Bob Simon (00:00):
Are you into, is it taxotomy? Or is it taxidermy?
Charles Lew (00:03):
Taxidermy. Yeah.
Bob Simon (00:04):
Yeah. I mean, do you ever think about skinning your opponents?
Genie Harrison (00:08):
Yeah. I'm not into taxidermy, but I absolutely view myself as hunting bad people, utilizing the civil justice system.
Bob Simon (00:35):
Welcome to this episode of Bourbon Of Proof, where we talk to people that have made it in law and life, and we do it over spirits. Some a little hot, some a little cold, but it stirs the conversation. And today we are very honored to have a very special guest in Genie Harrison.
Genie Harrison (00:49):
Thank you.
Bob Simon (00:50):
And Genie does not drink, so we're going to have Karina here, work with Genie. She's going to take it. She's a bourbon connoisseur, so we've heard. So you're going to give us a yes and no. We're going to talk some nos with you. And it's going to be fucking fantastic.
Karina (01:05):
I'll be honest.
Bob Simon (01:06):
And today we have our co-host, a regular co-host. Now this is your fourth or fifth episode.
Charles Lew (01:10):
I'm so honored to be here.
Bob Simon (01:11):
So Charles Lew was a original guest at Bourbon of Proof and we are at The Firm, here in downtown Los Angeles, which is his private whiskey bar. And they have a cigarette machine and everything over there. Very proud of it.
Charles Lew (01:21):
Yeah. Well, it's kind of a cigar machine, but you just kind of degraded it a little. But we'll go with it.
Bob Simon (01:27):
It's okay. I don't know the difference. Huh? I don't like cigars or-
Charles Lew (01:30):
No?
Bob Simon (01:30):
No.
Charles Lew (01:30):
You look like a cigar guy.
Bob Simon (01:30):
Does it mean you drink whiskey, you like cigars? No, I hate it. Do you like cigars?
Genie Harrison (01:36):
No. No smoking either.
Bob Simon (01:37):
No. Never got into it.
Charles Lew (01:40):
I'm not a big cigar guy, but it seems to go well with whiskey.
Genie Harrison (01:43):
I did smoke and I did drink, so I've done those things.
Bob Simon (01:47):
We can talk about it though.
Genie Harrison (01:48):
I know. You can ask all the questions you want.
Bob Simon (01:51):
So we're just going to run down just the resume before we get to the first one. So I picked a WhistlePig 15, which we first hijacked from Jack Newton, who was a guest here, who was the founder, CEO, of Clio, which does legal tech. We're going to talk about Damages Genie. So he gifted us this bottle. And the reason I like this 15 for Genie is because she graduated high school at 15. A lot of people don't know that, from College Station. Graduated at 15, spent some time in Chicago, didn't really like it too much. Illinois or Chicago?
Genie Harrison (02:17):
Chicago.
Bob Simon (02:18):
Chicago. But she's literally won every consumer trial lawyer award you can. Just recently the Consumer Attorney of California Trial Lawyer of the Year, Consumer Advocate of the Year, which is the biggest one that you can. I've always looked at that one with much envy, which you just won.
Genie Harrison (02:34):
Thank you.
Bob Simon (02:35):
So a very big deal and changed a lot of how people are in the workplace, and we'll talk a lot about that today. But she was the president of our Consumer Attorneys of Los Angeles, which... What, only five women in 72 years, Genie? What's that?
Genie Harrison (02:50):
Right. Not many. That's what that is.
Bob Simon (02:54):
So her law firm now has, I mean, how many employees? They're all women right now.
Genie Harrison (02:59):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (02:59):
Four attorneys.
Genie Harrison (03:00):
Yep. Four attorneys, couple of paralegals and intake specialist. And my wonderful assistant, Karina.
Bob Simon (03:11):
Assistant, yet professional drinker here. So Karina, why don't you go ahead and take... We'll do a cheers with everybody. Thank you for coming on to the show. Welcome to Bourbon of Proof.
Karina (03:19):
Cheers.
Genie Harrison (03:19):
Thank you for having us.
Bob Simon (03:19):
We're going to learn about Genie Harrison from the beginning.
Genie Harrison (03:23):
All right. There's more than... You're going to regret that.
Bob Simon (03:25):
I love it.
Charles Lew (03:28):
Bob. You pick this 15 for everybody, and then you find a story to fit for it.
Bob Simon (03:33):
Do you know what's crazy? Is 15 has a weird sim-
(03:36):
It talks to a lot of people.
Charles Lew (03:37):
It does, yeah.
Bob Simon (03:39):
The reason he brought that up from Clio, he was 15 years in with Clio.
Genie Harrison (03:42):
Oh, really? Wow.
Bob Simon (03:44):
It seems like it's pretty weird.
Genie Harrison (03:44):
I wouldn't have guessed that.
Bob Simon (03:44):
Exactly.
Charles Lew (03:44):
We had this whole conversation.
Genie Harrison (03:44):
Yeah.
Charles Lew (03:49):
But you find a 15 for everybody. So I think you're just trying to-
Bob Simon (03:51):
Well, dependent. If she graduated at 18, I would've taken your Macallan 18. Maybe Karina would have been happier or sadder. I don't know. Well, so are you into the rye whiskeys? Or do you like this one?
Genie Harrison (04:02):
I like bourbons, yeah. The WhistlePig is one of my favorites.
Bob Simon (04:05):
Nice. So there we go. So we're one for one with Karina.
Genie Harrison (04:08):
I picked the right person.
Bob Simon (04:10):
So they say everything's bigger in Texas, so are your settlements and verdicts.
Genie Harrison (04:15):
Oh, thank you.
Bob Simon (04:15):
But the one thing that you, and you'll talk about this, you've actually promoted change, like the firefighter case, et cetera. I mean, so educate some our reviewers and listeners. Because a lot of people are like, "Oh, lawyers, you can make a lot of money doing it." But you've done change.
Genie Harrison (04:30):
Yeah. Change is what I'm into. And so all the way from back, years and years ago, when I worked to reform the Los Angeles City Fire Department, we've got actual systemic, substantial change. Day-to-day reforms that have been implemented that benefit hundreds, if not thousands of people ultimately, who will never know my name. And that's what makes me happy, is taken care of as many people as possible.
Charles Lew (05:02):
What was the fire department change? Or what was the result of that? Because I'm not familiar, again.
Genie Harrison (05:09):
Yeah, there was a lot of discrimination. It started, one of the big cases that I had was an African American firefighter who was fed dog food by his captain.
Charles Lew (05:23):
I recall this, of course. I just didn't know this was you.
