June 11, 2025 • 42 mins
What does it mean to lead with integrity, care, and purpose, especially in community focused work? Jon Goehring, Coach Jim Johnson, and Dr. Rehnuma Karim welcome Mitch Panter: managing partner of Panter Panter & Sampedro, a trusted personal injury law firm in Miami, for an insightful conversation about leadership, team building, and community impact.
Mitch opens up about his unique journey from a debate loving kid to a five-decade legal career, including lessons learned transitioning from a big law firm to founding his own practice with his brother.
He shares rich insights for emerging leaders on:
Mitch opens up about his unique journey from a debate loving kid to a five-decade legal career, including lessons learned transitioning from a big law firm to founding his own practice with his brother.
He shares rich insights for emerging leaders on:
- Building and retaining loyal, empowered teams rooted in mutual respect and trust
- Creating a vibrant workplace culture that feels like family: pizza days, celebrations, and coffee breaks included
- The art of onboarding: teaching, supporting, and investing in your people’s success from day one
- Why community involvement fuels authentic growth and lasting reputation
- Navigating leadership challenges with humility and openness: even when cases or projects don’t go your way
- Practical advice for young professionals on building careers and networks strategically
- Mitch’s mission to protect and uplift Florida’s families, and how leadership connects to purpose
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better
podcast network, Better Today, Better Tomorrow, and the podcast to
get you there. You can find out more at Teefbetter
dot com slash podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
You're not going to please everybody. You're not going to
get the best restolled. But if I get hundreds of
calls to day, and a lot of them are garbage
and are junk, but to the people that are making
those calls, it's important. And if I give them the
respect of saying, yes, I hear what you're saying, but
unfortunately I can't help you in that circumstance. I don't
think that there's a legal remedy for you. I don't
(00:34):
think that we can pursue that case for you. I'm sorry.
Let me recommend a surface that might be able to
help you. Let me recommend another lawyer that might be
able to help you. Let me recommend this whatever it
might be. And sometimes it's not going to work. You
try the best you can, and you accept it when
it doesn't work out, and just try to keep your
cool and not be rude or disrespectful. But people, no
(00:54):
matter what the circumstance, do.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You want to be a leader in a constantly changing
world are emerging Leadleaders look different, come from various backgrounds
and from all different age groups. Leadership is changing and
it's hard to keep up. But the good news you
can be a leader too. You can be an e
merging leader. Welcome to the Limitless Leadership Lounge, a try
(01:17):
generational conversation for emerging leaders. Come spend some time with
us to discuss leadership from three angles. The coach Jim Johnson,
the professor, doctor Renumah Kareem, the host, John Gering, a
monthly guest, and you get in on the conversation on
Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to follow us on
(01:37):
Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Speaker. So come on in and
make yourself comfortable.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
It's another week of the Limitless Leadership Lounge of tried
generational conversation for the emerging Leader. I'm John Garing, and
we really want to let you know that if you've
enjoyed this show, or maybe you've gotten something of value
from its, we'd appreciate a review up on any of
the platforms that you're listening or even watching on. And
if you're up on YouTube, thank you be sure you
(02:04):
subscribe there too, because we've got more content from great
guests and the three of us coming out there shortly
for you. I'm joined as well as always by Coach
Jim Johnson, the coach. You have another guest that we
brought along today, and I guess he'll have to step
in for renew my as the middle generation today.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Coach.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Yeah, I'm really excited I got a chance to talk
to Mitch Panner. And Mitch, I'm also excited because my
son is an attorney. It's always good and I don't
know if we've had an attorney, so this may be
our first one first on the show, the first Yeah,
We've been doing the show for over three years. So
I want to share a little bit about our guest
and then we'll get right into its. Mitch Panner is
(02:40):
the managing partner of a personal injury law firm in Miami,
consisting of five attorneys and eleven full time staff members.
In addition, both Mitch and the firm have been a
pillar in the community for more than thirty years. As
a past president of several legal and community organizations, Mitch
continues to actively participate in various causes through South Florida.
(03:01):
He has lectured and todd for associations, including the Bar Association,
high schools, and business groups. Without any further ado, Mitch,
welcome to the Limitless Leadership Lounge.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Thank you coaching John. It's my pleasure to be here.
I'm pleased and proud to be the first lawyer. But
I want to talk not necessarily one hundred percent about law,
but I want to talk about community involvement. I want
to talk about being a leader in our area. We've
been on our community in South Florida, Miami for more
than thirty years, and it was a long road doing
a lot of community activities and that's how I want
to grow our business and have continued to grow our business.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
That's awesome because we definitely want to do that because
in helping young leaders and giving back to the community,
I think is a really powerful thing. Thank Delvin. And
we don't do this too much. But I'm just curious because,
as I said, my son's an attorney as well. I'm
just interested if you can take us a little bit
about your journey in your life and what made you
decide to go into be an attorney.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So I'm fortunate I knew early on what I wanted
to do and how I wanted to do it. I
was born in Jersey. We moved to Hollywood, Florida, where
I grew up, and from an early age like to argue,
to debate, like to talk, talk, talk and talk, but
I knew that's what I wanted to do. I graduated
high school a year early and went to the University
of Michigan and enjoyed the heck out of that. It
was a great collegiate environment, and between the great football
(04:19):
games and a big campus was really interesting. I could
have done without the cold weather, but part of boy,
it was good. I spent my junior year in college
in Austria. I did program where we traveled throughout all
of Europe. It was a great learning experience. Met people
from all over the world, learned different cultures, and it
was really growing experience. And to this day I pushed
(04:40):
parents friends of mine who have kids out of that
age to get them to go abroad just to learn
and see the world. You learn by doing that. It's
a wonderful thing. Came back home, went to the University
of Miami, all about the U, and went to law
school here. Started out doing I was an intern at
the State Attorney's Office, so I did some prosecuting. Subsequently
I graduated law school. Job out was with a mom
(05:01):
and pop guy. We did family, we did criminal, civil,
you name it. Went on to a bigger firm to
do what's called insurance defense work, representing the insurance companies
and did that for five years. Laid a great groundwork
for my current job because it gave me the idea
to see what the other side is doing and to
learn what they do and how they do it, how
they evaluate cases, the reporting process. Shortly thereafter joined up
(05:24):
with my brother, Brett Panter. We became Panther and Panter.
A few years after that it was Panther and pant
and Sampedro. We're in an office building on a corner
Kendall in US one down in South Miami. We've been
here for more than thirty years. We do personal injury, products, liability, premise, liability,
auto negligence, all those kind of cases. And that's a
good start.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yeah, it sure is. So you went from a huge
university setting a couple of them began to the big
U and then you went to directly to mom and
pop and that's had to have been an interesting transition
and for leaders, maybe a good lesson of how versatile
you need to be. What was the experience of transitioning
from a huge environment to then all of a sudden
(06:05):
you're one of just several.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I'll give you a great example my son, my oldest son,
my younger son works and does employment. Love. My oldest
son went to Duke, then he went to Georgetown. Then
he went to a big firm in New York City,
and he worked the work. When you're a lawyer in
the big firm in New York City, they want to
extract every last dime out of you, So you work,
and then you realize at some point in time, hey,
I want to have a life, and that mix of
(06:29):
life versus work needs to be done early on in
your career so you can do it. I'm grateful that
I got the experience to go to this big, huge,
monster school in Michigan and a smaller school but still
a big school in Miami. I'm thrilled that I worked
for Mom and Pop in a small little office where
I looked out my window and it was a brick wall,
and got to see what that was all about. Where
(06:49):
if you had a fax or the onion paper, those
sort of things that as starting out. Then when I
went to the big firm, if you will, different world,
reporting the billible hours and to somebody else and learning
and great opportunity. Is great experience that I had. But
then to go and open up my own shop, if
you will, with my brother. It's a difference between the
(07:10):
responsibility from the administration side versus the responsibility and concept
of every check you bring in goes into your pocket.
So it's a different world. It's a different mindset, different thought.
The learning process at somebody else's expense is great. I
didn't have to worry about payroll, I didn't have to
worry about insurance. They didn't have to worry about pens
and papers and photocopy machines. And if you can just
(07:30):
focus and concentrate on the work at end, that's a
great thing. But that mentality of a leader, an emerging leader,
of having the goal behind and planting the seeds so
that you can go and be your own boss and
run your own show, you got to learn. You got
to soak it up. Even when I was at the
big firm, I talked to the secretaries, the power legals,
the administrative people, and I learned how things work because
(07:53):
I knew one day I would go out and do
it on my own, and if I could see what
they're doing and how they're doing it right and wrong,
it was great learning experience and enabled me to this
day to carry that with me and move forward.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Yeah, I think it's a great learning experience because my
son just became a junior partner at his firm, and
he works at a big firm, so I know exactly
who you're talking about all the hours of the good
of him working. But I'm curious. Being a basketball coach
for a long time, one of the keys that I
help leaders with is trying to bring the right people
on your team. And certainly you've built a team. Tell
(08:26):
me what have you found. How have you because I'm
sure you've made some really great hires and maybe a
few mistakes as well. Tell me what you've learned to
help a young leader if they're going to start their
own business, of how they can bring the right people
on their team.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Coach, you hit it on the head. You're only as
good as your team. You could be the best coach,
you could be the greatest, but if you don't have
the players and the players that have the desire and
the will coach. You're a coach basketball. Oh, I like basketball.
What do you have that relates to me that I
can relate to you? That we can work together and
I'm going to be happy here. I'm going to spend
eight hours, nine hours, ten hours a day, five six
(09:01):
days a week with this person, and if I don't
get along with them and the environment, it's really important
for me when I hire somebody to make sure that
they're going to get along with everybody else. I want
a happy family, happy life, happy wife. All those sort
of things are really truthful and in a work environment
just as well as in your home environment.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
You mentioned one of the things I know John's got
some question about. I'll ask one more question. You mentioned
about when a person comes on to your team. They
had famous en Boie that early time. That I think
my observation, because I speak to a lot of businesses,
is they missed the boat on that I let that
person come in and flounder gets flounder.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
No, you gotta jump. So we've got a training system.
