Rocco Cozza - CEO of Cozza Law Group

Rocco Cozza calls Mike Howard to talk about how he navigated opening a new law firm in the middle of a pandemic, the firm's approach, and more in this latest episode.

Episode Transcript

(00:19):
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Howard from
the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce,Vice President of Membership, Events and Education,
and we are brought to you bywell, first and foremost, our
partners at iHeart Radio here in Wheeling, where you can find all the CEOs
you Should Know podcast on their website. Are also at the Wheeling Chamber dot

(00:41):
com website, sponsored by our goodfriends at West Banco and West Virginia Northern
Community College. Our guest today isa gentleman I've known for quite a while,
works in the Tri state area.It's Rococosa from the Coosa Law Group
ROCO. Welcome to ce You ShouldKnow. Well, thanks for having me,

(01:02):
Mike. It's a pleasure to beon the air with you. Remind
me how long cosea Law Group hasbeen in existence, and then we'll go
we'll do a little history lesson onROCO here in a minute. Yeah,
absolutely so. So I actually incorporatedthe firm July first of twenty nineteen,
so we just crossed four years abouttwo months ago. So you're one of
those lucky guys that got started.And then about eight months later COVID attacked

(01:26):
you Yeah, that is absolutely correct. But it's interesting because that's I looked
at COVID as an opportunity to grow, and that's when, you know,
when I started the firm, Ihad left Corporate America. I started the
firm as a solo practitioner really andthrough COVID I made my first hire.
We just we were growing and thenyou know, we have now ten employees

(01:49):
four years. Agow, that's awesome. Rocky, before I forget, go
ahead and let them know how theycan find you online. What what is
your website? Oh, it's justit's cozlaw dot com, cozz a law
dot com. We're also very activeon social media on Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn, so you can find methere as well. Very good. Now,
I know we'll get into this alittle bit, but you really took

(02:10):
your law firm in a different directionsand do different direction and do things a
little differently. Right, Yeah,that does it's a really good point.
So when I started my career inlaw, I've been practicing all two decades
now. I worked in big law. Then I went in house, worked
as general counsel of a large Icompany and got to travel the world and

(02:30):
I saw the way the law workand things I didn't like about law firms.
So when I left to start myfirm, I just wanted to do
things differently. So we take avery different approach to the practic law.
We know. We always say we'reredefining legal services, and it's just the
way we treat our clients, theway we operate. We are a very

(02:51):
white glove service type business. Soevery one of our clients, you know,
we build deep relationships with We spendquality time with them to make sure
we understand all the issues they have, and that's on our time. We
don't charge minds or things like that. Okay, So let's go back in
history here a little bit. Wheredid you grow up, Rocco? I
actually grew up in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, so about an hour north of Pittsburgh.

(03:14):
And from there, I'm assuming highschool around that area and where was
law school college that type of thing. Yes, So I went to Newcastle
High School. Then I went toWashington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA.
Went there four years. Was actuallya psychology major, and into my
senior year I was debating between lawschool and grad school for psychology. So

(03:38):
I ended up taking my grees andapplied to grad school for a child psychology
probably and got waitlisted, so thatI took that as my sign to be
a lawyer, took a year off, worked as a personal trainer for a
year, took my LSATs, appliedto law school, ended up going to
Dukuane in two thousand, graduated therein two thousand and three. And actually

(03:59):
when I went in, how theyalso got my MBA as well from Waynesburg
University. So you're fully homegrown,home educated right here in the area.
Huh, absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, So after
you left law school, is thatwhen you began that corporate ladder climb as
they call it. Yeah, SoI left law school so I had you
know, I had my son whenI was in law school at twenty four.

