I come from a service family. Everybody in my family’s been involved in some type of service or another. My mom was a nurse and my dad, he worked at a bank during the day, but then he was a bartender at night. Ever since I was a little kid, I did something whether it was mowing other people’s grass or working as a paper boy. So, it kind of is in my nature and in my family and in our vein to serve people in one way or another. When I graduated from high school, I wasn’t ready for college. I went into the service, which everybody in my family has done, too. They were all in the army. And as I got out of the service, I started working on an offshore oil rig. So, I pretty much just was always doing blue-collar kind of stuff. I’ve had a very blue-collar kind of life.
I was a partner at one of the largest law firms in the country on the defense side of the fence, which for me ended up not being very fulfilling. I couldn’t help people. And while I was there, I had this pro bono case. So in other words, four lawyers had basically taken the case and then passed her on to somebody else. Basically fired the client. The insurance company finally said, “Okay, we’ll pay her the insurance policy amount.” And I said, “No, sorry. It’s way too late. This is a bad faith case. You did not treat her fairly. You have to pay her a lot more.”
Well, the firm I was with at the time evaluated the case and said, “Hey, we’ve accomplished our pro bono purposes here.” So, either she basically takes that amount or else she’s going to have to find a contingency fee lawyer to represent her. And that’s when I left that big firm and I said, “I’ll be that contingency fee lawyer.”
I left that firm. That was the only case that I had. Within months of that, they paid her $1.6 million instead of $200,000. And that’s when she said to me, “I’d like to meet your mother so I can thank her.”
This is the way that for me, I can personally help the most people that I come into contact with. And that really is what drives me to this day. I moved from being a partner in one of the most prestigious, largest law firms in the country to helping everyday people fight against unfairness and injustice.
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