The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
The root cause of all lawyers' problems is financial stress. Financial stress holds you back from getting the right people on the bus, running the right systems, and being able to only do work for clients you want to work with. Financial stress keeps you in the office on nights and weekends, often doing work you hate for people you don't like, and doing that work alone.
(Yes, you have permission to do only work you like doing and doing it with people you like working with.)
The money stress is not because the lawyers are bad lawyers or bad people. In fact, most lawyers are good at the lawyering part and they are good people.
The money stress is caused by the general lack of both business skills and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Thus, good lawyers who are good people get caught up and slowed down in bringing their gifts to the world. Their families, teams, clients, and communities are not well-served because you can't serve others at your top level when you are constantly worrying about money.
We can blame the law schools and the elites of the profession who are running bar organizations, but to blame anyone else for your own woes is a loser's game. It is, in itself, a restrictive, narrow, mindset that will keep you from ever seeing, let alone experiencing, a better future.
Lawyers need to be in rooms with other entrepreneurs. They need to hang with people who won't tell you that your dreams are too big or that "they" or "the system "won't allow you to achieve them. They need to be in rooms where people will be in their ear telling them that their dreams are too small.
Get in better rooms. That would be the first step.
Second step, ignore every piece of advice any general organized bar is giving about how to make your firm or your life better.
The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
Renegade Lawyer Podcast: Catching Up with Brian Beckcom on Leadership, Life, and Legal Success
Join me, Ben Glass, on The Renegade Lawyers Podcast as I catch up with my dear friend and fellow attorney, Brian Beckcom. We delve into the evolution of his Houston-based law firm, discuss the intricacies of maritime law, and explore the fascinating cases he's tackled, including the notorious Captain Phillips piracy incident.
Brian also shares his passion for Brazilian jiu-jitsu and how it shapes his perspective on life and law. Tune in for an insightful conversation full of legal expertise and personal growth.
Ben Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury and long-term disability insurance attorney in Fairfax, VA. Since 2005, Ben Glass and Great Legal Marketing have been helping solo and small firm lawyers make more money, get more clients and still get home in time for dinner. We call this TheGLMTribe.com
What Makes The GLM Tribe Special?
In short, we are the only organization within the "business builder for lawyers" space that is led by two practicing lawyers.
One thing we're sure you've noticed is that despite the variety of options within our space, no one else is mixing
the actual practice of law with business building in the way that we are.
There are no other organizations who understand the highs and lows of running a small law firm and are engaged in talking to real clients. That is what sets GLM apart from every other organization, and it is why we have had loyal members that have been with us for two-decades.
So I actually believe it or not got about a $500,000 verdict when everything was said and done. Now there's one issue in that case that's really important. Under maritime law, if you're ordered to do something by a superior it's called the specific order doctrine then, as a matter of law, you can't be responsible at all, and so that case is actually on appeal. Right now. There's an oral hearing in the Ninth Circuit or the Ninth Circuit out in California Federal Circuit, and if the Ninth Circuit decides that my client was in fact ordered to do something and I think the evidence is overwhelming for that we get the whole verdict.
Speaker 2:Hey there. I just want to take a quick break from today's podcast to tell you about an event that we're hosting August 1 and 2. I'm going to be hosting a small, intimate event for solo and small firm lawyers here in our offices in Fairfax, virginia. If you've never been to a great legal marketing event before, or even if you have, this is going to be the place for you to start. If you're running a small law firm and you're looking for ways to attract more clients without spending a lot more money, we're going to be diving deeper over those two days into all the little DIY things you can do, even if you have a small team. This is going to be perfect for a law firm that's doing between about $500,000 and a million dollars in pipeline revenue. If you're making more money than that, good for you. You're doing a lot of things right, but this event isn't for you.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you what this is not. This is not an event where, under the guise of a seminar, we're gonna be selling you websites, pay-per-click ads or other digital marketing media. That's not our space in the market. This is where you're gonna learn how to effectively use your next hour and your next dollar in growing your law firm. We'll be part lecture and part workshop. There'll be some prep work to do before the event and some post-event follow-up so we can answer lingering questions and keep you motivated to building a better life for you and your family Together. Let's figure out why you're not making more money, getting better cases and converting more of your leads. Again, this is August 1 and 2 in our offices in Purifax, virginia, and if you want to be on the early list of people who are getting up-to-date information, just shoot me an email at ben at greatlegalmarketingcom.