(04:21):
So my dream job actually as alaw student was to be a prosecutor.
But when I was interviewing for jobs, I realized that, you know,
the big firms paid a lot morethan the prosecutor jobs, and I
had a son at the time,so I had to take the job at
a big law firm. So Iworked. I was actually an employment litigator
for companies when I graduated law school. Worked there for a little over a

(04:44):
year and I ended up getting ajob in house and I was, you
know, the corporate counsel of atechnology company, got promote the general counsel
and was there for fourteen years.Then the cost of law firm when it
came about. And I'm sure yourrole has changed quite a bit in four
years. What was it when youstarted? Did you think it would be?
And then now that you have Ithink you mentioned ten employees, how
has that role changed? Its changedquite a bit. Actually, like I

(05:08):
said when I when I left CorporateAmerica, you know, I wanted to
start a firm more as a lifestylefirm, as a solo practitioner. So
I was working with small businesses,real estate investors, you know a lot
of the mom and pop shops.But then when COVID hit, I saw
that as an opportunity because a lotof the bigger law firms started to play
defense. You know, they werecutting associates, they were you know,

(05:30):
hoarding clients, they weren't giving thelevel of service and I could provide.
So I just started going after largerclients. And then from there, my
you know, started hiring more peoplebecause we just had more work coming in,
so my role has really changed fromyou know, being a lawyer one
hundred percent of the time, Sonow I'm probably practicing law sixty percent of
the time and managing people in thefirm the other forty percent, also doing

(05:54):
a lot of business development. Soit's I approach it now. As you
know, we don't have a lawfirm. We have a business that sells
legal services. So I'm the CEOof that business and that's how I operate.
Gotcha, Okay, So I havewatched a lot of you or read
a lot of your posts, especiallyon LinkedIn, and I think it was
just today there was one on successionplanning. Tell us a little bit about

(06:17):
I don't know if boutiqueness is theright word to use, but it seems
like you have some interesting things Idon't see a lot of other law firms
posting about. And I like yourwhite glove service. I like your business
that does legal services succession planning.Give us a couple of other interesting things
that people wouldn't maybe think that youwould do at your law firm. Yeah,

(06:39):
one of the big areas we dois entertainment law, and that you
know, that's really just business lawwithin the entertainment industry, and I fell
into that years ago. I hada couple of friends who were in the
sports agency or entertainment world. Theywere connecting me with former athletes and talents,
and I was advising them on variousbusiness issues, and then we just

(06:59):
kind of grew an entertainment law practice. So that's a lot of you know,
that's a part of what I do. I probably do that twenty five
percent of my practice. It's workingwith movie companies, record labels, production
studios, artists and really help themnavigate the business side of the industry.
That's something I think. We're oneof the only firms in the Pittsburgh even
the Tri State area that actively marketsand advertisement for that service we do.

(07:25):
We also do commercial litigation, estateplanning, but we are truly a business
law firm. We don't do consumerlaw. We don't do family law,
criminal law, personal injury. Allthe services we provide are for businesses or
business owners. Okay, but Iwant you to go tell me a little
bit about this whole succession planning andwhy that's important to you and to your

(07:46):
firm. That's a huge issue rightnow because there's what they call the silver
tsunami coming. There's a lot youknow, ten thousand people a day are
entering retirement age. A lot ofthem are businessness owners and they don't have
a plan in place. But wefound a lot of businesses, family run
businesses think their kids are going totake over the business, but they've never

(08:09):
had a discussion, and in mostinstances, the kids want nothing to do
with the business, so they haveno succession plan in place. So we
try and work with companies or businessowners, you know, five to seven
years prior to when they want toexit, to start helping them build that
succession plan. Who's going to takeover the business once these owners are done?

(08:30):
If it's not going to be thechildren, how are they going to
do it? And that's to mebecause we have such an age demographic that's
coming into retirement rather quickly, it'sa huge opportunity we see to help a
lot of companies, you know,continue their legacy instead of having to close
up shop. How often do yousee that then the somebody in the family

(08:54):
does come into it, or it'sjust a succession to someone are sold out,
right, I mean, so Iwould say, at least in my
experience, what I would say rightnow, it's probably twenty percent stays in
the family, the you know,maybe fifty percent you know, transition to
someone else, and there's probably thirtypercent that are just closing up shop or
selling their assets. And that's ashame because a lot of these are really

(09:18):
good businesses that they just don't haveanyone in the family to take it over,
or they didn't structure it the rightway to make it a business that
can be purchased, so they justsell the assets off. You're listening to
CEOs, you should know. I'myour host, Mike Howard from the Wheeling
Area Chamber of Commerce. We areonline with Rococoz of the Coza Law Group

(09:39):
ROCO. If someone wanted to findout more about succession planning with you all
or any of your services, goto the website. Is there a phone?
What's the preferred way for you all? You can come to our websites
just coslaw dot com. You canalso just call the office area and our
client intake especially she would be happyto schedule with someone. Our phone numbers
four one two two nine four eightfour four four great. Thanks ROCO.

