Leadership In Law Podcast

S02E69 Growing A Successful Personal Injury Firm with Mitchell Panter

• Marilyn Jenkins • Season 2 • Episode 69

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How do you build a thriving personal injury law firm that stands the test of time? Mitchell Panter, managing partner of Panter, Panter and Sampedro in Miami, reveals the strategies that have sustained his practice for over three decades.

At the core of his success lies a meticulous client intake process that evaluates case viability from day one. Unlike high-volume firms that "sign up everybody and figure it out afterwards," Mitchell's approach ensures both clients and attorneys benefit from realistic expectations. "I have to let that client know at the beginning, your case might be worth a million dollars, but if that driver only has $10,000 in coverage, that's all we're going to get." This transparency builds trust that transforms into long-term relationships and referrals.

The conversation shifts to the art of case presentation, which Mitchell likens to movie production: "We produce, we direct, we get the witnesses, we get the exhibits, and put together a production." From physical models to sophisticated video recreations, his firm embraces storytelling techniques that make complex cases understandable to adjusters, judges, and juries.

Mitchell’s deep community involvement, from scholarships to jazz festivals, builds authentic local connections beyond advertising. Paired with his blunt communication style (“Answer the goddamn phone”), it shows how relationships drive lasting practice growth. 

Reach Mitchell here:

https://panterlaw.com/

This episode is sponsored by Wealthy Woman Lawyer® 

Wealthy Woman Lawyer® is a law firm growth strategy and business coaching service exclusively for women law firm owners. Ready for a practice that funds your dream lifestyle and gives you time to enjoy it? 

Visit https://wealthywomanlawyer.com today.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Leadership in Law podcast with host Marilyn Jenkins. Cut through the noise, get actionable insights and inspiring stories delivered straight to your ears your ultimate podcast for navigating the ever-changing world of law firm ownership. In each episode, we dive deep into the critical topics that matter most to you, from unlocking explosive growth to building a thriving team. We connect you with successful firm leaders and industry experts who share their proven strategies and hard-won wisdom. So, whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your journey as a law firm owner, the Leadership in Law podcast is here to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to build a successful and fulfilling legal practice.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. I'm your host, marilyn Jenkins. Please join me in welcoming my guest, mitchell Panter, to the show today. Mitchell's the managing partner with Panter, panter and San Pedro in Miami, florida. They're personal injury lawyers protecting Florida's families for over 30 years. I'm excited to have you here, mitchell Welcome.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I look forward to talking to you and your audience and telling about our leadership role and what we do in the community and how we can help other people attain the same greatness.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic, I love it and I love the detail on your website, your online presence. So, yeah, tell us a bit about your leadership journey.

Speaker 3:

Well. So, born in Jersey like everybody else down in Miami, florida, moved to Hollywood. Born in Jersey, like everybody else down in Miami, Florida, moved to Hollywood, florida, when I was young, grew up in Hollywood, went undergrad to Michigan, spent a year abroad, transferred to a school called Wagner College in Staten Island and spent a year in a really cool little town called Breggins in Austria and from there was able to travel the world, because back then the world was safe and you either did this or you hopped on a Jor-El or U-R-El and traveled throughout everywhere, and that's a really great start to my experience. Traveling the world and meeting different people and going to different places and seeing different things was a really good thing. That's traveled with me, if you will, throughout life. I mean, even now we do a lot of traveling.

Speaker 3:

After that I finished up college in the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, came down to Miami for law school. First job out was mom-and-pop place doing divorce a poor mom, whatever in the door. Subsequently went to an insurance defense firm White Shoe downtown and billed out the nose a lot of hours, but learned insurance defense, which was great for my eventual goal to go and learn to be a plaintiff's lawyer. 30-something years ago, I joined up with my brother Brett it was Panther and Panther at the time. We have a personal injury law firm. David San Pedro came on board. Shortly thereafter we bought a building on a corner of what we call Kendall Drive and US 1, so it's a real great location. First of all, it's great because it's close to home. We have the metro rail station across from us when we're going downtown and it's just a really good, visible, high visibility building and location. We do personal injury work.

