we just looked at it like-
Bob Simon (37:02):
Were they individualistic sports or team?
Nava Dordick (37:04):
Both. So our son Kyle at what, 14 years old would get up at three o'clock in the morning to do ice time before school started.
Mauro Fiore (37:14):
He would go to Rancho, Cucamonga or some shit to do some skating.
Nava Dordick (37:18):
Wait, how much can they possibly party?
Mauro Fiore (37:19):
I remember he had a skating coach out [inaudible 00:37:21].
Nava Dordick (37:20):
Michelle and Taylor and Waverley did dance.
Gary Dordick (37:24):
Look at it this way-
Nava Dordick (37:24):
Competing.
Gary Dordick (37:26):
If they're in some competitive sport, team sport at school or the girls were competing in dance and their grades, you watch their report card and their grades are okay or even hopefully good, it's unlikely they're shooting heroin under the bleachers, right? If they're competitive in a sport and their grades are okay as a parent you can kind of take a step back and say they're probably doing okay.
Bob Simon (37:47):
It's also lot of the circle of friends that they're around making sure. What's the challenge? We have a few minutes here before we wrap up, but I just want to hear your advice to those listening, going with children that have access to money and having friend circles that have really bad access to money, if that makes sense.
Nava Dordick (38:06):
What do you mean by really bad?
Bob Simon (38:06):
That they can spend money and family don't care. There's no checks or balances and they can be like, I can go here or there and it doesn't fuck up.
Gary Dordick (38:13):
I'm going to let Nava answer that, but I'm just saying when you say before we wrap up, we are nowhere near done.
Nava Dordick (38:18):
I thought we were going to drink more.
Gary Dordick (38:18):
We're just warming up.
Bob Simon (38:20):
Oh, we're-
Gary Dordick (38:20):
Bottles are full of alcohol.
Mauro Fiore (38:22):
Let's keep drinking.
Gary Dordick (38:22):
What's going on here?
Bob Simon (38:24):
We could do-
Gary Dordick (38:25):
Rookies.
Mauro Fiore (38:25):
Tell some great stories. Do you know, Bob, some of my favorite things-
Bob Simon (38:28):
We could do a could do like a season. We could do a season of Dordicks.
Mauro Fiore (38:32):
Hey Bob, some of my favorite things having known Gary for so many years. And so then it gets to the point where it's beyond just like I've had dinner, whatever. Have you ever gone shopping with Gary?
Bob Simon (38:43):
No.
Mauro Fiore (38:44):
I could tell you a thing about Gary. This guy could take the whole afternoon to buy one pair of socks.
Nava Dordick (38:51):
And he won't buy them if they're not on sale.
Mauro Fiore (38:53):
You've never seen this guy. I've gone shopping... At this point, we go shopping-
Gary Dordick (38:57):
They got to be on sale.
Mauro Fiore (38:59):
I've gone to the supermarket with Gary and he's like, "I don't know about these sausages. Should I buy these? Should I buy this mustard?"
Nava Dordick (39:07):
He'll buy a really, really expensive car. I don't know if I should say what kind of car. So he'll buy a Rolls-Royce, spend crazy money where I'm like, "It was how much?" And then he's like, "It's a nice car." He rationalized it.
Gary Dordick (39:17):
I got a deal.
Nava Dordick (39:18):
And then he's so offended at what they charge for valet parking that he'll park 10 blocks away-
Bob Simon (39:23):
We're the same.
Nava Dordick (39:25):
... and we have to walk all the way.
Mauro Fiore (39:27):
I've gone shopping with him and he is like, "But it's a value purchase."
Bob Simon (39:29):
I get Gary.
Gary Dordick (39:30):
I buy the car on sale too, I'll tell you that.
Mauro Fiore (39:31):
This guy could take two hours to buy socks and I'll indulge him-
Bob Simon (39:35):
But he could buy McLaren and make money off of it.
Mauro Fiore (39:37):
And then the other thing is Gary has a fascination, I don't know what it is, he likes to buy jackets, but he lives in southern California where you wear a jacket like six weeks a year. I have personally been with this guy where he's bought, I've probably been with him where he bought 30 jackets.
Gary Dordick (39:53):
That's because you don't have to take [inaudible 00:39:55]-
Nava Dordick (39:54):
So true.
