Episode Overview
Law Firm Leadership: Building a Successful Personal Injury Practice
Effective law firm leadership requires more than winning cases. For Dana Brooks, Managing Partner at Fasig | Brooks in Tallahassee, Florida, it means building the right team, adapting to change, and creating meaningful relationships with clients.
Dana began working in law firms at just 15 years old and became a named partner on the same day she was sworn in as an attorney. Her unconventional path gave her an early understanding of both the practice of law and the business of running a firm.
In this episode of Hot Docket, Dana joins Andrew Nasrinpay and Tara Lee to discuss the challenges of law firm ownership, from hiring and managing employees to navigating increasingly competitive legal marketing.
They also explore the evolving business of law, including private equity and management services organizations, and how firm owners can adapt their leadership approaches as their practices grow.
Throughout the conversation, Dana emphasizes the importance of empathy, communication, and trust in the attorney-client relationship.
For Dana, building a successful law firm is not simply about growth. It is about creating a sustainable business while continuing to help people through some of the most difficult moments of their lives.
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Episode Topics
- Being a good lawyer and running a successful law firm are different skills: Legal expertise alone does not prepare attorneys for the operational, financial, and leadership responsibilities of firm ownership. Building a sustainable practice requires learning how to manage a business as well as practicing law.
- Leadership must evolve as a firm grows: The management approaches that work for a small practice may not be effective for a larger organization. Dana emphasizes the importance of adapting, delegating responsibilities, and recognizing when established habits need to change.
- The right team is essential to a firm’s success: Hiring and managing employees are among the most consequential responsibilities of law firm ownership. Building a strong team requires thoughtful decisions about staffing, expectations, and how people work together.
- Personal injury marketing is increasingly competitive: As competition for clients intensifies, law firms must think carefully about how they differentiate themselves, communicate their value, and approach the growing costs of client acquisition.
- The business of law is changing: Private equity and management services organizations are introducing new questions about law firm ownership and operations. Firm leaders need to understand these developments and consider their implications before making major business decisions.
- Empathy is a professional skill, not an afterthought: Dana’s background in counseling informs how she approaches clients. People seeking personal injury representation are often experiencing difficult circumstances, making communication, patience, and understanding essential to effective advocacy.
- Client trust is central to a successful practice: Clients need to feel comfortable asking questions and communicating openly with their attorneys. Dana’s perspective reinforces that a firm’s success should be measured not only by its growth or case results, but also by the relationships it builds with the people it serves.
Episode Transcript
Dana Brooks’s Path to the Law
Andrew: Welcome to the Hot Docket podcast. I’m here with Tara and Dana, and we are at the Society of Women Trial Lawyers. And we have an interesting conversation today.
Tara: Yeah. Thank you so much for joining us, Dana.
Dana Brooks: Thanks for having me.
Tara: So start off by telling us a little bit about your journey, how you became a lawyer, trial lawyer, and we’ll go from there, if you will.
Dana Brooks: Okay. Well, I started out—I’ve been working in law firms since I was 15. And so I started out doing the books. Back then we had, you know, ledgers and ledger books and manual loan closings and stuff like that. So I was in proximity to lawyers. I don’t have any in my family or anything, but I was always around them. And then one paralegal told me how to do legal research. And so I kind of got into that. And then I went to Pensacola Junior College. I’m from Pensacola, and I got a paralegal degree.
Then I ended up marrying somebody moving to Tallahassee. And then what you do in Tallahassee is go to school. That’s one thing we’ve got is good schools. So I spent my entire 30s in school, so I had to convert an AS to an AA. So I went to Tallahassee Community College, and then I got a bachelor’s and a master’s in clinical social work. So I was a clinical social worker for a while. I worked for many years as a paralegal and did a lot of things, some construction litigation, but mostly medical malpractice defense.