We've got a young girl that is my representative of
the firm. She will teach them, she will work with them,
and she'll make sure that they know what they're doing,
Take them out to lunch, bring them into lunch again,
we have our three o'clock coffee time. But the worst
thing you can do is just throw somebody to the
wolves and say sink or swim, walk upstairs, downstairs they're
(10:01):
down the hall and say all the time, Hey, how
you doing? What's going on? Let me show you how
it works. Use whatever teaching moments that you have as
a boss. I frequently do so I have a new
secretary litigation versus non litigation, a phone call. Hey, come
sit in with me and listen to how I talk
to the client. Come look at this pleading that I'm drafting,
and this is why I do it. They may have
(10:22):
experience from a different location, but it might be totally
different and a different way of doing things, and you
want to teach them and educate them. It's my responsibility
as the boss to teach them to help them. So
the more I can tell them what to do and
have it done the way that we like it done.
Our system is great, but also you have to have
the mechanics and the availability there. So we have a
(10:42):
software computer program that's extremely user friendly and that we
have them trained on that for the first few days
they learn, and that's got all our forms, it's got
our procedures, it's got our calendaring. So we try to
make it as easy as possible and try to make
the transition smooth because those first few days they're nervous
as all heck, and you want to do well and
(11:03):
you don't know if you're doing well. But give them feedback, No,
you did this. I'm not criticizing you, but try to
do it this way next time and work with them.
The more you can spend that time at the beginning,
Like with a client, I get a new client that
comes in, I would rather spend the time during intake
and we'll talk about lawyers in a minute and how
we get our cases. But I would rather spend more
time on the intake teaching them about how it's going
(11:25):
to work, so that three weeks, three months, three years
down the road, we've already been through that and they
know what to expect.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Mitch, You're one thing that you're showing us here is
that even as a law professional, you're really laid back,
you're conversational, you're all those wonderful things that people don't
always associate with law. They think of, oh, no, I
got to hire a law guy.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
This is going to be awful.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
How is it that you're able to since you do
a very serious job, how are you able to also
separate that from your really laid back personality.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
First and foremost understanding that when you do criminal work,
I think the expression is you're seeing bad people at
a good time or good people at the worst time,
whatever that might be. Same thing with family work, divorce work.
I get somebody that comes to see me, they were
in an accident, somebody's hurt, they're hurt, they're killed. It's
a pretty serious thing. You need to be honest with them.
(12:20):
You need to be open with them. You need to
tell them how the process is going to work. Because
most people have not been through a lawsuit or a
claim or something like that. So it's important to understand that. Likewise,
with my staff, if I'm constantly micromanaging it on somebody's head,
they're not going to get work done. If I give
them the tools and the opportunities and the ability to
(12:41):
do a job and do it well, that's fine. I'm
coming showing up. As most of the coach of that showing up,
you could do the drills. You could do the work,
you could do the skills, but show up. That's the start.
So if I get people clients or lawyers or assistants
or whoever it might be, just to show up. And
then you want to make it comfortable. When I like
(13:01):
coming to work, I want my staff to come to work.
We have pizza Day, we have every we celebrate everybody's birthday,
no matter whose birthday it is. Every time it's a birthday,
we have our Cuban coffee. We get them whatever cake
they want, and we sing and we dance, and we
make a fool of ourselves, and we put it on
social media for our people to do. But it's that
family environment that we have that differentiates pant and some
(13:23):
Pedro from the big box lawyers and those other people.
We try our best to do that. And then I'm
gonna answer your question. I don't take myself that seriously.
I'm a lawyer, Okay, fine, I've been doing it forty years.
Okay fine. I still do what needs to be done,
and it's still not above and beyond other people. And
if I realize that and understand that every day, it helps, it's.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
A great point. I do a lot of leadership presentations
victor of this record, and I did one yesterday And
I often ask this question, is trust important in building
a great team culture? And I usually get one hundred
percent hands yes. So my question, because I really push leaders,
how do you build trust with you people?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
This is how you build trust? This is my pay.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
But in seriousness, he trusts me. He trusts me to
feed him, he trusts me to walk him, he trusts
me to brush his hair. He trusts me he has
the most without any doubt, any anything. And if you
understand that, that's it's huge, it's critical. I need to
trust my clients. I need to trust that they're going
to tell me the truth, that they're gonna work with me,
that they're gonna be honest with me, because if they don't,
(14:32):
it's gonna bite me and it's going to bite them
and it's going to be a problem. But if I'm
honest with other people, and I have that trust now,
and that's an important thing me personally, not lawyer bitch,
but person bish. If you have my trust, you have everything.
If you don't have my trust, you got nothing. If
I trust you, I know that job will get done.
That the work will get done, that everything will be fine,
and that will work through it. You screw up, Okay,
(14:54):
you screwed up. Come and talk to me, tell me,
let me know how we can fix it. We had
an issue the other day where a lawyer made a misas. Okay,
he came and he spoke to me and we fixed it.
We addressed the issue and we resolved it. Had he
tried to hide it, had he not told the truth,
had he not addressed it correctly, it would have been
a problem. But on, Once you gain my trust, then
(15:15):
you have my trust, your golden Without that, it's a reputation.
To get that reputation and to have it and make
it a good reputation is great. But once you do
that one wrong thing, it's hard to build back. And
that's trust, that's reputation. Leadership as well. If you're a
good leader and you work well, and you work hard,
and you do nice things for people, appropriate things for people,
(15:37):
ethical things for people, they see that, they know that's
who you are and what you are. It's going to
continue to go on and on and work well for it.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
You talked earlier, I know about the keys to building
your team, getting the right people on the bus, so
to speak, How also do you retain that team?
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Well, I belong to a business group. It's called B
and I and it's a business group, and it's a
group of all kinds of different people, but all type
a personality people. And I was at one point in time,
I forget what my title was. That a vice president
dealt with getting people to join and then retaining them
in every group that I belong to, the Pine crist
Business Association, my Temple, the JCC, no matter what it was.
(16:18):
You have two fold One is getting the members and
two is keeping them. And how do you do that monetarily? Okay, fine,
But I've seen with the generation of younger lawyers and
younger people, it's not necessarily always about the money. I
see as sports nowadays, coach you see it probably more
than anybody else. It's horrible. It's all about the money,
(16:39):
and it's not about the loyalty, and it's not about
the coaching, and it's not about the caring. And that stinks.
That's not good. But in my field, what I see
is if I can tell a young single mom that's
just coming into the legal field, yeah you can work
from home. This is spring break, and so I've got
all of my secretaries telling me I don't have day care,
(17:00):
grandparents aren't feeling well. I have a hard time if
I can tell them in all candor, that's fine. Work
from home today, get the job done, and you're perfectly fine.
And we're good with that. The caring that my secretary
is going to go have knee surgery. I went out
and I bought her laptop. Not that she misses three
weeks of work, but that she can work from home
and do it. If you care, coach, you know that
you care for your player. You know your player's going
(17:22):
through a breakup with his girlfriend. He needs that his
mom is sick. The simple things about being nice to people,
about being respectful and understanding who they are and what
they're going through, not only as a coach, player, but
as a human being to human being. You and I
are old enough to have that fatherly figure kind of stuff.
John still young. He's going to be our son. But
to understand that people have lives and need to address
(17:45):
that life and how to handle it and appropriate, fair, reasonable,
normal manner is what we do.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Yeah, that's a great point, Mitch. I got to delve
in because I really admire how much you give back
to the community. So I'd like you to delve into
why you do it and what you would encourage young
leaders to start thinking with that mindset that how can
I serve the community better.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
It started young, So when I first became a lawyer,
I was part of what's called the Young Lawyer section
of the Day County Bar Association. So I think community
involvement is huge in your career, is huge in your life,
and it helps. It helps because it fulfills me, It
fulfills a need. It's a good thing. So as as
the young Lawyer, one of the representatives, I was involved
(18:31):
with what's called the mock Trial program, and we would
coach high school mock trials and I in essence ran
the program for several years. And I would get other
lawyers in our community to come and be judges. I
would get judges to come and be judges and different
people to assist. From there, I joined the Pinecrest Business Association.
Every time I join a group, I get involved with
(18:52):
and make sure that's the group that I want to
be in because my goal is not just to be
in these groups, but ultimately to be a leadership and
to be the leader of these groups, because if you're
going to spend the time after an energy to be involved,
you might as well do it right. I've always thought that,
and I've always risen to the level of leadership in
the Kendall Bar Association south of my mc Kendabar was
a president for many years. In a Pinecrest business association.
(19:14):
I was a secretary, I was a treasurer, I was
the president in my B and I group. I'm rising
up and doing different levels and different things. I coach
for the high school mock trial program. I did it
when my kids were there. When my younger son was
in the marching band at the high school, I became
the band dad, and just to be involved number one. Realistically. Selfishly, Yeah,
I get business out of it. I meet people, they
(19:36):
understand who I am. I'm there, I'm helping. I'm being
part of the community. But it fulfills me as well.
It gave me time to spend with my kid. I
got to be with him and all his friends. It
gives me time to be with young people to develop them.
I'm really proud because I see these high school kids
that I've been coaching in mock trial for the last
twenty years. Who are now lawyers, and when they're on
the other side or their co counselor they call me
(19:57):
for a legal question, it's really a proud that I've
done that. When we give a scholarship to a kid.
I gave a two thousand dollars scholarship to a kid
that really couldn't afford it. He came back for his
first spring break and he brought me a T shirt
from his school, and just these things that give you
fulfillment and make you feel good. But I'm stressing the
part about be leadership. Don't just be part of the flock.
