Business-transaction and securities law attorney John Robertson doesn't have a trove of Boston Legal-type war stories, the kind some litigators and criminal defense lawyers like to share.

Although there was the time a guy brought a six pack of Pepsi and a gun to a meeting.

"We were trying to close a deal for Republic Waste in a little town called Anderson, California," said Robertson, managing partner at Hartzog Conger Cason and Neville since 2002. "We had to postpone the actual closing date three or four times. "

His client was buying a company from a family, and finally everything was coming together.

"The son is probably a 30-year-old guy," said Robertson. "He's Mr. Outdoors, kind of this Paul Bunyan guy. He comes into the middle of this conference room in this lawyer's office, and he's got a six-pack of Pepsi and a gun. He makes a big deal about plunking them both down on the table. "

Robertson just had to ask the "what gives" question.

"He said, 'Well, you guys have been delaying this closing for too long. I'm going to sit here and I'm going to drink my six-pack of Pepsi. If it's gone before the money gets here, the gun's for you and your client. "

Luckily, Robertson said, the other lawyer didn't find that particularly funny, and helped ease the tension.

"They took the gun away and the money actually did show up later that day," he said. "We got the deal closed."

The 'volunteer'

That anomaly aside, most of Robertson's 22 years of practice have been devoted to meeting clients' business needs, from acquisitions and mergers to making sure all the Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed in public-company transactions under the watchful eye of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Asked what he enjoys most about the type of law he practices, he says it's dealing with clients, getting to know them as individuals and often forming long-term relationships.

"It's not like a litigator, where you're always fighting the battle," Robertson said. "Sometimes, when you're doing transactional work, both sides are trying to get to the same point. "

He estimates that being managing partner, the 35-lawyer firm's first, takes up 15 percent to 20 percent of his time.
"Somehow, I got 'volunteered' to do it," said Robertson, who lives in the Deer Creek area. "So far, I've been willing to do it, and they've been willing to put up with me. "

Robertson, 46, has been with Hartzog Conger since he was graduated, first in his class, from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1986, having worked at the firm while in school, as well.

Robertson said he was attracted by the size of the firm, then about 15 attorneys strong.

"We have enough attorneys to do the kind of sophisticated, big-dollar kinds of work that are challenging," he said.

"But we're not so big that we have a lot of rules. We're a little more informal, I think, than a lot of places."

Robertson said Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor, then a partner with the firm and in charge of recruiting, was probably the single biggest reason he joined Hartzog Conger.

"She was so involved with us and spent a lot of time convincing us that this would be a good place to work, family-friendly and all that kind of stuff, which it turned out to be," he said. "It's been a great decision."

Robertson said he also enjoyed working with Taylor, who practiced the same type of law that he does.

For several years, Robertson represented CMI Corp., which he said involved a lot of SEC and acquisitions work.
In 1997, he assisted Houston-based U.S. Liquids with an initial public offering, the first time he'd been involved in an IPO.

"That was a very challenging year," Robertson said.

As a young attorney in 1989 to 1992 or so, he represented Republic Oil (now Republic Waste) in a series of landfill acquisitions around the country that involved a lot of travel.

"That actually was kind of fun," Robertson said. "But that part wore off. The traveling's not very much fun any more. "

The sports fan

Sports-fan Robertson and partner Armand Paliotta also represented George Shinn and the New Orleans Hornets when they were in Oklahoma City.

"That was fun, and all of the negotiations with the city and with the group that ended up buying the Sonics were interesting," Robertson said. "It's disappointing that we couldn't have worked something out between the two groups."

Robertson and Paliotta also negotiated with New Orleans and Louisiana during discussion over whether the Hornets would spend a second year in Oklahoma City.

Robertson's office demonstrates his love of sports. There's a 1991 LeRoy Neiman lithograph of a bout between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson, which was actually canceled because one of the fighters got hurt, and a football autographed by the OU football team.

Sharie Robertson, 45, scored the football for her husband at a fundraiser for son Jeff's fraternity at OU. Robertson said a second football was autographed by all of OU's living Heisman Trophy winners.

