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The Velvet Hammer™ Podcast
Trial lawyers can be real people, too—and this podcast proves it. The Velvet Hammer™ is back, and this time, Karen Koehler isn’t going it alone. Known for her fearless advocacy, bold storytelling, and, yes, even the occasional backwards dress moment, Karen is teaming up with Mo Hamoudi, a lawyer, poet, and storyteller whose empathy and resilience add a whole new dynamic to the show.
Together, they’re pulling back the curtain on trial law, diving into bold topics, heartfelt stories, and the messy, hilarious moments that make trial lawyers human. This is an unscripted, raw, and fun take on life inside—and outside—the courtroom.
The Velvet Hammer™ Podcast
Mo Tais in Maui - Hosting the 2025 WTLA Reception
Episode 27: Mo Tais in Maui – Hosting the 2025 WTLA Reception
What happens when Karen offers up her Hawaiian home for a trial lawyer party... and forgets she did it? In this episode, Karen and Mo break down the chaos, comedy, and creativity behind hosting 80 trial attorneys in her backyard during the Western Trial Lawyers Association Conference.
From last-minute Costco runs and signature cocktail prep (yes, Mo bartended) to windstorms knocking over tables and the President of WSAJ stepping in as the official Jell-O shot girl, this episode is sure to make you laugh.
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Hosted by Karen Koehler and Mo Hamoudi, trial lawyers at Stritmatter Law, a nationally recognized plaintiff personal injury and civil rights law firm based in Washington State.
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So we just came back from a conference Western Trial Lawyers Association in Maui and where lawyers from across the country gathered together.
Karen Koehler :Mainly California.
Mo Hamoudi:Mainly California, but there was lawyers from everywhere, from the east and the south, and share information.
Karen Koehler :We went last year because it's in Maui.
Mo Hamoudi:It's in Maui. It's a wonderful space to hang out, so it happened probably half a year ago.
Karen Koehler :I knew that they had these big parties afterwards and they had been having them at one of the California attorney's houses, a very big house I bet that thing is like 4,000 square feet. But it's layered, it's many floors on a golf course.
Karen Koehler :It doesn't really have a yard, it has more like a deck, a very small kind of dipping pool, but then there's a hillside and it goes down to the golf course in Wailea, which is about 45 minutes away. And I said, hey, if you guys want, you can have one of the events at my house. And then I didn't hear back and I just completely forgot about it until about two months ago and I went and I looked at their brochure and it had my house on there. The problem was last Monday we were supposed to be in this trial against Amazon.
Karen Koehler :Yeah, but it settled, but I didn't know that at the time. Yeah, so when I realized that it was at my house, I don't want to tell them it can't be because it was in the program. So I was arranging for Loris to go over there, my property manager, somebody else other than me, well, case settles. So it turns out at the last minute, like the next week, that I can go and Mo was planning on going. He was going to also try that case with me, so we both go.
Mo Hamoudi:Okay, well, let's talk logistics, because let's only talk about logistics, Because I really want to talk about logistics.
Karen Koehler :This is about how to put on a party for 80 trial lawyers in your backyard in Hawaii.
Mo Hamoudi:You land in Maui, first thing you do is you get a big car, you rent a big car and then go to Costco. Now, costco is like this, is like the place right.
Karen Koehler :It is. It's hugely. It's like not even five minutes away from the airport in Maui.
Mo Hamoudi:Everybody goes there first, and we spent about two hours there.
Karen Koehler :We had two shopping carts Mo had one and Laura's had. We did not spend two hours there. We were there for like 45 minutes. I felt like it was two hours. It was 45 minutes, but okay and we bought, so Mo as we all know, Mo was a bartender and to save money, I said hey, Mo, why don't you be the bartender and Loris will be your second? And it actually worked out perfectly Because, as people walked up the entrance, the first people that they got to was the bartender area.
Karen Koehler :So so, I had no idea what to buy, because I just look for the pretty bottles pretty cans but you don't drink.