Speaker 3:That's ben at greatlegalmarketingcom, and I'll make sure you're one of the first to know. Welcome to the Renegade Lawyer Podcast, the show where we ask the questions why aren't more lawyers living flourishing lives and inspiring others? And can you really get wealthy while doing only the work you love with people you like? Many lawyers are. Get ready to hear from your host, ben Glass, the founder of the law firm Ben Glass Law in Fairfax, virginia, and Great Legal Marketing, an organization that helps good people succeed by coaching, inspiring and supporting law firm owners. Join us for today's conversation.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone. This is Ben back to the Renegade Lawyer Podcast. Every episode I get to interview interesting people inside and outside of legal. Today, I'm going to do something a little bit different. I'm talking to Brian Beckham. Brian and I have been good friends for almost 20 years and for about a decade we saw each other regularly during the year. Brian's a great attorney down in Houston but we haven't chatted in a while, and so I thought let's just let people let's just hit the record button, brian, and let's catch up with each other, and let's just let people listen in on the conversation. So are you cool with that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally cool with that. We were just talking before we went live. Ben, probably most of your listeners know that you had a major medical procedure recently and I've been following you on social media, like I always do, and I was telling you before we went live how you're. Just like you are about everything. You're positive, you're optimistic, I mean it really is inspirational, and I apologize that I haven't dropped you a note, but anyway I'm glad you're doing well, no need to apologize.
Speaker 2:So Brian and I want to catch up with you in Houston and all the weather and stuff I see in the evening news. But Brian is not only a fantastic guy but obviously a fantastic trial lawyer. He and his partner, vuk, have been involved in some of the biggest cases, especially in the maritime space. We'll talk about that. You know around the country, a very big force in the Houston in particular legal space. He's been a Texas super lawyer for 14 years. Ever since he was eligible for that, he's won all sorts of awards.
Speaker 2:But it's the cases, brian, that you've been involved in. And you know, 20 years ago or so you and I met in our mastermind group and in our group and we traveled down to your place once and you hosted dinner for the group. So I'm so glad, since we haven't chatted in a while, I'm glad to have a chance to catch up with you, because we just haven't had that opportunity. And so tell me first of all, like, how's it going? Because you know, last time we talked you have built something, I think, massive and powerful, not only just in terms of a law firm that makes money, but a law firm that has a lot of resounding effects on people. I know you represented a whole bunch of folks for one of the bad hurricanes that came through Houston Again, as we're recording this every night, I've bad hurricanes that came through Houston Again. As we're recording this every night, I've seen bad weather coming through Houston and every time I see something I'm like thinking about you. So how are you?
Speaker 1:I'm doing great. I'll tell you, a number of years ago we had a I call it the power pandemic, the great chill in Texas, whatever you want to call it. But in Houston, texas, we got below freezing and we lost power, internet, we lost plumbing for like five days and I decided to finally splurge on a generator. And if you live in Houston and you don't have a generator, you kind of aren't doing it right, because you're right, like lately it's been, I mean, it's been terrible in Texas. The weather has been really bad. We've lost power everywhere, but every morning at nine o'clock my generator turns on. I can hear it. It's a test every morning and I finally got a chance to use it.
Speaker 1:And so my house has been. I got three kids, one in college, another one about to be in college. They're all back for the summer now, and last week my house was the most popular house in the neighborhood because we were the only ones that actually had Internet power and stuff like that. So you know it's like anything, I'm sure it's. You know, in Houston we have flooding. In Dallas and Fort Worth we have tornadoes and stuff like that. I have a place in Colorado and we got wildfire. You know wildfires up there, so it doesn't really matter where you live. There's always some natural disaster or something. I haven't figured out the place yet where we can move to where there will be no natural disasters.
Speaker 2:No, we don't have a lot of that in Virginia At least unless you live on the coast, like houses are maybe falling into the ocean on the coast or they will shortly. But you know, thankfully we have remnants of storms that the rest of the country has. Now we're conservative juries and we have tort reform and all that stuff and contributory negligence. You probably don't want to move here.
Speaker 1:No, not, the contributory negligence is terrible. So for those that don't know, in Ben's jurisdiction, as I understand it, any contributory negligence is a total bar to recovery. So in most jurisdictions you know, 50 percent or more at the plaintiff, 50 percent or more responsible. Oftentimes they can't recover. But, man, in Virginia it's all or nothing, as I understand it. So that that's a. That is a tough standard. I don't really understand the reasoning behind it, but I know it's not easy.
