John Gomez, Gomez Trial Attorneys – How to Create a Top Trial and Serious Injury Law Firm
San Diego Attorney John Gomez is the President and Founder of Gomez Trial Attorneys, a top trial and serious personal injury law firm.
John is one of California’s most accomplished trial lawyers and has twice been named San Diego’s lawyer of the Year by Lawyers USA, and he was also recognized as their National Recipient in 2010. Apart from that, Consumer Attorneys of San Diego has named him an Outstanding Trial Lawyer a record ten times, and his peers have voted him a top 10 San Diego Super Lawyer every year since 2012.
What’s in This Episode:
- Who is Attorney John Gomez?
- John talks about what inspired him to start Gomez Trial Attorneys.
- The realities that come with starting a new trial and serious injury law firm
- What John did to take his firm to the next level
- John shares the biggest mistakes he made while growing his firm
- John shares his process for hiring the right people
- Why John is proud of how his firm responded as an organization to the COVID-19 crisis
- Why the vision that drives Gomez Trial Attorneys matters
- The long term value and ROI of brand building initiatives
- The people that John Gomez would like to emulate
- The high-value activities that John does for his firm
Episode 18:
Prologue
Welcome to The Rankings Podcast, where we feature top founders, entrepreneurs and elite personal injury attorneys and share their inspiring stories. Now let’s get started with the show.
Chris Dreyer
Chris Dreyer here President and Founder of Rankings.io, where we help elite personal injury attorneys dominate first page rankings. You’re listening to The Rankings Podcast where I feature innovative business owners and of course elite personal injury attorneys. I’m excited to have John Gomez on the show today. John is the President and Founder of Gomez Trial Attorneys San Diego’s top trial and serious personal injury law firm. John is one of California’s most accomplished trial lawyers and has twice been named San Diego’s lawyer of the Year by Lawyers USA. In 2010 he was also recognized as their national recipient. Consumer Attorneys of San Diego has named him an Outstanding Trial Lawyer a record 10 times and his peers have voted him a top 10 San Diego Super Lawyer every year since 2012. John, welcome to the show.
John Gomez
Thanks so much for having me, Chris. Thank you.
Chris Dreyer
Yeah, I’m really excited. So so let’s just dive right in. So how did you get started? Where did the idea come from to create Gomez Trial Attorneys?
John Gomez
Well, when I came out of law school, I worked for a big defense firm, called Latham and Watkins and so I was doing corporate work for big companies. And I kind of knew that I wanted to try cases. And so then I took a job as a Federal Prosecutor in San Diego. And so I started, I figured out that I was really good at winning trials, but I didn’t really like putting, you know what I perceived to be largely poor Mexicans in prison. And so you know, I said, Okay, like, I’m good at winning trials. You know, what can I Do what job Can I have that rewards a propensity to win trials? And how can I work for the little guy? And so that all came together? And I said, Okay, well, I’ll go be basically a plaintiff’s lawyer doing personal injury work. So that’s where the idea came from.
Chris Dreyer
That’s great. So So what were the early days of the the, the company like, what were the early days of the firm, right?
John Gomez
So the early days were that I called up a paralegal that I still have today, Amy Collins, and I said, Hey, do you want to go form this firm? And she said, Yes. And so we got some space and we had a card table. And we had a boombox only had six cases. The computers weren’t quite turned on yet. We were waiting for the phone to be turned on. And then the phone got turned on. And we would just sit around because nobody would call. So we would say, oh, let’s go to the hardware store. You know, pick up something For the office that we walked down there, and then she’d say, Oh, we got to make a copy. Let’s go to kinkos. So we walk down there. And so the beginnings of the firm were what I would call in auspicious, you know, kind of, you know, there wasn’t much going on, but we had big dreams.
Chris Dreyer
Yes, she was like your Jerry Maguire in the in the in the movie?
John Gomez
Yeah, yeah, she was the one that came. She was the one that jumped on board the ship that didn’t look so great at the beginning.
Chris Dreyer
So So take me, you know, you’ve turned Gomez Trial Attorneys into massive successes. So what were some of those early turning points that really got a jumpstart and took the company to the next level?
