First Off, Let's Kill All the Lawyers Attorney David Heffernan

Welcome to another episode of First off, let's kill all the lawyers. I'm David Heffernan, I've been practicing personal injury law in South Florida for nearly three decades, actually over three decades now, which is sort of scary. The intent behind these podcasts is quite simple. There was a Shakespearean line back in the 15th century. It's been interpreted in a lot of different ways. But we know one thing, it drew a lot of laughter at the time when it was said, and a lot of people chuckle when you say it today. So the goal today, and in all these shows, is to bring in lawyers, and we're going to divert a little bit on that, and get to know him a little bit, find out what they do, and then kind of maybe one by one, take them off the kill list. The good thing is my guest this morning isn't directly on the kill list, because he's not a lawyer. But a lot of what he does is intricately tied with lawyers. And so, we're going to explore that today and have some fun talking about some really interesting things that are a byproduct of what happens in law. And my guest this morning is Felipe Blanco. Felipe, how are you?
Good morning, David. It's great to be here with you. The title is definitely very attractive.
Well, you know, it gets the people's attention. You know, there was I had some alternative titles that I'll go with you before. Felipe and I are actually also then going to do an endorsement for hair product for men, as an aside just to generate a little cash flow and on the broadcast, but, but we'll keep that minimal. Felipe, let's talk a little bit. Before we get into what you do, let's talk about you a little bit. Born in Cuba, you come to Miami when you're how old?
I came, right before I turned five years old. Okay. Yeah, I grew up in Miami, went to a small private school. up basically, in those times, you went from basic kindergarten through eighth through 12th grade. And so I did that. And then I, I was at Florida International, when it was six buildings in a very small space.
Clearly, something that's changed over the years…without a doubt my three children who actually work on my team as well, also went to Florida International. And when I visited the campus 20 years later, I was shocked by the amount of growth that the institution had.
Yeah, I hadn't been out there in a while. And I went out for a memorial service. And I mean, it's, it's no, it used to be this sort of tiny, little commuter campus. And they've really, really done a nice job, of building that and building the reputation of that school.
Let's talk a little bit you get into financial planning, you're the managing director and a financial advisor with RBC. Tell me sort of what gravitated to that what's, what's the appeal to finance. And then we'll talk a little bit about what you do there. And then we're going to merge that into what you do with lawyers.
Sure. So I was always from a very young age, interested in finance, investments, mathematics, so on and so forth. So it was, you know, I was fortunate enough to have an incredible teacher during high school, that was that there was a was my math teacher, and she inspired me to really focus on numbers and that aspect of it. And then when I got to, when I got to FIU, I had decided that I want to be a finance major, but I also was blessed with meeting a professor that taught a number of investment courses and financial courses. And he befriended me and became a mentor for lack of a better term. And that created the passion around this business. So, I initially started in traditional banking, where I was doing consumer lending, corporate lending, so on and so forth. And then in the year 2000, when a lot of my clients that I had developed a relationship on the banking side, said, Look, we're at an age where we're monetizing our business and we're selling, you know, we trust you, why don't you? Why don't you help us on the financial side, so I transitioned to more of a wealth management role. Okay, let me ap