Speaker 2:It's a trade-off of some other things over the years. We don't have a lot of summary judgment in state court, so you do get to try your cases. You have a punitive damages cap of $350,000, but it's not like there was huge punitive damage awards in Virginia before that, so that was kind of a bone we threw to the insurance company years ago. As in many states, the malpractice laws have some screening requirements and there is a unitary cap there and, as you know, look, no place is perfect, right, and so you've done a really good job of creating something that fits your life right, creating a firm, and I think this niche in these mega cases and particularly these maritime, and then, if you even niche down further, these pirate cases that you've been involved, in over the years of all things.
Speaker 2:So catch us up on the firm. How big it's, b&b Attorneys is it's what my hat says, that you sent me years ago well, my partner's name is vuk vilyasinovich.
Speaker 1:He's half serbian and so for many years we were vilyasinovich and beckham and we just decided to shorten it. You know, actually it used to be in texas and a lot of the jurisdictions I'm not sure how it is in virginia you couldn't have a trade name, like you could not practice under a trade name, and now in Texas you can do that, and so you were able to use the names of partners that had been retired and things like that. But Vujicinovic and Beckham is a mouthful. The funny thing about it is, back when we called ourselves Vujicinovic and Beckham, everybody spelled Vuk's name correctly, beckham, everybody spelled Vuk's name correctly, and my theory was they were so tired after they were done spelling his name that they always mess my name up because I've got kind of an unusual selling. But I'll tell you back to what we were talking about, this contributory negligence thing.
Speaker 1:Last year I was in San Francisco for a month trying a case in federal court and it was a big case. It was a maritime case, jones Act case. Guy had three back surgeries, really badly hurt. We're in there trying this case, felt really good about it. We go to the jury answers. Question one was the defendant negligent? Yes, all right, we're going to win. And then they said a portion responsibility between the shipping company and the plaintiff and they said 95% on your client, brian, and 5% on the shipping company, and here's a $9 million verdict. So in most cases that's a zero verdict. But in maritime law it is absolutely pure comparative negligence. So I actually believe it or not got about a five hundred thousand dollar verdict when all the everything was said and done.
Speaker 1:Now there's one issue in that case. It's really important. Under maritime law, if you're ordered to do something by a superior it's called the specific order doctrine Then as a matter of law you can't be responsible at all, and so that case is actually on appeal. Right now there's a oral hearing in the Ninth Circuit or the Ninth Circuit out in California Federal Circuit, and if the Ninth Circuit decides that my client was in fact ordered to do something and I think the evidence is overwhelming for that we get the whole verdict, even though the jury found my client 95. I still can't figure out how they did that, but it's quite a change.
Speaker 1:Now there's no punitive damages really in maritime law. So, like you said, there's tradeoffs and, surprisingly enough in maritime law. A wrongful death case is not, as quote, valuable as an injury case, because there's this weird aspect of maritime law that says if you die, the only thing you can recover is what they call pecuniary damages, which are lost wages and things like that. So again, it's like anything, ben, and you know your attitude on life in general is a real inspiration to me. There's good things, there's bad things, or you could just say there are different things, like there is no good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I tell people you see what you go and look for and so knowing that there's good and bad, but waking up every morning and trying to go find the good out of everything, so let me ask you out of curiosity that's a giant verdict Do you all handle the appeal in-house yourself or do you hire an appellate team? I'm curious about that because you have a very robust operation, obviously.
Speaker 1:That's a great question and that actually goes into kind of a larger issue that I've been thinking about a lot lately that I'd love to hear from you about. There's a couple of things actually, ben, and I know this is your podcast, but there's some questions that I'm really curious to ask you. But in terms of the size of my practice, we have six lawyers and about seven or eight staff, so roughly 10 to 12 people. We went completely and totally remote for almost all practical purposes during quarantine, and so I go to the office now about once every two months maybe, and we're actually building an office building which is going to take about a year, so I'm probably going to change that a little bit. But one of the things that I've that I think has been really cool about going remote and we were basically forced to do this during quarantine is we went from being limited in number and who we could hire based on where they lived essentially like they had to live close to Houston so they could go physically to the office to now I can hire basically somebody from almost anywhere in the country. So let me give you a. So what I was saying was to me lately, one of the big questions in my mind is how much of my firm do I want to be full-time employees and how much do I want to be whatever you want to call remote or contract or whatever. So let me give you a specific example of what I'm talking about. And, by the way, I need to say this this is our 20th year in practice, so we're having, as of April it was our 20th anniversary. So we've been doing this for a little while not as long as you, but we've been doing it for a little while.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that we used to do forever is when somebody all of our cases pretty much are injury type cases and people need medical care, and so we would have paralegals that would kind of help coordinate, make sure that their people are going to their medical appointments and they need some sort of specialist helping them find the right people. And what I noticed then was that a lot of the defendants would hire these nurse case managers to basically coordinate the care of these injured people, and I was like you know this makes me really uncomfortable because basically it's like the defendant has somebody that can talk directly to my client. I didn't like that, and so I was like you know what, I'm going to hire my own nurse case manager. And so I was like you know what? I'm going to hire my own nurse case manager. So I hire, and it's not. He's not a full time employee, but I now have somebody that lives in Arizona and on the larger cases where there's complicated medical issues I don't know if you've noticed this, but one of the things I've noticed about the medical system if somebody is really catastrophically injured, oftentimes there's not one doctor who's in charge of everything, and so it's important to have somebody that can kind of coordinate everything in these catastrophic type situations. So I hired my own person.