John Gomez
Yeah, so probably six months into the firm’s existence. One of the files that we had involved a wrongful death of a young man here in San Diego and a very, very high profile case. It was called the American Beauty Murder. And so you know, since then it’s been on TV shows and stuff. And so we tried the civil case against this young lady Chris and Rossum who murdered her husband and the county of San Diego where she worked. Basically, she was a toxicologist had stolen fentanyl from work was high on meth that she got from work and killed her husband. So he sued the county into and so we’re basically tapped for money at that time. But the news was in there every day, it was a very, very high profile event. And we won that case, we won a verdict of 100 and $6 million. And so you know, we were like right here, we’re like, just about to crash. big win. And so the phone started ringing you know, and thankfully, you know, that was the beginning of hopefully, you know, some other success stories.
Chris Dreyer
So there was a just a ton of momentum, I’m sure from the press from from just everything, not even from a cash standpoint. Being able to invest in some of these marketing initiatives, you know, after you, you got this big win and you went to that next level, you know, and you started to grow and you hit this next chapter, you know, what were some of the, the mistakes, maybe on that journey that you encountered while you were there was a hiring, firing marketing mistakes. What were some of those mistakes that you learn from?
John Gomez
Yeah, 100% You know, my biggest mistakes were personnel involved. And so, you know, what I would say is, I would bring in, you know, senior people that I didn’t really have a great relationship with, or that oil, you know, they didn’t have that loyalty toward me. And I vested them with a lot of responsibility, you know, invested in them heavily. And so you know, that for sure, you know, would be the biggest mistake I made. You know, now, if I’m going to go you know, put someone in another office Or, you know, put someone in charge of a practice area, you know, I have a relationship with that person, you know, I know, there’s gonna be some sense of loyalty I prefer to hire from within. So for sure, you know, I would say accommodates about bringing in kind of senior people that I didn’t have a great relationship with and trust them too much. And then also, I would say, you know, not not firing quickly enough, you know, holding on to people that really weren’t excellent fits are excellent contributors. And so now, you know, I feel like, I have a great, great, great team, you know, very hard working talented people with some degree of loyalty to the firm. And so like, I feel like that is a recipe for success.
Chris Dreyer
Yeah, let’s dive into that specifically. So are there are there any tips any for our audience? Like what are those things that you look look at? Or maybe what’s what’s your hiring process, like when you’re trying to identify these people that are the right fit
John Gomez
Well, um, you know, like our new lawyers now, pretty exclusively Yeah, exclusively for the last maybe five years, have come through our law clerk program. And so we’ll hire these people in while they’re still law students, right. And so we get a very good look at, you know, their character, you know, their work quality, you know, their work ethic. And so and, and we also have a relationship with them. And so they’re with us for, you know, two years or something. And so, you know, at that point, we have a pretty good idea who they are, how committed they are to this work. And then of that group, we’re going to, you know, offer some of them permanent jobs. And so that’s such a much better way to do it, than to just go out and hire someone cold you know, cuz, and we’re getting good you know, word quality from these people in the meanwhile, you know, we’re not paying them a ton while they’re lost. And they’re doing quality work they’re contributing at the same time you know we’re getting a good feel for who they are and whether they would be a good permanent fit.
Chris Dreyer
I love that I think of it you know in almost in like football terms you know, you’ve got your you got your special teams that don’t really have that starting position and offense or defense but you get to see how their you know their work ethic and or you think of it like, it is like an internship and and then you’re not guessing and trying to do these like trick questions or you come to the meeting late and see how they respond or whatever. So I really like that you get to know them on a much deeper level.
John Gomez
Yeah, hundred percent. I mean, like, if you speak in a football, I play college football. So can you imagine, you know, you, you’re out there for your first game. And you’re like, Oh, you look like a good wide receiver. You go play wide receiver, you know, we have the opportunity to conduct spring practice. So we get to Mr. Spring, we have them in the fall camp, you know, so we get a good look out and before we put them in the lineup,
Chris Dreyer
I may or may not have research that you played football might have done that. And you know, looking back now at you’ve hit these different milestones, so what was, you know, a proudest moment? A moment you look back and you’re you’re especially proud of a big success, what was a contributor getting there?