I was married to a medical malpractice defense lawyer, so I worked with him for years. And then I thought, oh, I want to do something else. And I got the counseling degrees, and I realized, I’m not very good at that. I’m more of an advocate. I’m not really good to sit and be quiet and receive, you know, a lot of trauma without saying, okay, this is what we’re doing about it.
Action plan. Boom, boom. So that wasn’t the best fit for me, the counseling. Although I tell people all the time, as a lawyer, that’s the one skill I use every day is the counseling, you know, because our people are injured and they’re having a bad time if they’re calling us. So I did that, and then I was a family law mediator for a while. And finally I just said, listen, I’m around all these lawyers. I’m in this quasi legal world. Let me just go to law school again. You know, you’re in Tallahassee. So that made sense. So I went to law school. I graduated three days before I turned 40, and I was made a named partner the same day I was sworn in as a lawyer.
Tara: There you go, girl.
Dana Brooks: And this was a 30-something-year-old established personal injury law firm. I got that opportunity when I was in law school, and it was funny because they were really selling it to me. They were like, you want to see the financial statements, you want to see the tax code. You’re going to make me a name partner of this firm on day one. The answer is yes. You’re right, I don’t. You know, this could be the worst decision I ever made, but I don’t even have to work at all.
Yeah, so I’m definitely going to say yes to this risk, you know? And I found out why because I’m like, well, of course, I think, you know, I’m exceptional special person. But no, there were two lawyers and they wanted to retire about the same time, and one of them already had my current partner, Jimmy, coming up under him doing general P.I. and the other one did medical malpractice. And he had somebody he had trained up under him, but she fell in love and followed her boyfriend, and he’s like, oh no, I can’t retire.
And so he ran into my husband, who they litigated against each other. And what’s going on with Dana? She’s in her last year of law school. Well, have her call me. And so he’s like, you’re perfect because you can hit the ground running. He’s going to teach you everything at home. I’m too old to teach anybody anything.
But you’re with this, you know, maniac defense lawyer. He’ll teach you everything. And I don’t have to worry about that. So boom, you got it. So it’s a great and again, thought I was exceptional. No, they had offered that opportunity to five other people who either failed or said no. And they were all men. And so, 18 years later, here I am. And so the guy who was junior partner and I bought out the rest of the shares and have had the firm for many years.
From Legal Practice to Law Firm Leadership
Tara: Amazing. I’ve been in the legal field my whole career as well. I’m not a lawyer, but I manage a big PI firm. I live in Austin. In Austin? And your perspective? You said you did the books for a firm. You were a paralegal. How is that? You know, they’re really hands on doing all the, you know, the legwork and the work of a firm. How has that impacted you as a lawyer in your firm?
Dana Brooks: Well, I did manage a couple, three law firms. That’s one thing I did do.
My husband’s firms, and when I was a paralegal, I was instrumental in managing a firm. And then I managed a firm where the partners were kind of going through a divorce, and we had a three-story office. And I remember I felt like the child going between the parent on the first floor and the parent on the third floor, and I was kind of sandwiched in the middle.
But, that’s the kind of stuff that really informs the daily because I’m a managing partner. And so all of that is what I’m doing now. I don’t practice so much, as much as I’ll do like some higher level stuff, or mostly I get a lot of interesting cases, but most of what I do is management, and it’s a lot of personality management, like I talked about in my presentation. It’s a lot of recruitment and retaining good people. We have a problem that most people don’t have, and that’s that. Nobody leaves us. We have to fire them to make them leave. So that tells me we’re too soft. You know, when no one voluntarily leaves, you’re probably treating them too well.
Tara: Maybe, I don’t know, as long as they’re there in their performance.
Dana Brooks: Great. But I’ll find sometimes we need to just run some people off. You know, they’re old school. They’re not fitting with this evolving culture. They were sacred cows from the people. We inherited it. And we just kind of keep treating them differently. But it’s a real problem when you’re bringing in new people, you know. So it’s a constant state of awareness of what’s working in management and what is outdated is everything is changing so quickly now, I’m finding faster every day that what got me here is not going to propel me into the future.