Speaker 1:A nurse case manager does this, I mean, has relationships with doctors all across the country like the best doctors, make sure the client gets in, make sure and get the records and all that stuff. But anyway, the point is is like the balance that I am kind of looking for right now is how much, how many full time employees do I need versus how much. I don't like the word outsource, but how much can I kind of contract out, and that's. I think you and I, if we wanted to, could build huge law firms. I have no desire to do that and really never have. We've got a nice team right now, but we're constantly kind of looking about can we fill this piece in, can we fill that piece in? So that's one of the from a kind of business perspective, yeah.
Speaker 2:My question back to you would be when you talk to your current team, it's a rather compact team. What do they think about that idea? Because one of the I'll say this the thing that Brian and I my son Brian and I learned in COVID was we didn't know all the answers and we had never been through a worldwide pandemic before. And so when questions came up about things like do we work from home? Because we have a lot of space here, it was safe to work here. What about child care? We just said, hey, team, we don't know all the answers. We're curious of what would be perfect for you. Can't guarantee that. We can give you perfect, but if you don't talk to us, we can't shoot for it.
Speaker 2:And that mantra, brian, what would be perfect for you, is a discussion that, to this day, we continue to have with our team. We want this to be the very best place you'll ever work. We want to spoil you here, but you've got to talk to us. All right, and again, we can't promise, but I can just tell you that when you're in an environment where the leadership will bravely ask that question and bravely consider the answers, right, that is a game changer, because no one else has ever asked them that question, right?
Speaker 2:And in a world where, no matter whether you're hiring solely locally or you're hiring worldwide, and we have three that work out of an office in the Philippines the Ben Glass Law team doing social media records collection, some executive assistant work, and they're fabulous. They're fabulous, right, yeah, but we know that we're all competing for talent and A players are usually happy someplace else right now and we've got to go find them and poach them if we want them. But we have found Brian like being brave enough to ask that question, because it's not just you know. You and Vuk know like you can't be the lawyers and the leaders that you are without a great team around you who love coming to work, whether they're going to their bedrooms or their dining rooms to log in or they're coming into the office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I'll give you a real specific example of that. So I have a lawyer who works for me. His name's Brendan and my paralegal, patty, has been with me for basically 20 years now, was the AAJ Paralegal of the Year about five years ago. Brendan is about a 35-year-old kid who I can't we could talk for two hours about how great he is. He's got a two-year-old boy. His name is Luca and his wife is a teacher here in Houston and his number one priority in life is his boy, raising his boy, and he loves to pick him up at school. He, every single day he picks them up at four 30. And the reason he can do that is because I don't make him come to the office for no reason, and so he loves. And I ask him all the time hey, do you want to meet in person more often, or do you like this arrangement? And he says, hey, any, any way, I can get an extra five minutes with my, with Luca, I'll take it. So he loves it, and so that's why we're doing it that way and with and, quite frankly, I could.
Speaker 1:I don't think I could hang on to Brendan if he didn't have that kind of freedom, and the good thing about it is, you know, for me my family has always come first too, and I've kind of built my practice around that, and so we see completely eye to eye as far as that goes. But I have such a good team. So I've been involved in something really crazy for the last two months, ben, two and a half months. It has nothing to do really with my practice. It has to do with the major institution in Texas that I've basically been taking on with the help of a few other people. But I knew this was going to be a big issue a couple months ago and I called Brendan and Patty and I said, hey guys, I'm going to be really busy for the next two months on something basically unrelated to the practice. I need you to hold down the fort. And that's exactly what they did.