John Gomez
Um, you know, it’s funny because I was pondering that question and thinking about trials and I can’t really point to a trial or litigation. I would say the thing that I’m proud of stuff is how we’ve responded as an organization to this COVID-19 crisis. You know, I feel like so I’ll tell you what happened. Like basically, it was like a Friday, you know, things are escalating. I knew we were going to be kind of, you know, physically out of The Office. And by the way, I’m in the office, you know, it’s me and a receptionist that comes in for the mail. And we have 25,000 square feet, so I feel pretty safe. So, you know, so over the weekend, you know, me and my partner’s really reflected on how are you going to handle this? You know, one, it didn’t take us long to get everyone equipped to work remotely. That wasn’t really the big deal. The big deal was going to be, you know, how do we lead? How do we manage? And how do we pivot, you know, through this time. And so, you know, I made a commitment that weekend, I said, Look, because I’ve looked at our financials and our projections, and I knew that we were fine. You know, I knew that, you know, even if we weren’t signing cases, or even if we weren’t resolving cases for some period of time, we were going to be fine. And for the reasons that I told you before, you know, I feel really good about our team. I feel like we have no one on the team. That’s not Not a contributor and loyal. And so, you know, I made a decision, I was going to announce that Monday, first thing in a zoom meeting, you know, which we have every day, that we weren’t going to fire anybody. And, and that we were fine financially, you know, and that we were going to get through this, we were still going to have our retreat. We were so good at bonuses, everyone was going to be fine. You know, and since then, you know, I feel like we’ve done a whole lot in terms of culture, in terms of keeping everybody happy and engaged and, and committed, you know, so I feel very good about I feel like the team has has become closer, I feel like our productivity has actually gone up. And we pivoted very hard to take advantage of what we perceived to be emerging practice areas. And so, you know, I looked at this and the team looked at this and we immediately sort of, you know, focused on you know, all derivations of operations. They would arise from this crisis. And you know, when I say opportunities, you know, I don’t mean to sound opportunistic, but people are going to need help after crises. And so resistant corruption cases in particular, you know, I feel like we were at the very forefront of that, you know, we have been, I think, among the national leaders in those cases, you know, we’re doing cruise ship cases, you know, we’re looking at nursing home cases, meatpacking cases, employment cases, you know, and actually, you know, we as a team have been busier than ever and at the same time, you know, our core practices of personal injury and sexual abuse have been, you know, still you know, rockin
Chris Dreyer
Yeah, you know, the the first thing that you’ve mentioned there when you got the whole team together, and you said, Hey, nobody’s getting fired, nobody’s losing their bonus. So all that anxiety that they’re probably feeling and Just uncertainty because people don’t work as well out of stress and fear. So immediately just got rid of all that. And then it went to. So now all that that was, after all that was behind you now it’s like, hey, what can we do? Like how can we, what can we what can we pivot to? And I think that was extremely smart and, and getting first in, right? Because people are going to start to copy you and model you. And then there’s going to be multiple pages on the internet but but getting first in you get to kind of carve out your own landscape, so to speak.
John Gomez
Yeah, I totally agree. And the funny thing was like that very first week, you know, I was getting all these calls, you know, this firm laid off all these people, this firm laid off all these people. And I was thinking to myself, well, how are they really? That cash light, you know, and or how can they really predict with such certainty that this event is going to cause them to actually lose revenue No, like, like that, like, over the course of like two days. And so we’ve found that, at least on a personal injury side, you know, cases are continuing to resolve, you know, and and i would say, you know, at least for us, you know, the percentage of cases that have resolved has increased, you know, I know, we’re not gonna be able to try cases for a little bit, but, you know, to see very reactionary, very panicky. Right, and, you know, not a way to, I don’t think need an organization.
Chris Dreyer
Yeah, so, you know, and I think it’s really smart. I think, you know, the doors are gonna open back up, and I think it’s a smart you’re doing the Evergreen type strategies. John, one of the things I wanted to dive in into is, is you’re known in San Diego, not only for your legal work, but also for the work in the community. And I pulled this off of your blog, it said, you know, my vision for Gomez Trial Attorneys and the future is to keep improving as many lives as we possibly can through Law through our team as human beings first, can you expound on that?
John Gomez
Yeah, sure, you know, and so, you know, sometimes I kind of struggle with the idea of growth, you know, but then I think if we, if we grow as an organization, you know, then we can help more people in the community as lawyers, one, you know, and then to, you know, if we grow, then, you know, I’ve got employees and team members here with families. And so we think about all those people were supporting, you know, financially and otherwise. And then we’ve always been very, very, you know, community oriented, in terms of, you know, our work out in the community and in terms of financially supporting, you know, charities and good causes. And so, you know, that’s kind of the backbone of what we do. And in terms of our mission statement, it’s one of our guiding principles, you know, we always improve our community. So like, you know, for instance, right now, you know, I’m very involved with My Church and so, you know, the church is doing a lot of community. So we’ve given a bunch of money to them, you know, we are going out in the community delivering food to, you know, hospital workers, firefighters, police officers, you know, donate once a mask, you know, one thing I did for my people I gave them like a $500 allotment to buy takeout to support local businesses, you know, and I told them, they have to tip a lot. So we did that, you know, we’re just always, you know, we feel like, it’s super important, you know, cuz, you know, we don’t have a great name personal injury lawyers. And so, you know, I think that’s a mistake in perception on the part of the public and so we want to correct that, you know, for for us and for other lawyers and also just, you know, it’s just consistent with our principles.