(10:01):
Now I go back. Oh,I want to know a couple of years,
maybe to a little pizza lunch.You and I had a vincens of
Green Tree, one of our favorites. We've done that a couple of times,
and it struck me as we weretalking about things that we're both doing,
some writing and consulting, training,those type of things with different folks,
tell us a little bit about wherethat is for you in life and

(10:24):
what maybe a couple of years ago, but also where that's going for you
right now. Yeah. So,so the writing is an interesting piece that
I actually wrote and published a bookin twenty nineteen, actually a few months
that's where I formed the firm.That book was called The elfa Way,
Five Keys to Unlocking your Greatness andliving your best life. And that was
a book that I literally was writingto my twenty year old self. It

(10:46):
was kind of the five things I'velearned over the years that have made me
successful that I wish i'd have knownback then. So, you know,
the current process rate. I'm actuallyin the process of writing my next book,
which is going to be kind ofa a business book, but a
story of kind of how all thetrials and tribulations I went through and building

(11:07):
the firm and the things you don'tsee happening in the background. I'm using
it really as a life lessons book, and I look at that as a
book I'm kind of writing towards myson. My son's you know, twenty
two years old. He's going tolaw school next year, so this is
kind of a book I'm writing tohim. So it's the writing. I
love it. It's something I'm passionateabout. I just I wish I had
more time to do it. Soundslike you might be your own clients someday

(11:28):
for succession planning. Yeah. Absolutely, it's something that we're definitely trying to
build a legacy. When I lookat the firm, you know, I
always say that I want this firmto live on past me and whether that's
you know, my partner's take overmy kids. You know, all three
of my kids say they want tobe lawyers, and my son is definitely
one of law school next year.My two daughters are you know, they're

(11:50):
fourteen to ten. They both saythey want to be lawyers as well.
So I hope that is the case. But it's definitely a legacy. I
want to leave well passed my passing. Just don't let him do a reality
TV show Roco. Please, No, not at all. Well, let's
talk leadership style a little bit.This is one of the things I love
bringing to CEOs. You should know, is to talk to people about their

(12:13):
leadership style. Who kind of playedinto that? So, how would you
describe that? Especially if someone satdown to come to work for you today,
whether they're an attorney or let's sayyou you decided you need someone to
really help you with business development,how would you describe your leadership style to
a future employee. So I wouldsay that my leadership styles, I'm a
servant leader, like I look atI'm here to serve my people like they

(12:35):
don't work for me. I workfor that. And my goal with all
of my people is a help mentorand guide them and help bring out the
best at each employee. And thatyou know, that's a role I take
very seriously as a leader. I'mnot a command to control leader. I'm
not a micromanager. I want peopleto spread their wings, I want people
to make mistakes. I want tohelp people by guiding them and mentoring them,

(12:58):
but not doing the work for them. So I always say that I'm
truly a servant leader, and I'mhere to serve my people. Rokka.
Where would you say you noticed thatthat was your type of leadership style developing
First, I think at a youngage, honestly, even any sports teams
I've played on or any groups Iwas involved, and I was always the
one that was willing to help people. And then it really it really hit

(13:22):
home in logging the story from lawschool. So I was on the moot
court competition teams. He basically traveledaround the country and you know, pretended
to be lawyers and had trials andcompeted and had a great time. And
I was on this team for twoyears. And the one professor that was
a one of the coaches at thelast practice my third year of law school,

(13:43):
he gave each of us a stonewith a word inscribed on it and
it actually meant something for each ofus, and he gave mine. I
still have it to this day.It says inspire. And you know,
I was a twenty four to twentyfive year old kid at the time.
I had no idea what he meantby that, and he told me,
he said, you have a wayof your presence inspires people to be better.

