Why did you become an attorney?

I became an attorney because I’m an over the hill football player. I played college and professional football, and when my football career ended, I wanted something that was as exciting and challenging as football and had the correlation between how hard you work and how much you succeed.

My best friend was and aerospace engineer, and when I would come back to Gainesville in the off season from professional football, I would work out with him. We were weightlifting partners. He had come back from being an aerospace engineer to become an attorney, and he suggested that I come and watch him do a trial.

I went and saw a trial, and I was blown away by the dynamics of the courtroom. Immediately to me, it appeared that if you’re a trial lawyer, you get to play all positions on the football team. You’re the center, the quarterback, the wide receiver. Same thing on defense. You’re in charge of everything that happens for your client, so I was intrigued and very interested from that point on becoming a trial lawyer.

I procrastinated in taking the entrance exam to law school–it’s called the LSAT–but when I stood up when I should’ve sat down on the football field and tore all four ligaments and both cartilages, my best friend came in with an application for the LSAT. I got out of the hospital, took the exam on crutches, got into the University of Florida Law School by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin, and two and a half years later took the bar exam and became a trial lawyer. I’ve been doing it for 39 years, and I have never been bored a day in my life.