Speaker 1:I have complete and total faith in them and I've been able to do some really cool stuff involving some political issues and some major legal stuff in Texas, I mean all the way up to the governor's office, the attorney general's office, stuff like that. And people are like, how can you do this, brian? I mean, don't you have to run a firm? And I say, well, I got a great team. I mean, they ask me questions when they need to. But other than that, I'll tell you one thing. I found out, Ben, about 10 years ago a lot of the times when I get out of the way, they get more stuff done Like when I leave them alone instead of constantly micromanaging they get more stuff done Like when I leave them alone instead of constantly micromanaging. They get more stuff done than when I'm constantly on my own.
Speaker 2:So a lot of lawyers Brian who listens to the Renegade Lawyer podcast are building practices, and most of them have built a good job, that's a well-paying job, and they're at that point where, you know, do I scale and really build a business that can work without, you know, without me, like getting out of the way, and, as you and I both know, like the biggest barrier oftentimes is our own ego, thinking that we have to be the ones involved in every decision, that nobody could write a brief or try a case or take a deposition as well as we could. And so you know, for us, like at that point in our practice a long time ago, like having the courage to start letting go of the vine, letting others do things, you're going to make mistakes. It's hardly ever something that we could do. That's actually fatal.
Speaker 2:That's how you get there, but you know that's one of the biggest barriers to building, to taking a well-paying job and creating a business, is the owner the lawyer in our case getting his or her ego out of the way. Let me talk to you a little bit, though, because you've said several times now your team is great and I know that it is and at least substantially remote sounds like I don't know how many are actually going into the office there in Houston. But let's talk a little bit about how you maintain that culture where people want to keep coming on Sunday night. They're gearing up, they're happy to come and do the work for your clients. That also is a challenge for many folks listening to this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know, I think I mean I've talked to Brendan about this quite a bit because I check in with him like everything going good. Is there anything we need to change or anything like that? And I think fundamentally you know a lot of lawyers and I think I stole this from you, ben. I've stolen so much from you I kind of forgot everything I've stolen, but a lot of lawyers will. When you say what's the most important thing in your firm, a lot of people say, well, the clients are the most important thing. And I say, no, it's not the clients come and go. The most important thing are the people that I work with every day, and if they feel like they're doing something meaningful as opposed to just making money, then they'll come back, and if they don't, they won't. We had a paralegal leave about four years ago because she wanted a $5,000 raise and I told Patty I said, well, that's not a good.
Speaker 1:I mean, I understand you know you want to make as much as you can and all that, and I don't hold that against people at all, but that can't be the only reason you're doing things like money ultimately is an empty path. I mean, you got to make enough money to be able to do the things you want to do and support your family. And if you want to be able to give back, you got to be able to do that. And you're the one of the people, by the way, that taught me that nobody should be embarrassed about making money. Like, making money is the American way and I'm happy that I make the kind of money I make doing what I do. But it can't be that. That can't be what it's all about, and there's got to be like a larger purpose. And the nice thing about my business is I get to pick and choose my clients. I can fire clients if they're not nice, and if they're not nice, I do fire them and I love the people that I work with. I mean I like literally hasn't always been that way, but the vast majority of these folks are my friends. It hasn't always been that way, but the vast majority of these folks are my friends, like truly, truly my friends, and that the nice thing about that is that snowballs. So the longer you do that, the more cases you get, the more people refer stuff to you.
Speaker 1:But I think you know there's all sorts of studies out there, ben. I'm sure you've read some of these books that basically say money is not a good motivator long term, it's purpose. People need purpose. They need to feel like they have some agency, in other words, like they can make decisions, and they need to feel like there's something more important than just seeing how much money you can make Beckham and Vuk. So that, to me, is the really important thing and that actually dovetails into something I want to ask you about, because this has been on my mind a lot lately. I turned 50 a year and a half ago and all of a sudden I started thinking about this what do you ever want to call it the second half, or what do I do now? And my mindset has really shifted a lot from what can I do for myself to how can I have the biggest impact for other people. So you've been thinking about that for quite some time and I'm just curious to hear kind of where you are on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great question and thank you, but before I answer that, let me just make a point, for listeners is back to your question question like what's who's the most important people, the client or the team? You know when, when your team is the most, are the most important, then the clients will be well served, as brian points out. And so focusing on getting and keeping a players and getting rid of the players who turn out to be C or B players even this is so critical. It's not easy. You don't do this overnight. As Brian points out, it's not all about money, but it is about for us, for my son, brian and I. Our purpose running the firm is to build a place where people will thrive, the owners thrive, we're doing work we like, the team thrives, they're working with people they like and they're doing meaningful work. And again, when you solve for A and B, then the clients will thrive. They just will.