Jeff, 19 and currently a freshman, wants to go to medical school, Robertson said.

Jeff's uncle Mark is an ear, nose and throat surgeon in Bartlesville.

John has played basketball and baseball most of his life. He was recruited to play baseball at OSU, but said he was not quite good enough to actually get on the field. He went to what was then Central State University as a sophomore, playing ball until he was injured, then returned to OSU for his last two years, graduating as a business administration major.

Robertson has coached Jeff in soccer, baseball and basketball, as well as daughter Nikki's basketball tem when she was a little girl.

"My daughter, I tried to turn into an athlete," he said. "She didn't have much interest in it. She's a dancer and has been in a couple of Lyric Theatre performances. "

Nikki, 16, is currently a Deer Creek sophomore.

Robertson and his son are coaching a summer baseball team at Deer Creek.

Of Sharie's inclinations, John said his wife told him she liked sports when they met at Central State, "which helped. "

"She's learned to," he said, smiling. "She has to like sports now, with as much as we have gone to those things."
Robertson said his father Joe, a retired Bartlesville attorney and businessman, was "a big sports guy, a big OU fan. So I think I inherited it from him."

He said his mother, Pat, is about to retire from the Department of Human Services.

Looking back, Robertson said, growing up in Bartlesville was a great experience.

"You don't know it at the time," he said.

The family lived in a neighborhood "where there was a kid in every house."

"Ten of your friends lived within walking distance," Robertson said. "You ran around with them every day."

He was a paper boy from fifth grade through 10th grade, getting up at 5 a.m., riding his bike around town in the dark.
"Can you imagine that these days?" he said. "That doesn't happen."

Robertson he maintains connections with several of his Bartlesville friends.

"It was a neat place," he said.

The smack talker

Former state lawmaker Jim Dunlap knows a thing or two about attorney John Robertson.

He should. The two men have known each other since the fourth grade at Will Rogers Elementary School in Bartlesville.

Not only did Robertson have a heck of a curve ball, Dunlap says, but he loved to lay on the "smack talk" during ball games. One incident with an umpire didn't end so well for Mr. Baseball, Dunlap says.

"He was always a leader," Dunlap said. "He was not really ever the team captain, but he was always the guy that everybody could trust. If there was a situation, he always had a calm mind. I guess that's what would have shown what would happen in the future, that he'd be able to manage people and handle things. "

Dunlap said that although Robertson made good grades, people didn't realize how book-smart the athlete was.
"When he graduated OU law school number one in his class, we all about fell over," Dunlap said. "That was a shocker to us."

Now, about that smack talk.

"He always was very competitive," Dunlap said. "It was always fun, and he was always quick-witted on his responses to other teams."

Sometimes the smack talk came from Robertson's hometown crowd.

"We would be giving him trouble from the crowd, and he would actually acknowledge it from the pitcher's mound," Dunlap said.

Dunlap said he witnessed Robertson being kicked out of a baseball game.

"Just once, that I know of," he said. "He just disagreed with the umpire's call. As a high school athlete, you should never disagree with an umpire's call. "

Dunlap and Robertson are still friends, getting together about once a month.

"That's what makes him a life-long friend," said Dunlap. "He keeps in contact with people. "

Dunlap was a member of Robertson's wedding party.

Wife: 'I liked him from the very get-go'

Sharie and John were college sweethearts.

"I met him my first day of college my freshman year," said Robertson's wife. "We had speech together. "
Although John says the two started out as friends, Sharie acknowledges maneuvering to ensure that she sat next to John during their next class.

"I liked him from the very get-go," she said.

They dated through college and were married two weeks before he started law school.

"He was very smart and very focused," Sharie said. "He got up that day in speech and said, 'I'm John Robertson.
I'm an accounting major and I'm planning on going to law school. ' That was when he was 18. "

Sharie followed John from OSU to OU, earning her undergraduate and graduate degrees in education while he studied law.

"We kind of grew up together," she said. "We were 17 and 18 when we started dating."

Their first official date was to celebrate her 18th birthday and his 19th. Their birthdays are a week apart in October.