Genie Harrison (05:24):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (05:24):
But now you know.
Genie Harrison (05:24):
Twas I.
Charles Lew (05:24):
Incredible. Yeah.
Genie Harrison (05:24):
I'm the culprit.
Bob Simon (05:28):
I'm always kind of nervous around Genie.
Charles Lew (05:30):
I'm getting nervous.
Genie Harrison (05:31):
I am too.
Bob Simon (05:34):
Very intimidating. Yeah.
Genie Harrison (05:34):
Makes me feel a little nervous.
Bob Simon (05:36):
You know what's funny? So I was at a kid's party the other day on the weekend. And one of the moms, she was telling me she's a lawyer and she worked for LA County. We were talking about such as the government deployment division. [inaudible 00:05:48]. "Well actually, I'm actually interviewing Genie Harrison." She's like, "Oh my God, you're interviewing Genie Harrison." She's like, "I'm not going to fan girl." She's like, "But I was on the other side of that." She's like, "When I saw this case," she's like, "What the fuck are you guys doing?" But she was a lawyer for LA County. One of the lawyer.
Genie Harrison (06:01):
One of the cases that I had. Yeah, yeah.
Bob Simon (06:04):
Crazy.
Genie Harrison (06:04):
I ended up doing a lot of fire department cases and a number of trials and there were quite a few reforms. Nothing's perfect, but we got the ball rolling. And I tell you though, I will never forget, I actually did a reenactment. It was a site inspection in the Tenny Pierce case. We went to fire station 5. And I said, "I want to see exactly where it happened and I want Tenny to reenact it for me and show me how it happened." And so we were at the fire station and the kitchen is small. It's not bigger-
Bob Simon (06:43):
It's a kitchenette.
Genie Harrison (06:45):
Yeah. It's not bigger than this area. And not that this is a small area, but I would've thought that at a fire station, the kitchen area is huge, and it was relatively small. And Tenny Pierce is a very large man, very large and very tall.
(07:01):
And when I realized that there were 10 very large men, maybe a dozen in that small room, and he showed me where he went to go pick up a especially prepared plate that they had left for him. That never happens that way. And he picked it up and then walked and asked to, "Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir." And they let him walk and go sit down at a table and eat spaghetti made with dog food. I said, "Everybody knew what the fuck was going on." And that is to the black man in the room. That is as offensive as it gets to me. Then he tried going back to work many times, three times. And people were messing with his PPEs, his personal protective equipment. And people didn't realize this was a very serious retaliation case after he reported that he felt targeted because of his race. So I just went on a little monologue about the case. You got me going on that.
Bob Simon (08:03):
No, but a lot of listeners and viewers like to hear this kind of stuff. That was station number 5.
Genie Harrison (08:06):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (08:07):
They're called something. I mean there's some... Not stations, but they're called something else.
Charles Lew (08:11):
Fire house.
Bob Simon (08:12):
Not house. There's like a code. I forget what it is, but whatever.
Genie Harrison (08:13):
I don't know.
Charles Lew (08:16):
I know the trucks above ladders, right?
Bob Simon (08:18):
Really? Full of information, this guy. Speaking of information, why don't you pour us one of yours then, tough guy.
Charles Lew (08:26):
Pour one? All right. Let's see. We'll start with this, Nikka Coffey Grain. Are you familiar with this?
Bob Simon (08:32):
Karina is kind of looking on, very unsure about this one.
Karina (08:36):
Hey, I got a drink in hand.
Charles Lew (08:37):
Yeah. We-
Bob Simon (08:40):
We don't sit around. We only have 45 minutes to an hour, Karina.
Charles Lew (08:42):
This is rapid consumption right here.
Bob Simon (08:44):
So Genie also does a show called, She Said That.
Charles Lew (08:46):
Okay.
Genie Harrison (08:46):
She Said What?
Bob Simon (08:46):
She Said What? That's what I said, what.
Genie Harrison (08:47):
She Said What? Show. That's what you said.
Bob Simon (08:50):
With Lucy Abir, that's what I said.
Genie Harrison (08:52):
Okay. But it's a new show, and they talk a lot about this kind of shit. How you pulled out Nika Coffey and now you can tell the story.
Charles Lew (09:00):
Okay. Well, it's an amazing Japanese whiskey.
Bob Simon (09:09):
But does it really have coffee in it?
Charles Lew (09:11):
Interesting question. So everybody who hears this thinks-
Bob Simon (09:14):
She says no.
Charles Lew (09:15):
And she would be correct. It does not have coffee. It's actually called coffey on account of very unique distills used to create the whiskey. So it is not a coffee product. There is no coffee used in the-
Bob Simon (09:28):
No, I'm going to be disappointed.
Charles Lew (09:29):
There's no filtering with coffee. There's nothing to do with coffee. But you will notice a very, very clean, very sharp, very distilled down flavors common to Japanese whiskeys, where the distiller will tell you, you should expect to taste this and this and this. And you will pretty much taste everything they say.
Bob Simon (09:49):
Yeah, I think if you tell them they're going to taste it, they'll eventually taste it.
Charles Lew (09:53):
Well, that too. There is some subconscious programming in there.
Bob Simon (10:04):
But let's get-
Charles Lew (10:04):
Incredible product.
Bob Simon (10:04):
Yours. So College Station.
Genie Harrison (10:07):
I was born in College Station.
Bob Simon (10:09):
So what was it like to get Texas, well, Chicago, which a big windy city, and then come to Los Angeles? I mean, that's completely different from College Station.
Genie Harrison (10:19):
So I was born in College Station and then my dad was going to Texas A & M because he was going to vet school. Then we moved to Nacogdoches, which is on the border of Texas and Louisiana. And that's where he had his small animal veterinary practice, in a small town in east Texas, with poor people. So it did not turn out to be the best business model.
Charles Lew (10:47):
What classifies small animal?
Bob Simon (10:49):
Like a ferret, a beaver, raccoon.
Genie Harrison (10:52):
Yeah, I-
Charles Lew (10:53):
That's typical pets, yeah.
Bob Simon (10:55):
Poodle. I mean, have you ever been to Louisiana?
Charles Lew (10:57):
I'd say, love Louisiana. I love it. I have friends. I visit the Duck Dynasty family there.
Genie Harrison (11:05):
Oh, you did?
Bob Simon (11:06):
Did you used to hop over from Texas to Louisiana to go...? We used to do the same thing in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, to go get alcohol and things. It's a lot easier.
Genie Harrison (11:17):
Yeah. Well, we hopped over and hung out with the Cajuns and went on the airboats, and did a lot of hunting. And so it was a very-
Bob Simon (11:25):
You've got to pull some old photos of you doing these things. You have to have them.