Chris Dreyer
I, I really love the mission and you know, it’s you’re putting that karma out there that goodwill and People talk about branding and marketing a lot of different ways. But a lot of people talk about it as no like and trust. And yeah, being likable new community, you’re helping your fellow, you know community and I just think that’s really powerful on its own there and I the mission is incredible because it kind of just rounds everything together.
John Gomez
Yeah, it’s a super long play, you know, like, I think a lot of lawyers may under emphasize the value of brand, you know, you’re not going to get that immediate return, you know, it’s not like a pay per click or, you know, your SEO is gonna come up on personal injury but you know, over time if you consistently build your brand and your brand is consistently values that the public admires, you know, over time, you’re gonna get that return and we don’t do it for that reason, you know, it’s not like we’re trying to make more money but, but it’s a nice you know, byproduct of things and I think you’re right
Chris Dreyer
Let’s talk about your your personal growth here. So what are some of your favorite business books? You know that you read and that have kind of influenced you as as an individual.
John Gomez
I really like John Morgan’s two books – You Can’t Teach Hungry, You Can’t Teach Vision . I really like those books. There’s a book called See The End First, let me get the author by Bob Crumley CR u M. le y, which I really like. I really, like Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, who’s a retired Navy SEAL that works here and Sandy lives here in San Diego. I like can’t hurt me by David Goggins. It’s not really a leadership, you know, book but it’s a book about sort of personal strength. Now, those are the books I like.
Chris Dreyer
Yeah, those are great books. And I listened to David over at the Crisp Game Changers and he’s he’s pretty intense he, he, he. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he was very intense.
John Gomez
Yeah, yeah, he’s an intense dude, man. Um, yeah, it’s funny.
Chris Dreyer
But But what about
John Gomez
takeaways like cursing and stuff and his core principles are are good ones.
Chris Dreyer
Yeah. And Jocko, who is the the Jocko? Extreme Ownership? I think I read that about the navy seals and kind of, you know, their, their, their beliefs on on on team and, and just how they look at everything differently. That was a great book as well.
John Gomez
Yeah, yeah. He was a team leader. Basically. The core that sort of takeaway is, if anything fails in a team, it’s the fault of the leader of the team. You know, and so I think that’s true and and helpful as a leader.
Chris Dreyer
Yeah. I love just referencing leader versus manager, you know, Coach versus manager or supervisor, I like to get away from those types of terms. So who are who are your mentors? And what was their best piece of advice for you?
John Gomez
You know, when you say mentors, you know, I’m gonna define that as people I want to be like, you know, and I know all these people, and I’ve talked to all these people, and they’ve influenced on me, but I would like to be a combination of four people who have influenced my life. You know, the first is John Morgan, who I’m I referenced earlier. I’m a big admirer of what he’s built. And he spent time to talk to me about business development and management and growth. And so, you know, I like you know, what he’s done from sort of a business management and growth perspective. So that he would be one and then I would say, there’s a guy in California Brian Panish. I’ve tried a case with good friend of mine Very, very well known, big, big vertic lawyer. So, you know, I like to try cases I’ve tried cases with him. I would like to have his success in big cases, and he’s a good manager as well. He runs his firm very well, too. So it’d be Morgan, Panish, and then I would turn to Mark Lanier. I attended his Trial Academy last year, I thought is very, very, very good. You know, I’m an admirer of him and I do mass towards try mass sports and I’m an admirer of him in that world. So I would like to be able to hit the big you know, my trucking case, pet like Panis hit the big, like Vioxx case like Lanier run my firm like Morgan. And then final guy is I have a lawyer at my firm who’s of counsel named Jude Basile, who used to run Gerry Spence’s Travelers College and so he comes at law from a very human and compassionate perspective. active. So if I could mold all that together, and obviously, he’s been a huge influence on me, if I could mold all that together, you know, and I’ve learned from all those guys, you know, that would be my ideal me. And so those guys are my mentors.