Speaker 3:

We represent people injured due to the negligence of others, whether it's an auto accident a slip and fall, a premises liability, negligence, security, medical malpractice, anything where people are injured due to the negligence of others, and we've been doing that for more than 35 years.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that's fantastic, say. I did notice that you do medical malpractice as well. You cover all the bases for personal injury Well malpractice is its own little brand of difficulty.

Speaker 3:

Everybody and their mother does personal injury. Everybody can do, according to them, at least an auto accident, a slip and fall. The medical malpractice is a real specialty. The laws are different, the mentality is different, the expenses are different. Handling those kind of cases you have to really do a great job on the intake and we'll get that a little bit how how we've achieved what we've achieved by by virtue of the intake. The intake is really an important aspect of all types of cases.

Speaker 2:

And I noticed on your About page you talk about doing computer simulations, doing life-size illustrations and scale models. So when you're talking about, you really get in there and get the receipts, if you will get the investigation in and bring the issue down.

Speaker 3:

Let me show you something. I'm going to my office. So when I, when I first became a lawyer, this is what this is what we did, you know, and this is a C5. This is the lumbar spine, this is the thoracic spine, this neck and the hips and everything. And this was what we did. This was the state of the art, if you will, for handling cases. Technology's gotten phenomenal, so now we can do day-in-the-life videos, we can do visual recreations of an accident scene with expert witnesses, two different experts one an engineer that went in and was able to make a determination based upon the air conditioning and where the building was situated, why it built up moisture. And then the second guy, and then he did what's called the coefficient of friction test to show why the floor when it on Google. Or have our doctor recreate or take a live video of a surgery as it's ongoing, so that we can explain.

Speaker 3:

You know we're in the storytelling business. I liken it often to movie producers. So we produce, we direct, we get the actors, we get the witnesses, we get the exhibits and we put together a production. Witnesses, we get the exhibits and we put together a production. And in putting that production together. We can tell an insurance adjuster, defense counsel, a judge or, ultimately, a jury what our case is all about. You know, when you show and tell, it's a heck of a lot better than me just talking to you about it. I can show you, I can tell it to you and you can understand it. That's what it's all about.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. It's why video is so popular, so people prefer to watch something than read. Exactly.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So then let's go back to your intake then. So you've set up your structure that you get a very detailed intake, so you know your odds at the beginning. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

So before you take a case, in our field we have two different components. We have what's called liability or responsibility. Liability or responsibility who's responsible? And then the damages. The damages are self-evident it's a medical bill, it's a cut, it's a broken arm, it's my guy back there with the neck, so you can figure out what it is.

Speaker 3:

But the liability or the fault and is there coverage? So you know you can sign up and have and the big box law firms do that they just sign up everybody and figure it out afterwards and that's not fair to the client. It's not fair to us to have to spend because all of our work is based on what's called contingency fee and what that means is we only get paid if there's a recovery and if there's no insurance coverage, if the person is bankrupt, if there's a variety of other reasons why there's no money or there's no deep pocket there, it's very difficult to to imagine getting paid at the end of the day. So you need to look at the case before you sign it up. Is there liability? Does somebody do something wrong? Is that a collectible entity? Is there insurance or some other resource for which you can recover insurance or some other resource for which you can recover.

Speaker 3:

And then what are the damages? Damages are what we call economic medical bills, lost wages, property damage and non-economic pain, suffering, disfigurement. That's in my field and in the legal field, but you know, in any business, do you want that client, do you want that customer? Is that customer going to pay your bill at the end of the day or are they going to present the problems? So the intake, that first initial meeting, that first I like you, you're going to be a good client, you're going to be a good customer is is hugely important in my business and, quite frankly, in any business sure, true, exactly.

Speaker 2:

I mean with it's like, with its customer expectations, is what would you know?

