Monday Mentors with Dallas Personal Injury Lawyer Andy Jones

Andy Jones, Plaintiff's personal injury lawyer with Sawicki Law in Dallas, joins us on today's show. Andy talks about the PI practice, the no-jerk rule, getting involved in orgs, and being a person not a billing unit.

His firm/practice:

• Plaintiff's personal injury trial lawyer
• Located in Dallas but go all over the state
• Wrongful death / catastrophic injury / medical malpractice
• Just rated AV Preeminent by Martindale Hubble
• Issues in their practice area
  • North Cyprus issue - discovery that defense attorney can get into with what the facility is charging other parties; paid v. incurred; Heygood v. Escavedo case
  • Changes in civil procedure rules that essentially federalizes them
    • initial disclosures
    • experts
    • expedited action
    • conflicts with Civil Practice & Remedies Code
• Getting into plaintiff's practice
  • Eat what you kill, which doesn't lend itself to larger firms
  • Lots of senior lawyers in the area who are in their golden years and looking for the next generation to turn the practice over to
  • Network and find those you have good personality connections with
  • Story about finding client's shoes while investigating a helicopter accident; makes it real; there's a gravity to it you have to be able to handle
  • Can't personalize it to yourself. You can't picture your wife in the hospital bed laying down. That gets too deep. Shouldn't engage in "that could have been me" thoughts. Keeping a professional distance is important; that's what the client is hiring you for...objectivity.

COVID UPDATE (as of March 17, 2021)

• Tech support for clients
• Lots of depos/hearings/mediations via Zoom; hopefully much of that will stay once in-person returns
• Judges like being able to dispose of five motions to compel before 9am
• Concern about trials though; need to be in person.

Advice for lawyers in practice

• Andy keeps a list of lessons (email him to see it!)
• There is no problem you can't fix by talking about it
• You can't borrow trouble; don't think about how bad things could be; deal with where you are; focus on the road not the wall (car racing)
• Don't be an a-hole.
  • goes for firms too; associates don't want to work for jerks
• Don't say no; first rule of improv; say yes
• Joining groups/clubs/organizations
  • be part of something bigger than yourself
  • Jim Wren said so!
  • There are multiple groups in each of the major cities; find one that suits you
  • Bring a friend
  • Have a purpose (professional development? social? could be anything)
  • Have a question prepped to jumpstart the conversation.

Advice for lawyers seeking a job

• Confidence + competence
• In a small firm, you are going to be doing the work; there isn't a team of lawyers...it's you! So can the firm trust you to talk to clients, go to the courthouse, get access to records/Westlaw, etc.
• Find a way to be valuable
• Be a person; firms like his aren't looking for a fungible billing unit

Rapid Fire Questions:

• Name one trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: loyalty
• What habit has been key to your success: list making / calendar entries
• Favorite app/productivity tool: iCal
• Favorite social distancing activity: facetime phone call with someone you have never seen in person before
• Favorite legal movie: Breaker Morant

Thanks again to Andy Jones for joining us on the show!