Mo Hamoudi:I don't drink, okay, but Mo did. So what I did was like all right, I got to make two signature drinks. If you're a bartender, you just do two, you don't complicate things. I did a Collins and I did a Mai Tai, but then I renamed them. I called them the Mo Tai and then I called them the Mo Collins. All right, so the Mo Tai basically is coconut rum, right, you use a pineapple juice and you use guava juice and then, with a little bit of pomegranate to color it Make sense Splash of lime juice. The Mo Collins is vodka and you put a little bit of orange juice and then you put a little bit of lemon aid and you colored with a little bit of pomegranate. And how were the drinks? Did people like drinks?
Karen Koehler :Wait, we can't fast forward. This is a logistics okay, logistics, so we go to costco and we have primarily all we got was drinks from costco. Do we get anything else? Maybe a little bit of, because we were only going to be there for four days. Anyway, almost a thousand dollars it was. It was a lot it was, it was the liquor, it was the wine. They told us to get way too much wine we got way too much and they told us to get too much beer.
Mo Hamoudi:And we got way too much beer and soft drinks. Yeah, we got too much and water.
Karen Koehler :Yeah, but it was all like liquids.
Mo Hamoudi:Yeah, yeah.
Karen Koehler :So we showed that into the. He had to get a bigger car so he had rented a car. We threw that in, drove to Hawaii. Yeah, so fast forward. He's got it all figured out. We had ordered some stuff by Amazon. The cups never showed up Glitter cups, I got ugly cups from Costco. So the day of the event yeah, it's our attorney meeting day, so I'm on the phone from 5.30 am.
Mo Hamoudi:Okay, she's on the phone. At 5.30 am I am at the conference and then I told her so.
Karen Koehler :No wait, you did not go to the conference, you were on the phone too. You didn't get to conference till like eight.
Mo Hamoudi:Okay, I got to conference at eight, but I was there.
Karen Koehler :Don't defend yourself yet.
Mo Hamoudi:Okay, gonna tell you what happened. Just hear me out, okay. So I run into elizabeth hanley, who is the wsaj president. She's a sgb lawyer. I go have, I go, I text her, I go I'm gonna go have lunch with elizabeth and then she's like you have to come here and set this up. And I was like I'll be there. And then so elizabeth and I so stop.
Karen Koehler :So meanwhile I'm on this, I have to not only do the attorney meeting, but he left midway. I then have to do the partner meeting and it has been four hours of meetings. Meanwhile the director for this organization texts me and says they're dropping off all the rental stuff. I'm like what are you talking about? They're dropping off rental stuff. They're supposed to do it at like four in the afternoon. Yes, so they had to just drop it off because I was on the conference calls. There's no one to set anything up. I couldn't tell them where to go, so I said just drop it there. We'll have to do it later.
Karen Koehler :And the night before my property manager had brought over some neighborhood tables and stuff. So there's quite, you know, 80 people outside. So they've we'd already set up some of the stuff around the pool, but these are like stand-up tables and stuff for the band and stuff. So I have all this stuff dropped off. I'm on the phone. I get off the phone finally and I start setting up these tables, these high top tables yes, and they have, they have little skirts skirts and you know everything and I oh, this is looking good.
Karen Koehler :I take a picture. The wind gusts.
Mo Hamoudi:And everything starts falling over.
Karen Koehler :Everything. I was like, oh my God. And so then I'm running around undoing everything, Because when the wind comes, they're trade winds and everything started shifting off.
Mo Hamoudi:Like, the candles are getting ready to break.
Karen Koehler :Freaking. There's getting ready to break Freaking. There's no one to help. You know, I'm just. Loris is there and he's helping. He might have gone on a bike ride first, but he's helping me and freaking. Where is Mo?
Mo Hamoudi:Where is Mo? And then I get one of these texts I get from her that are like what time was that?