Speaker 3:

that's a whole different issue. So I so you get a client that comes in and they're complaining they're dead, dying and they're crippled, and they very well might be, but there's a $10,000 insurance policy. I have to let that client know at the beginning hey, I'm sorry, let me be honest with you. Your case might be worth a hundred thousand, 200,000, a million dollars, but that other driver only has $10,000 in coverage. You don't have any additional resources to get money elsewhere. That's all we're gonna get. And if I don't explain that to them from the beginning, their expectations are gonna be false and misleading and I want them to know at the end of the day hey, I did a good job, I got you as much as I can get. There's nothing more. And they need to understand that. So reeling it in letting the expectations be known from the beginning is huge, very important.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and then they can make a decision to pursue or not.

Speaker 3:

So and then with me and they think they're going to get more somebody else. I know they're not, I'm not missing anything, you know oftentimes, and they'll call somebody else and then they'll call me back and say, wow you're right.

Speaker 4:

I want to hire you.

Speaker 3:

Sorry, I don't need your business at this point, so make the decision.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, very interesting. Yeah, the intake, I think, is incredibly important and you know, like you said, to be able to outline and you do the investigation of their medical bills, if they had actually that sort of thing, because I know one of the issues is how long ago did it happen and when did you have treatment? Right, oh, is this a new?

Speaker 3:

injury. They call me, they say, hey, I was in an accident three years ago and my current lawyer or lawyers fired me and this and that All right, bells and whistles. You know, if I was in an accident a little bit ago and I didn't go to the doctor yet, ok, maybe it's better if they go immediately when they call you know. But but that that all those feel good questions that you want to know, better get them out at the beginning. You know, if they've got a checkered past, like they call us up and they say, hey, I got the ticket for the accident. I know you got the ticket for the accident. You're going to be at fault.

Speaker 3:

Who am I going to sue? Who am I going to pursue? So it's it's really important to do that, spend that extra time and you know we have staff and the staff does the intake and when in doubt they'll call me and I'll get on the phone with the people and you know we'll make sure. So that triage that in any business finding out, you know the salesperson goes out and sells, ok, but but what are they selling and what are we buying? And to make sure that it's the right fit is very important because you don't want to mess around six months down the road with a problem.

Speaker 2:

You want to know at the beginning is this going to be a good fit for me and my business and your intake people? Are they specifically trained as intake?

Speaker 3:

So you've got your SOPs in place. For one, we've got forms. Number two, we've got training. We speak to them, we educate them. In our medical malpractice cases the intake is a lot more detailed. You got to get a lot more records.

Speaker 3:

When you have a medical malpractice case, the only people that can pursue a claim are either person themselves, if they were injured, or a survivor. A survivor is defined as either a spouse husband, wife, whatever and or a minor child, somebody under the age of 25. That's our law. So if they call up and they say there was medical malpractice committed against my grandmother or my brother, is there a spouse? No, is there a minor child? No, I'm sorry, I can't help you. There's no case. Yeah, but I'm his brother and I loved him. I'm sorry, I appreciate your loss, but there's no case.

Speaker 3:

So we train our staff to understand the law and then, when they have a question, to pick up the phone Mitch, this person's giving me a hard time or they have a specific question, or they want to speak to a lawyer. I get on the phone all the time. I mean, you know that's that's where to think. Get on the phone, talk to people, let them know and even sometimes, if they, if they've heard it before, most of the time, no, you don't have a case, but they want to hear it again. They want that second opinion.

Speaker 3:

And if you're honest with them and truthful, sometimes the first call they made just didn't click. The person didn't talk, it was an intake person. But then when they get on the phone with me a lawyer with 35, 40 years experience and I explain it to them, I spend the five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever it takes, explaining it to them. They feel much better and understand okay, you're right, I get it. Now there's no case. And this is the reason why and it, you know, helps me, helps them and it's a, it's a win-win.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love the fact that you you do that. I mean you're right. I mean sometimes people just need that reassurance that, yeah, it's not going anywhere and that's right, it just They've heard no, but why no?

Speaker 3:

And if you can get why behind it? Sometimes they just don't want to hear it, but sometimes they want to hear it and they want to know and understand it, so I'm happy to explain it to them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think closure. Yeah, just OK Well there's nothing there, correct. Well, it sounds like you in structuring you've got how many? How large is your team?