Hiring, Retention, and Managing a Growing Team
Andrew: Walk me through that a little bit where I feel like there’s a few distinct models right now where, like, the big law model is just up or out, where they get a ton of people, they work them all really hard and turn them. Yep. Yeah. You’re going to churn through them. Then there are other folks that try to treat people extremely well, and that works to an extent. But then you realize if you’re overpaying and you’re doing all that sort of stuff, yeah, then the unit economics probably won’t work out and the firm will fall apart.
Can you walk us through the model that you’ve come to and like how you got there?
Dana Brooks: Yeah. The way I’ve been able to control some of those things, because we do have a bunch of people with golden handcuffs.
Dana Brooks: You know, I’m keeping you because, you know, you can’t really afford to leave somewhere else. We I feel like we pay more than other people do. And it’s because we don’t really want to burn through. We’re not looking for. I mean, you got to watch that bottom line, because when you have to replace somebody every couple of years, you’re not saving anything.
Dana Brooks: You know, all the institutional knowledge, all the relationships are going with them too. But the way I’ve approached it now is I’ve told my partners, this is a reality check. Firms are getting bought up. And so I want to be in the best possible position for when I get that phone call or that knock on the door. I want to make sure my numbers look good. I don’t want to have to show them something I can’t justify.
And so anytime I find us going down the sacred cow route where we’re holding on to somebody we shouldn’t, or we’re spending too much because somebody’s got a hard sell at a convention. And now the next thing you know, we’re $200,000 into this AI tool. You know, I just go, you know, what you really need to do is how are you going to defend this? So I say treat every day like private equity is coming in looking at the books, you know.
And if you can’t defend that to an outside objective person, we need to really talk about what we’re getting for it. Because one of the things I do like about owning a business is I do get to have I do get my way. If I want to hire my daughter, I can do that. You know, there’s certain privileges and stuff that come with the ownership, but at some point those can get real far out of hand. And I just keep telling people, okay. Pretend somebody is looking at us to buy us outside.
Can we justify all of these expenses and salaries and positions?
Private Equity and the Future of Law Firm Ownership
Andrew: Yeah, I’m sure those calls are already coming in with the amount of private equity firms we’ve seen that have nothing to do with legal coming into legal in the past. That’s I’m learning. You’ve got the Arizona 5.4 ethics changes that have shifted everything there. But then there’s also the MSO model. That’s what we’re learning. Yeah. Now where I’d say a lot of our competitors on the marketing side have been bought up. Yeah, right.
And, I think the reason for that is most of them are going to go to the MSO model and the anchor to that is going to be the marketing, the call center, the paralegals, CRM, all that. Yeah. Basically perform all the tasks. Then you get the law firms on the other side that do the lawyering.
Dana Brooks: Yeah, I’m excited about it. And, you know, I’ve got some people who advise me in the firm on our financial wellness and making sure we’ve got the right documents and plans and that sort of thing. And so they’ve been kind of orienting us towards that. One of the things I’m excited about it is I’ve got some good non-lawyer leaders who want a piece of the action. Yeah, sure. You know, and you want to be able to give them that.
Otherwise they’re going to, you know, do what so many people do and they’ll go start their own companies, you know, with their unique knowledge set, and then they’ll sell it back to me as a vendor. And I’m noticing that with some of my vendors, they are being bought out by private equity, you know, my SEO company and the one I used before them, they just got bought out by the same company and they have different roles. Like I said, my insurance agent just got bought out. He’s just a little old mom and pop. Doug probably been doing your stuff forever.
Now he’s part of, you know, not Garner, but some big. Oh, there’s the third biggest one in the country. So you know, this is happening and we’ve already gotten some phone calls to for us in my view it’s not time yet and but I’m in the learn everything you can about it phase.
I’ve got some business colleagues who recently helped participate in the sale of a pretty big Louisiana law firm that was led by somebody who was already cutting edge, who was already doing a lot of, you know, things in the personal injury world that were, you know, very far, I mean, of all people to be involved in that and be one of the first, it makes total sense that it would be these people.