Genie Harrison (11:28):
Oh, I do. I do. Yeah.
Charles Lew (11:31):
Interesting. So small animals like cats and dogs or ferrets and beavers?
Bob Simon (11:34):
You're still going back to that?
Charles Lew (11:36):
I love animals. I'm a huge fan.
Bob Simon (11:39):
Muskrats. We have muskrats. Muskrats are creeps.
Charles Lew (11:42):
I'm still thinking that's not what you meant.
Genie Harrison (11:47):
Yeah, no, I mean for sure. But they also, he had to branch out into a larger and medium size animals as well.
Charles Lew (11:55):
Which I'm not even asking, because I'll be ridiculed by Bob. So yeah, we'll just leave it.
Genie Harrison (12:00):
Horses, all kinds of things.
Bob Simon (12:05):
Are you into, is it taxotomy? What's it taxidermy.
Genie Harrison (12:06):
Taxidermy.
Charles Lew (12:06):
Taxidermy.
Bob Simon (12:07):
Yeah. Do you ever think about skinning your opponents and-
Genie Harrison (12:11):
Well, that's different.
Bob Simon (12:12):
A few of them they are like, "These are fun." Like Harvey Weinstein stuff.
Genie Harrison (12:15):
Yeah. I'm not into taxidermy, but I absolutely view myself as hunting bad people, utilizing the civil justice system. I absolutely think of myself that way.
Bob Simon (12:30):
Because you had a lot of, I think for those, they would be called Jane Doe's? Is that how they would do it for the victims? But anyway, tell me, in bringing down an industry giant... Because we see it, in our law we talk about this all the time, and even in our trial lawyer circles, there's just rampant crooks and creeps and a lot of people just don't say shit.
Genie Harrison (12:48):
Oh, I can't wait to talk about that.
Bob Simon (12:48):
I mean, that's go. This is third whiskey in, but we can go. I'm just very interested in, because you could take down the industry giant in Hollywood, the unspeakable things. Everybody knew, right? Everybody had to know. The same thing we saw with Girardi and some of these other folks. They knew, people didn't say anything.
Genie Harrison (13:09):
Yeah, I think there're definitely people, obviously, who knew about Girardi. Right? All I knew about Tom Girardi was that people looked up to him. People were scared of him. And when I met him, he only ever talked to my boobs.
Bob Simon (13:29):
Yep. That's very Tom Girardi.
Genie Harrison (13:29):
That's it. That's the only way he looked at me, was like that.
Bob Simon (13:34):
He wouldn't acknowledge you. He would just look right at that. That was the first-
Genie Harrison (13:42):
No, literally. He would stand right in front of me and just talk to my boobs, and say, "Oh, hi, how are you?" And so I thought, "You know what? I don't need to have another conversation with this jerk."
Bob Simon (13:52):
I don't know if you knew this, but the one time I sued Tom Girardi for fees and that. I've been calling the crook for a long time. We had to go to arbitration and there was a prior client that had to be represented by councils in an entertainment case, and then Girardi, who was part of the fee dispute. But Gary Raskin was the person they represented.
Genie Harrison (14:07):
Really?
Bob Simon (14:08):
Yes.
Genie Harrison (14:08):
Oh, my gosh.
Bob Simon (14:11):
Not Girardi. But the stories we were telling, the way it was, we were covering these things. This is like 2008 or 2009. There was the most crooked shit ever. And I was like, "Oh, my God. Like this guy..."
Genie Harrison (14:18):
I got to call Gary and talk to him about that, because I haven't talked to him about that.
Bob Simon (14:21):
Oh, man. Since that arbitration, I think I've physically seen him maybe once or twice after. But we were laughing our ass off. He's just admitting to the most unethical shit ever, during an arbitration.
Genie Harrison (14:30):
Wow.
Bob Simon (14:31):
Yeah. Dialing it back.
Genie Harrison (14:33):
We're talking about my first husband.
Bob Simon (14:34):
First husband. Now she's married to the most wonderful man ever, James, who helped develop Damages Genie, which I do want to get to. Let's not forget about the legal text stuff with her.
Genie Harrison (14:41):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (14:41):
Continue.
Genie Harrison (14:43):
Yeah. But Gary's still a very good friend. We met in law school.
Charles Lew (14:47):
You got married post law school?
Genie Harrison (14:50):
Yeah.
(14:50):
Okay.
Charles Lew (14:50):
Yeah. And then-
Bob Simon (14:51):
We just did a show, you weren't on it, but it was a couple that met in law school and been married for a long time. I was like, "I actually know more lawyers that met in law school, got married, and it didn't work, than it did."
Charles Lew (14:59):
Yeah.
Genie Harrison (15:00):
Oh yeah. I mean, we were young. We figured ourselves out during that marriage and now he's with somebody who really suits him. And I'm with somebody who suits me. And we're still friends. That's the way it should be.
Bob Simon (15:17):
Well, I hope you and James are still friends.
Genie Harrison (15:20):
I love my husband.
Bob Simon (15:21):
Well, he is sitting offset, so I hope you're saying it.
Genie Harrison (15:25):
Yeah, exactly. I better not say otherwise.
Bob Simon (15:29):
You've probably shot a few guns in Texas though.
Genie Harrison (15:31):
I shot a lot.
Bob Simon (15:32):
Lot of guns.
Genie Harrison (15:33):
I hunted my own dinner when I was-
Bob Simon (15:35):
Really? Wow.
Genie Harrison (15:35):
Yeah, you probably did too, didn't you?
Charles Lew (15:37):
I wasn't a very efficient hunter, actually.
Bob Simon (15:40):
When you were-
Charles Lew (15:41):
I was-
Bob Simon (15:42):
What's it like growing up with Scotland?
Charles Lew (15:43):
Growing up in Scotland was, it was-
Bob Simon (15:45):
Was it rural, or what was it like?
Charles Lew (15:46):
Very outdoorsy. I think these-
Bob Simon (15:49):
A lot of picking up your kilt, these types of things. Bag pipes.
Charles Lew (15:52):
Yeah. Exposures under your kilt. But the most interesting thing about it, or one of the interesting things I tell people is, you really could be in a major metropolitan city, Glasgow or Edinburgh, and drive 30 miles and you will see nothing but sheep. So you really can go from a major city or castle at Edinburgh, the-
Bob Simon (16:12):
Well, Nacogdoches had to be like that too. Very rural.
Genie Harrison (16:14):
Yeah. Nacogdoches.
Bob Simon (16:14):
Tomatoes, tomato.