Speaker 3:

So we've got five attorneys and we've got about 12 staff. So we've got five attorneys and we've got about 12 staff. We have an intake department. We have a medical bill reduction department. We've got a litigation secretary, a pre-litigation or pre-suit secretary, obviously a receptionist. We've got nurses that work with us in-house that are able to triage after we take the case and determine whether or not we believe there's some merit to it. The nurse will take it then and determine medically is there something? And then if an expert is needed, especially in the medical malpractice cases, to make that determination.

Speaker 3:

In the medical malpractice cases the difficulty is you can't just file a lawsuit. Prior to filing a lawsuit for medical malpractice, you have to get a doctor in a similar field to prepare an opinion determining that within a reasonable degree of medical probability or certainty, there's a good faith basis to move forward, to proceed with the case. You send out your notice letter to the defendants or defendants. They have a certain period of time within which to respond. They either respond and you get into a resolution, or not and you file suit. Then you're fully capable of filing a lawsuit. So each person is trained in their own given field doing different things, but we mix it up a little bit, you know. So most of the times our reception is then move up to the medical bill part or the intake part, and so we keep everything in house. So everybody's fully trained, somebody's out to lunch, somebody's out sick, somebody else can sit in and handle the responsibility.

Speaker 2:

I love that cross training Teamwork is huge, exactly, and so I noticed on your website you have a community as well. Is this part of having that particular doctorate? Certainly, arians, is that? What do you pull from your network so?

Speaker 3:

I belong to so many different networks so you know there's little fish in big pond where you're all over the world and you got an office in every street and you can tell everybody you're the biggest and the best in all the world. I don't work that way. We live in a community South Miami, pinecrest, kendall our community. We're very active. We do scholarships. My kids went to school here. I coach a high school mock trial team, court team. We give scholarships to students that are going away to college. We sponsor art festivals. We give scholarships to students that are going away to college. We sponsor art festivals. We sponsor music festivals. We're very active in our community and trying to build our reputation as people that care and that's an honest it's corny but it's an honest thing. So you know we were very active in doing things. The fun part is I was a judge at a burger bash contest last week.

Speaker 3:

We sponsor the Pinecrest Jazz Festival. So we go out and it's a small community and we've got 500 people that come for six months once a month and we have a show and we're one of the sponsors of it. There's a jazz station. I happen to like music so we sponsor that. But anything. There's a gentleman whose daughter lost her battle with cancer and she was a big volleyball player, so he sponsors a volleyball tournament and we're working with him to do that. So you know we're active in our community to let the community know that we're here. We're not just these advertising lawyers that want your money and money, money, money, but we want to help people. We want people to know that. You know, if you have a problem, come to us and we'll do our best to help you, and so that rings true to us. On our values, and those values have stayed the same and will continue to stay the same.

Speaker 2:

I love that being involved in your community, and it sounds like you're always looking for different opportunities to be able to be in the community.

Speaker 3:

And you know, because if you know, if you donate to one thing, everybody else thinks you want to donate to them. So with that it's like doing the podcast. You do one podcast. People see you, they know you're on, you can speak.

Speaker 3:

Let's get them on my phone. Good thing, because we get our message out there. We help one person and we get our message out.

Speaker 3:

People frequently get asked for scholarships and there's only so much you can do, but you know when a needy cause comes along, somebody came to me and they had this thing called a buddy bench and it was just a young girl that was bullied and they came up with this let's do a buddy bench, let's go to the elementary young young age and we're going to put a bench in the in the courtyard, and that's called a buddy bench and what it means is that if you're sad or don't have all these other friends, you can go and hang out at a buddy bench and we're going to encourage other kids and teachers to come on over and talk to you and be part of the buddies.

Speaker 3:

So we joined up with them and we spent the $2,000, $3,000, whatever the number was to buy the bench and paint the bench and it's just a free zone where young kids can go and know that they're not going to get bullied there and they're going to make other friends and it's a wonderful thing. And so we worked with that group and we continue to do that and those are the good kind of things that we like to do in our community that help.