Yeah, exactly. So I’m trying to learn from them. And I work with some of the Vista people, Tim McKee who helped with that. And so I’m trying to get real boned up in that and learn a lot about it, because like you said, if it’s not, you know, it’s coming. So to me, I’m always trying to be in the best position for when that I can’t say no call comes.
Evaluating a Potential Law Firm Sale
Andrew: Let’s play like a little exercise here, assuming that we were the people that were coming in, what do you think makes your firm valuable? Like what? Or if you were the PE shop, what type of firms would you look for?
Dana Brooks: You know, I don’t know the answer to that. I’ve got some considerations. Because I’m always looking at, you know, can this be replicated or are these people what’s causing that success?
Dana Brooks: And that’s a real issue with my firm because we are so unlike the other ones. So I fear if I’m not still there, is it going to be Fasig | Brooks? Is Fasig | Brooks sustainable? If Jimmy’s not there, Jimmy basic Kimmy and carry my two junior shareholders who really kind of run that whole machine and they’re very active, very good.
Dana Brooks: And they’ve got to set up to where we’re more like that. It’s a little less about the show and more about sustainability, and we’ve got systems and processes for that. But that’s what I would be looking for. I look for systems and processes that make this a viable continuing operation, and not just a personality or something. I think that’s probably a handicap for us.
Brand Identity and Succession Planning
Andrew: To me, if I was the PE shop, I would be looking at the brand. Right. And you brought up a good point where for most firms that brand is a person. Yeah, it’s a lot of it is a personal brand. So being able to have that brand continue when that partner eventually retires, that’s right is a pretty hard ask.
Dana Brooks: It is. Well you got to check your ego. No. But that’s very incongruent with saying I’m saying, you know, it’s like I’ve got to be less important for this to be worth more money, you know, walk me through that. But I’ve been walked through it, and I know that’s the truth, because that’s another reason why I’m trying to be less the profile of this firm. I’ve been the face of that firm, and that’s not helping me. And it’s not helping the, you know, sustainability of the firm. So how to get my head around that?
And we’ve actually even kind of backed off from the name, I’m kind of dropping it to FB, you know, more so than the who knows how to say facing nobody haven’t heard pronounce correct one time today. So yeah, that’s not great. But, I don’t know I don’t know. I’ve seen that they’re looking at numbers, but the way I assume it works is they come in like Sherman through Georgia and slash a bunch is anything that’s not absolutely driving profitability. And at about 3 to 5 years, they’re gone and they’re going to sell it to somebody else or whatever.
So, I’m very lucky that I don’t care about my name. It’s not even my name. It’s two husbands ago. It’s just a name. That’s great. It’s a name I had when I got famous, so I kept it right, but no, I my name is Dana Nelson. Brooks doesn’t mean anything to me. He even kept the name in the divorce.
Yeah. Yeah, it’s my brand, I built it. You didn’t do anything with your name. Look what I did with it. I’m keeping it. Brains are important. Yeah, that’s my. To my husband. I don’t think he likes it, but I’m just like, hey, you know, I’m the Brooks lawyer in this town. Hey, man. Girl. Yeah, I do think that the brand is going to be the biggest component, because when you’re looking on a on a spreadsheet at all the different firms, the numbers might be the same, but it’s very different to buy from that originates their own claims versus one that’s getting it through referrals.
Andrew: Yeah, because they have exceptional lawyers. And I’m not saying both aren’t great assets. They’re just very different as well. You have to remember to and we found this in our practice. You could do a great job for somebody, but if you’re not in their ear all the time, they’ll forget you. I can’t tell you how many times people will run into me at the grocery store.