(20:19):
You want to be the guy that runs the show
because you want if you're capable of doing it, and
at that's your mindset. But future leaders are what they are.
And if you can be the leader and you can
run the show and you can make things work better,
you have a duty to do it. And I'm proud
to do it, and I enjoy doing that. We've done
it for many years. As long as I'm able to,
I'm going to keep doing it.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
Ekscellent.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Oh, as a successful person who's gone out and done
your own thing business wise, I know one of the
keys to that you mentioned it is networking and being
part of BNI. I'm sure is a great opportunity to
do that, as well as all those other positions that
you've held. What would you suggest for a young person
who may have just been in the same situation as you,
(21:03):
who has left a big corporatech conglomeration and now they're
out on their own and they don't know where to begin.
There's so many networking opportunities, but they're not really sure
which ones are gonna produce.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
So let me tell you about my business. So many
years ago, there was one law firm that advertised it
was called Cohen and Cohen. They were in Hollywood, Florida.
They were the name nobody else dared go on TV
or anything like that, and we decided that what we
wanted to do was try to advertise. So I met
this guy who's now the guru, the biggest lawyer in
all of the world. I'm not going to name him,
(21:36):
but everybody knows who he is. And I had a
seminar where he was there and he sponsored it and
talked and he said, anybody wants to come and see me,
come and see me. So me and my brother hopped
on a plane win to Orlando, met him, opened up
his doors, and taught us about the world of advertising,
yellow pages, TV radio, community involvement, community activities. Couple that
(21:57):
with my day, County Bar Association, Trial Orders Association, Business Association,
Temple Church, whatever affiliate. You can do. Spend the time,
spend the effort, spend the energy. When your kids are
in elementary school, there wasn't a parent's day or teacher's
work day or anything that I didn't go in there
and bring a pad of paper or lecture. It thrilled
(22:18):
me to go to my first and second and third
grade classes and talk about a gross case that I
had where a guy at an operation and show them
the pictures and they loved it. Anything you can do
to get out in the community to meet people. LinkedIn nowadays,
social media there's so many opportunities now, but you got
to be careful about going too thin. So you got
(22:39):
to pick one of those, two of those, three of
those and go out at full force and figure out
what's going to be good. I see LinkedIn seems to
be a really good thing for jobs, businesses and people
and stuff like that. Both my boys when they were
looking for jobs and working there. They did that. If
you're in college in the fraternities, those relationships that you
(22:59):
have from that are going to be with you forever
and ever. Don't burn bridges. So if you leave one job,
don't burn bridges, because those are the people you're going
to be going against and with and for and looking
to work with. My oldest son left one job, went
somewhere else, and in his new job, he's what's called
in house counsel. So he has a need for the lawyers.
So he'll call the lawyers that his old firm because
(23:20):
he left in good hands. He didn't leave with a
bad taste on their mouth. And I'm proud I got
several girls that leave me are people that women that
leave me to go to make more money, and you
know what, I have no problem with that. They want
to come back and work for me down the road
because they see, hey, grasses and green are there. As
long as you've left in good terms and continue to
be cordial and respectful and ethical, it's a good thing.
(23:43):
Those are some helpful hints about what to do as
you're growing up and learning and moving along the roads
you mentioned.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
But I want to do a little deeper. So if
you're right now in marketing your firm, because there are
so many you mentioned radio, television and our social media.
Let's drill down right now with where we are in
twenty twenty five. What are the one or two things
that you're focusing that you think you're getting the best
excellent point.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Coach, let me tell you you, as a coach, have drills.
You have that one drill that this one works.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
Darn it.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna
do it. Mine is community. So as much as I
do TV, as much as I do radio, as much
as I do print, Dad, the biggest and best and
thing that I love the most is going out to
the community affairs, community event. So we sponsored a few
weeks ago and art show in the village of Pine Crest,
and we went out there and we gave away hats
and cups and T shirts and promoted the winners. I'm
(24:37):
going to be the coach, the judge in a hamburger contest.
It's a meat contest. We sponsor a July fourth event.
We give turkeys away at Thanksgiving. In the summertime, we
give away bicycles. I'm a big believer in being a
big fish in a small pond. I don't want to
take over the world. I know what my limitations are,
I know what my abilities are. I don't want to
(24:58):
grow my law firm to be the big and best
in all of the world. I want to be the
biggest and best that I can be in my community.
I want to help as many people in my community
in my area as is possible, and so I want
to get as big and as strong and as good
of a name reputation in my community as I can do.
I go to the schools, I go to the activities,
I go to the parks, I go to the business
(25:19):
meetings wherever I can go and show that community, whether
it's twenty people, fifty people, or one hundred people. I'm
not going to go to the Kyocho festival with a
million people. I can't put a dent in that. But
I will go to the Palmetto Bay or the Cutler
Bay or the local event where there's a few hundred
and I'll be there and I'll be present, and I'll
show everybody that we care. And I'll give the scholarships
(25:40):
to the high schools that are in my community. And
I go and I give speeches and so small fish,
big fish, little pond. That works for me. That's how
I run our business.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I know, as somebody who your name is actually in
the business. Your reputation is so important too, and making
sure that you're dealing with client and there are touchy things, right,
How do you make sure your reputation is when you're
working with difficult situations and circumstances and you people, yeah
and beabley and I'm sure not everybody leaves like fully satisfied.
(26:14):
There's not anything you can do about that. How do
you your reputation? What are some of the things you
do for your reputation?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
So one of the big things now in social media
is these references and recommendations and the notation. So after
you've had a good client and a good result, you
ask them, hey, can you please write a referral for me?
Can you please tell people? And you're going to get
the bad ones and there are those companies out there
that'll scrub them for you and play that sort of game.
You do the best you can for people, understanding and
(26:41):
appreciating that you're not going to please everybody. You're not
going to get the best result. But if I get
hundreds of calls today and a lot of them are
garbage and are junk, But to the people that are
making those calls, it's important. And if I give them
the respect of saying, yes, I hear what you're saying,
but unfortunately I can't help you in that circumstance. I
(27:01):
don't think that there's a legal remedy for you. I
don't think that we can pursue that case for you.
I'm sorry. Let me recommend a surface that might be
able to help you. Let me recommend another lawyer that
might be able to help you. Let me recommend this
whatever it might be. And sometimes it's not going to work.
You try the best you can, and you accept it
when it doesn't work out, and just try to keep
(27:21):
your cool and not be rude or disrespectful to people,
no matter what the circumstance.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
That's a good point.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
I gotta tell them in Mitch, because I know my
son has hit his ups and downs as an attorney,
and I'm sure I know you've had a lot of success,
but I'm sure you've had a few losses. Tell us
a little maybe a story of when a case didn't
go well. What you learn from it.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
So years ago I was doing what's called insurance defense work,
and I represented an insurance company, an insurance company and
short of guy up in the northern part of Florida
that was an oyster harvester. And the case was about
a gentleman that ate some oysters and got sick and ultimately,
through a on arduous, very difficult medical situaation, died. And
(28:04):
so I was representing the oyster representative a guy that
sold them and he got them from somebody else in
the Bayous, literally from up and here in the state
of Florida and in New Orleans. And then we had
to go into the issues of did this guy get
stick from our oysters, did this guy die from our oysters?
And what was it that we did. So I had
(28:24):
to then try to mitigate the damages. And so that's
a lot of what we do, whether we're plaintiff or defendant,
is mitigation. As a party pursuing a claim, you have
a duty to do what's called mitigate your damages. And
if you win the case, if you lose the case.
So I had a case just yesterday where I had
a young lady that was a slip and fall case,
(28:44):
and the laws have changed and it's very difficult now
to proceed with a slip and fall case, although we
still do it. But there came a point in time
where the other side filed what's called a proposal for settlement,
where they offered X amount of dollars, not the amount
that we wanted, not a significant amount, but it was
if you didn't take that offer and you lost, you're
going to wind up owing them money and it's going
(29:05):
to put my client in a real bad situation. So
I had the client come in and I had to
explain to them, Look, I'm sorry, I want to get
more money. I want to get you more money, but
it can't happen. My suggestion to you, recommendation, strong recommendation,
is to take the money and run. I'll reduce my fees,
I'll work with the medical bills. You'll get something that's
better than nothing. And it's the right thing to do.
(29:26):
And rather than push the client to expose them to
jeopardy of financial issues, we did it. And it meant
me taking a little bit of a cut on my
fees and my costs. Telling the doctors you got to
reduce your bills. Look, tell the client that you have
to do it, But sometimes you have to do what's
in the good of the client and the good of
the cause, understanding where you're at. So it's not necessarily
a matter of winning or losing. But if you do lose,
(29:48):
how do you mitigate that, if you don't make a
huge recovery, how do you mitigate that with appeasing the client?
And the client left here she fully understood, she appreciated,
she understood from the beginning that was a difficult case,
and left a friend instead of that darn lawyer. I
hate him. He didn't do good for me. And mitigation
is the word I want to get for you guys
from this question this issue.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
So sometimes there is a compromise, there is something in between.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
And so not compromise.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Man, Oh yeah, it's out of your control. So then
this is also a good lesson for any leader who
was in any other industry too, because Sony, sometimes we
overestimate what is in our control. How do we under
promise over deliver, Especially if my practice, I've got people
that are catastrophically injured with a ten thousand dollars bodily
injury insurance policy.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So what that means is that the upside. The most
you're going to get is here, but the damages and
everything are here, and you're not going to get there.
You can't get there. It's just not there. And you
have to explain to people that's as good as it's
going to get. But you have to do it in
a compassionate, realistic, ethical manner so that they understand and
appreciate it and intake from the beginning, so that they
(31:00):
have to know from the beginning what's gonna happen. Coach,
you've got players. They're never gonna be the star player,
but they're part of the lineup. They're part of the team.