Part of that growing up had to do with gaining a bit of sophistication.

Sharie said the couple was invited to dinner at a nice restaurant by Hartzog Conger partner Kathy Taylor and her husband while the firm was recruiting John. Taylor is now mayor of Tulsa.

"We were talking about what we were going to order and everything," Sharie said. "Kathy said, 'The chateaubriand is really good. Does that interest you?' and John said, 'I don't think so, Sharie and I don't know anything about wine. '"

She remembered thinking later, when they discovered what chateaubriand was, "Okay, they're not going to offer you a job." But they did, and John is now managing partner of the law firm.

"I'll probably never forget that, our embarrassment," Sharie said. "We have progressed since then. "

The Robertsons will celebrate their 25th anniversary in July.

Sharie said John is an awesome father, but learned early on that there are key differences in coaching little girls as opposed to boys.

She said he came home after coaching daughter Nikki's second-grade basketball team for the first time, clearly perplexed. By this time, Sharie said, John was accustomed to coaching fifth-grade boys.

"He said, 'Little girls are different than little boys. I figured out you can't reprimand them. Even if you try to give them a helpful hint, they cry. I was trying to give them instruction, but they didn't take it that way. '"
That wasn't the only thing John learned is different about little girls' teams, Sharie said.

"He said, 'The other thing, when the practice was over and I called them all around and squatted down on the bleachers and kind of gave them a little wrap up, they all put their arms around me and crawled up into my lap. I wasn't used to that. '"

Sharie said John has also attended all of Nikki's dance competitions.

"He's the first dad to put on a 'Pom Dad' t-shirt and to work the concession stand," she said.

John also likes to proofread his children's homework and research papers.

"Our son's at college and he'll have Jeff e-mail his papers to him, so that he can critique them," Sharie said. "He's a great dad."

The late-night litigator

Jim Holland is the retired chief executive officer of CMI Corp., which John Robertson represented for a number of years before it was acquired by Terex.

Although John had other clients, Holland said he did so much work for CMI and that he was "really our out-house, in-house lawyer."

"Sometimes, when you're working with lawyers, it's kind of a pain," Holland said. "John's one of those that it's not.
As a result of that, we got to be friends. "

Holland told one story to demonstrate that Robertson was both extremely hardworking and extremely smart in his representation of CMI.

"We were with one of those New York law firms that drag things out forever," Holland said. "Whoever was paying for it was paying probably $400 an hour, and here I had little old John from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, with me. As far as I was concerned, he was not only holding his own, he was eating them up. "

Holland had to return to Oklahoma City late that night with the deal still not closed. He received a call from Robertson in New York after midnight, and they wrapped up the deal over the phone, with Holland "in my jammers laying in bed."

'Born an old man'

John's father Joe said both his sons were excellent students, Mark Robertson now a physician in Bartlesville.

"My wife says that John David was born an old man," says Joe. "He's very conservative with his money. He's always been the kind of person that, if you talk to him, he could tell you what he was going to do."

Not just about long-term plans, he said.

"He could tell you that Wednesday night he was going to go to the show with his friends and he had a test on Friday and he was going to study two hours Friday afternoon for the test, those kinds of things," said Joe. "He was always very organized."

When it came to sports, Joe said he would sometimes have to remind Mark to make sure he had the right equipment, but John would do the same for his dad, who was the coach.

Joe said he practiced law for almost 20 years, then spent about that amount of time in business.

"Some of it was lose money and gain some experience," he said, laughing.

Joe tells a story that he said illustrates the serious side of John's nature.

He overheard a phone call between his son and a school friend, in which he could tell that John wasn't telling his friend the truth, that he made some excuse to avoid seeing the boy.

Joe admonished his son.

John said the boy wanted him to do some things he thought he should not do, and that he was "just trying to get out of this in a nice way."

Joe Robertson said the boy grew into a young man who experienced some serious drug problems for about a decade, although he has since put that behind him and turned out to be a credit to his community and a fine father.

"He's still a good friend with my son," Joe said.
Copyright 2008 Dolan Media Newswires