Mauro Fiore (39:55):
He'll try them on and he'll go ... And I'm like, "Where are you going to fucking wear when it's 80 degrees in February?" I mean, how many jackets does this guy have? I've been with him where we've bought ... And I'm talking different countries, different states. I remember personally shopping with this guy for a jacket in South Dakota at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, he wanted a motorcycle jacket, for at least two hours. Finally, I said, "Buy the fucking jacket."
Gary Dordick (40:17):
Okay, we're not talking trivia nonsense. I have more parenting advice. One of the things that we thought was one of our-
Bob Simon (40:24):
Pour your Old Grand Dad, that's carry us out.
Gary Dordick (40:26):
Most successful-
Nava Dordick (40:27):
Wait, do you have to-
Bob Simon (40:28):
This is the last pour out.
Mauro Fiore (40:29):
This is Old Grand Dad.
Nava Dordick (40:34):
This is for you, Old Grand Dad.
Mauro Fiore (40:37):
Listen, Old Grand Dad gets a band wrap because usually it's looped in with the Old Crow Old Grand Dad. The shitty whiskies you drank in high school when you're trying to get laid and have a chick in your backseat. You know what I mean?
Gary Dordick (40:50):
I have no idea.
Mauro Fiore (40:51):
You know what I'm talking about. But this is an Old Grand Dad-
Gary Dordick (40:55):
It's kind of bonded.
Mauro Fiore (40:56):
Meaning that this can be bonded, it has to follow lots of very strict rules and it's a good bourbon. So if you ever see a Old Grand Dad-
Bob Simon (41:06):
It's 15% alcohol bonded.
Mauro Fiore (41:07):
Old Grand Dad bonded, this is pretty good.
Gary Dordick (41:11):
Lots of difference before that.
Bob Simon (41:11):
So another thing-
Mauro Fiore (41:11):
Everything whiskey and bourbon.
Bob Simon (41:14):
The Dordicks also taught me this. When I, my kids, I try to scare the shit out of them to be safe.
Gary Dordick (41:19):
Yes.
Bob Simon (41:20):
And I learned this from you guys.
Nava Dordick (41:21):
Oh, God.
Bob Simon (41:21):
Is Gary used to show photos of people mangled, dead if they're not following the rules, you don't look both ways. This is what happened to one of my clients. I do this to my kids now and they like, they fucking follow the rules.
Mauro Fiore (41:34):
[inaudible 00:41:34] says the Old Grand Dad.
Gary Dordick (41:35):
They do grow up a little paranoid seeing all that. But I want to tell you guys an important parenting tip-
Nava Dordick (41:41):
To Old Grand Dad, Gary. Granddad to be.
Gary Dordick (41:44):
I guess we start with don't drink your guts.
Bob Simon (41:45):
You are going to be the old granddad about a month and a half.
Nava Dordick (41:49):
Cheers. Okay, now I think I like this stuff. I can't smell this.
Mauro Fiore (41:54):
It's the Old Grand Dad.
Bob Simon (41:54):
That tastes like an Old Grand Dad.
Gary Dordick (41:56):
This is good.
Bob Simon (41:56):
So you've had an Old Grand Dad. All right.
Nava Dordick (41:58):
Oh my God.
Gary Dordick (41:58):
Go ahead.
Nava Dordick (41:58):
I smelled it.
Gary Dordick (42:00):
I can't speak until you had a sip. You can't plug your nose on...
Mauro Fiore (42:04):
Bob, this is pretty smooth, it's pretty nice.
Nava Dordick (42:06):
It's a challenge.
Gary Dordick (42:10):
Oh wait, I'm giving-
Bob Simon (42:11):
That's your second Old Grand Dad today.
Gary Dordick (42:13):
This is good parenting advice. It's really important. And this is I think really the key.
Nava Dordick (42:18):
Don't drink whiskey.
Bob Simon (42:21):
That's how I had children.
Nava Dordick (42:22):
Now my stomach is burning.
Bob Simon (42:24):
You'll be all right.
Gary Dordick (42:25):
Okay, you guys. Very important.
Nava Dordick (42:27):
Okay.
Mauro Fiore (42:27):
I'm listening.
Gary Dordick (42:28):
We made sure that our kids had at least, kids today have too much on their plate, this class and that class and this tutor and that. But at least once or twice during the week and either one night on the weekends, Friday or Saturday, mandatory family dinner, no cell phones, phones off, phones down. And they'd see them sitting on there, they're like bending them to look. But truthfully, if you sit, eat with your kids, talk to them, ask them about the day, ask them about their life.