You can't go on without them. You need that person,
and you need to let them know this is your role,
these guys that come off the bench. If you're not
gonna be that starter, you're not gonna be the great guy,
but you're the sixth player, you're the off the bench guy,
(31:21):
and you're just as important as everybody else. And a
leader needs to know that maybe they have limitations in
what they can do, or maybe the people they hire
are going to have limitations in what they can do,
but doesn't mean you're less important. That doesn't mean that
I still don't need you that you're part of the team,
but understand your role, Mitchell ask you.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
I'm an avid reader. I'm always looking for good reads,
but certainly for our audience as well. If you were
to advise a person that really wants to learn more
about leadership, do you have any books you would recommend
to them?
Speaker 2 (31:52):
So I'm gonna be honest with the coach. I'm not
one of those Tony Robbins guys there are. I got
so many. And it's funny because all these guys to
my B and I group, they're constantly going to the seminars,
a self help seminars, and a self help this, and
a self help that, and the learning of doing to
be beat every single day at work all day long.
So when I read Trash, I read my John Grisham,
(32:13):
and I read my fun Stuff, and I watched Jump TV.
If it works for you, I went this morning and
I had breakfast. A physical therapist lady that does that,
does acupuncture and chiropractic, and it's not for me. I've
done it and it helps. And when I have clients
that come in and do it, does it work for you?
Does it make you feel better? God? Blessed. Do it.
(32:33):
So the self help books, the self help lectures, the
people that go to the training for that sort of stuff.
If it works for you, do it. Podcasts like this,
if you got I love going to seminars and walking
away saying, oh, I didn't learn anything because I knew
it all because I've gotten that information already and it's
just reinforcing it. So it's a good thing and I
(32:53):
appreciate that. If it works for you, do it.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
I can imagine you probably have a lot of light
reading at work to, don't you.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
It's a lot of medical records, a lot of medical reports,
a lot of expert reports. I'm working on a case
where somebody slipped and fell inside an apartment complex and
the stairwell was it's down on the beach on Miami Beach,
and so it generates a lot of heat and air
conditioning and moisture and humidity. And what we found out
what happened was the stairwell was exposed or wasn't exposed,
(33:26):
and as a result, there was a build up of
humidity and moisture in the stairwell when they left the
doors open, when they left the door closed, and as
a result of the humidity. The stairs were not skid resistant,
and they got some moisture built up, and she was
walking down and slipped and fell. Now I knew this
was a good case because she slipped and she fell,
and she food and couldn't have. But I'm not smart
enough to be able to put it in words. I
(33:47):
hired an engineer that studied the air conditioning and the
slopes and the diagrams and this and that, and then
another expert that talked about the coefficient of friction how
it should be. And these guys together are able to
tell me. So I can tell Jewelry or a judge
or another person, this is what the liability is, and
this is why it's there, and this is what the
fault is. And so again, teamwork. I got that team
(34:10):
together to help me present my case to work. I
got a group of doctors that treated her orthopedically, that
treated her, she got a cut plastic surgeon, and I
get them to work with me and my team to
be able to explain this is the procedure that was
done and why it was done. This is what the
future holds for her, this is what the past holds
for her, This is what the present holds for her.
(34:30):
This is the cost of repair, of restoration, of fixing
her up and stuff like that. So it's working with
the team and understanding that there's nothing wrong with asking
for help and getting the help to put together that
team to make your end result the best it can be.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
That's a great point in building that really hopeful team
network of people that you can because you don't have
all the answers, and that's why you need to have
people that you can reach out to to give you advice.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
But to understand that, to understand that you don't have
all the answers, that you can't do it all by yourself,
that's the first big step, and you got to do it.
To air coach. You can't get out there and play
as much as you'd like to, but you can teach
these other people what you know in your experience of
how to do it. Hopefully they'll learn from that.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Absolutely, Mitch, we're coming close to the end, and first
of all, I really appreciate your time and your insights.
My last question today, and I know John I'll have
something to wrap up as well, is that for the
person just getting out into the world, whether they just
graduate from high school, and they want to get in
the working world, or they go to some kind of
college or university. What advice would you give that person
(35:39):
to get off to a good start in building a
successful career.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I was on a podcast yesterday and I was that's
the same question. And I'll tell you what I told
them yesterday. Find something you like. When you what you're doing,
You're never going to work a day in your life.
You know that expression. So I wake up in the
morning and I come to work. I enjoy being here,
whether it's coming and doing this, whether it's going to
the high school to educate them, whether it's working on
a case, whether it's taking a deposition or doing a
(36:04):
hearing or helping my staff do something. Find something that
you like to do, and you'll never work a day
in your life. It's an important thing. Experiment, do different things.
So my younger son didn't necessarily want to be a lawyer.
He went to college, he graduated. He said, Dad, I
want to do a gap year, and you know what,
the hell's a gap year. I'm not going to pay
for you to go to Europe and float around for
a year. I said, find a program, find that activity,
(36:27):
Find something you like, to do and I'll pay for
it and it's great. He did this program, I forget
what the name of it was, but they put him
in different corporations. He was in Saint Louis, so he
went to Purina, he went to enterprise, and he would
do an internship for a month here, a month there,
and in different roles, in different responsibilities, and got to
do different things. So my first job out as a
lawyer was not my last job. When you go to
(36:48):
medical school, you do rotations and you learn to see
what different types of medicine are. When you're in sales,
you can sell anything. Once you're in sales, you can
sell anything. But maybe there's something more or that you
like to sell more so than something else. So spend
the time. If you've got the luxury and the parents
that can do it. If not, then get a part
(37:09):
time job to finance it. But figure out what you'd
like to do. Don't be discouraged if that first job
is not your last job. Don't be discouraged. If you're
not a good fit at that one place, move on,
but make that transition to the next place without burning
bridges and keeping contact with people and being nice and
social and politically, career back and find something you like
to do.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
As we wrap up here, do you serve just people
in your community or are you serving people everywhere?
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Honestly our community. When I give a scholarship, I'm going
to give it to the schools that are in my community,
because unfortunately, I don't have the resources to do it
everywhere as much as i'd love to. But I know
what I can to do, and I know how I
can do it. When we go to an event, it's
in my community. When I'm part of a leadership of
a group, it's in my community. I know my limits,
(38:00):
I know what I can do, and I know where
I can get the biggest bang for my buck, and
so I don't want to spread myself too thin. We
can take cases from all over the world in today's
day and age because we zoom and skype, and every
court hearing nowadays is on the phone and this kind
of the podcast and these sort of things. So it's
a different world. But I would rather focus on my
community and doing well for my community, and being that
(38:22):
lawyer in our community that is well known and well
respected and does what I can to improve our community.
That's important to me. It's important to Panto, Panter and
s Pedro.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
And how do we learn more about you and the
potentially get in touch.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Just exactly like you did. You go online, you go
to Panther Law dot com. We've got this podcast, will
be on it. Our advertisements are our results, our mission statement. Panter,
Pa n t Eer Law dot com. Email us, call us,
talk to us. I'm very flexible, very available. If you
pick up the phone and call me, I'll be happy
to talk to you, review your case, review your history.
(38:56):
I really talk into young lawyers and young professionals. And
I just went this morning to breakfast meeting with the
young lip lady part of the business group. They called
a one to one. And you get to know somebody,
You get to know their relationship with them and build
a relationship with them. And if I can offer a
mentorship program or even just a friend, just somebody to
talk to. I can learn from them is what their
experience is, and they can learn from me. Happy to
(39:17):
do that.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
It's a wonderful thing nature I got as well. I
promise this will be my last question. But you struck
the court because I'm really big on mission statements. I'm
curious because As a leader, I think it's important to
have some type of mission for your team, Like for
us it was to develop winners on and off the court.
How did you guys create your mission?
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Pantern some Petter's Law from dedicated to protecting Florida's families
more importantly, let our family help you and your family.
So many years ago, when we first got into advertising,
the type of work that we did was nursing home neglect.
There was a law twenty thirty years ago that was
established to get the nursing homes in line and to
make them safer. And what they did was they allowed
(39:58):
for attorney fees for a vie violation of the Bill
of Rights for a nursing home. So we would have
My grandfather at the time was with us, Grandpa Ira,
beautiful white air. He's got my white I got his
white air.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
But it was a.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Family thing and it was let our fit family help
you and your family. This is Grandpa Ira, and I
wouldn't want anybody to harm him. Would you want your
grandparents to be harmed? So our theme, our theory, our
thrust is family oriented from the firm and then protecting
Florida's family. So when I went to argue in the
Florida Supreme Court. It was for a gentleman that fell
(40:31):
off off of a scissor lift and got catastrophically injured.
And the argument was the law it's called strict liability.
When you have a dangerous product and automobile, fireworks, dynamite
in this case a scissor lift, there should be extra
care taken and there wasn't in this case. And courts
on a different level we wanted in a trial court,
we got a substantial verdict. The appellate court affirmed it,
(40:53):
and they kept appealing to the Supreme Court, and the
Supreme Court ultimately said, no, that's a good law. It
protects people, and we're going to keep I'm proud that
I was able to make that law and keep that law.
And when we do good things in the law and
we help people, it helps us financially. I'm able to
afford a lifestyle I am because of it. But when
I change people's lives with a verdict, with a judgment,
(41:15):
with a settlement, and I make sure that those funds
are used intelligently, whether it's set up in an annuity
or structured settlement, so it's not blown to protect people
from themselves and their families. Sometimes that's a good feeling.
There's not a day that goes by where we don't
work on making sure that people, when they do recover something,
use the money intelligently and help themselves.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
Mitch, thank you so much for your time today again,
Panterer Law your website down in the show notes there.