Chris Dreyer
That’s incredible. So that’s like the rising tide raises all boats, the kind of the year a combination of the people you spend the most time with. And I like that. So you’re always looking, you know, what can I learn from from other individuals? You know, today, John, what are your high value activities? What brings the most value to Gomez Trial Attorneys that you do?
John Gomez
matters, it’s super hard to say, you know, because I feel like I do a lot. And I feel like, you know, I don’t want to sort of, you know, give up any part of them. But I would say there’s four things you know, that I do now. One is just, you know, I’m happy to be a visionary and so You know, I have sort of plans for the firm and, and ideas for the firm, you know, that I’m pretty certain that nobody else at the firm would come up with if I didn’t come up with them. And so I’m, you know, I have a vision for how I want to see the firm in the next 10 years. So I would say that’s one, you know, to being a leader, you know, like I talked about before, and again, very distinct from being a manager, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m able to delegate, you know, and allow the teams to do their thing and allow the groups to do their thing, but I can lead, you know, as a visionary at a higher level. So I would say steps to visionary leader. Three, I’m a traveler, you know, I believe I’m one of the better travelers in the country. And so, you know, I’m always looking for an opportunity to lead by example, lead in combat. You know, like, I’m like the general at the front, you know, leading the troops Because we’re a trial firm, you know, all my lawyers try cases if I can’t. And so then so trial or and then you know, I believe I’m, I’m a very good developer of business I would say I’m a Rainmaker. So, you know, I tend I tend to have I like people, you know, so if you like people are kind of people, then they tend to like you back. And so you know, I get a lot of opportunities for the firm by virtue of that. So So I would say visionary leader traveler Rainmaker rest of stuff is I’m not very good at
Chris Dreyer
Well, you’re concentrating on what you’re great at. And that’s that’s, you know, you can get those your other great team members to do those other other things. So yeah, and you’re amazing trial lawyer, and I know you run just just interacting with you. I know you’re a great leader, too, with with the troops and, you know, so John, one one final question here. Do you have any advice for your fellow lawyers trying to grow A successful practice.
John Gomez
Yeah, you know, um, one, you know, you got it, do sort of a gut check and see if you really, you know, are committed to growing a successful practice, you know, and there’s going to be sacrifice in that, you know, like, if, if that is not something you’re willing to commit substantial energy and time and thought to, then that’s not, you know, in your cards. And so as a threshold issue, you know, my advice would be, make sure that’s what you want. Because some, some people might be very comfortable with kind of status quo or getting by or, you know, and that’s fine and wonderful. Lots of great people like that, you know, but if you really want to, you know, grow and have abundant success, I think you have to, you know, realize that you’re gonna have to, you know, give up some things and really commit a lot of time and energy to it. So other than that, I would say you know, you always The mistakes I made some other mistakes I think I made early was, you know, never constantly asking the hard questions of yourself, you know, your team members, your organization always reexamining, you know, never being content. And so, you know, you don’t you just don’t say, Oh, I’m not super pleased with this part of my operation. But, you know, I’m going to leave it at that, you know, you always have to be, you know, well, what’s going on over here? And why am I not happy with that? And could we make that better? You know, and I think if you are, you know, open and honest, you know, like, they know now that if I’ve got a problem with something, I’m going to say it or I have a question about someone going to say it, including myself, you know, then then that is the advice I would give, always be reexamining always be getting better. And then thirdly, you know, there’s going to be some risk element. You can’t, you know, like, I’ve been like this a few times. And so you know, you want to be special With your risk, but if you truly want to have success, there’s going to be some risk component of it. And so you have to be able to tolerate some element of risk. I think,
Chris Dreyer
guys, you got to be candid with your team members. You got to always be looking and continuously improving and you got to be comfortable with applied risk and try to make the best decisions to grow your firm. We’ve been talking to John Gomez, President and Founder of Gomez Trial Attorneys, John, where can people go to learn more?
John Gomez
Our website is the thegomezfirm.com. We have a bunch of social media obviously Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, I have a personal blog, johngomezattorney.com where I try to you know, put more personal stuff on there. So you can go there and check it out.
Chris Dreyer
Thanks, John. Thanks for coming on the show.
John Gomez
Thanks, man. Thanks for having me.
Conclusion
Thanks for listening to The Rankings Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.