Karen Koehler :That was like 1.30. I'm like where are you? He goes, I'm at lunch. I'm thinking, okay, he's done with lunch. Now it's like 2 or 2.30. I'm like, where are you? And he's like well, I was eating lunch and I haven't come here yet and I'm with Elizabeth. I'm like I don't care who you're with. Get over here. I was so mad. The tone of her voice was not that it was like a where are you?
Mo Hamoudi:that's what it was. I pick up the phone and she's calling and she's like where are you? And I was like, oh, I'm at the hotel. Do you understand that? We're throwing a party here in three hours? Do you understand how many people are coming here? We committed to entertaining these people and you're not here. And I was like I'm on my way.
Karen Koehler :He can get there fast enough and he gets there with Elizabeth, elizabeth, by now. I'm cutting, I'm cutting. We have made finger, you know, knotty finger, amaretto, orange finger, jello. We've made jello shots so I'm cutting the jello. We had extra gelatin in it, so they're like. You know you can just yeah, they're firm cubes and they walk in the door and I just give him like the stink eye it was like I had never.
Mo Hamoudi:It was as if I just like tanked a case. It was a statute. I blew a statute of limitations. The way she looked at me like it was like a catastrophe.
Karen Koehler :I'm like, and Loris had picked a hundred limes from the garden. He's like squeezing, because one of these recipes called for some kind of lime juice.
Mo Hamoudi:Yeah.
Karen Koehler :He's like squeezing them like a hundred limes and he's cut them up. He's cut the pineapple garnish. He's doing all this stuff and Mo is not even there. And Mo walks in.
Mo Hamoudi:I wanted to just leap over and just grab him by the neck and shake him, Okay, but I gotta tell you Hanley saved my ass.
Karen Koehler :She runs up to me and hugs me and stuff, Because I told Hanley I was like.
Mo Hamoudi:She's fired up, she's gonna like, and Hanley's like, oh, don't worry.
Karen Koehler :I got this. I'll create a diversion.
Mo Hamoudi:I'll create a diversion so she's like I'm here to help and I'm like hi, and I'm like you, better get moving.
Karen Koehler :And she looks at me she goes, you get moving.
Mo Hamoudi:Elizabeth, come sit down, let's catch up. It's been a minute. You go do that and help laurence now, and I was like I'm off and about it.
Karen Koehler :About an hour later I said yeah, you know, it was some transference going on, the wind was up. I was really freaking out, um, but anyway. So at four o'clock the band is there on the dot. There's, there's a, a guy. I wish I knew his name. I forgot his name. They were so good. The band was so good they were so good that when they took a break, my neighbor from up the street texted us and said what happened to the band. Yeah, the whole neighborhood was listening to the band. They took a break.
Mo Hamoudi:My neighbor from up the street texted us and said what happened to the band? Yeah, what happened to the music. The whole neighborhood was listening to the band.
Karen Koehler :It was a saxophone, a guitar and a drummer who apparently sang on the voice, mm-hmm, and they were really good and they set up in one of the little huts. But there was one guy. How many Jell-O pieces did he have?
Mo Hamoudi:one guy had five jello pieces. Now these are. But he we made two kinds, we made an amaretto one, a little sweeter, and we made a tequila one. This guy was popping the tequila ones. I was like, hey man, I was like these are kind of, you know, the Jell-O takes the sting away, but these are like each a shot. And he was like, oh yeah, it's good. And he was just hopping them. Man, trial lawyers, I mean trial lawyers right, I was like man, get down with yourself Lawyers on vacation, that's right, so Mo and Loris were wearing matching shirts.
Mo Hamoudi:Yeah, yeah.
Karen Koehler :One of them was Paul's, because we had commented on Paul's shirt and Mayor Elizabeth and Paul got Loris a shirt, so we got one of.
Mo Hamoudi:Paul's shirts, so you borrowed Paul's, so they were wearing the same shirt and people would come up.
Karen Koehler :And here's the back story. So we had gone to this other party at this California law firm's house and we had gone there specifically to survey the scene and figure out how we could do ours better, because we were so freaking competitive. So we're like, oh yeah, I think we can do this better. And then we actually go downstairs to the bar, which was kind of out of the way, and we're like, oh, our setup is better, more accessible. This is so mean. And we're like, oh, our setup is better.