Get in touch with Mitch, learn more about Mitch, because
Mitch is certainly obviously for young lawyers out there, but
also for any young leader who could probably use some
advice that you've given today on the show to help
them out on their journey. So thank you so much
(41:57):
for all that you've shared with today.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Thank you, Coach. It's been my pleasure. I'm proud to
be part of this and great to causing you guys
have going and I wish you the best of the
success of money.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Thank you for joining us this week at the Limitless
Leadership Lounge. To listen to this episode again and to
find previous episodes, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
and Spreaker. You can also get in on the conversation
find us on Facebook and Instagram. Then tell three of
your friends to join in as well. Coach Numa and John.
We'll be back again next week for another try generational
(42:28):
leadership discussion. We'll talk to you then on the Limitless
Leadership Lounge
This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better
podcast network, Better Today, Better Tomorrow, and the podcast to
get you there. You can find out more at Teefbetter
dot com slash podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
You're not going to please everybody. You're not going to
get the best restolled. But if I get hundreds of
calls to day, and a lot of them are garbage
and are junk, but to the people that are making
those calls, it's important. And if I give them the
respect of saying, yes, I hear what you're saying, but
unfortunately I can't help you in that circumstance. I don't
think that there's a legal remedy for you. I don't
(00:34):
think that we can pursue that case for you. I'm sorry.
Let me recommend a surface that might be able to
help you. Let me recommend another lawyer that might be
able to help you. Let me recommend this whatever it
might be. And sometimes it's not going to work. You
try the best you can, and you accept it when
it doesn't work out, and just try to keep your
cool and not be rude or disrespectful. But people, no
(00:54):
matter what the circumstance, do.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You want to be a leader in a constantly changing
world are emerging Leadleaders look different, come from various backgrounds
and from all different age groups. Leadership is changing and
it's hard to keep up. But the good news you
can be a leader too. You can be an e
merging leader. Welcome to the Limitless Leadership Lounge, a try
(01:17):
generational conversation for emerging leaders. Come spend some time with
us to discuss leadership from three angles. The coach Jim Johnson,
the professor, doctor Renumah Kareem, the host, John Gering, a
monthly guest, and you get in on the conversation on
Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to follow us on
(01:37):
Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Speaker. So come on in and
make yourself comfortable.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
It's another week of the Limitless Leadership Lounge of tried
generational conversation for the emerging Leader. I'm John Garing, and
we really want to let you know that if you've
enjoyed this show, or maybe you've gotten something of value
from its, we'd appreciate a review up on any of
the platforms that you're listening or even watching on. And
if you're up on YouTube, thank you be sure you
(02:04):
subscribe there too, because we've got more content from great
guests and the three of us coming out there shortly
for you. I'm joined as well as always by Coach
Jim Johnson, the coach. You have another guest that we
brought along today, and I guess he'll have to step
in for renew my as the middle generation today.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Coach.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Yeah, I'm really excited I got a chance to talk
to Mitch Panner. And Mitch, I'm also excited because my
son is an attorney. It's always good and I don't
know if we've had an attorney, so this may be
our first one first on the show, the first Yeah,
We've been doing the show for over three years. So
I want to share a little bit about our guest
and then we'll get right into its. Mitch Panner is
(02:40):
the managing partner of a personal injury law firm in Miami,
consisting of five attorneys and eleven full time staff members.
In addition, both Mitch and the firm have been a
pillar in the community for more than thirty years. As
a past president of several legal and community organizations, Mitch
continues to actively participate in various causes through South Florida.
(03:01):
He has lectured and todd for associations, including the Bar Association,
high schools, and business groups. Without any further ado, Mitch,
welcome to the Limitless Leadership Lounge.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Thank you coaching John. It's my pleasure to be here.
I'm pleased and proud to be the first lawyer. But
I want to talk not necessarily one hundred percent about law,
but I want to talk about community involvement. I want
to talk about being a leader in our area. We've
been on our community in South Florida, Miami for more
than thirty years, and it was a long road doing
a lot of community activities and that's how I want
to grow our business and have continued to grow our business.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
That's awesome because we definitely want to do that because
in helping young leaders and giving back to the community,
I think is a really powerful thing. Thank Delvin. And
we don't do this too much. But I'm just curious because,
as I said, my son's an attorney as well. I'm
just interested if you can take us a little bit
about your journey in your life and what made you
decide to go into be an attorney.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So I'm fortunate I knew early on what I wanted
to do and how I wanted to do it. I
was born in Jersey. We moved to Hollywood, Florida, where
I grew up, and from an early age like to argue,
to debate, like to talk, talk, talk and talk, but
I knew that's what I wanted to do. I graduated
high school a year early and went to the University
of Michigan and enjoyed the heck out of that. It
was a great collegiate environment, and between the great football
(04:19):
games and a big campus was really interesting. I could
have done without the cold weather, but part of boy,
it was good. I spent my junior year in college
in Austria. I did program where we traveled throughout all
of Europe. It was a great learning experience. Met people
from all over the world, learned different cultures, and it
was really growing experience. And to this day I pushed
(04:40):
parents friends of mine who have kids out of that
age to get them to go abroad just to learn
and see the world. You learn by doing that. It's
a wonderful thing. Came back home, went to the University
of Miami, all about the U, and went to law
school here. Started out doing I was an intern at
the State Attorney's Office, so I did some prosecuting. Subsequently
I graduated law school. Job out was with a mom
(05:01):
and pop guy. We did family, we did criminal, civil,
you name it. Went on to a bigger firm to
do what's called insurance defense work, representing the insurance companies
and did that for five years. Laid a great groundwork
for my current job because it gave me the idea
to see what the other side is doing and to
learn what they do and how they do it, how
they evaluate cases, the reporting process. Shortly thereafter joined up
(05:24):
with my brother, Brett Panter. We became Panther and Panter.
A few years after that it was Panther and pant
and Sampedro. We're in an office building on a corner
Kendall in US one down in South Miami. We've been
here for more than thirty years. We do personal injury, products, liability, premise, liability,
auto negligence, all those kind of cases. And that's a
good start.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yeah, it sure is. So you went from a huge
university setting a couple of them began to the big
U and then you went to directly to mom and
pop and that's had to have been an interesting transition
and for leaders, maybe a good lesson of how versatile
you need to be. What was the experience of transitioning
from a huge environment to then all of a sudden
(06:05):
you're one of just several.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I'll give you a great example my son, my oldest son,
my younger son works and does employment. Love. My oldest
son went to Duke, then he went to Georgetown. Then
he went to a big firm in New York City,
and he worked the work. When you're a lawyer in
the big firm in New York City, they want to
extract every last dime out of you, So you work,
and then you realize at some point in time, hey,
I want to have a life, and that mix of
(06:29):
life versus work needs to be done early on in
your career so you can do it. I'm grateful that
I got the experience to go to this big, huge,
monster school in Michigan and a smaller school but still
a big school in Miami. I'm thrilled that I worked
for Mom and Pop in a small little office where
I looked out my window and it was a brick wall,
and got to see what that was all about. Where
(06:49):
if you had a fax or the onion paper, those
sort of things that as starting out. Then when I
went to the big firm, if you will, different world,
reporting the billible hours and to somebody else and learning
and great opportunity. Is great experience that I had. But
then to go and open up my own shop, if
you will, with my brother. It's a difference between the
(07:10):
responsibility from the administration side versus the responsibility and concept
of every check you bring in goes into your pocket.
So it's a different world. It's a different mindset, different thought.
The learning process at somebody else's expense is great. I
didn't have to worry about payroll, I didn't have to
worry about insurance. They didn't have to worry about pens
and papers and photocopy machines. And if you can just
(07:30):
focus and concentrate on the work at end, that's a
great thing. But that mentality of a leader, an emerging leader,
of having the goal behind and planting the seeds so
that you can go and be your own boss and
run your own show, you got to learn. You got
to soak it up. Even when I was at the
big firm, I talked to the secretaries, the power legals,
the administrative people, and I learned how things work because
(07:53):
I knew one day I would go out and do
it on my own, and if I could see what
they're doing and how they're doing it right and wrong,
it was great learning experience and enabled me to this
day to carry that with me and move forward.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Yeah, I think it's a great learning experience because my
son just became a junior partner at his firm, and
he works at a big firm, so I know exactly
who you're talking about all the hours of the good
of him working. But I'm curious. Being a basketball coach
for a long time, one of the keys that I
help leaders with is trying to bring the right people
on your team. And certainly you've built a team. Tell
(08:26):
me what have you found. How have you because I'm
sure you've made some really great hires and maybe a
few mistakes as well. Tell me what you've learned to
help a young leader if they're going to start their
own business, of how they can bring the right people
on their team.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Coach, you hit it on the head. You're only as
good as your team. You could be the best coach,
you could be the greatest, but if you don't have
the players and the players that have the desire and
the will coach. You're a coach basketball. Oh, I like basketball.
What do you have that relates to me that I
can relate to you? That we can work together and
I'm going to be happy here. I'm going to spend
eight hours, nine hours, ten hours a day, five six
(09:01):
days a week with this person, and if I don't
get along with them and the environment, it's really important
for me when I hire somebody to make sure that
they're going to get along with everybody else. I want
a happy family, happy life, happy wife. All those sort
of things are really truthful and in a work environment
just as well as in your home environment.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
You mentioned one of the things I know John's got
some question about. I'll ask one more question. You mentioned
about when a person comes on to your team. They
had famous en Boie that early time. That I think
my observation, because I speak to a lot of businesses,
is they missed the boat on that I let that
person come in and flounder gets flounder.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
No, you gotta jump. So we've got a training system.