Speaker 2:Now to answer your question. So my view on this is that each of us is born and can develop over time a set of interests. You have talents and you have desires, things that just really drive you, interest you. It's not work, it brings you energy. I believe that we're put on earth to take whatever that set of gifts, interests and talents are and to explode them, to put them out into the world. So, for example, I believe that one of mine is to inspire other people.
Speaker 2:As you and I are recording this, I've just finished. I had heart surgery 10 weeks ago. I just finished cardiac rehab. I had heart surgery 10 weeks ago. I just finished cardiac rehab. Everybody in that gym over at the hospital I made smile at least once. Right, I recruited some to the CrossFit gym. Right, I'm sure I did. That's one of my, if you want to call it, zone of genius, superpower, whatever born and blessed able to do that.
Speaker 2:Speaking on stage to inspire lawyers, that's my thing. There are things that I'm just not very good at. So if you say, hey, let's fly to another country and let's build a church or something with hammers and nails not my gift, not my desire I would be a detriment to that project. And it's okay. It's okay to say no to a project like that because I'm going to have plenty of opportunity, brian, to think about what really energizes me and how can I affect as many people in the world. And you know, again, my role is to get them to see the positive and to act on the positive. I'm filling in all the gaps from where they don't teach in high school and they don't teach in college. So that's how I'm, that's how I think, and you're right, I think about this a lot and I think you know Sammy Chong. Sammy and I have worked together probably for almost a decade my mindset coach for those of you who don't know, he's out of Toronto and he has really helped me.
Speaker 2:Give myself, brian, permission to think like that, to say that out loud, to be proud of it and to move the world, because one of the things about my heart condition was you just never know when your last day is. You never know whether you actually are going to have tomorrow or not. I did not have a heart attack. I had symptomless evaluation and discovered pretty significant heart disease. So every day is a bonus day. But that's how I think about that and I would encourage you and you probably have this already, but to have that courage to just go. Yeah, like, whatever it is that drives, brian, you have permission to do that. You don't have to listen to anybody else saying well, you know, you should do this or you should do that they're wrong. They're wrong, they can go. Do that, you do you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'll give you. I'll give you. Here's my current passion and I've got a number of practices. But yeah, so I started. I walked into a Brazilian jujitsu gym when I was 47 years old, didn't know a single person. I felt like a complete and total idiot. Half these people in that gym looked like they could kill me just by looking at me. I was so scared and I'll tell you, for six months I would come home at night and I was in pretty extreme physical pain. I wasn't injured, but I was moving my bodies in a way that-.
Speaker 2:In ways you hadn't, at least since you were 18 or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, really ever. Because there truly are some biomechanical movements in jujitsu that are pretty unique to jujitsu or grappling in general. And I had never wrestled or any. I was a basketball player growing up, so I'd never wrestled or anything like that. But anyway, I walk in there and for about six months I'd come home at night and I would be like, oh my gosh, and I decided to do a little experiment on myself. And here was the experiment If I fight through, there's a difference again between being injured and just being in muscular pain. I was not injured, it was just really intense muscular pain, and I'm not a pain pill person, so I wouldn't, I wouldn't take in any pain pills or anything like that. But I was like, listen, I'm going to try to push through this and see if there's something on the other side of this. Okay, and after about six months I got to the point where not only was I not sore like that, but I actually feel better when I train than when I don't.
Speaker 1:But people are like going, brian, you're 51 years old, like literally today I fought five rounds against a bunch of 25-year-old Brazilian black belt kids. What are you doing? Like, this is crazy. Why would you do this and I'll tell you. There's a number of answers to this, but one of my passions right now is trying to set an example for people my age. That's just a number, like, if I can do it, anybody can do it, and I post a lot of videos now on my social media stories, particularly on Instagram of me and, you know, doing roles with people.
