Last night (Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026) I went to a comedy club in downtown Chandler. I live in the next town over (Gilbert), but Chandler is 10 minutes away, so when someone mentioned that Dave Neal was doing a show there, my INSTANT reaction was: “I gotta go see this guy….”
Then I stopped, took a second, and thought about it. WHY would I want to go see Dave? Is that a smart idea?
People think I’ve said a lot of unkind things about him. That may have been true a long time ago, but I don’t think I’ve said much recently. From my perspective, Dave has said at least 100 unkind words about me for every one I’ve said about him. You may disagree with the ratio.
But here’s the thing — I am a lifelong civil litigator. That means I fight fought battles for a living. And every battle ends the same way — with an ending.
Sometimes the end is a total victory for one side and a total defeat for the other. That’s rare. The majority of battles are settled by the parties reaching an agreement. Both sides usually feel like they lost.
I always tell clients when discussing settlement: “The best settlement is one where no one is completely happy, but everyone can live with it.”
Settling disputes is was probably my favorite thing about my job. It’s satisfying to close a case and move on to the next one. Having settled a LOT of disputes, even ones that seemed impossible at first, I can confidently say this – resolution requires conversation.
You cannot resolve your differences with someone unless you talk to them. Even if you hate them, you have to talk. Tell them your side. Listen to their side. Find common ground. Agree to disagree. Then realize – life is always better after the dispute ends, and talking is how you get there.
Tomorrow will be the end of a dispute I’ve spent more than 940 days dealing with. The fallout for me has been unbelievable. I lost my wife. I lost my career. I lost my reputation. I’ve lost friends. I feel my entire life was a wooden castle I spent decades building that has now burned to the ground and is nothing but a pile of smoldering ash.
Still, I want to make three things clear —
First, NOTHING about last night was done as an insult to Laura, or a sign that I no longer support her.
For the record: I fully support her.
Now more than ever, when she needs support the most, I am still on Team Laura™….and proudly so. Friends stick by each other when the going gets tough. What good is a fair weather friend who walks away when you need them the most? I am the opposite – the more a friend needs me, the more I will be there for them. Laura is my friend. I am here to support her in any way I can.
Supporting her as a person does not mean supporting everything she has said or done. I was raised to always look for and find the good in people. I know for a fact that Laura is a good person….who has also made mistakes. Just like me. And just like you.
Second, my intention last night was for both sides to gain a little clarity, even if neither side wanted it. It’s easy to hate someone you don’t know. But that’s weak. You know the saying: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Wise words.
A wise man studies his adversaries carefully before judging them. Perhaps the result is a more targeted feeling of hatred after you understand someone better.
More often than not, it’s the opposite….you realize the person you thought was the devil isn’t actually as bad as you imagined.
Many of the people I met last night have spent the last two and half years trashing the shit out of me. Many HATED me. The feeling was mostly mutual.
But hate is a heavy burden to carry. It makes progress harder. Sometimes you have to let it go if you want to grow.
Last night ended with at least one hug, and, I think, an increased level of mutual understanding….and dare I say…maybe even a *tiny* bit of mutual respect. I know I failed to make any headway with at least one person (you can’t win ’em all), but with others…who knows. At least I tried.
Does this mean we’re all friends now? No. Of course not. My loyalty to Laura remains strong. I would never want to upset her. But I also have a lot of personal healing I need to do. I think last night was helpful progress towards that goal.
Finally, third, one of the most common questions I get is: knowing what you know now, would you still go back and do this all over again?
Easy answer = yes, of course.
I would certainly do some things differently. Maybe a lot of things. But at the end of the day, this fight was (at least for me), always about one thing — protecting the rules and the law. I lost that fight, and I think the legal system is worse off as a result, but at the end of the day the battle was worth fighting, and I know I tried my best.
👏👏👏
Dave Neal should have had the police remove your terrorist backside last night. Its obvious you wanna be relevant, NEWS FLASH DAVID, you arent relevant and none of what happened to you was anyones fault but your own. Your client is an admitted liar and now a felon. It’s a shame you drink so much you dont remember threatening sa to Dave Neals wife or what you threatened to Omar’s wife and family. Deep down you know you are a disghusting excuse for a human being and your arrogance and foolish behavior helped put your lieing client in prison for her false allegations and fraud she committed on the courts. Your harassment of the witnesses last night did not go unnoticed and I am sure the courts will know. Its called witness intimidation David and you arent fooling anyone by doing this to Dave Neal a witness in that case.