Genie Harrison (16:20):
Yeah, it was rural and it was in the middle of the Davy Crockett National Forest. And there were a lot of poisonous snakes.
Charles Lew (16:29):
Really? What kind of snakes?
Genie Harrison (16:31):
All kinds of them. Cotton mouse and rattlers and-
Bob Simon (16:35):
You're scaring the shit out of me.
Genie Harrison (16:36):
Copperheads.
Charles Lew (16:36):
We had no snakes in Scotland.
Bob Simon (16:40):
You have trouser snakes. That's it. That's all you have in Scotland.
Charles Lew (16:44):
It's awful, Bob. How's that whiskey?
Bob Simon (16:49):
Great.
Charles Lew (16:50):
You're good?
Bob Simon (16:52):
We're going to get through two more with you guys.
Charles Lew (16:53):
Yeah, you got to pick up the pace a little bit.
Bob Simon (16:55):
So we're going to ask some questions and you have to grade yours.
Charles Lew (16:58):
Yeah. I'm worried. What do you think of that one? Thumbs up or down?
Karina (16:58):
Thumbs up. That's an obvious.
Charles Lew (16:58):
Good.
Bob Simon (16:58):
Wow. Love it.
Charles Lew (16:58):
And you approve, obviously?
Genie Harrison (16:58):
Absolutely. Are you kidding?
Charles Lew (17:12):
So no, I've shot a lot, but I haven't hunted. I was actually a vegetarian for quite a few years. I was vegan for quite a few years, and I kind of went vegetarian because I'd started losing too much weight.
Genie Harrison (17:24):
I became vegetarian because I had to hunt my own dinner.
Bob Simon (17:27):
It's funny. So Grace [inaudible 00:17:28], in the last episode, where it was the same thing. He grew up as a hunter in Wyoming.
Charles Lew (17:33):
And he's vegetarian.
Bob Simon (17:34):
He's vegan now.
Charles Lew (17:35):
Wow.
Genie Harrison (17:35):
Oh, he's vegan now.
Bob Simon (17:36):
He's vegan.
Genie Harrison (17:36):
Wow. Yeah.
Bob Simon (17:38):
He and his wife are both vegan.
Genie Harrison (17:39):
I was vegetarian for a long time and then decided to start eating fish and then...
Charles Lew (17:45):
That's kind of where I'm at now.
Bob Simon (17:46):
So once you're off the air, just...
Genie Harrison (17:46):
Yeah.
Charles Lew (17:46):
My doctor's happy.
Bob Simon (17:46):
Your doctor's happy?
Charles Lew (17:51):
Yeah. My doctor's very impressed with me.
Bob Simon (17:53):
Well, you got to stop drinking booze. And he'll be like-
Charles Lew (17:56):
Well, he said to keep doing exactly what I'm doing.
Genie Harrison (17:58):
Oh, that's great.
Charles Lew (17:58):
And I had just drank the night before, so I was like, "Well, Dr. George..."
Bob Simon (18:05):
I actually, I mentor a few people here and there. I said, "Guys, when you get your blood test for your physical, don't drink the night before. Don't schedule that on Monday. Do it like a Wednesday when you're not drinking." I didn't take my own advice because I was just very curious to see what my blood panels would be the day after having a normal Friday night. So I had a Friday on a Monday, had the test on a Tuesday, and they were perfect. The same thing with your doctor. I was like, "Wait, can you check the liver panel again?" "Looks good to me." I was like, "All right."
Genie Harrison (18:30):
I'm good to go.
(18:30):
Yeah, I just wanted to know. I was very curious.
Charles Lew (18:32):
Yeah, no, I had the same, had the exact same results. So the doctor said, Keep doing what you're doing." So here we are, bro.
Bob Simon (18:42):
You have to be inundated right now with people that want you to take on their case?
Genie Harrison (18:47):
I develop a lot of potential business.
Bob Simon (18:50):
But you have to reach a point where you just can't take on that type of volume, even if they're good cases. What is the future going to be for Genie Harrison?
Genie Harrison (18:59):
Well, I refer out a lot of cases and so I really pick the ones that suit me and suit the firm. And so I'm very specific about my business model. And I think the future is a very interesting question because that's part of what I am thinking a lot about right now, is the future. So I really enjoy going after bad people. I fucking love it.
Bob Simon (19:31):
Hunting bad people.
Charles Lew (19:32):
I feel like this is a nice teen movie.
Genie Harrison (19:38):
I can't help it. It's the way I am.
Bob Simon (19:38):
Well, I don't know if you know this Charles, but I mean she actually goes and fights for our lobbyists and consumer groups up in Sacramento.
Charles Lew (19:44):
Oh, that's incredible. But that's a long conversation I'd love to have, but probably off camera.
Genie Harrison (19:49):
So I mean, I love... Thank you. And I love doing that.
Bob Simon (19:52):
But what type of cases are-?
Genie Harrison (19:52):
What else am I going to be doing?
Bob Simon (19:55):
What's your wheelhouse? First of all, what's your wheelhouse? And I want to know what you're going to be doing. What are your inspirations?
Genie Harrison (20:01):
So my wheelhouse is, I love representing, especially people who have been victimized by straight-up abuse of power. When a bad person has abused their power and taken advantage of someone. And so that really gets me going. And a lot of those cases are sexual harassment cases because, just because of my history. And I think oftentimes women who have been sexually harassed feel comfortable speaking to women about that. And I know that we understand, we in my firm, and we as women who've been through that, understand the experience in ways that, at least my clients tell me, that when they've spoken with male attorneys that they didn't feel like the male attorney understood. And so even for example, the case that where I represented Sandeep Rehal, who was Harvey Weinstein's personal assistant, she spoke with a number of male attorneys before she got to me and they didn't think she had a case.
Bob Simon (21:12):
Isn't it mind-blowing to you?
Genie Harrison (21:14):
Kind of, yes. Kind of, no. Because she wasn't able to articulate everything that happened to her, because of the trauma. She couldn't say it out loud and it took years before, even with me, she could access the entire story and tell the entire story. And that's a consequence of the trauma.
Charles Lew (21:35):
Yeah. Were you just more patient than those male attorneys had been and sitting and listening through her process and her explanation, her articulation?
Genie Harrison (21:45):
Maybe, but also I could just tell.
Charles Lew (21:47):
Okay. So you knew there was something there, regardless of her ability to articulate it.
Bob Simon (21:52):
And do you feel like...? So we'll talk about Damages Genie, and what you and James kind of built together in the app. Do you think it helps victims be able to tell their stories?
Genie Harrison (22:03):
For sure.