Speaker 1:And one thing I've been thinking about lately, ben is you know we're talking about the future is I'm a purple belt now. I'd like hopefully I'll be a black belt within two or three years if I keep on this current pace, and I'd like to maybe start teaching classes for people specifically around my age, because I think jujitsu is so good for your mental health, for your flexibility, for your strength, for your cardio. It's a complete workout and I think a lot of people my age are afraid to try it and because they think they're too old to do it. And I'm here to tell you there are guys that train that are 60, 65, even 70 years old, and I'd like to maybe organize some classes around some older and I've become, by the way, this is another thing I've learned through jujitsu. I've made some and it's just like CrossFit, I've made some great friendships at an age in life where you don't make a lot of new friendships, and the reason for that is because we're all going through something very hard together and when you go through something very difficult as a team together, that forms close bonds. Like the Brazilian guy, opiano Malachias, 45-year-old, comes from Brazil, had nothing, moves to LA, is a bouncer in Hollywood. He now runs the biggest jujitsu studio in the country and is the most patriotic American you will ever meet in your life, has become a really close friend of mine.
Speaker 1:But anyway, one of my passions right now is I'm kind of trying to set the example for people my age and I got to say this. I'm trying to set the example for my kids too. So my oldest kid, gus, is at Texas A&M and he joined the Corps of Cadets as a freshman, which was a big deal for my family. My brother, myself, my father and my grandfather were all in the Corps of Cadets. For people who don't know what that is, it's West Point.
Speaker 1:It's a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week military organization. It's the only thing like it in the country outside the military academies, and it is really difficult. It is hard for 18- 19-year-old kids nowadays to get their head shaved, wear a uniform, get up at 530 every morning, have to say yes sir and no sir. But it's the best damn thing. It is the best damn educational opportunity in the country, and I think one of the reasons my son did it is because when I told him he should do it, he saw that I was doing hard stuff too, and it set a good example for him. My younger son just got an A&M and in two months he'll be in the Corps of Cadets too. But anyway, I kind of want to set an example for people to say you know, like you're always saying, ben, who said you can't do martial arts when you're 51 years old, you and I are so aligned.
Speaker 2:Next month I'll have my seventh birthday in CrossFit, so I started when I was 59. And like you, boy, those first four or five months, like every week, I'm like, how do people do this? Because, again, not an injury but just hurt. But like you, Brian, like my passion is introducing CrossFit to the over 50 crowd. Right, and where I do, and I may do this like it's in the back of my head, Like I don't want to coach, necessarily on a continued basis, but I would like to do the foundations class to say the same way I got introduced, which is hey, are you 50 years old or over, former athlete, you want to come and do something hard in a group with people your age? Come over and do this because I can teach and I have a level one certificate from CrossFit, so you know to start to teach people at any age that this is very doable.
Speaker 2:Yes, it can be hard work. Yes, it can be intimidating. The music is loud, Much stronger men and women in my gym who are lifting and dropping weights of large amounts. But I'm like the oldest in the gym and I'm like, come on, let's do it. I will show you how to do this. Hey, let me switch gears. Let's talk a little bit about the legal, because you have been involved in some many now large cases, but I think maybe one of your most famous involved piracy and the high seas and a movie that was telling the wrong side of the story. So talk a little bit about that. I think folks are going to remember the story when you tell it and just catch us up on. If you have followed your client now in 2024, I don't know how he's doing your clients.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so for the Captain Phillipsips case, which is what you're talking about, that was basically the whole crew of the ship, or most of the crew. After that case I actually got another piracy case with one individual client who I still keep up with pretty closely. But the first case this was many years ago. People may remember this an american ship, the maris calab, got hijacked by Somali pirates off the coast of East Africa and it was in the news Navy SEALs K-Obama ordered the Navy SEALs in. They ended up killing three of the four pirates. The fourth one is the only federal prisoner right now who is in prison for piracy, literally piracy.
Speaker 1:There's a question about how old he is, by the way, but anyway, I get a call from the cook of the ship and he says hey, we all got together with the captain and we wanted to do a book about this together and the captain said I don't want to have anything to do with you guys. And they're like well, it was your fault, you were told not to go there and you did it anyway, and you don't even want to do a book with us, and so they were pretty upset about it. They ended up hiring me. I had no idea when they hired me that this was going to be such a big deal. But anyway, I'm driving home, so I get hired. The crew hires me file this lawsuit.
Speaker 1:I'm driving home one night and I get this call from Good Morning America, like literally on the way home hey, is this Brian? Yes, brian, hey, you filed this case we want to interview about. Ok, great, when do you want to do it? How, about 10 minutes? What? Yeah, do you live at one, two, four, three, nine Massacre? Yeah, Great research.
