sometimes I’m asked you know why did I

decide to become a lawyer and

um the truth is

I don’t like Authority I really felt

like the best way to be in a position to

pave my own path in life is to have the

knowledge necessary to go out into the

world and to deal with uh a lot of the

issues that come up and a lot of that

has to do with the law coupled with a

strong desire to to read I I grew up

reading a lot that I was kind of I’ve

always been a lifetime learner this

sense of wanting to be in control of my

own destiny having resistance against

Authority and wanting to be in a

position where I couldn’t be taken

advantage of in the world led me to

wanting to become a lawyer and then once

I went through the process of of

starting to go through law school then

you start having to figure out who it is

that you want to represent in the world

right who do you want to assist with

this knowledge in my life life when I

looked at who did I want to assist I

said well do I want to spend my my days

working for big corporations do I want

to work for insurance companies you know

am I going to feel good coming home

saying well I just saved State Farm some

money today on the backs of some family

that probably needed it and I very early

on aligned with the idea that the lawyer

that I wanted to become was a lawyer for

the people a lawyer for the little guy

because I always viewed myself as the

little guy and I wanted to be able to

use that knowledge base that I had

achieved through my years of school and

law school and to have that benefit uh

you know regular everyday people rather

than huge corporations and so I actually

went to work for a personal injury Law

Firm the Monday after I finished law

school before I even set for the bar

exam I studied for the bar exam while

working full-time for a personal injury

Law Firm it’s all that I’ve ever done

since 9 1992 when I graduated from law

school and if you think about it I’ve

now been a personal injury lawyer in my

life

my lifetime for more years than I

haven’t been a personal injury lawyer in

my lifetime

in terms of my my background and

experience they kind of prepared me for

what I do now you know I grew up in a

family where my father was born on his

kitchen table in rural Tennessee because

this family could not afford to go to

the hospital and my dad’s dream was to

grow up get his own education and then

put all of his kids through college and

I was fortunate enough to be born into a

family where education was a central

theme there was never a time when I grew

up if you asked me well what do you do

after high school it was always well you

go to college and my family ended up

coming from a very middle class

background my brother and sister were

better at the science side of things

they’re both doctors and I ended up

going to uh to law school some called

the black sheep of the family we’ve got

two doctors and a and a lawyer but my

parents made that a central theme

education was always Paramount and then

my mother

if you think about what lawyering is

right it’s it not only is it having the

legal knowledge and the education but

it’s being in a position to advocate for

your client my mom uh was the first

female to graduate from the University

of Florida with a master’s degree in

theater and so I had this great exposure

to theater and the Arts uh through my my

mother and that sort of performance art

and that sort of uh you know it’s a

different setting but there’s some

similarities in terms of the public

speaking angles and and enjoying the art

so it’s kind of this mixture of this uh

very driven family from an educational

side of things and then this very

artistic uh side that my mother brought

to the table and I spent many nights uh

down while my mom was directing plays uh

literally sitting and watching a

rehearsal and doing my homework and

watching the actors and and so that made

me feel I think very comfortable in uh

speaking public speaking and speaking on

behalf of people