Bob Simon (22:03):
Really?
Genie Harrison (22:03):
For sure it does.
Bob Simon (22:03):
Can you just walk us through, for people that are not familiar with the product, and kind of helps use.
Genie Harrison (22:08):
Yeah. So Damages Genie is-
Bob Simon (22:10):
Beautiful name by the way.
Genie Harrison (22:11):
That's cool.
Charles Lew (22:11):
It's so good.
Genie Harrison (22:11):
Thank you.
Charles Lew (22:11):
It's so good.
Genie Harrison (22:16):
So it's an app for our clients to use to input what they're going through, their emotional distress on a daily basis, from the trauma that they've been through, whether it's a car accident or whether it's sexual-
Bob Simon (22:31):
Car crash.
Genie Harrison (22:31):
Car crash. I'm going to edit that. Whether it's a car crash.
Charles Lew (22:36):
Wait, we can't say accident?
Bob Simon (22:38):
Bro, in our firm, if you say accident, it's like immediate reprimand. Not a car accident.
Genie Harrison (22:45):
I just got written up.
Charles Lew (22:45):
I didn't know. I didn't know this either.
Bob Simon (22:45):
Oh, man. Actually, Grayson would be very upset.
Genie Harrison (22:48):
I'm happy that I took the hit for you.
Charles Lew (22:50):
Okay, I'm glad you did also.
Bob Simon (22:51):
There are no accidents. Crash.
Genie Harrison (22:53):
Car crash. So whether it's a car crash or whether it's sexual harassment or wrongful termination, the clients go through a lot. They have really deep experiences, usually on a daily, as a result of it. And so this is an app that helps them input the information about what they're going through. And it helps them organize the information in a way that we, as trial lawyers, can really use that all the way from the intake to the trial. And I created it from the special verdict form backwards, basically. From trial backwards to the intake, to make sure that the client is inputting information that we can use, as their attorney, to help tell their story.
(23:41):
Because clients don't enjoy, I think a lot of us don't enjoy, many of us don't enjoy journaling. We tell clients all the time, write everything down, tell us what's going on. And it's very difficult, I think, for people to do, especially trauma victims, because you're asking them to confront what they're going through and write it down, which is a very confrontational and personally revealing experience for people. And instead now they can use their phone, and they can just input what's going on.
Bob Simon (24:11):
And so yours is also shielded by attorney-client privilege?
Genie Harrison (24:14):
Attorney-client privilege.
Bob Simon (24:14):
Unless you choose to waive it.
Genie Harrison (24:18):
Right. There's a lot on the attorney backend because there's a website and it organizes the client's information as it comes in, per case for the attorney. And of course it's all protected and all of that kind of stuff. So you, Bob, would have your own account. Your own firm's account, and you would set up all your cases by your client name, and then your client would have a login and they would download the app and input the information.
Bob Simon (24:46):
Photographs, pictures, all kind of storytelling.
Genie Harrison (24:48):
It's all storytelling and it's day-based and word searchable, and all of that kind of stuff for the attorney. So it's incredibly useful.
Bob Simon (24:56):
And you sync it with your case management platform to upload [inaudible 00:25:01]. Beautiful.
Genie Harrison (25:01):
Exactly. So I was just looking at some entries from a new client earlier today, and my clients really appreciate it, because I'm able to tell them I have an app that's going to... Oh, Karina is like, "Don't forget me."
Bob Simon (25:15):
I like this one a lot, Karina. I don't think you ever had this. I don't know what it is, but this is...
Charles Lew (25:19):
It's probably therapeutic. I'm sure that therapeutic-
Genie Harrison (25:21):
It is. And clients often tell me that they feel like this is them taking care of themselves, that it's important to them to interact with it on a daily basis. We send push notifications every day, even to watches and that sort of thing. So it says, "How are you feeling? How doing today?" So it's-
Charles Lew (25:39):
Is that automated too?
Genie Harrison (25:40):
It's all automated.
Charles Lew (25:42):
How many firms employ this technology now?
Genie Harrison (25:44):
So right now I think there may be three firms that are using it.
Bob Simon (25:48):
She hasn't even... Because she's so busy being a traveler or an advocate. We've had this discussion, I was like, "You got to get this out to the market place."
Genie Harrison (25:53):
I don't go out and sell it. I've got other things to do. And so it's really, I'm passionate about it because I think that that is an area where we can do a much better job as attorneys. And then also, it lets our clients know that we actually care about what they're going through on a daily basis.
Bob Simon (26:18):
The number one complaint with clients and their attorneys are communication. They're not talking, they're not getting back to me, I haven't heard from them in weeks or days. It's not automated, "How you feeling today? What are you going through?" And they could just do those prompts and push it.
Genie Harrison (26:28):
Yeah, exactly.
Bob Simon (26:29):
That's cool stuff.
Genie Harrison (26:29):
They can upload photos, all kinds of things. They can dictate. They can-
Charles Lew (26:35):
Is there an immediate chat, or some kind of immediate communication? Or is that still-
Genie Harrison (26:40):
No, it's not a chat function. No.
Bob Simon (26:42):
So yeah, I guess because you wouldn't want to become a witness if you're chatting with them. If you do want it to be discoverable at some point, then you become a witness if you're chatting with them.
Charles Lew (26:51):
If you chatted, for example with you, that would still be attorney-client privilege.
Bob Simon (26:55):
It would be. But if you want to use it as a damage, if you want to produce the journal, say it's like, this stuff is so good and you have the permission of the client, and you produce it and waive the attorney-client privilege, and use it as a storytelling.
Charles Lew (27:05):
I see what you're saying.
Bob Simon (27:05):
But you could choose not to.
Charles Lew (27:05):
Sure.
Genie Harrison (27:06):
You can also just use the information and respond to discovery requests and help create a chronology, and help prep your client for depo.
Charles Lew (27:19):
Okay. I'm just curious, because we found ourselves in a kind of interesting situation in the last couple of years where, and I'm sure you've found this and I know Bob also, but where you're almost acting as a therapist and a counselor. And again, I'm sure you've obviously got these prodigious massive results and events. But I'm curious, does that give the client an extra ability or the extra opportunity to communicate with you rather than just the standard email and phone? Or just, it doesn't? So it's just a therapy of communicating?
Bob Simon (27:54):
But it's a file buying platform too, because there's a way to SMS your clients too and have the chat feature.
Charles Lew (28:00):
Through that?