Speaker 2:

Right, right, oh, that's. That's very interesting. So that, looking at, you've been in this for 30 years, 30 plus years.

Speaker 4:

What kind of?

Speaker 3:

challenges 30 plus what kind of challenges. You got gray hair.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, so what kind of challenges did you did you face when you're growing and scaling your firm?

Speaker 3:

scaling your firm. You know life is a challenge. I mean, you know, look at today, the plan age. It's crazy. You look at the stock market it's here, it's there, it's this way, it's that way. Our government is here, it's there, it's everywhere.

Speaker 3:

We've had laws change and, generally speaking, when the laws change in our field they're not changing for the better. Big business gets involved and they get rid of it. So at one point in life they wanted to do nursing homes. They wanted to clean them up because there was too many nursing homes and they were taking advantage of people. So they established a bunch of laws that were consumer friendly. They developed a bill of rights to protect people that were in nursing homes, and if there was a violation of the bill of rights you were entitled to pursue a claim and get attorney fees for that. So that encouraged a lot of lawyers, ourselves included, to go into that area of law and represent people.

Speaker 3:

It got overkill Then, so they changed it. Now you can't do that anymore. We have a law called PIP personal injury protection. So when you're in an automobile accident, your insurance company is supposed to pay for your medical bills, and when they don't pay for those medical bills, you have the right to sue them and get attorney fees and costs. Well, they changed that.

Speaker 3:

We have property damage claims in which you know hurricanes and damage and stuff like that. You could pursue a claim against the insurance company for bad faith when they fail to pay you what they're supposed to pay you or rip you off, which is all too prevalent and common. They changed that law. So as the laws change, we change. Either you change this model, you change your practice, you change the type of cases you take, but you got to constantly develop. You can't rest on your laurels. You got to consistently and constantly do what you do and do it well and adapt. And that's in our field, in any field, as the laws change, as the times change. Covid was a whole new world in terms of legal profession and in every profession I mean. You know people don't go into the office anymore.

Speaker 3:

Young kids don't want to go to work, they want to stay from home and do this, and so a different world and being able to adapt to that and understand that and move forward on a positive basis is what you have to learn as a business leader, a business owner or even a worker, for that matter.

Speaker 2:

Yes, very true, very true. Let's talk about your online presence. So I noticed that you have free guides, which is great as a lead magnet to get your information out there. You have a newsletter, you do a blog, you have a podcast and an amazing YouTube channel. Which of those do you All the above? Yeah, congratulations. I mean, they're amazing.

Speaker 3:

You can't just do one. So years and years ago I learned from somebody that's a great businessman and they started out with the Yellow Pages and if you were a aardvark, you were the first lawyer in the yellow and the yellow pages, the dinosaur. They came and went. There was radio, there was TV. Now TV nobody watches TV anymore. The community involvements, the scholarships, the grants, social media MySpace was the only thing in town. Now there's eight platforms and you want to be involved in all of them but you don't want to spread yourself too thin. But what works for you?

Speaker 3:

The problem with our profession is that I'm looking for everybody. I'm not looking for a green 24 to 36 year old male that drives a Toyota. You know everybody that's injured or knows somebody that's injured, can call me and can be a potential client. So to focus in on who's your potential client, who's the person you're looking for. I belong to a business group and one of the things that we do in the business group is every morning that we meet and say who are you looking for? And I'm looking for anybody injured. You know, looking for this person or that person, I want anybody that's injured.

Speaker 3:

So what's my available source of getting that business, whether you go out to these meetings, chambers or BNI or networks or things like that, or whether you just radio TV what works, what doesn't work, and it's just trial and error, and keep doing it and mixing it up and there's so many varieties and follow the flow. So you know, tiktok or X or one of those things might be good today, might not be good tomorrow. So figure out what works for you, talk to your peers, look and see who else is doing what else they're doing. Don't necessarily need to reinvent the wheel. You can copy what somebody else is doing and learn from them, their mistakes, and if it works, it works. It does work. I see some guy that advertises and he puts his little dogs in a car and it's the silliest, stupidest thing I've ever seen. I'm not going to do that, but on her hand I might do something else.

