William Reid Cumming

As VP of Finance & Administration at a local Senior Care construction company, my role was to ensure that we also had good legal representation. As an inudstry, over 30% of contracts end up in a legal dispute of one form or another. Having worked with several other legal counsels, there was very li...ttle out-of-the-box thinking when problems came up. Mr. Cumming is a also personal friend of mine and I've hesitated for a while to mix business with friendship. However, when we had a particularly difficult case where a middle-man in a purchasing transaction went out of business leaving both us and the manufacturer with a massive problem, I knew that I had to talk to Bill. To make matters worse, our purchasing team failed to timely secure some lien releases. Onthe other hand, the manufacturer's joint-check request delivery was delayed and when received it was too late. Payment had been made and the vendor out of business. To us the construction company, we faced a potential loss of over $100,000 on a project that already had thin margins. After reviewing all the facts, Bill made us aware of the fact that we were in a no-win position. Then he asked a strange question (at least from a Lawyer's standpoint). "Would you buy any further products from this manufacturer?" The answer was an enphatic "yes." Then Bill suggested leveraging future purchases in exchange for a significant discount. What's more, he suggested that it would not be in our interest that he, our legal counsel, be the one negotiating this deal. He felt that we had a greater chance of success by getting all the lawyers out of the way. We worked on a strategy and on the appointed day, I met with the manufacturer's legal team. As the meeting progressed, I realized that Bill's strategy was the only one that made sense. I shocked the other team by boldly outlining the proposed settlement (even acknowledging that I was in no bargaining position) and made them an offer that only the manufacturer top decision maker could accept. This forced then to go back and outline the terms of the proposal. To my surprise and relief, 2 days later, the response came back positive and the deal was approved as proposed. To my company, we only paid out 33% of the initial exposure and we gained a superb relationship being able to buy materials at a deeper discount directly from the manufacturer. We quickly moved to designate him as our lead legal counsel from that day forward. That was the 1st case that Bill Cumming handled. I've got a dozen more like that that clearly illustrate the fact that Bill is first and foremost a problem solver who uses the law when all else fails. We've enjoyed a tremendously rewarding relationship with him until recently when the company headquarters was relocated to the East Coast. Compared to all the attorneys I've interacted with, Bill is by far the most unique attorney primarily because of his out-of-the-box thinking that bring a new perspective to the discussion table. What's more, a few times we had cases that were outside of his area of expertise and he immediately let us know about that and helped out bt selecting other attorneys from his vast network. His feedback and follow up were without reproach. He made my job a lot easier to manage on the Risk Management side of things.