We've got a young girl that is my representative of
the firm. She will teach them, she will work with them,
and she'll make sure that they know what they're doing,
Take them out to lunch, bring them into lunch again,
we have our three o'clock coffee time. But the worst
thing you can do is just throw somebody to the
wolves and say sink or swim, walk upstairs, downstairs they're
(10:01):
down the hall and say all the time, Hey, how
you doing? What's going on? Let me show you how
it works. Use whatever teaching moments that you have as
a boss. I frequently do so I have a new
secretary litigation versus non litigation, a phone call. Hey, come
sit in with me and listen to how I talk
to the client. Come look at this pleading that I'm drafting,
and this is why I do it. They may have
(10:22):
experience from a different location, but it might be totally
different and a different way of doing things, and you
want to teach them and educate them. It's my responsibility
as the boss to teach them to help them. So
the more I can tell them what to do and
have it done the way that we like it done.
Our system is great, but also you have to have
the mechanics and the availability there. So we have a
(10:42):
software computer program that's extremely user friendly and that we
have them trained on that for the first few days
they learn, and that's got all our forms, it's got
our procedures, it's got our calendaring. So we try to
make it as easy as possible and try to make
the transition smooth because those first few days they're nervous
as all heck, and you want to do well and
(11:03):
you don't know if you're doing well. But give them feedback, No,
you did this. I'm not criticizing you, but try to
do it this way next time and work with them.
The more you can spend that time at the beginning,
Like with a client, I get a new client that
comes in, I would rather spend the time during intake
and we'll talk about lawyers in a minute and how
we get our cases. But I would rather spend more
time on the intake teaching them about how it's going
(11:25):
to work, so that three weeks, three months, three years
down the road, we've already been through that and they
know what to expect.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Mitch, You're one thing that you're showing us here is
that even as a law professional, you're really laid back,
you're conversational, you're all those wonderful things that people don't
always associate with law. They think of, oh, no, I
got to hire a law guy.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
This is going to be awful.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
How is it that you're able to since you do
a very serious job, how are you able to also
separate that from your really laid back personality.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
First and foremost understanding that when you do criminal work,
I think the expression is you're seeing bad people at
a good time or good people at the worst time,
whatever that might be. Same thing with family work, divorce work.
I get somebody that comes to see me, they were
in an accident, somebody's hurt, they're hurt, they're killed. It's
a pretty serious thing. You need to be honest with them.
(12:20):
You need to be open with them. You need to
tell them how the process is going to work. Because
most people have not been through a lawsuit or a
claim or something like that. So it's important to understand that. Likewise,
with my staff, if I'm constantly micromanaging it on somebody's head,
they're not going to get work done. If I give
them the tools and the opportunities and the ability to
(12:41):
do a job and do it well, that's fine. I'm
coming showing up. As most of the coach of that showing up,
you could do the drills. You could do the work,
you could do the skills, but show up. That's the start.
So if I get people clients or lawyers or assistants
or whoever it might be, just to show up. And
then you want to make it comfortable. When I like
(13:01):
coming to work, I want my staff to come to work.
We have pizza Day, we have every we celebrate everybody's birthday,
no matter whose birthday it is. Every time it's a birthday,
we have our Cuban coffee. We get them whatever cake
they want, and we sing and we dance, and we
make a fool of ourselves, and we put it on
social media for our people to do. But it's that
family environment that we have that differentiates pant and some
(13:23):
Pedro from the big box lawyers and those other people.
We try our best to do that. And then I'm
gonna answer your question. I don't take myself that seriously.
I'm a lawyer, Okay, fine, I've been doing it forty years.
Okay fine. I still do what needs to be done,
and it's still not above and beyond other people. And
if I realize that and understand that every day, it helps, it's.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
A great point. I do a lot of leadership presentations
victor of this record, and I did one yesterday And
I often ask this question, is trust important in building
a great team culture? And I usually get one hundred
percent hands yes. So my question, because I really push leaders,
how do you build trust with you people?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
This is how you build trust? This is my pay.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
But in seriousness, he trusts me. He trusts me to
feed him, he trusts me to walk him, he trusts
me to brush his hair. He trusts me he has
the most without any doubt, any anything. And if you
understand that, that's it's huge, it's critical. I need to
trust my clients. I need to trust that they're going
to tell me the truth, that they're gonna work with me,
that they're gonna be honest with me, because if they don't,
(14:32):
it's gonna bite me and it's going to bite them
and it's going to be a problem. But if I'm
honest with other people, and I have that trust now,
and that's an important thing me personally, not lawyer bitch,
but person bish. If you have my trust, you have everything.
If you don't have my trust, you got nothing. If
I trust you, I know that job will get done.
That the work will get done, that everything will be fine,
and that will work through it. You screw up, Okay,
(14:54):
you screwed up. Come and talk to me, tell me,
let me know how we can fix it. We had
an issue the other day where a lawyer made a misas. Okay,
he came and he spoke to me and we fixed it.
We addressed the issue and we resolved it. Had he
tried to hide it, had he not told the truth,
had he not addressed it correctly, it would have been
a problem. But on, Once you gain my trust, then
(15:15):
you have my trust, your golden Without that, it's a reputation.
To get that reputation and to have it and make
it a good reputation is great. But once you do
that one wrong thing, it's hard to build back. And
that's trust, that's reputation. Leadership as well. If you're a
good leader and you work well, and you work hard,
and you do nice things for people, appropriate things for people,
(15:37):
ethical things for people, they see that, they know that's
who you are and what you are. It's going to
continue to go on and on and work well for it.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
You talked earlier, I know about the keys to building
your team, getting the right people on the bus, so
to speak, How also do you retain that team?
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Well, I belong to a business group. It's called B
and I and it's a business group, and it's a
group of all kinds of different people, but all type
a personality people. And I was at one point in time,
I forget what my title was. That a vice president
dealt with getting people to join and then retaining them
in every group that I belong to, the Pine crist
Business Association, my Temple, the JCC, no matter what it was.
(16:18):
You have two fold One is getting the members and
two is keeping them. And how do you do that monetarily? Okay, fine,
But I've seen with the generation of younger lawyers and
younger people, it's not necessarily always about the money. I
see as sports nowadays, coach you see it probably more
than anybody else. It's horrible. It's all about the money,
(16:39):
and it's not about the loyalty, and it's not about
the coaching, and it's not about the caring. And that stinks.
That's not good. But in my field, what I see
is if I can tell a young single mom that's
just coming into the legal field, yeah you can work
from home. This is spring break, and so I've got
all of my secretaries telling me I don't have day care,
(17:00):
grandparents aren't feeling well. I have a hard time if
I can tell them in all candor, that's fine. Work
from home today, get the job done, and you're perfectly fine.
And we're good with that. The caring that my secretary
is going to go have knee surgery. I went out
and I bought her laptop. Not that she misses three
weeks of work, but that she can work from home
and do it. If you care, coach, you know that
you care for your player. You know your player's going
(17:22):
through a breakup with his girlfriend. He needs that his
mom is sick. The simple things about being nice to people,
about being respectful and understanding who they are and what
they're going through, not only as a coach, player, but
as a human being to human being. You and I
are old enough to have that fatherly figure kind of stuff.
John still young. He's going to be our son. But
to understand that people have lives and need to address
(17:45):
that life and how to handle it and appropriate, fair, reasonable,
normal manner is what we do.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Yeah, that's a great point, Mitch. I got to delve
in because I really admire how much you give back
to the community. So I'd like you to delve into
why you do it and what you would encourage young
leaders to start thinking with that mindset that how can
I serve the community better.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
It started young, So when I first became a lawyer,
I was part of what's called the Young Lawyer section
of the Day County Bar Association. So I think community
involvement is huge in your career, is huge in your life,
and it helps. It helps because it fulfills me, It
fulfills a need. It's a good thing. So as as
the young Lawyer, one of the representatives, I was involved
(18:31):
with what's called the mock Trial program, and we would
coach high school mock trials and I in essence ran
the program for several years. And I would get other
lawyers in our community to come and be judges. I
would get judges to come and be judges and different
people to assist. From there, I joined the Pinecrest Business Association.
Every time I join a group, I get involved with
(18:52):
and make sure that's the group that I want to
be in because my goal is not just to be
in these groups, but ultimately to be a leadership and
to be the leader of these groups, because if you're
going to spend the time after an energy to be involved,
you might as well do it right. I've always thought that,
and I've always risen to the level of leadership in
the Kendall Bar Association south of my mc Kendabar was
a president for many years. In a Pinecrest business association.
(19:14):
I was a secretary, I was a treasurer, I was
the president in my B and I group. I'm rising
up and doing different levels and different things. I coach
for the high school mock trial program. I did it
when my kids were there. When my younger son was
in the marching band at the high school, I became
the band dad, and just to be involved number one. Realistically. Selfishly, Yeah,
I get business out of it. I meet people, they
(19:36):
understand who I am. I'm there, I'm helping. I'm being
part of the community. But it fulfills me as well.
It gave me time to spend with my kid. I
got to be with him and all his friends. It
gives me time to be with young people to develop them.
I'm really proud because I see these high school kids
that I've been coaching in mock trial for the last
twenty years. Who are now lawyers, and when they're on
the other side or their co counselor they call me
(19:57):
for a legal question, it's really a proud that I've
done that. When we give a scholarship to a kid.
I gave a two thousand dollars scholarship to a kid
that really couldn't afford it. He came back for his
first spring break and he brought me a T shirt
from his school, and just these things that give you
fulfillment and make you feel good. But I'm stressing the
part about be leadership. Don't just be part of the flock.
(20:19):
You want to be the guy that runs the show
because you want if you're capable of doing it, and
at that's your mindset. But future leaders are what they are.
And if you can be the leader and you can
run the show and you can make things work better,
you have a duty to do it. And I'm proud
to do it, and I enjoy doing that. We've done
it for many years. As long as I'm able to,
I'm going to keep doing it.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
Ekscellent.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Oh, as a successful person who's gone out and done
your own thing business wise, I know one of the
keys to that you mentioned it is networking and being
part of BNI. I'm sure is a great opportunity to
do that, as well as all those other positions that
you've held. What would you suggest for a young person
who may have just been in the same situation as you,
(21:03):
who has left a big corporatech conglomeration and now they're
out on their own and they don't know where to begin.