(14:03):
He's like, just having you aroundthem, you tend to serve them
by being you and inspiring them tobe better. You think that's why I
think you inspire people, And that'skind of when it hit home for me,
Like what my leadership style was.I was always trying to serve my
teammates and help them be better.So then how would you say that has
then translated over into your service toyour clients? Almost the same way.

(14:30):
It's I serve my client and Iwant to I want to do whatever I
can to make them better. LikeI tell every one of my clients,
this is not a transaction. Weare getting into a relationship and I want
to be there with you through itall, and my job is to is
to protect them, to serve them, to make them better. So I
operate really the same way with alot of my clients. I always joke

(14:52):
that I'm their therapist as well.You know, they'll call me on that's
funny because they have a problem theywant to run by me and it's not
a legal issues. Is a partI'm happy to do that. Yeah,
when you mentioned the part about thecoaching side and your competition there, for
me, it happened really in highschool as a wrestler when I had to
go to one of the other mattswhen they had one coach and another kid
was wrestling. I got a biggerkick out of helping that kid win than

(15:15):
me win. So that's when Ifigured coaching leadership style is probably going to
be the same for me. Exactly. That's awesome. You're listening to CEOs,
you should know. I'm your host, Mike Howard from the Wheeling Area
Chamber of Commerce in our iHeart WheelingStudios for this podcast, and our guest
is Rococosa of the Coosa Law Groupand you can find them at Coosa cozz

(15:37):
a Coosa Law dot com. SoRoco, tell me a little bit about
some of the other influencers in yourlife, either from family, a professor,
mentor what are some A couple ofstories there. I mean, honestly,
my mother and my grandmother were mybiggest inspirations in my life. I
mean they both said to me ata very young age they didn't care or

(16:00):
what I became as long as Iworked the hardest at it and became the
best at it. So they reallyboth instilled to me my work ethic and
it was It's truly I've been askedthis question like, who are who inspires
me? Or who you know?Who are the people that have inspired me
over my life? And those arereally the two people that have done the
most because they've instilled in me thevalue of hard work. I've had professors,

(16:22):
I've had other mentors along the wayin my career, like the business
coach I work with now, Likehe's he's changed my life for the better,
you know, in the past fouryears. He's I always say he's
the sixty five year old version ofme. But truly, if I had
to pick one or two people,it would be my mother and my grandmother.
That's awesome. So are there anyyou know, authors or speakers or

(16:44):
anyone you try to go out ofyour way to grab their book or watch
a YouTube video or anyone in thein the world today that that piques your
interest. Yeah, I mean I'vealways I've always been a Simon Senek fan,
Like I just love the way,you know, the power of the
why and understanding at at my lat'sanother one. One book that actually changed

(17:06):
my life was Jack Handbell's book TheSuccess Principles. I read that book in
my late twenties and that book completelychanged my life. It's something I reread
every single year. That's awesome.So then are there any you know,
kind of hard knocks, tough lessonsthat you went through, either you know,
as a kid, as a collegestudent, or even as a business

(17:29):
owner that you could share with theaudience. Yeah. One of the one
of the biggest things I'm learning nowis leadership is the hardest thing you ever
do, leading people and trying tounderstand what motivates a person, you know.
And I've learned about myself that sometimesI give people too many chances and
it ends up burning me. AndI'm learning that as I grow the business,

(17:51):
as we bring on more employees,that when I recognize something that is
off, I need to make amove quicker. I'm too giving of a
person, and I care too muchabout people and really want to help people
develop that I sometimes can't see theaudience in front of me even trying to
help that person, and that hasburned me a couple of times. Well'st

(18:11):
answered two questions in a row becausethe next one was going to be advice
for aspiring CEOs or entrepreneurs. ButI'd say that's probably a good one right
there, right, Yeah, thatreally is absolutely so if we do think
about Let's say people coming out oflaw school right now, or maybe they've
even been in their law practice position, big firm, small firm, whatever