Dana Brooks: Oh, I’m so mad. Why didn’t I call you? What’s going on? Oh, I’m at Morgan and Morgan, or I’m at. And. Oh, it’s not going well and well. Did we do a good. Yeah. You did a great job. Why didn’t you come back? Oh, they’re just in my ear all the time. There’s in my ear all the time. And so you know what I mean. People, loyalty only goes so far even when they’ve had an incredibly good experience. So you’ve really got to understand, I think the kind of person who hires. I looked at his three obstacles.
You got to get in an accident and get hurt and be willing to do something about it. Not everybody wants to do that. And you got to pick me when you do. So those are a lot to go through. And so I’m like, how am I going to get you to keep doing this when I’m not? The face you see on all the billboards and taxis and busses, that’s the big question. Everyone’s now who’s in a similar. So that’s that’s why to me it’s like I’m this is doing very well.
Ownership, Liability, and the Reality of an Exit
Dana Brooks: So I need to stay in charge of it until it doesn’t, you know, because I don’t you know what, it’s done. It’s going to be done. And so what anybody would offer me right now is not what I would want to sell it for. The other thing that I don’t think anyone ever brings up is the liability, where let’s make the assumption you sell your firm and the firm is still your name and you are still in the ads. But you are not practicing. You still hold the liability for some of those liability.
And legally, you know, it’s, I told my law partner because somebody is courting him right now. And I said, you know, when I think of who would be the worst former owner, current employee, I said, the only person I think would be worse at that than me is you.
Dana Brooks: I said, so I mean, what I my vision of cashing out is don’t call me, don’t need anything from me. Your check clears. I’m leaving, which is the exact opposite of what? How it usually works where they want. You tell me more about it. Like what? What do they do? They want you to stick around and do what?
Andrew: In general, there’s going to be an earnout period for most PE transactions, and there’s going to be at least a few years where you’re going to actively be participating. Yeah. And in the event that it’s a firm where you are the brand, you’re still shooting TV spots on the billboards. So I don’t have a problem with that as long as they act. Right. You know, because I don’t really do that much right now.
Dana Brooks: I have to trust these people who are making those decisions and representing the clients to make sure that they’re not misusing my name, image and likeness, I guess. And you’re still working. I don’t actually have an active caseload. This is pretty much what I do, is what I would probably continue doing for that entity.
Dana Brooks: Okay. So you know, but then but I’ve got to figure out what I, what I want to do. Of course I’ve been looking for that for second.
Andrew: Yeah. But if you still, if they’re still using your name and your likeness and all that, and you still have all that liability on the table, that could happen. Yeah. And then you’ve got groups that are trying to make things as profitable.
Dana Brooks: Oh I know, I know, it’s a little bit of a recipe for disaster in some scenarios where you’re going to be putting higher caseload on fewer people because of your cost, and they’re going to still think they can come, you know, access and approach and have the same decision making with, you know, me and the other partner that they’ve always enjoyed, they’ll leave, you know, so it’ll just be watching of the dismantling of what you’ve built is what it, what it sounds largely like.
Dana Brooks: So you know everything about that particularly limiting the money because, you know, this thing makes good money. You know, we’re all enjoying a very fine nobody wants to to be done with that. Yeah. You know, so but they’re going to make with them so painful and cost prohibitive at some point I think it’s just going to be inevitable that you’re just going to have to get sucked up. I think that’s just the way that goes.
Marketing Competition and Client Acquisition
Andrew: Why do you think that, though?
Dana Brooks: Because they have more money. I mean, we used to worry used to worry about John Morgan coming into town with all the money. But you could compete with him if you had boots on the ground and you were active in your community and that sort of thing.
Dana Brooks: But now with all these lead generator things that don’t have the bar saying you can and cannot say that they’re just, you know, “I want my money. I want it now.” Well, you know, how’s my case work? Put it in the thing. Next thing I know, they’ve got they’ve captured you. You know, it used to be I got you when you open my email now, it’s just, you know, you submitted yourself to that and they’re going to hit you with it constantly.