Nava Dordick (42:58):
Tell them to stop feeling on themselves.
Gary Dordick (42:59):
Tell them about life and the world and what's going on and what's going on in your life. And you bring them in and you talk to them at least twice a week if not more. But it's so important. And nowadays, our kids are now in their what? Late twenties, early thirties. They love family dinners. We did a family dinner Monday night for the holiday. They couldn't wait to come barbecue and sit with us. And we love it and we look forward to it.
Nava Dordick (43:26):
And none of them were on their phones actually.
Gary Dordick (43:28):
And they're not because that quality time that they know from childhood. And that's how-
Nava Dordick (43:34):
It was actually the food.
Mauro Fiore (43:35):
I had that. You know what? My father, who Gary knows and who knew, may God rest his soul, was the nutty old Italian guy. And to this day, I drink to my old man.
Gary Dordick (43:46):
I'm going to drink to your old man.
Bob Simon (43:47):
I'm going to drink to your old man.
Mauro Fiore (43:49):
He was big into family dinners because he was born and raised in Italy and we had family dinners. And I feel, I say, forgive me, my mother but my dad did spoil his cock, tremendously.
Bob Simon (44:03):
All right, so we're at the end of the episode here.
Gary Dordick (44:05):
What do you mean ending the episode?
Nava Dordick (44:06):
We just got started.
Gary Dordick (44:08):
The last thing we want to talk about-
Mauro Fiore (44:09):
Gary, ask about-
Gary Dordick (44:11):
... ask me about Loyola.
Mauro Fiore (44:12):
Okay.
Nava Dordick (44:12):
Oh, yeah.
Mauro Fiore (44:13):
Tell us about the Dordick Family Advocacy Center.
Nava Dordick (44:18):
Trial.
Mauro Fiore (44:19):
Trial Advocacy Center at Loyola.
Gary Dordick (44:21):
Well, as you know, Nava's graduated Loyola Law School. Our daughter Taylor went to Loyola undergrad and grad. And it was a great program. It wasn't just that you go to law school and you pass the bar, but they're trying really hard to make good lawyers, good advocates. They have an amazing program. The program that Taylor was involved with, the Amnesty program, the Innocence program to get people on death row acquitted off death row and amazing success. Nava's worked with the women's shelter there through the school. It's just a great program. And their trial advocacy team is amazing.
(45:02):
So they came to us looking for some sponsorship and looking if we wanted to be more involved with the school. And so what I told them is my biggest concern right now in the legal community is the lack of diversity in terms of trial talent. If you look at in the courtroom, you look around, it's a bunch of grumpy old white men, me included. I had a trial. I was-
Bob Simon (45:25):
You're not that grumpy.
Gary Dordick (45:25):
No, but...
Mauro Fiore (45:25):
He is.
Nava Dordick (45:25):
He's grumpy.
Gary Dordick (45:29):
All right. But a bunch of white-
Nava Dordick (45:29):
When he's hungry.
Gary Dordick (45:31):
A bunch of old white guys over and over and over because that's where the opportunity was years ago. So we've agreed to make a contribution to the Loyola Law School. It's going to continue on essentially in perpetuity. We will donate to the program with the understanding that our donations are for the purposes of promoting diversity in the legal profession, in the trial advocacy program. We want them to have more women and more people of color have opportunities to be trial advocates. So we've made a significant contribution and they have agreed to rename the trial advocacy building, the Dordick Family Trial Advocacy Center.
(46:15):
So coming up in a couple of weeks, there's going to be a dedication. They're going to rename the building. And so the campus will forever be known in that area in the courtyard after the Dordick family. And I look at that as a tremendous honor, but an honor because they believe and we believe in advocacy and professionalism and civility. And I think that hopefully we've lived our lives and our professional lives in a way to bring respect to the school. And we have shared goals and shared values. It's a tremendous honor. We hope you guys will be there-
Mauro Fiore (46:55):
I will be there.
Gary Dordick (46:55):
.... to help us celebrate the dedication and I hope-
Mauro Fiore (46:58):
You know what else I'm so thrilled about is this too, is that when my son, Max, who wants to be a lawyer, already told me, "Dad, I want to be a lawyer," you're going to write him a letter and he's going to get in Loyola. My son, Max is four years old. He says, "Dad, I want to be like you, I want to be a lawyer."