Genie Harrison (28:01):
Yeah, well through a different case management platform. But what happens is, the entries that the client makes go into my case management system, and I'm able to see everything that they're inputting on a daily basis. And then for example, just before I came over here, I emailed a client who would input some information, and communicated with them about that and said we're going to have a follow-up call. So I think it's incredibly helpful. And there are things, this one stands out, this is a great example, is that a client who had been wrongfully terminated in retaliation for some of her whistle-blowing, input a notation about going to the mailbox and picking up her mortgage statement.
(28:51):
And it was the first mortgage statement that she received after she had been fired. And she couldn't function after that because she didn't know how she was going to be able to pay her mortgage. And then she talked about not being able to sleep that night and the crashing weight of her reality financially that was represented by receiving that mortgage statement for the month. Now that is something that our clients go through on a monthly basis, but we don't hear about it.
Charles Lew (29:26):
And they probably forget about a year or two later for trial, when you're having that prep. Wow, this is good.
Genie Harrison (29:31):
Bob, after a car crash, or-
Bob Simon (29:34):
Thank you for saying that.
Genie Harrison (29:35):
... or termination. What happens is, our clients, it's pick yourself up by the bootstraps and move on as quickly as you can. That's what people try to do. Sure. And so a lot of this is water under the bridge, because they just suppress it or let it go or whatever. And these details, can you imagine being able to tell a jury about those details?
Bob Simon (29:58):
So I mean your details are all, you don't have, we have surgeries and stuff that we do in spine surgeries. Yours are all emotional. Damages. So this storytelling is paramount to your success.
Genie Harrison (30:09):
Exactly.
Bob Simon (30:14):
So this bourbon, before we get any further, so the reason I like Horse Soldier, which I want Karina's opinion on, because I know you've never had this before because it's a little obscure. This is a female distiller, Elizabeth Pritchard. So there's a lot of female that are coming into this space, and he has a good last one for everybody, but some of the best noses in the industry, and she formulated this. But it came from a lot of veterans that were Green Berets after 9/11, that they called them horse soldiers, onto Afghanistan. And they created this bourbon. So I don't know if you've ever had this one?
Charles Lew (30:42):
I haven't. I'm excited, yeah.
Bob Simon (30:42):
Cheers. Salute.
Karina (30:42):
Cheers.
Genie Harrison (30:48):
And I'm impressed with the bottle.
Bob Simon (30:50):
It's very cool. We have many different ones. She sent me a bunch of these. We just made friends on Instagram randomly.
Charles Lew (30:55):
It's very good.
Bob Simon (30:57):
That's really nice.
Karina (30:58):
The nose is a little deceiving, but it's really very later.
Bob Simon (31:01):
It's very good.
Karina (31:02):
It's great.
Charles Lew (31:02):
And so you're in Sacramento. Can I ask you your opinion on non-attorney ownership of-?
Bob Simon (31:07):
Oh my God, how long do you have?
Charles Lew (31:09):
Can you give me the one minute? I'm very just very curious about this.
Bob Simon (31:12):
She was in the sandbox. She's the one that was there for this whole conversation.
Charles Lew (31:16):
But I know the abbreviated version. But I'm just interested from, we have a private equity fund, so we're starting to see so much activity under finance, Wall Street, looking at this, and they're obviously saying these are incredible, high EBITDA, high margin businesses. So I see this as, the practice of law was the last bastion, the last holdout against Wall Street. And I think it's falling. I think the walls are falling. I'd just love to hear your opinion.
Genie Harrison (31:40):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (31:42):
I'm going to wind this for another 45 minutes.
Genie Harrison (31:44):
Here we go.
Charles Lew (31:44):
Just one minute. Yeah.
Genie Harrison (31:45):
God, there's not one minute. There's too many minutes, because you're-
(31:52):
Very interesting, because-
Bob Simon (31:54):
I didn't even tell you that. Look at this, you're just on top of things.
Genie Harrison (31:57):
Wow. Because of where you sit. Right? And yeah, it's definitely one of the last bastions. Yes, as well, practicing law and doing any victim oriented work, it brings a lot of responsibility to take care of the human being. Because these people are crushed, they are devastated as human beings. And so you can tell the amount of effort that I have put into thinking about, and creating tech to focus on the harm to the individual and allow me to do a better, more efficient job as an actual attorney and counselor. To be able to leverage what has gone on with my client and tell that story. Do I think that a person who is not a lawyer-
Bob Simon (33:01):
Or a robot.
Genie Harrison (33:03):
I mean that's a whole different level to talk about.
Charles Lew (33:05):
That's a [inaudible 00:33:06] combo.
Genie Harrison (33:06):
A person who is not a lawyer is capable of being empathetic and taking care of people. In theory, yes, they are. However, the people and entities who are going to have real lawyers will be the people in power, the abusers, the corporations, the employers, they are going to have real lawyers. They are not going to have paraprofessionals representing them. And so they will have their real lawyers going against the paraprofessionals, who in this scenario, who-
Bob Simon (33:44):
Or scenario.
Genie Harrison (33:44):
Or scenario.
Bob Simon (33:44):
But nobody says that.
Genie Harrison (33:45):
Scenario, scenario. Right?
Charles Lew (33:48):
I'm glad you lightened that by the way, because you're staring right through me, and I'm horrified.
Bob Simon (33:54):
Totally. This is why she's such a... If I remember a trial from a few years ago...
Charles Lew (33:58):
Death stare. Yeah.
Bob Simon (33:59):
But this is the-
Genie Harrison (34:01):
Well, I didn't mean to, I'm just saying.
Charles Lew (34:02):
No, I'm kidding. You're just, you're so focused and passionate. You're so passionate. It's incredible. I think this is-
Genie Harrison (34:07):
I'm a passionate person.
Bob Simon (34:08):
But this is the point. Can a paraprofessional, can a corporation, or a robot, can they do this?
Charles Lew (34:13):
Emulate that? No chance. No chance. Not with your passion.
Bob Simon (34:18):
But the same thing, the people that are behind the corporations and the people that put these people in power, they're the same persons that want ownership in the law firm on the other side.
Charles Lew (34:24):
But that's just strictly economically based.
Genie Harrison (34:28):
Exactly.
Charles Lew (34:29):
They're purely saying these are high margin businesses and $100 will have a ROI of X dollars. So here's money. But to hear you speak, obviously there's no comparison. You can't emulate that.
Bob Simon (34:44):
You can never, I mean you have the right to trial by jury. And I think that has to always be paramount.
Genie Harrison (34:46):
My concern is for the human beings, and when they see a commercial on TV that says, "Why hire a lawyer at 40% or a third when you can have a paraprofessional at 15%," or whatever it is, then it's going to sound like a good idea to a lot of people. But in reality, what's going to happen is that their representation is going to be matched up against real lawyers. Every time. And those human beings are going to be at a disadvantage, and the responsibility that should be imposed on the corporation or the employer is going to be lessened as a result of having someone who doesn't have the same capacity as a lawyer on the other side. So I think about it in terms of the mismatch of power.