Speaker 2:

So you know, that's memorable.

Speaker 3:

It's not cheesy, but there's lots of advertising that you know. I learn as much in life what not to as I do what to.

Speaker 2:

And that's an aspect of learning and growing in business as well. Fantastic, yeah, I always encourage the guides. You know, it's always great to give value, you know, and that puts you on the lighter now.

Speaker 3:

So? Or advertising. We've never advertised money, money, money, money. We're going to get your money. We're going to sue, we're going to do that. You know all of the noise.

Speaker 3:

Our philosophy has always been how can I educate you, how can I teach you what a personal injury accident is, what to do when you're involved in an accident, how to get the insurance to pay what it's supposed to pay? What materials do you need to help me do my job? So we've always, you know and educate people and teach that and want them to call us for information, whether it's free or whether it's not. You know, we developed many years ago what we call the Panther, panther and San Pedro Network, and so I don't do real estate, I don't do criminal, I don't do probates, but we formed a group of 150 plus lawyers in our community that do that.

Speaker 3:

So when people call us and say, hey, I have a real estate, oh, I don't, but my buddy so-and-so does here, let's, let's go there. I have good people that I work with, that we've vetted, that I make sure are competent and nice people and we can refer to them. They refer to us and it's a win win. But if you can educate people and talk to people and help them. It'll come back to you. It might not be this case, it might not be today, but you know the repeat business is the best business.

Speaker 2:

I love that. So anyone that's starting out or are not doing this, definitely take his words and advice, because you, I think you should be doing something on every platform that you can, and maybe you start with one and you roll out. You know, have an assistant, roll and study and you don't have to be on the radio 47 times, start out 12 times, and you know these websites.

Speaker 3:

You can go to the company and they can do it and spend thousands of dollars. Or you can go to your kid's best buddy that all of a sudden, coming out of school, does a website. You know YouTube, youtube, you can do it yourself. It's amazing. We first started doing tv commercials and we had a production company and we spent thousands of dollars for some guy to come in everything. Now I dig this. Now it works with this. It's a no-brainer and there's nothing that I can't do on my little, my little iphone here, that that I give it to the tv people. They mix a match. But but the effectiveness of it, you know, my brother just did a commercial for golf carts, on a golf cart case that we're working on, and you go out to the golf course and you show the golf cart and you put the video on your phone, put it on YouTube. It's a win-win, no brainer With a phone.

Speaker 2:

It's exactly and I get I get pushback from that for some clients about that. They're they're thinking they need to get you know this big production thing going and it's like no, buy a $10 tripod and hold this thing up.

Speaker 3:

It's amazing and you can desktop tripod.

Speaker 3:

you're good to go, think outside the box and you know, if you got the money you want to spend the money, okay, fine, you can make the fancy advertisement, but there's nothing wrong with starting out fresh. And then the big thing now is reviews. And so if you've got a customer, a client, that's happy with what you've done, either get them on the phone video what they're doing or get them to write a review for you. That seems to be not only in my field, but in every field the customer review. Google has an analytics and they like that, so it's good for that. So if you can come up with people making recommendations or reviews for you, big thing, big thing really.

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's huge. I think Amazon taught us all the importance of reviews, and then so, over the course of-.

Speaker 3:

How many times do you want to buy something, you first think, my wife, first thing you do is you look and you see. Now whether that's real or not is a whole different story. Well, yeah, but I'm doing that, the people that are pissed off. You know so.

Speaker 1:

Tense what you can read into it.

Speaker 3:

But it's a good. It's a good source to look at to see if it makes sense. And you know I there's a dog toy and the dog toy says indestructible. It ain't God darn indestructible. I'm going to get the hell out of the thing. And I let them know. Hey, here's a picture of after 13 seconds, with my big dog eating the thing and tearing his leg off. So I'm not so sure this is a good product.