Welcome to another episode of First off, let's kill all the lawyers. I'm David Heffernan. I've been practicing personal injury law here in South Florida for a little over three decades, hard to admit that. And the goal behind this podcast was simple. You know that that line uttered back in the 15th century by Dick the Butcher, lawyers love to argue, oh, that was flattering of lawyers. But the bottom line is people laughed, okay. And people still laugh when they hear it today because people think it's not a bad idea. So, the goal here is kind of one by one. Let's bring some people in. Let's introduce you to some South Florida lawyers get to know him a little bit, what they do varying aspects of law, and maybe one by one, we can kind of take them off the kill list. My guest this morning, checks a lot of boxes for me. First off, a phenomenal, phenomenal trial lawyer. Been doing this just about as long as I have. But good friend, a fellow member of the Orange Bowl committee, and kind of all around good guy. So Kevin, welcome.
Hey, good morning. Thank you, Dave. I am not sure I should get all his accolades, but I'll take them especially from somebody like you. I appreciate it.
So Kevin is located in South Florida and has gone over to the West Coast. Kevin's over in Naples and the partner Wicker Smith and Kevin, I looked at it. I mean, Wicker Smith's been around a long time, we've seen lots of things change in the landscape of South Florida, and a lot of firms come and go and a lot of the stalwarts when you and I first started practicing, they're not there anymore. Still hectares and things like that. Wicker Smith's been around a long time and done well. So talk a little bit about wicker Smith.
Well, sure, I'm happy to you know, wicker Smith is as you know, started as a kind of an old-time Miami firm with a couple of guys I just wicker, and James Smith. And I don't think they could have possibly imagined that their little law firm would grow into this nearly 300 Lawyer law firm that we have that has actually branched outside of even South Florida and Florida. You know, we have 11 offices in the state of Florida. We also have offices in Georgia, we just opened up Atlanta, but we've had one in South Georgia for a few years. We have an office in Nashville, Tennessee, and we have an office all the way out in Phoenix, Arizona for some unexplainable reason. Now, we have a terrific partner out there. And, and we just sort of grown. And the interesting thing about wicker Smith's growth is that we grow what we call organically. In other words, you know, some firms will go into a town and they'll go look for a lawyer or a particular type of practice to buy or to purchase, or to merge with wicker Smith's growth has been more organic, meaning that we would have somebody who was a wicker Smith lawyer, move to a different town and open it up, because that person knew how wicker Smith ran their office and ran the shop. And that's what I did, right? You know, I'm a Miami guy, as you know, I worked in the Miami office for a few years. And we got a call from a client over on the west coast that said, hey, the firm that used to represent us is actually decided to go be plaintiffs law firms. And so, they're not going to defend our hospitals and doctors anymore. And would you guys do that? And so, they, Tom Graham, who was one of our senior partners at the time, was kind of winding his career down and said, Yeah, I'll go to Naples, which I think was where everybody goes, when they wind their career down. And he opened this office up, and about six months later, he had more work than he could do. And some of the senior guys came to me and said, Hey, would you consider going to Naples, Tom is going to retire in the next few years. And we'd like to build an office over there. So that's what I did. And it was a blessing. It was a challenge. It was a sacrifice, because I you know, I was a Miami kid. I grew up there. I had family, as you know, in the healt

Welcome to another episode of First off, let's kill all the lawyers. I'm David Heffernan and I've been practicing personal injury law here in South Florida for nearly three decades. And the goal behind this show and we get a lot of feedback, it's a Shakespeare quote, that he meant it as a compliment. It might have meant it as a compliment, but people laughed when that line was uttered back in the 15th century. And there are people that today still think killing all the lawyers, maybe not be a bad idea. So, goal behind this podcast is to bring in other local in South Florida. And actually, we've had people out of state international lawyers to kind of introduce them to the community find out about what they do, and maybe one by one, we'll take a few of them off the kill list. My guest this morning is a friend, a classmate, we were reminiscing unfortunate goes back further than we'd like to recall. And my goal is to get them off the kill list. But I might have a hard time because I've got an issue because apparently Gary hasn't aged in the 30 years since we went to law school, my guest, Gary Mars, looking great, my friend. Welcome to the show. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. All right. So let's, let's talk a little bit just sort of general background, what is it that got you and then we're going to get into? You know, you've been in a very specialized practice for the last 30 years. But what got you into law school? What was it always a desire to be a lawyer? Was it you know, I wasn't sure what I was going to do, or where did it? Where did it start? Yeah, there are those that are, I think, are those of us who there that is a bit freaky. So, I've always been prime, pretty much designed to be a lawyer. So, I went to Emory undergrad, which is, you know, pretty much a pre professional school. So, everybody was in med, everyone's going to medical school, right about three or four of us on my dorm floor that were going in a different direction. They all ended up half of them probably went into the business school from there, and a few went into law school dribble went into actual loads of medicine, but I was always on a track to be a lawyer, just kind of how I'm wired. So that was kind of a given. But yeah, so by ology, I guess I could say, you've done something that's a little unique and you look at and you know, we're kind of blessed and partner with Mark care, one of our classmates and, you know, we've got a group of people from that long ago that still stay in touch. And it's a nice network of friends to have. But you've done something unique, and that, that you went to a firm coming out of law school, Siegfried Rivera, and you've stayed there, you're a shareholder there, and you've carved out a phenomenal practice there. Talk about sort of that first transition, because oftentimes, lawyers go somewhere, they get their feet wet, they learn a little they go, but you've dug in and build yourself a phenomenal practice at a great firm been around for 40 plus years. But talk about how you went up there. And let's talk about how your practice developed. So, I actually, if you remember, when, when we came out of law school, there was a kind of a little bit of a glut in the market. At that point. I really like bankruptcy. I really was intrigued by the whole, you know, setting up the bankruptcy plans and working through that I thought I was, you know, that was my area. But there weren't a lot of jobs. There were a lot of people lateral laying around at that point, because it was a really bad job market. So, while there was a good job market for laterals, not as good for people coming out, right, right. So, you have to meet you. And you know, the good news with the University of Miami and I guess most law schools are doing it now. You know, we had a really good development