The fact you still refuse to admit Laura LIED and you helped perpetuate those lies, or at barest minimum by any standards (and NOT a standard for a legal professional) you looked the other way and claimed ignorance. All while he charade is what made e a mockery of your previous profession. You do need mental help, so does she. You are not always right, and the fact that 100% of tbe internet ALWAYS disagreed with you should make that obvious. *I realize you like to nit-pick but in your blind defense of Laura’s lies, YOU made statements of opinion and labeled them facts. 100% of the internet knew you were wrong, your interpretations of laws wrong and your “facts” wrong. That % does not include the person’s you’ve paid for your own representation or inside the Casita. Do better, the AZ Bar does NOT want your incompatancies to represent them.
Loving that he left the comments open. This man clearly has a fetish for wanting to engage with JFC and getting dragged on the internet. That’s why he still keeps this going and putting his name into the conversation. Dave is way too nice of a guy to give him the time of day and even invite to his green room to talk in private. I’ve been to several of Dave’s comedy shows when he was in NYC, he’s truly the salt of the earth kindest human that gives everyone a second chance. A far cry from you, David, who supposedly apologized to him and then immediately ran to this blog to stress in bold how you still support Laura (a convictedv and admitted felon about to be sentenced) mention how he said more unkind words about you than you did about him? I’m sorry but did he also mention a make belief scenario where your wife gets SA’d? Wait no, that was just you. In your chase for relevance you’re gong to dig your own grave even deeper. You think Laura, the rando nutcase who hired you as her lawyer, is your friend? I feel sorry for you, and hope you get some real friends someday. And some much needed therapy.
What a load of bullshit. First, you do realize that no one believes a word you say because you are a proven pathological liar? We’ve heard all this nonsense before. When your estranged wife died, you claimed you were turning a new leaf. Yet, a few days ago on this very blog, you are calling SchnitzelNinja “evil” and an “ugly soul” simply because she is one of the people seeking truth and justice. You haven’t turned a new leaf; you are the same piece of shit you’ve always been.
And enough with the false equivalency. You’re out here acting like this is two equal teams going at it, like the Spurs and the Knicks in the NBA finals, and one of them just happened to win. No, we are not equals. YOU are on the side of evil. YOU are on the side of malice. YOU are on the side of hatred. WE are on the side of righteousness, truth, and justice. YOU are the bad guys. WE are the good guys. We are not equals. You are a bad guy, David, and you will get your just reward, whether in this life or the next.
I particularly like how you blame “The Dispute” for losing your wife, your friends, your career, and your dignity as if that was some kind of inevitable, unavoidable consequence of getting involved in “The Dispute”. You have no friends, your estranged wife hated you so much that she fled the country to get away from you, your career is in the toilet, and pretty much everyone that you’ve interacted with over the past couple of years hates you. “The Dispute” isn’t to blame; YOU are to blame. Or rather, your reprehensible behavior and the fact that you have no character, morals, ethics, or integrity are to blame. You are one of those people where the rest of us are asking, “When does he realize that it’s not everyone around him that’s the problem, he’s the problem?”
Laura is going to prison today. And it’s all because of you. You say you are on Team Laura, but is Laura on Team Gingras? She should hate you as you are the reason she is going to prison. Every other lawyer did the right thing. They told her, ok…your story is bullshit…you were never pregnant…the best course of action is to admit to it and throw yourself at the mercy of the court. Admittedly, all the other lawyers are better lawyers than you, but you still should have known better. Instead of doing the right thing by your client, you indulged her lies and her fantasies and now she is going to pay for your failure and your refusal to do the right thing by getting locked up. Not only have you failed at being a good husband, a good friend, a good person…you have completely and utterly failed as a lawyer. You will now die alone, with nothing but regret and a lifetime of failure and sadness to look back on.