Charles Lew (35:45):
But it doesn't necessarily have to be a mismatch.
Bob Simon (35:46):
Hey, pull out this last one, man.
Charles Lew (35:51):
Does it? I mean you could have three-
Bob Simon (35:51):
Come on.
Genie Harrison (35:51):
I think it will be a mismatch.
Charles Lew (35:51):
The natural result will be a mismatch because-
Genie Harrison (35:54):
Corporations and employers are still going to hire lawyers-
Bob Simon (35:57):
And if you're working for a lower percentage you can't afford to put too many thoughts in their case, because it doesn't-
Genie Harrison (36:01):
They're still going to hire lawyers to represent them. So when you know Sandy Bra Hall hires a paraprofessional to go up against Harvey Weinstein, the Weinstein company, the Weinstein company and Harvey Weinstein are still going to be represented by lawyers with their full slate of creativity.
Bob Simon (36:18):
This is why lawyers now have to strongly embrace technology, in my opinion.
Charles Lew (36:22):
I agree.
Bob Simon (36:23):
To leverage and become more efficient. So again, you didn't know these cool facts. And so Genie was one of the first lawyers to use, might have been the first lawyer, to have iPads for juries. Their jurors had iPads.
Charles Lew (36:35):
That's incredible.
Bob Simon (36:36):
This was Judge Linfields department. I mean this was before the pandemic. This wasn't even in her writeup notes. These were just things I...
(36:42):
How I know about these things, I have a lot of drinks.
Genie Harrison (36:46):
I don't even know, maybe like eight years ago or something like that.
Bob Simon (36:50):
This is longer than... People feel like this should be phenomenon. Tell us about this, and let's build it up, because I love this story.
Charles Lew (37:00):
Okay. Nobody's done it a lot since then.
Genie Harrison (37:01):
I know. They should though.
Bob Simon (37:04):
They should do it. Hopefully they've evolved.
Charles Lew (37:04):
So this is the Macallan edition no. 4. Couple interesting things about this whiskey, edition no. 4. They did six editions based on the six pillars of the Macallan distillery, the new distillery. And Christine Campbell is the first ever female master whiskey maker for the Macallan, which is arguably the top scotch in the world. And she is now the esteemed master whiskey maker. So I pulled this out in homage to you and it's an incredible whiskey. And I like to not tell people notes and what they should expect. Bob And I like this little trick.
Bob Simon (37:48):
I never get this right.
Charles Lew (37:50):
Where we want to hear your notes and what you get from the particular expression rather.
Karina (37:55):
I still have emails to do.
Charles Lew (37:58):
I think your emails will be improved. Your emails will be much more creative after this.
Bob Simon (38:03):
Just read it a few times over.
Charles Lew (38:05):
Yeah, they'll be very creative.
Genie Harrison (38:06):
The label goes with her necklace too.
Bob Simon (38:07):
Look at that.
Charles Lew (38:08):
Anyway. Incredible female.
Bob Simon (38:11):
Did you ever notice that justice is also just ice?
Charles Lew (38:13):
Just eyes. Yeah.
Bob Simon (38:14):
I usually do ice.
Charles Lew (38:16):
It's there a meaning, a secondary meaning?
Bob Simon (38:17):
No, we're now the sponsor of the LA Kings. When you just ice it.
Charles Lew (38:21):
Just ice.
Genie Harrison (38:22):
That's right.
Charles Lew (38:24):
You're just a marketing animal.
Genie Harrison (38:27):
He is, isn't he?
Bob Simon (38:27):
Literally, you sip enough spears. You get some really creative ideas.
Charles Lew (38:32):
Yeah. I'm really excited for you to try this, proxy drinker.
Genie Harrison (38:39):
Oh wait, we didn't already have this? I thought we already had this.
Bob Simon (38:43):
This is the last drink. We're going to wrap it up after this, because I've never... Oh, my God. This smells totally different from what we've been doing.
Charles Lew (38:48):
So we're not going to influence anybody. We're just going to ask your opinion, your nose, your palate, what you're getting, what you feel, your emotions?
Karina (38:57):
It's very stringent.
Bob Simon (38:59):
Why don't I know that word?
Karina (39:00):
Has got some really strong floral notes.
Charles Lew (39:00):
Okay.
Karina (39:00):
Cherry.
Charles Lew (39:03):
That's it. That's good.
Bob Simon (39:06):
Vanilla and oak, right?
Charles Lew (39:08):
Vanilla and oak, you always say that.
Karina (39:09):
Now you're just pulling.
Charles Lew (39:09):
And caramel.
Bob Simon (39:13):
You're right 90% of the time with those things.
Charles Lew (39:14):
90%.
Karina (39:14):
That is super woodsy. A little peat note in there.
Charles Lew (39:14):
Okay.
Karina (39:18):
Wow. I love this. I'm glad she's on, you should be a regular.
Genie Harrison (39:21):
That's what I was thinking.
Bob Simon (39:22):
A co-host on the show.
Karina (39:23):
I have a good nose.
Bob Simon (39:25):
This is lovely. It's incredible.
Karina (39:27):
This is different. It's very different from all those, but this is great.
Charles Lew (39:33):
What do you think? What's your thoughts?
Bob Simon (39:35):
Wood chips.
Charles Lew (39:38):
But that was yesterday.
Bob Simon (39:39):
That was a callback.
Charles Lew (39:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bob Simon (39:41):
I know how it feels in my belly. I like things that make me feel good.
Charles Lew (39:46):
Well, you're going to feel this. You're going to be happy. You're going to have a happy belly, I feel.
Bob Simon (39:51):
Yeah, it's very hard to have me not have happy belly.
Charles Lew (39:52):
You seem fairly happy. Yeah.
Genie Harrison (39:55):
You know what makes me feel good in my tummy is churro cookies.
Bob Simon (39:59):
Yeah. We should do a churro? This is very good.
Karina (40:01):
Should always pair chocolate.
Charles Lew (40:03):
We actually had one yesterday with the Harmony collection, which is a rich cacao by the roka family.
Bob Simon (40:10):
I thought Rich Cacao was a person. Richie. It's actually true.
Charles Lew (40:15):
Well, I think there is a rich cacao.
Bob Simon (40:18):
Rich Cacao from Macau. Yes. I thought this was where [inaudible 00:40:20], whatever.