There's so many networking opportunities, but they're not really sure
which ones are gonna produce.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
So let me tell you about my business. So many
years ago, there was one law firm that advertised it
was called Cohen and Cohen. They were in Hollywood, Florida.
They were the name nobody else dared go on TV
or anything like that, and we decided that what we
wanted to do was try to advertise. So I met
this guy who's now the guru, the biggest lawyer in
all of the world. I'm not going to name him,
(21:36):
but everybody knows who he is. And I had a
seminar where he was there and he sponsored it and
talked and he said, anybody wants to come and see me,
come and see me. So me and my brother hopped
on a plane win to Orlando, met him, opened up
his doors, and taught us about the world of advertising,
yellow pages, TV radio, community involvement, community activities. Couple that
(21:57):
with my day, County Bar Association, Trial Orders Association, Business Association,
Temple Church, whatever affiliate. You can do. Spend the time,
spend the effort, spend the energy. When your kids are
in elementary school, there wasn't a parent's day or teacher's
work day or anything that I didn't go in there
and bring a pad of paper or lecture. It thrilled
(22:18):
me to go to my first and second and third
grade classes and talk about a gross case that I
had where a guy at an operation and show them
the pictures and they loved it. Anything you can do
to get out in the community to meet people. LinkedIn nowadays,
social media there's so many opportunities now, but you got
to be careful about going too thin. So you got
(22:39):
to pick one of those, two of those, three of
those and go out at full force and figure out
what's going to be good. I see LinkedIn seems to
be a really good thing for jobs, businesses and people
and stuff like that. Both my boys when they were
looking for jobs and working there. They did that. If
you're in college in the fraternities, those relationships that you
(22:59):
have from that are going to be with you forever
and ever. Don't burn bridges. So if you leave one job,
don't burn bridges, because those are the people you're going
to be going against and with and for and looking
to work with. My oldest son left one job, went
somewhere else, and in his new job, he's what's called
in house counsel. So he has a need for the lawyers.
So he'll call the lawyers that his old firm because
(23:20):
he left in good hands. He didn't leave with a
bad taste on their mouth. And I'm proud I got
several girls that leave me are people that women that
leave me to go to make more money, and you
know what, I have no problem with that. They want
to come back and work for me down the road
because they see, hey, grasses and green are there. As
long as you've left in good terms and continue to
be cordial and respectful and ethical, it's a good thing.
(23:43):
Those are some helpful hints about what to do as
you're growing up and learning and moving along the roads
you mentioned.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
But I want to do a little deeper. So if
you're right now in marketing your firm, because there are
so many you mentioned radio, television and our social media.
Let's drill down right now with where we are in
twenty twenty five. What are the one or two things
that you're focusing that you think you're getting the best
excellent point.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Coach, let me tell you you, as a coach, have drills.
You have that one drill that this one works.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
Darn it.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna
do it. Mine is community. So as much as I
do TV, as much as I do radio, as much
as I do print, Dad, the biggest and best and
thing that I love the most is going out to
the community affairs, community event. So we sponsored a few
weeks ago and art show in the village of Pine Crest,
and we went out there and we gave away hats
and cups and T shirts and promoted the winners. I'm
(24:37):
going to be the coach, the judge in a hamburger contest.
It's a meat contest. We sponsor a July fourth event.
We give turkeys away at Thanksgiving. In the summertime, we
give away bicycles. I'm a big believer in being a
big fish in a small pond. I don't want to
take over the world. I know what my limitations are,
I know what my abilities are. I don't want to
(24:58):
grow my law firm to be the big and best
in all of the world. I want to be the
biggest and best that I can be in my community.
I want to help as many people in my community
in my area as is possible, and so I want
to get as big and as strong and as good
of a name reputation in my community as I can do.
I go to the schools, I go to the activities,
I go to the parks, I go to the business
(25:19):
meetings wherever I can go and show that community, whether
it's twenty people, fifty people, or one hundred people. I'm
not going to go to the Kyocho festival with a
million people. I can't put a dent in that. But
I will go to the Palmetto Bay or the Cutler
Bay or the local event where there's a few hundred
and I'll be there and I'll be present, and I'll
show everybody that we care. And I'll give the scholarships
(25:40):
to the high schools that are in my community. And
I go and I give speeches and so small fish,
big fish, little pond. That works for me. That's how
I run our business.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I know, as somebody who your name is actually in
the business. Your reputation is so important too, and making
sure that you're dealing with client and there are touchy things, right,
How do you make sure your reputation is when you're
working with difficult situations and circumstances and you people, yeah
and beabley and I'm sure not everybody leaves like fully satisfied.
(26:14):
There's not anything you can do about that. How do
you your reputation? What are some of the things you
do for your reputation?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
So one of the big things now in social media
is these references and recommendations and the notation. So after
you've had a good client and a good result, you
ask them, hey, can you please write a referral for me?
Can you please tell people? And you're going to get
the bad ones and there are those companies out there
that'll scrub them for you and play that sort of game.
You do the best you can for people, understanding and
(26:41):
appreciating that you're not going to please everybody. You're not
going to get the best result. But if I get
hundreds of calls today and a lot of them are
garbage and are junk, But to the people that are
making those calls, it's important. And if I give them
the respect of saying, yes, I hear what you're saying,
but unfortunately I can't help you in that circumstance. I
(27:01):
don't think that there's a legal remedy for you. I
don't think that we can pursue that case for you.
I'm sorry. Let me recommend a surface that might be
able to help you. Let me recommend another lawyer that
might be able to help you. Let me recommend this
whatever it might be. And sometimes it's not going to work.
You try the best you can, and you accept it
when it doesn't work out, and just try to keep
(27:21):
your cool and not be rude or disrespectful to people,
no matter what the circumstance.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
That's a good point.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
I gotta tell them in Mitch, because I know my
son has hit his ups and downs as an attorney,
and I'm sure I know you've had a lot of success,
but I'm sure you've had a few losses. Tell us
a little maybe a story of when a case didn't
go well. What you learn from it.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
So years ago I was doing what's called insurance defense work,
and I represented an insurance company, an insurance company and
short of guy up in the northern part of Florida
that was an oyster harvester. And the case was about
a gentleman that ate some oysters and got sick and ultimately,
through a on arduous, very difficult medical situaation, died. And
(28:04):
so I was representing the oyster representative a guy that
sold them and he got them from somebody else in
the Bayous, literally from up and here in the state
of Florida and in New Orleans. And then we had
to go into the issues of did this guy get
stick from our oysters, did this guy die from our oysters?
And what was it that we did. So I had
(28:24):
to then try to mitigate the damages. And so that's
a lot of what we do, whether we're plaintiff or defendant,
is mitigation. As a party pursuing a claim, you have
a duty to do what's called mitigate your damages. And
if you win the case, if you lose the case.
So I had a case just yesterday where I had
a young lady that was a slip and fall case,
(28:44):
and the laws have changed and it's very difficult now
to proceed with a slip and fall case, although we
still do it. But there came a point in time
where the other side filed what's called a proposal for settlement,
where they offered X amount of dollars, not the amount
that we wanted, not a significant amount, but it was
if you didn't take that offer and you lost, you're
going to wind up owing them money and it's going
(29:05):
to put my client in a real bad situation. So
I had the client come in and I had to
explain to them, Look, I'm sorry, I want to get
more money. I want to get you more money, but
it can't happen. My suggestion to you, recommendation, strong recommendation,
is to take the money and run. I'll reduce my fees,
I'll work with the medical bills. You'll get something that's
better than nothing. And it's the right thing to do.
(29:26):
And rather than push the client to expose them to
jeopardy of financial issues, we did it. And it meant
me taking a little bit of a cut on my
fees and my costs. Telling the doctors you got to
reduce your bills. Look, tell the client that you have
to do it, But sometimes you have to do what's
in the good of the client and the good of
the cause, understanding where you're at. So it's not necessarily
a matter of winning or losing. But if you do lose,
(29:48):
how do you mitigate that, if you don't make a
huge recovery, how do you mitigate that with appeasing the client?
And the client left here she fully understood, she appreciated,
she understood from the beginning that was a difficult case,
and left a friend instead of that darn lawyer. I
hate him. He didn't do good for me. And mitigation
is the word I want to get for you guys
from this question this issue.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
So sometimes there is a compromise, there is something in between.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
And so not compromise.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Man, Oh yeah, it's out of your control. So then
this is also a good lesson for any leader who
was in any other industry too, because Sony, sometimes we
overestimate what is in our control. How do we under
promise over deliver, Especially if my practice, I've got people
that are catastrophically injured with a ten thousand dollars bodily
injury insurance policy.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So what that means is that the upside. The most
you're going to get is here, but the damages and
everything are here, and you're not going to get there.
You can't get there. It's just not there. And you
have to explain to people that's as good as it's
going to get. But you have to do it in
a compassionate, realistic, ethical manner so that they understand and
appreciate it and intake from the beginning, so that they
(31:00):
have to know from the beginning what's gonna happen. Coach,
you've got players. They're never gonna be the star player,
but they're part of the lineup. They're part of the team.
You can't go on without them. You need that person,
and you need to let them know this is your role,
these guys that come off the bench. If you're not
gonna be that starter, you're not gonna be the great guy,
but you're the sixth player, you're the off the bench guy,
(31:21):
and you're just as important as everybody else. And a
leader needs to know that maybe they have limitations in
what they can do, or maybe the people they hire
are going to have limitations in what they can do,
but doesn't mean you're less important. That doesn't mean that
I still don't need you that you're part of the team,
but understand your role, Mitchell ask you.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
I'm an avid reader. I'm always looking for good reads,
but certainly for our audience as well. If you were
to advise a person that really wants to learn more
about leadership, do you have any books you would recommend
to them?