Mo Hamoudi:More accessible. This is so mean.
Karen Koehler :And then he goes and starts talking to the bartender. We're like what is this? First he drinks and he goes yeah, this is really not good at all. Then he goes down and he says well, what do you put in it?
Mo Hamoudi:Yeah, I did reconnaissance. I collected intelligence, I gathered intelligence and then I formulated a plan as to my drinks and I realized, like now this drink is not gonna. I was like I gotta knock it out of the park.
Karen Koehler :Then he comes up, he goes yeah, I got this, I got this, no problem. Then he goes we're gonna kill it on the bar. You know why I said? Why he says because we're better looking. I said I cannot a funny, sweet way you said it at least 10 times later.
Mo Hamoudi:No, no, no, but it was me and Loris. We had the better shirts. Stop denying it. Own it Okay.
Karen Koehler :I won't deny it?
Mo Hamoudi:Okay, I said it All right. Okay, can I say something? All right, the one thing I will acknowledge that I'll be arrogant about is bartending. Well, I was going to say In In New. York City. I was the best bartender in that town. I was the show. People came and saw me. People came and spent hours with me Because it was just like that's my cake, man.
Karen Koehler :So the whole bar was set up in my foyer, Well before your foyer, but in the portico.
Mo Hamoudi:Yeah.
Karen Koehler :Before you get to the house like the entrance, so they walk through my garden to the front entrance and there's the bar. First of all, elizabeth Hanley, who is the president of Trialers, became our Jell-O shot girl.
Mo Hamoudi:She was the Jell-O girl.
Karen Koehler :We called her the Jell-O girl. She had a giant bowl of Jell-O, but it was great because she's super bubbly and she greeted everyone lovely. And then we had the good-looking bartenders.
Mo Hamoudi:And then we were doing the Moe Ties and the Moe Collins and man, did they like the drinks they did. What were they saying?
Karen Koehler :Go ahead, and a lot of these didn't have alcohol in them. Some of them did. They made special ones for other people.
Mo Hamoudi:But tell me what did they say about the drinks? Look, tell me what did they say about the drinks. Look it. He wants to say Look it, he's like a little kid, go ahead, go ahead.
Karen Koehler :They said these are the best drinks, these are delicious. I want another one. It was pretty much like that.
Mo Hamoudi:Music to my ears. Yeah, I mean, they were outstanding.
Karen Koehler :So fun.
Mo Hamoudi:Oh, so much fun.
Karen Koehler :And then here's what else happened.
Mo Hamoudi:What happened?
Karen Koehler :So I created a PowerPoint for this party. As you know, they have never seen as much organization as I had in my thing and I had everything that they had promised me and everything that was done, and I was marking off stuff as it was happening and one of the promises on there was that one to two helpers would be provided.
Mo Hamoudi:Oh, they weren't.
Karen Koehler :No, they were not. They had one helper who was really there to help her. Yeah, the director not to help me, and she helped light. She helped light. She helped put water in the chafing dishes and light the fuses and put the first rack on because the food was delivered, and then she disappeared so I had to monitor the food. They had arranged big garbage cans. I mean, the director was really good, she knew exactly what to order, everything was the right thing, but there was just no help.
Mo Hamoudi:Yeah.
Karen Koehler :And then when they left, they left no cleanup help either there was no cleanup. Loris was like man.
Mo Hamoudi:I mean, we had to clean up a lot.
Karen Koehler :Wait, where's the?
Mo Hamoudi:we? No, I cleaned the bar, okay. Well, that's Okay, I cleaned my bar.
Karen Koehler :I don't leave my bar for other people to clean At least you were precise.
Mo Hamoudi:Yeah, I'm very. I cleaned the bar, but you know, I think we should do it again next year.