Dana Brooks: I can’t compete with those sorts of things. So yeah, between Morgan and those, you know, all that money funding, all the attracting those cases where we’ve seen our market share, ours is pretty stable. But you’re seeing that we’re paying more per case. There are fewer cases to get you paying more for them. You know, that’s all because of that competition. So at some point we’re going to have to shrink because we’re going to have to it forms our case selection criteria. I can’t pay that much money for a ten zero policy limit case anymore.
You know, it used to—maybe it was a loss leader, but I would get referral business and stuff like that and it was okay. But that’s getting to where that business model doesn’t quite work. So I’ll have to shrink because I’ll have to have fewer people working on bigger cases. People have to earn their money. Now it’s not going to be a bunch of managing, but bunch of paralegals wait for the checks to come in. They’re going to have to actually work on the cases.
The Pressure on Smaller Personal Injury Firms
Andrew: So it’s I see that as inevitable. I don’t really I don’t see a way to fight that. Yeah. At the same time, though, when you look at PI as a whole, a vast majority of the firms, something like 60 or 70% are solos, which—I still don’t know how I feel about this one way or another, I think they will probably be the ones that are squeezed first the most. Yeah, but at the same time, they don’t have any real overhead.
Dana Brooks: I think they’re going to die out. I don’t I think that the people who have those practices, because I know some people, some smart ones, have gotten maybe a young person coming up under them, right, a young person, but they’ve never tried to grow, become competitive, get any kind of systems and processes that allow them to keep getting, you know, referral business or to grow it. And they’re just not willing to do those things and that there’s just only so many of those. Your clients die too, you know, and your clients don’t, you know. And our culture has changed.
You know, I live in a college town, so I get a lot of phone calls from people I know who’ve got kids going there. Oh, he got popped for this. Can you handle it? Oh, we got a ticket. What should I do? Oh, this was going on. But so often now, those kids don’t reach out to their parents like they used to. Or adults.
They figure they’ve got this computer in their hand and they’re going to look all this stuff up, and they’re going to ask ChatGPT, and then they’re going to look for reviews, and then they’re going to see if they like the person, and that’s who they’re going to hire. More so than let me look to a respected elder who would tell me who to trust. And that’s how a lot of those people got their business was knowing somebody or something like that. So a lot of the kind of thing I think is going to just die out on its own.
Consolidation and the MSO Model
Andrew: And then when you look on the marketing side, you’re going to see consolidation because there’s economies of scale. That’s right. And that’s really the Morgan model, where the more you spend, the lower your CPM and the lower the cost per case. So like I agree that there’ll be consolidation. Yeah. It’s just a question of what happens after that. Because with a lot of investments not even talking about just legal, it gets over invested. And then there’s a crash. Sure. That has to be that has to be inevitable.
Dana Brooks: That’s why a lot of people are like, oh, you need to get out now because, you know, you get more money now. And guess what? The MSO model, you get a second bite at the apple, you know, you’ll get your sell out. And then when they sell that later you might conceivably get another payout.
Andrew: But yeah, I heard the second bite of the apple a lot. I hear that a lot. Yeah that’s right, that’s right. And you know, so it’s not guaranteed that there will be a no. And then and to get it you’d have to be able to stay under that new structure. And like I said, just personality fit I don’t know a long time where you were running the show.
Dana Brooks: So it’s yeah I think that’s a lot harder. Yeah. I’m not interested to turn somebody employee that just. Yeah. Right. Not in my own firm you know. So I don’t know I it’s not appealing to us right now I guess is where I am. I’m curious about it. And I want to be very knowledgeable about it, but it’s not something that looks like this perfect solution for anything for us right now. Of course, you don’t get to sell it tomorrow. Who knows the right thing? I’m very open to things like that.
This is not like I said, I’m really, This is not like my baby. This is not like my. I’m not emotional about it. It’s how I earn my living. And I like earning my living, helping people. But I don’t manage every little detail. I’m fine with other people handling things and me doing the things that I’m better at than they are.
What Makes a Law Firm Different?
Andrew: So what’s the thing that you think law firms get wrong the most?