Speaker 2 (31:52):
So I'm gonna be honest with the coach. I'm not
one of those Tony Robbins guys there are. I got
so many. And it's funny because all these guys to
my B and I group, they're constantly going to the seminars,
a self help seminars, and a self help this, and
a self help that, and the learning of doing to
be beat every single day at work all day long.
So when I read Trash, I read my John Grisham,
(32:13):
and I read my fun Stuff, and I watched Jump TV.
If it works for you, I went this morning and
I had breakfast. A physical therapist lady that does that,
does acupuncture and chiropractic, and it's not for me. I've
done it and it helps. And when I have clients
that come in and do it, does it work for you?
Does it make you feel better? God? Blessed. Do it.
(32:33):
So the self help books, the self help lectures, the
people that go to the training for that sort of stuff.
If it works for you, do it. Podcasts like this,
if you got I love going to seminars and walking
away saying, oh, I didn't learn anything because I knew
it all because I've gotten that information already and it's
just reinforcing it. So it's a good thing and I
(32:53):
appreciate that. If it works for you, do it.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
I can imagine you probably have a lot of light
reading at work to, don't you.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
It's a lot of medical records, a lot of medical reports,
a lot of expert reports. I'm working on a case
where somebody slipped and fell inside an apartment complex and
the stairwell was it's down on the beach on Miami Beach,
and so it generates a lot of heat and air
conditioning and moisture and humidity. And what we found out
what happened was the stairwell was exposed or wasn't exposed,
(33:26):
and as a result, there was a build up of
humidity and moisture in the stairwell when they left the
doors open, when they left the door closed, and as
a result of the humidity. The stairs were not skid resistant,
and they got some moisture built up, and she was
walking down and slipped and fell. Now I knew this
was a good case because she slipped and she fell,
and she food and couldn't have. But I'm not smart
enough to be able to put it in words. I
(33:47):
hired an engineer that studied the air conditioning and the
slopes and the diagrams and this and that, and then
another expert that talked about the coefficient of friction how
it should be. And these guys together are able to
tell me. So I can tell Jewelry or a judge
or another person, this is what the liability is, and
this is why it's there, and this is what the
fault is. And so again, teamwork. I got that team
(34:10):
together to help me present my case to work. I
got a group of doctors that treated her orthopedically, that
treated her, she got a cut plastic surgeon, and I
get them to work with me and my team to
be able to explain this is the procedure that was
done and why it was done. This is what the
future holds for her, this is what the past holds
for her, This is what the present holds for her.
(34:30):
This is the cost of repair, of restoration, of fixing
her up and stuff like that. So it's working with
the team and understanding that there's nothing wrong with asking
for help and getting the help to put together that
team to make your end result the best it can be.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
That's a great point in building that really hopeful team
network of people that you can because you don't have
all the answers, and that's why you need to have
people that you can reach out to to give you advice.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
But to understand that, to understand that you don't have
all the answers, that you can't do it all by yourself,
that's the first big step, and you got to do it.
To air coach. You can't get out there and play
as much as you'd like to, but you can teach
these other people what you know in your experience of
how to do it. Hopefully they'll learn from that.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
Absolutely, Mitch, we're coming close to the end, and first
of all, I really appreciate your time and your insights.
My last question today, and I know John I'll have
something to wrap up as well, is that for the
person just getting out into the world, whether they just
graduate from high school, and they want to get in
the working world, or they go to some kind of
college or university. What advice would you give that person
(35:39):
to get off to a good start in building a
successful career.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I was on a podcast yesterday and I was that's
the same question. And I'll tell you what I told
them yesterday. Find something you like. When you what you're doing,
You're never going to work a day in your life.
You know that expression. So I wake up in the
morning and I come to work. I enjoy being here,
whether it's coming and doing this, whether it's going to
the high school to educate them, whether it's working on
a case, whether it's taking a deposition or doing a
(36:04):
hearing or helping my staff do something. Find something that
you like to do, and you'll never work a day
in your life. It's an important thing. Experiment, do different things.
So my younger son didn't necessarily want to be a lawyer.
He went to college, he graduated. He said, Dad, I
want to do a gap year, and you know what,
the hell's a gap year. I'm not going to pay
for you to go to Europe and float around for
a year. I said, find a program, find that activity,
(36:27):
Find something you like, to do and I'll pay for
it and it's great. He did this program, I forget
what the name of it was, but they put him
in different corporations. He was in Saint Louis, so he
went to Purina, he went to enterprise, and he would
do an internship for a month here, a month there,
and in different roles, in different responsibilities, and got to
do different things. So my first job out as a
lawyer was not my last job. When you go to
(36:48):
medical school, you do rotations and you learn to see
what different types of medicine are. When you're in sales,
you can sell anything. Once you're in sales, you can
sell anything. But maybe there's something more or that you
like to sell more so than something else. So spend
the time. If you've got the luxury and the parents
that can do it. If not, then get a part
(37:09):
time job to finance it. But figure out what you'd
like to do. Don't be discouraged if that first job
is not your last job. Don't be discouraged. If you're
not a good fit at that one place, move on,
but make that transition to the next place without burning
bridges and keeping contact with people and being nice and
social and politically, career back and find something you like
to do.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
As we wrap up here, do you serve just people
in your community or are you serving people everywhere?
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Honestly our community. When I give a scholarship, I'm going
to give it to the schools that are in my community,
because unfortunately, I don't have the resources to do it
everywhere as much as i'd love to. But I know
what I can to do, and I know how I
can do it. When we go to an event, it's
in my community. When I'm part of a leadership of
a group, it's in my community. I know my limits,
(38:00):
I know what I can do, and I know where
I can get the biggest bang for my buck, and
so I don't want to spread myself too thin. We
can take cases from all over the world in today's
day and age because we zoom and skype, and every
court hearing nowadays is on the phone and this kind
of the podcast and these sort of things. So it's
a different world. But I would rather focus on my
community and doing well for my community, and being that
(38:22):
lawyer in our community that is well known and well
respected and does what I can to improve our community.
That's important to me. It's important to Panto, Panter and
s Pedro.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
And how do we learn more about you and the
potentially get in touch.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Just exactly like you did. You go online, you go
to Panther Law dot com. We've got this podcast, will
be on it. Our advertisements are our results, our mission statement. Panter,
Pa n t Eer Law dot com. Email us, call us,
talk to us. I'm very flexible, very available. If you
pick up the phone and call me, I'll be happy
to talk to you, review your case, review your history.
(38:56):
I really talk into young lawyers and young professionals. And
I just went this morning to breakfast meeting with the
young lip lady part of the business group. They called
a one to one. And you get to know somebody,
You get to know their relationship with them and build
a relationship with them. And if I can offer a
mentorship program or even just a friend, just somebody to
talk to. I can learn from them is what their
experience is, and they can learn from me. Happy to
(39:17):
do that.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
It's a wonderful thing nature I got as well. I
promise this will be my last question. But you struck
the court because I'm really big on mission statements. I'm
curious because As a leader, I think it's important to
have some type of mission for your team, Like for
us it was to develop winners on and off the court.
How did you guys create your mission?
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Pantern some Petter's Law from dedicated to protecting Florida's families
more importantly, let our family help you and your family.
So many years ago, when we first got into advertising,
the type of work that we did was nursing home neglect.
There was a law twenty thirty years ago that was
established to get the nursing homes in line and to
make them safer. And what they did was they allowed
(39:58):
for attorney fees for a vie violation of the Bill
of Rights for a nursing home. So we would have
My grandfather at the time was with us, Grandpa Ira,
beautiful white air. He's got my white I got his
white air.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
But it was a.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Family thing and it was let our fit family help
you and your family. This is Grandpa Ira, and I
wouldn't want anybody to harm him. Would you want your
grandparents to be harmed? So our theme, our theory, our
thrust is family oriented from the firm and then protecting
Florida's family. So when I went to argue in the
Florida Supreme Court. It was for a gentleman that fell
(40:31):
off off of a scissor lift and got catastrophically injured.
And the argument was the law it's called strict liability.
When you have a dangerous product and automobile, fireworks, dynamite
in this case a scissor lift, there should be extra
care taken and there wasn't in this case. And courts
on a different level we wanted in a trial court,
we got a substantial verdict. The appellate court affirmed it,
(40:53):
and they kept appealing to the Supreme Court, and the
Supreme Court ultimately said, no, that's a good law. It
protects people, and we're going to keep I'm proud that
I was able to make that law and keep that law.
And when we do good things in the law and
we help people, it helps us financially. I'm able to
afford a lifestyle I am because of it. But when
I change people's lives with a verdict, with a judgment,
(41:15):
with a settlement, and I make sure that those funds
are used intelligently, whether it's set up in an annuity
or structured settlement, so it's not blown to protect people
from themselves and their families. Sometimes that's a good feeling.
There's not a day that goes by where we don't
work on making sure that people, when they do recover something,
use the money intelligently and help themselves.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
Mitch, thank you so much for your time today again,
Panterer Law your website down in the show notes there.
Get in touch with Mitch, learn more about Mitch, because
Mitch is certainly obviously for young lawyers out there, but
also for any young leader who could probably use some
advice that you've given today on the show to help
them out on their journey. So thank you so much
(41:57):
for all that you've shared with today.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Thank you, Coach. It's been my pleasure. I'm proud to
be part of this and great to causing you guys
have going and I wish you the best of the
success of money.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Thank you for joining us this week at the Limitless
Leadership Lounge. To listen to this episode again and to
find previous episodes, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
and Spreaker. You can also get in on the conversation
find us on Facebook and Instagram. Then tell three of
your friends to join in as well. Coach Numa and John.
We'll be back again next week for another try generational
(42:28):
leadership discussion. We'll talk to you then on the Limitless
Leadership Lounge
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