Welcome to another episode of First off, let's kill all the lawyers. This is the 2022 version, which, frankly, feels a lot like 2021. I'm not sure what has changed. One thing that hasn't changed is the reason we do this show. I'm David Heffernan, I've been practicing personal injury law in South Florida for about 30 years now. The goal behind the show as it was uttered in the 15th century by Shakespeare, yes, we can all be open to interpretation. But bottom line is people laughed. And some people still feel like it's a good idea to kill all the lawyers. My goal is to bring in local South Florida lawyers and lawyers from all around actually, and maybe one by one, educate people on what they do who they are. We have realized the quality of the lawyers that we've got in this community and one by one, we can take them off to the kill list. My guest this morning is going to be easy to take off kill list is because not only is he a great lawyer, and we're going to talk about that in a minute. But he's one of the most active people I know in the community, Florida Bar, a guy who really gives something back. Roland Sanchez from Medina. Raleigh, welcome, my friend.

Thank you, David. I said, once again, I apologize for all the technical issues, man.

Like, like I said, 2022, much like 2021. We just we just deal with it, we pivot and we roll. So let's start with you. Let's start with law school. Why did you go to law school? What was what was the driving? Was it a goal to be a lawyer? What did you want to do?

Well, you know, it's interesting, we have a typical immigrant story. As an immigrant, the first thing comes to mind is to feed your family, you know, and there's certain professions in the, in the Cuban culture, that, you know, are sort of tried and true ways of, you know, feeding for your feeding your family, right, you're a calling doctor, doctors, lawyers, and that was sort of I was ushered in that way. And then, by the time I finished University of Miami like you did, it just seemed to be the natural course. And the natural next step for me, in terms of vocation,
and the vocation you were starting on, was as a tax lawyer, which I guess if you want security, because taxes are going to be around forever, but you start in the world of tax, what was that appeal? And then let's talk about how that you sort of shifted off that a little bit.

You know, I really, you're a litigator, and David, you know, I mean, you worry about things like evidence and other stuff, and things of that nature, or pleadings, and I just had zero interest in any event, in fact, if I had to do what you do, I don't know that I'd still be practicing law.
Because I had to do tax, I'd have hung myself a long time ago.

I really gravitated towards that and in law school, it's only thing I really liked was the corporate classes, the security transaction, the tax courses, my undergraduate degrees in finance, and economics. And so it seemed to be once again, really the one thing that I liked the most, as I was trying to get my JD.

Alright, so you come out, you start kind of that big, firm track, I think it would national firms and everything else, kind of get your feet wet, I'm sure and get that experience, then you decide to do I guess, the great American dream that we all have, you know, start your own firm. Tell me about that. And how is it you got this group of friends together and decided to take that leap?

You know, I spent about 15 or 16 years, at, you know, large, large firms haul the night, McDermott will and Emery, where I became a partner. And, you know, I had given it 15 years and still wasn't particularly happy. And day in and day out basis, nothing against the big firms. It was just sort of, you know, the things that I liked the most, and maybe it was a little more entrepreneurial. And because of that, I just decided that after 15 years, you learned you learn a thing or two, just by just by showing up, right? And, you know, it wasn't an eas

