Monday Mentors with Houston Trial Lawyer James Amaro

Houston Trial Lawyer James Amaro

James Amaro, of the personal injury firm Amaro Law Firm, joins us to talk about practicing a heavy case load during COVID-19, how to be useful in all areas of life, and a key missed opportunity job seekers make on resumes.

COVID update (as of 4/9/20)

  • Firm has been tech savvy for a long time; most of the intake is virtual, but after that people do like to come in
  • 30 people in the office in Houston that had to go remote
    • hired consultants and really looked hard at how best to do this
    • High risk employees were prioritized
    • VOIP investment
  • Much of the litigation show went one, and filing deadlines were continuing to come up
  • Daily morning meeting/update
  • Keep everyone on their top three things they need to do (hardest first)
  • Monitoring the COVID data regularly to try and stay up to date and be ready to adjust
  • He had only done a few Zoom depos prior to this
  • Some insurance companies don't want to use Zoom due to security issues and want to use WebEx
    • Also need to learn depo-specific technology (exhibit presentations)
  • Courts and orders have been a challenge
    • Several state courts have been inconsistent
    • Federal courts are doing their own thing
    • Keep the team updated on changes
  • Tough for new graduates with the Bar exam and entering the profession during this

His firm/practice

  • Started in insurance defense before jumping out on his own in 2005 to work on the BP explosion in Texas City
    • Actually was going to start a job at the SEC in New York, then 9/11 happened.
  • Almost 100% personal injury now (he had done some insurance work earlier - tried the first Hurricane Ike case to verdict)
    • Still involved in the Deep Water Horizon case (10 years old)
    • Lots of brain injury and trucking cases on top of the typical car wreck case
  • Wanted to build a firm that he would have wanted to join coming out of law school
    • thinks millennials get a bad rap
  • COVID has dramatically reduced the traffic on the roads, which lowers car wreck numbers

Advice for young lawyers

  • Be used and useful
    • help where you can help; not just at the firm but in all areas of your life
    • check in on people; let them know you care / thinking of them
    • try to set aside personal/financial ambition; that will come over time
  • take advantage of professional development opportunities books/seminars/etc.
  • if you want to build your own book of business or clients, establish relationships with lawyers who have the infrastructure to front cases and ask them if you can help
    • over time of doing great work and providing great customer service will lead to positive reviews and referrals, which leads to business (Mattress Mack example; Zappos book)

Advice for lawyers applying for jobs

  • Looks for people who did well in school (reflects effort)
  • No typos
  • justify text in every document
  • put your strengths up first; no cutting/pasting of typical resume bullets; be specific about how what you did helped someone
  • put some conversation starters in your resume
  • prepare well for the interview; show what you can add to the team in value
  • show you want to be there for some amount of time, so the firm doesn't feel like it might be wasting its investment if you leave after a year or two

Rapid Fire Questions

  • trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: realness/authenticity
  • key habit: being real / true to yourself
  • favorite app/productivity tool: Outlook
  • favorite social distancing activity: spending time with 5-month old daughter
  • favorite legal movie: A Civil Action

Thanks again to James Amaro for joining us on the show!