Speaker 2:

But the review and the review and people watch it and look at it and listen to it, and we'll learn from that. And you're right, reviews are incredibly important on your Google business profile People that are checking out in your area and that's the and making that part of your business process. To ask everyone for a review is incredibly good, a couple of the good ones.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, exactly so well, this is excellent. So when you were growing? I just have a couple more questions. I want to be respectful of your time. Did you hire a coach along the way, you know?

Speaker 3:

no? The answer is no. It works for some people. It's like the feel-good books and the feel-good movies and the feel-good and the coaches. If it works for you, great, it's a good thing.

Speaker 3:

I haven't thought that through in terms of wanting to do that. I've kind of learned on my own. I've had a mentor in the business field and I've learned from them and I think a mentor is a good thing, somebody that's doing what you're doing or did what you did, and learned from them, both their mistakes and their successes. Coaches are good, but I'm a little skeptical because I get too many people that are coaches now that just make it in other fields or decided they all of a sudden want you know who's a coach? What's a coach? A mentor, yeah, somebody that's in your field that can help you. The coaches I'm skeptical of them but I'm not afraid of them and I'm not adverse to them If it works for you. In my world with accident chiropractors, insurance companies don't like them. Juries don't like them. It doesn't make a great presentation in a court of law. But you know what, if it makes you feel good and it works for you and it helps you, who cares? It's a good thing Win-win.

Speaker 2:

Well, you've done a great job. I mean, that's one question I do like to ask to see if there was someone that helped you along the way. Mentors, I absolutely agree. I always want to be someone in my network that's been where I've been and have surpassed that. Who's bad and indifferent.

Speaker 3:

You know, I was looking in the obituaries and a guy just passed away it was the first guy I ever worked for and he got in trouble, let's say, and I learned what he did, why he did it, how he did it. He never did that and from that, as from the other guy that I worked for, that's a stellar part of our community, always did wonderful things and has the greatest of reputations. So you know what works, what doesn't work and how do you take that into what you do on a day to day basis.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, exactly. Well, this has been fantastic. I love your story. I love the process that you have and the way that you work in your community and your team. I know my listeners may want to connect with you. Where would be the best place for them to reach out to?

Speaker 3:

Where is it? Pantherlawcom, p-a-n-t-e-r-l-a-wcom, you know 305-662-6178. Nobody uses phone numbers anymore. It's Pantherlawcom. You want to reach me? I'm mpanter at panterlawcom. I have this saying I belong to business group and my saying, and pardon my French is answer the goddamn phone. And I mean that the phone, the email, the text. Respond to people. Even if you know I'm sorry I can't get to you right now, let me call you back tomorrow, let me call you back later. As compared to just you back later, as compared to just ghosting somebody, no respect whatsoever. I'm doing construction at my house and I've got a pool contractor and I've got a bathroom contractor. Answer the phone, man.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we're in a meeting. Sorry, I can't get to you right now. I'll get back to you and get back to me, that's all. So you know to be responsive. I've taught that to my kids and they're good at it. When dad calls, I answer the goddamn phone. The importance is a simple little thing and everybody does that in their business and from a business perspective, you're never too busy to answer the phone or to press a button. It's automatically programmed in here. I'm sorry, I can't. I can't talk to you now. Can I call you back in 20 minutes? You program it in in your phone. You'd push a button and the person's fine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, no, that makes a lot of sense. So make sure that the website is in the show notes for today's show and thank you so much for your time and interacting with us today.

Speaker 3:

Been my pleasure. I appreciate it and thank you very much for everything you've done for us.

Speaker 4:

Absolutely, to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about, and if you're ready to take the next step with a digital strategist to help you grow your law firm, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to lawmarketingzonecom to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, thanks for listening to Leadership in Law podcast and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. Remember you're not alone on this journey. There's a whole community of law firm owners out there facing similar challenges and striving for the same success. Head over to our website at lawmarketingzonecom. From there, connect with other listeners, access valuable resources and stay up to date on the latest episodes. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep leading with vision and keep growing your firm.

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Marilyn Jenkins

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