Welcome to another episode of First off, let's kill all the lawyers. I'm David Heffernan and I've been practicing personal injury law here in Miami for nearly three decades. The goal behind this show is simply to bring in other lawyers from South Florida and other areas, in different areas of practices of law, get to know them a little bit, talk to them a little bit, find out about their practice. By the end of the podcast, maybe one by one, we can sort of remove them from the kill list. This one should be relatively easy. My guest this morning is Suzanne Amaducci Adams - good friend, phenomenal lawyer, fellow Orange Bowl member, and board of directors. So, we've got a lot to talk about. This is going to be an easy show because your type of law is something I know very little about. First off, how are you?
I'm doing great. Thanks, Dave. Good morning.
Good morning. All right. So let's talk about let's go way back for a little bit. What is it that drove you to practice law?
Well, I was torn between the business school and law school didn't know what I wanted to do. Actually, originally, I wanted to go into the hotel business. Okay. I was told as a woman at the time, I mean, I'm pretty old. I was told as a woman at the time, there really weren't many opportunities there. And the highest rank that I would achieve would be an executive housekeeper. Now, if you know me, I am not a good housekeeper and that didn't seem like the best path career path for me. So, I ended up going to law school. So how do you wind up at Vanderbilt? Fine school.
You know, it was one of those things I was between going to school in Boston, a bunch of friends had gone to Vanderbilt, it was kind of an unknown school. Now. It's the greatest you know, it's probably one of the hardest schools to get into. But it was unknown and I flew down I saw the campus and I decided let's try something new. Let's try the South. I knew nothing about the south at the time. Nashville certainly was not what it was like today.
Right? Well, yeah, Nashville has changed quite a bit great, great city.
Great City. But let me tell you, it was nothing like that. It was nice, you know, it was a suburban campus yet right next to downtown. Incredible southern influence. And it was a good time I learned a whole bunch about a different part of the country that I didn't know about
Then we drive you further south geographically. But as I like to describe Miami, I think Miami is almost a northern city that's just located southern geographically.
I was slowly moving my way south to the warm weather. I hated the winters. And I was always a big boater, so I needed to be near the water.
Gotcha. All right. So, we get you down here you go to the University of Miami law school. And then your career path seems to take you where you had desires before. You're still sort of in the hotel industry to some degree, but a little different in you're not a housekeeper you're doing $6 billion deals and things like that. So
billion, maybe a little bit,
you know, was a $6 billion deal. So, let's talk about your practice and how this sort of evolved into what you've done.
My passion is really development, and the hotel and Marina business. I worked in hotels as a kid, I love the business. It was great. I'm a big boater. So that's another asset I just happen to know a lot about and the best attorneys are the attorneys that understand their client's business, right so it healthcare doctors, you need to understand insurance, all sorts of stuff with real estate, you got to understand the way the building fits together. But then with these operating businesses like hotels and marinas, you have to understand the business, you have to understand where the money comes from, you have to understand, you know, the expenses, how to mitigate expenses, like I can walk in a marina and I can understand the condition of it, I can understand pretty much the revenue from looking at the type of boats that are there, which boats

Welcome to another episode of First off, let's kill all the lawyers. I'm David Heffernan. I've been practicing personal injury law here in South Florida for about three decades now. The goal behind these podcasts is quite simple. I bring in lawyers from various aspects, different careers, different things, talk about different areas of law and sort of one by one hopefully, we can take them off the kill list and prove that maybe Shakespeare was wrong back in the 15th century. This morning it will be an easy task. My guest is a friend, colleague, an excellent lawyer, and I dressed up this morning actually put a jacket on because in some aspect now as you're going to find out, she's my boss. So let me introduce Jeannie Jontiff. A pleasure to have you on this morning. How are you?
I'm great. Thanks, David. Good morning. Nice to see you.
Likewise, likewise. So let's start with the simple stuff. Let's go back a little bit. You went to U. M law, and we've got some parallel paths there. But before you get there, what got you into the practice of law? Ah,
a very circuitous route. I started out as a musical theater major, I kind of switched into political science, but with still a dance, a minor in dance. And then I don't know, I kind of started working in the law. I worked in real estate, and I did contracts. And then I thought that was interesting. And then I, I ended up actually taking a position at Kodak Trofim, Throckmorton as a paralegal, and then I kind of said, well, I can do this. I may as well just go to law school.
Well, that there's certainly a great group of lawyers there to learn under and we know them all, well, tremendous, tremendous firm. So. So that's where the start goes, then you go to UNM. And then you and I have one common Lincoln that just a couple of years before you I won the Thomas Seewald Scholar Award, ah, which is, which is a nice little gesture, I still have the trophy somewhere the Montblanc pen, which was a nice award. And then obviously, we both had the opportunity to teach in the litigation Skills Program. And now we sort of segue. You've got a thriving practice, you and your husband have been doing personal injury law Jonathan. But this year, you shifted gears a little bit. And you're now the acting director for the litigation skills department. So let's talk about how that came about.
You know, I've been intimately involved in litigation skills since I took the program. My favorite thing about law school was litigation. Always super passionate about it. And you know, with all that was going on with the pandemic, I kind of, you know, helped out a lot more than I ordinarily do.You know, so they were looking for someone to kind of step in at least interim while we have our interim dean. So they brought me in to help out for the next couple of years. Let's talk about the litigation skills program. Because, like you, that was clearly the most enjoyable thing I did in law school, clearly the most practical thing I did in law school. In that, it, all of these things started to make sense to some degree, you know, you learned rules, and you learned this, and you learn that but was in a vacuum. And then all of a sudden, you went, Oh, wait, that's how this works. So talk a little bit about the litigation skills program and what that takes students through.

So at the heart of it, I mean, you know, the lit Skills Program is an advocacy program. So we've tried to teach students how to how to really figure out how to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, kind of like, as you said, and they learn in kind of three different forums. So the main litigation skills class, and there's a lot more to litigation skills than just the main class, but for purposes of our time here, so we have a lecture component, and then we have a pre-trial and a trial class. So a trial class, they're learning the skills that every trial lawyer needs, you know, how to do an opening, how to do a direct examination, how to do a cross-