Nava Dordick (47:12):
Well what you're saying really funny. Our kids are like, "Why are you doing that? You're spending our inheritance." I said, "We keep telling you we're spending your inheritance."
Gary Dordick (47:20):
We told you.
Mauro Fiore (47:21):
My son's four, he comes to my office and when he comes to my office, he says, "Dad, I need to wear a suit." I said, "Max, why do you want to wear a suit to my office?" "Because you dress so nice and I need to wear my suit." So he comes to my office and he puts his suit on that he has. And he comes to my office and he sits next to me at my desk and he pretends like he's doing work on his iPad. And he says he wants to be just like that. So let's make sure we write that down.
Gary Dordick (47:45):
I want to say a few things about you two before we finish. Number one, Mauro here. Years ago, Mauro was a bachelor and he was living a pretty good life as a bachelor.
Mauro Fiore (47:57):
Absolutely.
Gary Dordick (47:58):
And he was maturing. And he told me that he understands he's probably never going to have kids and he may not get married, but that he enjoys his life. And I told him that having kids is so rewarding that I think you're making a huge mistake. You'd be a great father. And at the same time, he was a legendary bachelor and he was kind of enjoying that. And I said, no, you'd be a great father. And anyone who knows his bachelor days, they were exceptional. But the truth is, seeing Mauro now as really up there in a nomination for the world's greatest dad, every weekend doing activities, taking him to tennis practice and taking them to Universal Studios and doing things and being at home.
Mauro Fiore (48:46):
Camping. They love camping.
Gary Dordick (48:46):
Camping and cooking and babysitting. He's become an amazing dad.
Nava Dordick (48:51):
Mauro was the guy our daughters would tell their boyfriends, stay away from uncle Mauro-
Mauro Fiore (48:55):
To this day.
Nava Dordick (48:55):
That's how crazy he-
Mauro Fiore (48:56):
Anybody would like me to hang out with them.
Gary Dordick (48:57):
No, no. I mean, let's not get ... I mean, look, he's a great dad. Still we tell the kids, stay away from uncle Mauro. It's a whole different issue. But now in terms of Bob, there was a time in life where Bob-
Nava Dordick (49:09):
Are you crying?
Gary Dordick (49:09):
Yeah. I'm going to cry. Bob and Christie didn't have any kids. They were practicing without success. And Bob said, "Maybe kids aren't for everyone. We may not have kids." And we were looking at it like you and Christie of everybody would be the world's greatest parents that there are. And so whatever it takes, it may not be your own biological children, but you need to be parents because you want to be and you're such wonderful people and be such wonderful parents. Whatever it takes to be parents, you need to do it because it would be so fulfilling and so great for you. And what happened?
Bob Simon (49:51):
We adopted, had two other ... I'm drinking too much. It's why I'm glassy eyed.
Gary Dordick (50:01):
All right. But say it so we could hear it.
Mauro Fiore (50:01):
And then you had two biological.
Gary Dordick (50:01):
Say it so people know.
Bob Simon (50:02):
We adopted our first child after, I mean, we went through so much shit.
Gary Dordick (50:05):
And grief and depression, anxiety.
Nava Dordick (50:08):
How many years was it?
Bob Simon (50:09):
Seven, eight years. Now we have three daughters-
Nava Dordick (50:12):
But wait. Hold on, you got to be a storyteller. You decided, you know what we'll adopt because-
Bob Simon (50:20):
We always wanted to adopt at some point in our lives. And we always thought adoption would be after we had our children and we talked and after we went through this whole journey of all this infertility stuff and it didn't work out, let's do it now. And when we decided to do it now, it was like we found our daughter. And everybody knows Remy. She's the fucking best.
Mauro Fiore (50:38):
She's the best.
Bob Simon (50:39):
And after, I mean we went through a lot of stuff after Remy.
Gary Dordick (50:42):
And you became advocates for the adoption agents.
Bob Simon (50:48):
Yeah.
Gary Dordick (50:48):
They're still involved.
Bob Simon (50:48):
Big time. And I do think that you can change the entire society, I honestly believe this.,If you give children a home.
Gary Dordick (50:55):
And love.
Bob Simon (50:57):
Full stop. 85% percent of prisons are with foster kids that were in the system at some point. That's a crazy, if you change that 85%-
Gary Dordick (51:07):
Horrible.
Bob Simon (51:07):
... they were in the foster care system at some point.
Gary Dordick (51:10):
The failure of society.