Dana Brooks: Thinking they’re special? They think there’s anything special about them. That’s particularly silly. We’re all doing the exact same thing. That’s why there’s so much competition. What do I have that everybody else doesn’t have?
Dana Brooks: I have beautiful lawyers, and I have a lot of women, and people respond to things that they find attractive that seem a nature. And I’m very memorable—the signage, stuff like that. And also, whenever you’re doing something, you don’t feel competent and you don’t want to be made to feel stupid. And I think women are much better at that.
Dana Brooks: Than maybe men are. And so they come to us.
Andrew: So we have the data on, like how much the estimates of what people spend in every market on TV, radio, billboards, digital. And when you look at some of the fastest growing brands, it’s generally the ones they’re the legacy players who have always been the largest in their DMA or their state. And they’re going to continue to grow generally because of the economies of scale. But when you look at the newer ones that are starting, it’s generally either women or minorities or something where just the appearance is differentiation in and of itself.
When the market is generally a middle aged white guy and they all have very similar names and not that much differentiation. So I do think on the branded side, just the very nature of it carves out its own market share within the market.
Dana Brooks: It does. And we look at our clients and even if the person is not even it’s not the woman is hard. It’s usually the woman who started this whole process. She’s tired of you know, tardy your attitude, tardy, you not helping around the house, tardy of you saying you’re going to do something about this and you’re not doing it. She’s just had it with it, you know, and I always tell people, you know, like when you talk to parents, you ask which one of them knows their kids best friend’s name. Ask which one of them chose the orthodontist.
Ask which one. Why do you live in that neighborhood? Because you want to live there. Because your wife wants to live there, you know? So when you look at the real drivers behind the very, how do I live my life decisions, that’s usually a woman. And I also love that women are finally liking other women. That was nice. That was a long time coming. And so you want to be with somebody that you can identify with and you feel is competent, but it isn’t going to make you feel stupid for every question you ask, you know? No. You insist.
She insists.
Women in Law and the Society of Women Trial Lawyers
Tara: I just wanted to lean into the women liking women a think a bit, because that is extremely refreshing, right? Especially as a woman in legal. But just in general, we’re here at the Society of Women Trial Lawyers. I, like you, have been in the legal space pretty much my whole career. I’ve worked for legal associations. I mean, it’s a law firm. It goes on and on and on. What makes this group of women in this conference? Because you’re on the advisory board. I’m sure that we’ve met at other legal conferences before along the way. What kind of sets this apart?
Dana Brooks: And that, you know, helping women like women and lift women up. This group is exceptional in that it is a very candid group. And we pull back the curtain and we share the real. If you’ve been to any of these events, you’ve heard some stories from these women who look like they have got the world, you know, by the tail, and they just are killing it, then you’ll find out what they’re dealing with at their house.
Dana Brooks: You’ll find out what she had to hear and deal with before she gave an opening in a $200 million medical malpractice case, things like that. It’s the real. It’s not the we’re competing with who’s got the nicest outfit and the best purse. I, like so many people do. When you come right out of law school, you’re so excited about everything you’re doing and you get really active with your associations. I got really active with the Florida Justice Association and I got put on board. They compete for their boards, you know. So I just got it.
And so I was just, oh, great, everything’s great. And then I realized, no, there’s a handful of people making all the decisions. All this participation is really not genuine participation. And then they wanted to give us like a woman. I’m not trying to bash F.J., I just give you an example. But they wanted to give us a women’s caucus. And I’m like that to me, felt like the kids table at Thanksgiving. And here a color of this. And when you get done, we’ll put it on the refrigerator. You did a great job. You stayed in the lines. You’re killer.
And then let’s talk about the serious stuff over here. I’m like, I don’t want that. And so when Nancy Holstein wanted to start this group, I was I think I was on the beginning with her on that. And I said, oh, there’s such a need for this. And it’s not. What I love about these meetings is you’re getting legal skills, you’re getting top dog, trial lawyer, jury selection, you know, cross direct.
