Wilbur McCoy Otto

As a Faculty member of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, revised Department of Army Regulations in 1965, resulting in opening U.S. Military Academy to femaile candidates.

Reported by NY Times to have been the first Trial Lawyer in the United States to utilize video-taped testimony in a civil jury trial in State Court (1969-70) and in Federal Court (1971).

Tried to verdict 275 cases (winning 260), and supervised the handling of (ca) 10,000 cases

Pioneer in U.S. Captive Insurance Industry, including establishing and managing both U.S. and Off-shore entities, for more than 35 years, including the University of Pittsburgh and Its Medical Center, together with multiple other programs for major academic health centers and community hospitals.

Serving as counsel to various healthcare institutional Professional Health Care Provider Peer Review Committees.  Also married to Nancy, 4 children, all lawyers, and 9 grandchildren, and play tennis.

SOME PRECEPTS FOR TRIAL LAWYERS:

• If you don't believe you can - you can't!
• If you don't believe in yourself and your case, you will fool no one.
• Believe in both your case, and the Cause of your case.
• Only if you believe, can it be so.
• Dream + Believe + Act = Reality.
• Knowledge, objectivity, repect for the rule of probability, skill and enthusiasm combine to produce believability, sincerity, credibility, persuasion, and a successful result.
• Be creative, innovative, energizing and emotionally involved in your work, and you will both affect and infect all around you.
• Persistently positive thinking together with consistently directed and skillful work in pursuit of a good purpose will make every difficulty a challenging opportunity; and will transform the unlikely (if not the impossible) into reality.
• Your big case is not a catastrophe - it is a challenging opportunity masquerading as a very difficult situation.
• Great success and huge disasters are often the same impostor in disguise.
• When the going gets tough - the tough get going!
•  Trial can be likened to war, and whether warrior or trial lawyer, Victory requires Courage, Conviction, Confidence and Control of the battlefield.
• "If someone brings a lawsuit against you...do your best to settle the dispute with him before you get to Court." (Lk. 12:18)
• "If two powerful men are opposing each other in Court, casting lots can settle the issue." (Prov. 18"18)
• "And you experts in the law, woe to you, (when) you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them." (Lk. 11:16)
• "Woe unto you lawyers (when) you take away the key to knowledge."  (Lk. 11:52)
• "Do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."  (Lk. 12:11, 12)
• "But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict."  (Lk. 21:14,15)
• "The first man to speak in Court always seems right, until his opponent begins to question him." (:17)
• "If you tell lies in Court you will be punished - there will be no escape."  (Prov. 19:5)

                                                                                                           Wilbur McCoy "Joe" Otto