(18:32):
it is, one year in.What would you say to some of those
folks after they've got a little bitof experience to start looking at thinking about
Yeah, I would tell them,you've got to decide the type of lawyer
you are. Are you the lawyerthat's going to treat it as a job
or the lawyer that's going to treatit as a profession. Because if you
treat the practice of law as aprofession, that means you're striving for constant

(18:56):
improvement. That's how I look atthe pact of law. It's a sport
to me. So I'm practicing everyday. How do I get better?
How do I learn more? Howdo I prove my communication skills? How
do I improve my problem solving abilities? I think once you start practicing law,
if you decide that you're going totreat it as truly a practice and
a discipline, then you will beway more successful than the lawyers that treated

(19:18):
just as a job. Okay,then the next thing I would ask is
from the CEO entrepreneur angle, whatthis day and age, from a legal
perspective, does the CEO or entrepreneurreally kind of got to watch out for
Yeah, there's so many pieces tothat. The biggest thing I'm realizing now

(19:41):
with a lot of the companies werepresent, you know, there are a
lot of litigious people out there,a lot of employment lawsuits that are happening
that may not necessarily have the bestfacts because what I believe has happened in
the industry during COVID, there werea lot of plaintiffs lawyers that really didn't
have cases. You know, noone was getting in car accidents, no

(20:03):
one was in the office, youknow, to have these employee issues.
Now when people are kind of backout in the office, we're seeing cases
come across our desk that five yearsago would have never even been taken by
a lawyer, but because they're almostplaying catch up to try and generate some
fees. So as a small business, I mean, they become the targets.
Entrepreneurs and CEOs, they can becomethe targets of these types of laws.

(20:26):
So something just make sure you haveyour ducks in row, make sure
you're treating your employees the right way. You have the right documents in place.
You have the right processes in placewhen you're dealing with employees. That's
the biggest risk I see right now. So you're listening to CEOs, you
should know. When we are talkingwith Rocko Koza from the COSA Law Group,
I'm your host, Mike Howard fromthe Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce.

(20:48):
My fun closer question Roco that Iuse, yeah, pretty much at the
end of every show. I stolethis from my friend Kevin Trout from Three
Rivers Leadership, who I help gettinginto a show in a podcast. So
I thought, oh, I cansteal one question from him. But it's
a fun one. The hypothetical isthat Commissioner Goodell is supposed to speak at

(21:08):
Washington and Jefferson's graduation. He getssick, can't make it. They call
Roco Coza to come in and savethe day and speak to the graduating class
at WNJ. What one or twothings might you want to make sure,
Roco that you tell those graduating collegestudents that could go into any type of
profession. That's a great question.Well, the first I would say is

(21:32):
always be kind, Like that's mymantra, Like just be a good,
kind human being you know that's missingin the world today, and that will
get you very far in the businessworld. The second thing I would tell
people is it's going to be harderthan you think, but the result will
be better than you think. Ilike that one. I got to think

(21:53):
about. I gotta go write thatdown when we're done. That was really
good. You can have it.I can have it. Well, that's
good. I don't have to sendyou any any kind of commission. Nope,
nopef you can. I'm all aboutgiving. You can definitely use that
one. Feel free. Hey,Rocco, appreciate your time. Give them
your website and phone number one moretime in case they could like to get

(22:14):
a hold of you. Yeah.Absolutely. The website's cosalass coz z A
l a W dot com. Ourphone number is for one two two nine
four eight four four four. Greatand Rocco, how many you have just
the one officer? Have you?Have you opened up any extra ones yet?
So we have a silied office inNew York right now, and we're
looking to potentially open We're licensed inWest Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York,

(22:37):
Tennessee, in Florida, so we'relooking to open up a small office in
Nashville and then Florida as well.Great, well, our him membership probably
wouldn't mind you be in there someday, so don't forget the buck. I
stopped down the work on as well. Great Hey, Rocco, really appreciate
you being with us and we lookforward to having you down to an event
sometime and just wish you the best. I appreciate it. It was my

(22:59):
plasure he be on the show.You've been listening to CEOs, you should
know. I'm your host, MikeHoward. Our guest has been rock Ocoza
from the Coza log Group, andwe'll see you again next time on CEOs.
You should know.