In a previous column, I examined some of the most outrageously high settlement demands in litigation history—all of which, not surprisingly, were made by self-represented litigants. But the work of responding to a demand can be an art form unto itself. In a number of memorable instances, brevity seems to be at the heart of a truly distinctive response.

It's a lesson that lawyers could learn from history. For example, when the Persian invaders demanded that King Leonidas and his Spartans surrender their weapons at Thermopylae, Leonidas famously answered, "molon labe," or "come and take them." (Of course, if you've seen the movie "300," you know how that turned out for the Spartans). Closer to home, when Mexican forces at the Battle of Gonzales demanded that the Texian militia return a confiscated cannon, the reply was "come and take it," a phrase since immortalized as the "Gonzales Flag" and a symbol of Texas' defiance. More recently, during World War II's Battle of the Bulge in 1944, the German commander sent a message demanding that American General Anthony McAuliffe and his beleaguered, surrounded paratroopers at Bastogne surrender. He defiantly responded with a one-word reply: "Nuts."