Charles Lew (40:20):
But that pairs very well with chocolate. It was designed to pair with chocolate.
Bob Simon (40:24):
So Genie, we're going to wrap this up and I just want you to finish with-
Genie Harrison (40:27):
So soon.
Bob Simon (40:27):
I know we, but we were talking for almost an hour.
Charles Lew (40:30):
Have we really?
Bob Simon (40:31):
Yes. It's at least, we're about 50 minutes.
Charles Lew (40:33):
You're just intriguing-
Genie Harrison (40:33):
Can we do a two-parter?
Bob Simon (40:35):
We 100% can bring you back.
Charles Lew (40:35):
I would love that.
Bob Simon (40:40):
I'll do a liver panel and we'll test it. Make sure that we can come back for a second episode. Well, Karina will.
Karina (40:46):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (40:46):
You'll bring some spirits.
Karina (40:47):
If I can just interject real quick, the difference between Genie, what I've noticed, that makes her stand apart from everybody else is that there's this genuine authentic approach to her. So when you're speaking to her, you feel heard.
Bob Simon (41:02):
You feel it.
Charles Lew (41:02):
I agree.
Karina (41:03):
But most importantly, you feel safe. With your story and your heart-
Bob Simon (41:12):
So I told a lot of young lawyers that want to start their own firm, particularly women, I said, "Talk to Genie Harrison. If you want to marry passion with what you want to do, talk to somebody that's passionate and has a profession about it." Because I think if we all do that, you'd be happy people.
Charles Lew (41:23):
Yeah, I agree.
Genie Harrison (41:24):
Thank you.
Charles Lew (41:25):
I see the safety. I could absolutely see a client meeting with you and feeling entirely safe.
Bob Simon (41:32):
And then you will slit somebody's throat.
Charles Lew (41:38):
Well, that's what I was about to say.
Bob Simon (41:38):
We got to get you playing Dungeons and Dragons, Genie. I feel like she would.
Charles Lew (41:41):
Yeah. I think, conversely, sitting on the other side of the table, I would want to take a lot of breaks. Look at the time.
Bob Simon (41:48):
When you're taking party depos. How often are they like, "We got to take a break."?
Charles Lew (41:52):
Yeah, break all the time.
Genie Harrison (41:52):
There are lots of breaks.
Charles Lew (41:53):
I would take lots of breaks.
Genie Harrison (41:56):
And you know what? I'm an aggressive person so there are times when I play it down because I'm trying to get people to a certain place. But I am mostly just aggressive.
Bob Simon (42:12):
There is what you want.
Genie Harrison (42:14):
It's just my personality.
Charles Lew (42:17):
I'm not surprised.
Genie Harrison (42:17):
I'm not everybody's cup of tea.
Charles Lew (42:19):
Oh yeah, I could say that.
Genie Harrison (42:19):
I'm not.
Bob Simon (42:21):
The only tea I drink is sweet tea.
Charles Lew (42:23):
Yeah. You'd be like spiked tea. Like angry spiked tea. Yeah.
Bob Simon (42:29):
Intimidating spiked tea.
Karina (42:31):
With a smile.
Charles Lew (42:31):
With a smile, yeah.
Bob Simon (42:33):
You're always smiling, that's why I liked you. I mean she's a good person.
Charles Lew (42:38):
I feel the good energy. Yeah. Absolutely.
Genie Harrison (42:41):
Thank you. I'm definitely a mama bear. I definitely want to protect my clients and I get to be really close with my clients and so that I feel like I make a difference in their lives. And usually we remain friends. Karina is a client from long ago and I stalked her, cyber stalked her. And then said, "Please come work with me."
Bob Simon (43:13):
So we're going to end it. How do people reach the Genie Harrison? What's your best? Is it a text, is an email, is it a hashtag? Is it a QR?
Genie Harrison (43:22):
Yeah, we do QR. Email is easy. So it's genie@genieharrisonlaw. It's G-E-N-I-E, like the garage door opener.
Charles Lew (43:30):
Are you a big social media person?
Genie Harrison (43:31):
Yeah, I'm on social media too, genie.harrison.
Charles Lew (43:35):
Instagram, Twitter. Okay.
Genie Harrison (43:36):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (43:38):
That's the new world. So thank you for coming on. And we have to ask, so since you didn't drink, we have to ask Karina.
Charles Lew (43:43):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (43:44):
What is your Bourbon of Proof? What was your favorite that you had, now only you're a bourbon and whiskey, rye girl? And then we had some very interesting-
Karina (43:51):
They were all beautiful up. But I have to say this one is...
Charles Lew (43:55):
Wow. Nice. It's a win, it's a winner. This is really nice. Shout out to our female master distiller, master whiskey maker over at Macallan. This is excellent.
Bob Simon (44:05):
I'm not a Macallan person, I'm not a... It's fine.
Karina (44:07):
Neither am I, but this is.
Charles Lew (44:09):
It's fine's. That was so dismissive.
Bob Simon (44:16):
I'm going to have you do a taste test between Jim Beam and Macallan.
Charles Lew (44:18):
I've done lots of taste tests. I will pass it.
Bob Simon (44:20):
He gets it every time, that's why it's a joke.
Charles Lew (44:22):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (44:23):
Because I like to put people on the spot. People are like, "I know my whiskies."
Charles Lew (44:26):
Remind me to tell you after, my funny taste testing story. It's so great.
Bob Simon (44:32):
Is this the Jim Stock story?
Charles Lew (44:33):
No, it's another one. It's the greatest taste testing whiskey story of all time.
Bob Simon (44:37):
With that, Genie, thank you for coming over.
Charles Lew (44:39):
Thank you.
Genie Harrison (44:40):
Thank you. Thank you so much for having us.
Bob Simon (44:42):
We should actually have you do a... You should be a co-host once and just put people in check.
Genie Harrison (44:49):
I would love to be a co-host. I love asking questions.
Charles Lew (44:49):
Just terrify people.
Bob Simon (44:50):
Yeah. I think if we did have [inaudible 00:44:54] on a show, I think he would behave if Genie...
Charles Lew (44:57):
I think he would behave. Yeah. Set him right.
Bob Simon (45:00):
I don't know. I think he might fall asleep. He might be like, gets so scared that he falls asleep.
Genie Harrison (45:05):
Well, anytime.
Bob Simon (45:06):
I don't know.
Genie Harrison (45:07):
No, I think he'd behave.
Bob Simon (45:08):
Yeah. Well, thank you, Genie. We appreciate it.
Genie Harrison (45:12):
Thank you for having us.
Bob Simon (45:12):
Cheers. Thank you.