All this working with experts. You’re getting a lot of information about mass torts. You’re getting a lot of information about management, and how you’re interacting with your staff and other lawyers. But here you’re also getting, life stuff. And that’s what I like. These women are very candid and they’re very accessible. And sometimes when you see somebody that you idolize and you think so much of and you say, oh, they fail, oh, they make bad decisions, oh, they use poor judgment and then they have to fix that. And then you watch them do it and you watch them do it with such grace and such dignity. And it just really it’s so it’s inspirational. It’s empowering. And I like to tell people I’m a girl’s girl, like, I’m, I’m going to be the first one to back up a girl. And I try to lead by example to show people you can be attractive, you can have a lot of male attention and still be a friend to other women. Right? There’s so many times I think, oh, you know, if you look a certain way or if you’re, you know, sued or whatever, then you’re just nothing but competition to the other people that are also being pursued. And that thing could be further from the truth. I like men. They’re fine. There. I find them to be kind of limited and what they can do, and they seem like very simple operating systems.
But, you know, I mean, you’re not the most challenging gender for me in, you know, pretty predictable. And I like that. But when I want some excitement stuff, I usually want to hang out with women. This is going to be the catalyst for my spin off podcast we’ve been talking about doing just for women. I promise you that pretty much. I like women and I like I like hearing about them. They all have so much to offer because, you know, things just kind of tend to go your way as a dude. You know, it’s like when I find one that’s not performing. Like, how hard is it to walk through an open door? Get up. Okay. Just go do it. There’s no obstacles. Just go do it. Get off your ass. And that’s an oversimplification, but, you know, whenever nothing’s really always gone, I’d say that people should rub my head. I’m a very lucky person. I haven’t really had a lot of hardship in my life. Really. I don’t make the best marital decisions. But those are great stories, and it’s part of my charm, as you know, all my husbands, so it’s fine. But, typically I just, I really much enjoy being around other women,
Tara: I agree. You know, and like I said, I’ve worked in this legal space for a long time. Range law firm. I worked for a J for several years. The Texas trial, I mean, it’s, you know, list goes on and on and on. I mainly about peacocks. Yeah. I met Nancy just in the space a long time ago. And, she just is embodies all of that you said about. So when, you know, when we became fast friends, obviously, because this has been her mission to lift up women lawyers. And so, I just love that. And I love this group as well.
I know there’s a great group of people and they have watched several. I think we started doing this in 18 or 19, but I and we had to go through Covid and all that. And, you know, I’ve seen some of these women go through, you know, just incredible things. But I’ve seen them a ball, you know, I’ve seen them come from being real powerhouses and somebody else’s law firm to getting greater power there to finally leaving. Exactly.
Dana Brooks: You know, and that’s just it, just watching the growth and the evolution of somebody. And I’m thinking specifically of Sarah Williams, but just the way she, I just remember at very crucial stages of hers, you could almost see the light bulbs going off in her brain. She’s like, I’m going to market myself. You know? I’m tired of it. I’m going to make myself a, you know, and I and I watched her do it. I’m following her and watching her do it. And sure enough, you know, she ended up doing exactly what I think we all saw before she saw it.
And that’s what I like about it, is watching the growth and evolution.
Tara: She’s amazing. She’ll be joining us actually on our podcast soon.
Dana Brooks: Yeah. She thinks she goes to Scotland to teach you something. But after that yeah she’s fantastic.
Connecting With Dana Brooks
Tara: All right. I mean yeah, that’s a Dana. Thank you so much for joining us. I know we get to get back and to the conference here, but where can any of our listeners, find out more about your firm or get in contact with you or anything else that you want to share?
Dana Brooks: You can reach me through Fasig | Brooks. [Email address unclear in source transcript; verify against audio.] And my cell number is plastered everywhere, so feel free to call me. [Phone number omitted from the web transcript pending confirmation.]
Tara: Thank you again. Great conversation. I learned a lot.
