Terence Cushing, Phoenix, Arizona-based Senior Corporate Counsel at Republic Services, is adopting a personal decision habit designed to reduce noise, improve judgment, and protect time.
PHOENIX, AZ / ACCESS Newswire / February 13, 2026 / Terence Cushing, a Senior Corporate Counsel at Republic Services, is adopting a personal policy he calls the Record-First Rule: before acting on a claim, request, or "urgent" idea, he will first anchor the decision to a clean record of facts, sources, and tradeoffs.
Cushing has spent nearly two decades working in complex civil litigation and corporate legal work. Across roles that included a federal clerkship, product liability and medical malpractice matters, and more than a decade as a law firm partner managing teams and a large client book, his career has repeatedly rewarded one skill: disciplined clarity.
The Record-First Rule is meant to make that discipline a daily habit, not just a professional strength.
The motivation
This policy draws from patterns described in a recent profile of Cushing's career, including:
"Complex civil litigation teaches a certain kind of discipline."
"It trains attention."
"It rewards those who can sit with uncertainty and keep moving."
"Respect for the record and respect for clarity."
"Preparation and precision."
These lines point to a simple idea: better outcomes start earlier than the final decision. They start at how information is gathered, filtered, and written down.
The broader problem, by the numbers
The information environment and the risk environment are getting harder for professionals and households alike.
50% of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes get news from social media.
Concerns about inaccuracy on social media have risen in recent years, alongside reliance on it for news.
In Verizon's 2024 DBIR dataset, the human element was involved in 68% of breaches.
Verizon also reported ransomware accounted for 32% of breaches, with a sharp rise in vulnerability exploitation.
IBM reported the average global cost of a data breach reached USD 4.88 million in 2024.
The American Bar Association reported 29% of law firms experienced a security breach in its 2023 cybersecurity report findings.
What changed
Under the Record-First Rule, Cushing is tightening one daily behavior: no big decision gets made from a messy input.
That means fewer reactions to headlines, forwarded messages, or "quick takes." It also means fewer decisions made from memory when a simple record would prevent rework.
Practically, the change is a short routine:
Capture the claim in one sentence.
List what is known versus assumed.
Identify a small set of trusted sources or documents.
Write down the tradeoffs.
Decide, then log the reason.
Why it works
The rule is built to solve three common failure points:
1) It slows down the wrong kind of urgency.
Not everything that feels urgent is important. A record forces a pause without stalling.
2) It reduces "decision debt."
When a decision is not documented, people re-litigate it later. A record keeps the team aligned and reduces repeat debates.
3) It makes risk visible.
In complex work, the biggest mistakes are often hidden assumptions. The record separates facts from guesses early.
How success is measured
Cushing will measure whether the rule is working using simple, trackable signals:
Rework rate: how often a decision is reversed because key facts were missing
Time-to-clarity: how quickly the real issue becomes clear once it is written down
Source quality: whether decisions are tied to primary documents and trusted references
Escalations avoided: fewer last-minute fire drills triggered by preventable misunderstandings
Consistency: percentage of high-stakes decisions that include a written one-page record
10 steps you can implement
Anyone can adopt a lighter version of the Record-First Rule, even without a legal background.
Write the decision in one sentence. If you cannot, you are not ready to decide.
Label the decision type. Money, privacy, health, career, or relationships. Different risks apply.
Separate facts from assumptions. Use two lists. Keep them short.
Use a two-source minimum for claims. One source is a lead, not a conclusion.
Prefer originals over summaries. When possible, go to the primary document or primary data.
Add a 10-minute cooling-off window for "urgent" requests. Urgency is often a tactic, not a truth.
Define the tradeoff out loud on paper. What do you gain, and what do you give up?
Decide what would change your mind. If new facts appear, what would trigger a revision?
Log the decision in three lines. What you chose, why you chose it, and what you will watch.
Review once a week. Look for patterns in your best and worst decisions, then adjust.
Pick one step from the list above today. Use it for 30 days. Track it in a notes app or a simple spreadsheet. At the end, review what changed: fewer mistakes, less stress, or faster clarity. Then keep the step that actually improved your results.
About Terence Cushing
Terence Cushing, also known as Terry Cushing, is a Senior Corporate Counsel at Republic Services in Phoenix, Arizona. He was born in Schenectady, New York, raised in Exton, Pennsylvania, and holds a bachelor's degree in International Affairs from George Washington University and a law degree from Pennsylvania State University. He passed the Arizona bar in 2003 and later became licensed in Nevada and Texas, with a career spanning complex civil litigation, law firm partnership, and corporate legal work.
Media Contact
Terence Cushing
info@terencecushing.com
https://www.terencecushing.com/
SOURCE: Terence Cushing
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