Karen Koehler :Okay, wait you, I think we should do it again next year. Okay, wait, you've got to hear about what happened. So just overall, okay. So everybody was just delightful.
Mo Hamoudi:Yeah, yeah.
Karen Koehler :It was not the experience that we thought because we'd been in the other parties before which was really held primarily inside, because there was only a smaller deck, only so many people could fit outside. Most people were inside the golf course house, yeah, but in my house opposite, like, everybody had to be pretty much outside because my house is, you know, a boutique small house but you've got, you know, an acre of manicured grounds and people were just so chill and lovely, slightly intoxicated, but they came on buses.
Karen Koehler :That's why we weren't worried about it, so nobody drove home. Yeah, they either came on an uber or a bus. Yeah, and it was just. We just did a great job and loris was great help.
Mo Hamoudi:He was fantastic help behind the bar.
Karen Koehler :He was just very good and afterwards we still had a lot of leftover food. Well, they took all the the food back to the hotel to give to the staff. We did, and so I had two milk crates and filled them, and the last two members of the band cleaning up got a little care package to take home.
Mo Hamoudi:They basically got a bar. Yeah, I was going to say that's going to be pretty good. They did pretty good. They were happy, they were like oh, we're going to be good for a while, yeah, yeah.
Karen Koehler :They did pretty good, they were happy. They were like, oh, we're going to be good for a while, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we were very good party planners, we were very good and party experts Well you planned and I was part of it, lately part of it.
Mo Hamoudi:I was late part of it. Where are you? It was so funny, like for me. I'm like oh boy, you knew you were in trouble I was. She was like. She was like how long Don't drive like the slow person that you are.
Karen Koehler :I said don't drive like you're 80. Yeah.
Mo Hamoudi:Don't drive like you're 80. You need to put your pedal to the metal and I was like I will drive Because I drive slow. She's like don't drive like you're 80. Get here no.
Karen Koehler :He was so scared of me when he walked up he did the whole.
Mo Hamoudi:I did the whole, like you know, like I do the puppy dog eyes he thought and Elizabeth's like this.
Karen Koehler :I'm like, I am not even remotely, remotely affected by this orchestrated play. I will give her a hug and I will go after.
Mo Hamoudi:Mom.
Karen Koehler :She was hugging her and looking at me Glaring at you on the other side.
Mo Hamoudi:That's what you were doing. You were giving me the stink eye. It was great, it was a wonderful night and I think we should do it again. I really do.
Karen Koehler :It's a reminder for all of us how important it is to have fun together yeah we work so hard, um, and when you work hard, get really kind of intense and focused and you think that you're not I like, I don't really realize that I am, but outwardly to other people, but people stay away from me and I'm a very social person, so just being in that environment reminds me oh, you got to do it again. We got to do this again. We got to do this more. We got to do these things more often. We got to remember to celebrate with other people, because it's so fun to have fun together.
Mo Hamoudi:Yeah, what you did was create an experience.
Karen Koehler :It wasn't a party.
Mo Hamoudi:It was an experience People will remember what we what we did.
Mo Hamoudi:But you know, I mean I've got to give you kudos because you designed the architecture of the party. You were like we're going to put this here, we're going to put this here, so like that was your design mind. But you know, you put the pieces in the right place and we really did create an experience that people the next day were talking about. It did create an experience that people the next day were talking about it. And we're still talking about, even afterwards and sending me texts and saying we had a really good time, good job, good party why don't we do a party for the firm at my house?
Mo Hamoudi:well, you're leaving me hanging. Don't leave me hanging, okay, why don't we do? We should do one for that, for the firm okay at my house. Yeah, but we should, and I'll bartend it.
Karen Koehler :Well, wait, they're going to have to still get home. Okay, well, we can monitor. That way, you can monitor how much.
Mo Hamoudi:What do you mean? How much?
Karen Koehler :Look, he just wants to be a bartender. I just want to be a bartender.
Mo Hamoudi:Oh my God, I'm the best Okay that's it.
Karen Koehler :Thanks, man.