Bob Simon (51:12):
Yes. And that leads to all the failures across the board. If you solve that one little thing and do little, I honestly believe you can change the society.
Gary Dordick (51:19):
But you guys adopted and were so happy and such great parents. And then within a few years, two, natural-
Mauro Fiore (51:25):
Two more kids.
Bob Simon (51:26):
Two more kids.
Gary Dordick (51:26):
Well, look, I'll tell you this, that I've known you both now for so many years, and-
Mauro Fiore (51:31):
Gary was the best man at my wedding.
Gary Dordick (51:33):
I was.
Mauro Fiore (51:34):
He gave a hell of a speech to me.
Gary Dordick (51:35):
And I warned his wife, "Are you sure?" But I'll say this, that we're here today to talk about law and life, mostly life. But you too have been a part of our life now for so many years. And if you were just good lawyers, we wouldn't be here. The fact is, you've become great human beings, great fathers, great husbands, great mentors for the lawyers in the community, and you both do so much to help so many other people that we're just happy to have you as friends and happy to have you guys in our lives. And thank you so much.
Bob Simon (52:13):
Wow. This is a tear-jerker. Jesus.
Nava Dordick (52:17):
And the drinking and we're going to start crying.
Gary Dordick (52:17):
Now we start crying.
Bob Simon (52:19):
Now this is a drama.
Gary Dordick (52:20):
And I want to say to my wife, Nava that-
Nava Dordick (52:22):
Oh.
Bob Simon (52:23):
He's holding her head. It's so sweet.
Gary Dordick (52:25):
I've seen her struggle through law school. I've seen the tears. Every exam, she comes home. I'm like, "How's it going?" It's like whether it's a one tear or a two tear or a three tear test. And she cries and she's sweat and she's worried. But she came through law school doing great, and now the bar exam is coming up and she's stressing out about it.
Nava Dordick (52:44):
So once again, you're announcing it to thousands of people.
Mauro Fiore (52:48):
You'll be fine.
Gary Dordick (52:49):
You'll be fine. And the fact is that we're so proud of what you've done and we're so supportive of it. And the truth is, I don't know if Nava is going to join our law firm. I would love if she would.
Bob Simon (52:59):
Nava, we have a place for you at my firm.
Mauro Fiore (53:01):
At my firm.
Gary Dordick (53:02):
Well, she's motivated because she sees what we do battling justice and what we go through. And I know she'd like to be a part of that. But at the same time, if you're in a position in life where you don't need to practice law for money, you have an opportunity to do a lot of other things to make a difference in the world.
Mauro Fiore (53:19):
I've told Nava for years, I went to law school with a guy who must've been 70 when he graduated. He was the CEO of Sears back when Sears was a big deal for like years, and he always wanted to be a lawyer. Then he ended up in my class at law school. The guy's name is Mike Phillips. Greatest guy ever. Smartest guy. He went to the Yale and shit. He ended up at my shitty law school because he was retired and lived in Marina del Rey and just wanted to be a lawyer. He graduated law school and he was in his early 70s and he spent ... I talked to him the other day. He's still alive. He's in his 90s. He spent 20 years at Bet Tzedek legal aid.
Nava Dordick (53:58):
Really? Wow.
Mauro Fiore (53:58):
He became the director of Bet Tzedek before he retired when he was 90. Mike Phillips. Never, he said, "Mauro, I've never made a dollar as a lawyer. I never wanted to charge anybody money." He spent 20 years at Bet Tzedek.
Bob Simon (54:10):
That's the dream.
Mauro Fiore (54:11):
A legal aid place.
Bob Simon (54:14):
If you could do that, you've succeeded in life and you beat the show.
Mauro Fiore (54:14):
And he said, "I finally did everything I wanted to do. I'm done". And he's just chilling. He's 92 years old. He's still in Marina del Rey.
Bob Simon (54:20):
He helped people.
Mauro Fiore (54:21):
He did everything he wanted to do. 20 years hypothetically.
Bob Simon (54:24):
Let's raise a glass to the Dordick family. This is to the old new granddad and the young mom.
Mauro Fiore (54:31):
The old granddad.
Gary Dordick (54:32):
Thank you.
Mauro Fiore (54:32):
Gary.
Nava Dordick (54:33):
Cheers. Granddad.
Bob Simon (54:35):
Hot granddad. That's a GILF right over there. Yes. He'd be a GILF.
Nava Dordick (54:40):
Oh, my gosh. Okay.