Speaker 1:I said, ok, well, I'm almost home, I'll meet you there. And I called my wife up. I said, hey, honey, good morning America's on the way over and she does what I think most wives would do. She immediately goes into cleaning mode and so she's like cleaning the house furiously and these good morning America folks come and they interview me about this case. Next thing I know there's a movie starring Tom Hanks. I'm super worried, by the way. I told the judge. I said, man, we got to try this case before the movie comes out because everybody loves Tom Hanks and Tom Hanks is paying Captain Phillips and Captain Phillips is the enemy in this case and it's going to completely prejudice me if we don't get to try this case before the movie comes out. We can handle that with Ford, no big deal.
Speaker 1:Best thing that ever happened is the judge not continue this case. Why? Because the movie comes out and boom like the publicity I got. It is still. I get reports every month of my highest performing web page. It is still, 15 years later, by far the most popular website or most popular web page on my website every month, and has been for 10 years. And you know what Tom Foster predicted that he told me. He said this will be one of the most famous cases you ever work on. He was exactly right about that. And then, a couple of years after that, I got hired by a captain named Wren Thomas, former US Marine. He was on the coast of West Africa when he got attacked by real pirate, like mercenaries, boko Haram terrorists taken into the jungles for 17 days. Ultimately he was ransomed out, but I represented him in that case. That was another big case, not quite as famous as the one with Tom Hanks, but another good piracy case. So I haven't had any piracy cases recently, but boy, those were a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Talk to me as we close out here. What does the practice look like today? Who's the avatar client for you? I know you're doing cases. You do cases all over the country. Are you maritime centered or are you doing MedMal? I'm curious about the firm today as we're talking 2024.
Speaker 1:We don't do any MedMal never have, because the laws in Texas are really challenging, Like you have to basically specialize in that. There's so many pitfalls and I just don't feel like.
Speaker 2:It's not your gift. Not your gift sounds interesting.
Speaker 1:Not my gift at all, not my gift at all, although interestingly I have a personal family experience with medical malpractice case. My mom died of medical malpractice and that's kind of one of the reasons I think subconsciously I do what I do. But probably about half of my work is maritime or maritime related. It's all over the country. The other half is just big single event personal injury cases, again all over the country.
Speaker 1:You know all this remote stuff and Zoom has broadened our practice, like, basically we went from Texas, louisiana, new Mexico, a little bit of Florida to everywhere, and then the last group of cases we have is the Hurricane Harvey cases. So those are eminent domain cases against the United States government. We represent about a thousand Houston homeowners who got their property flooded by the Army Corps of Engineers. We've won the case at the DC Court of Appeals. It's now an appeal and if we win the appeal that'll be a good thing for all these homeowners. But boy, these cases take a long time.
Speaker 1:So that's mainly my practice Now. I also do, by the way, a little bit of consulting type work for professionals who are either leaving a practice and they want to make sure they do it the right way or they're getting fired and they're not getting separation bonuses. I've kind of started to do a little bit of that work too. So the nice thing about what you and I do, ben, is the skills that we've developed as trial lawyers translate into different things, I think, really seamlessly. So you know, you can do a lot of things with the skills you have outside of.
Speaker 2:So, again, we haven't talked in a long time but a significant part of Ben's business is consulting with health care providers across the country who have some physical or mental issue going on. They're thinking about tapping into their long-term disability policy Raises all sorts of malpractice issues, board regulatory issues, you know, issues obviously with the disability company. But, brian, you wouldn't be surprised. Most of the discussions that they have with me I'm like what do you want to do with your life? Like okay, you can't operate anymore. I'm sorry, we can help you get your benefits.
Speaker 2:Now let's talk about the next stage of life. You have gifts, injuries and talents. What are you going to do? And that just, I thrive on that and it is taking this gift set that I have and moving out of personal injury space into talking to these very interesting physicians, nurses, nurse, anesthetists just about every week from everywhere around the country. So you're exactly right and that's a fun spot for me. So lots of questions how much? Because you mentioned trying a case in full court for a month. That would be challenging for anybody, just the logistics and the time away from home and all that. So how much of your time today, brian, is spent being a lawyer and doing the lawyer thing versus leading the firm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I'm doing it right, I spend as much time as possible on the second part of that, like just making sure that the right people are doing the right things. Now I, like you, I'm an alpha personality and so I want to get in there and take that position still and mix it up a little bit. I actually enjoy that. You know. It's funny because for 15 years I was like you know, wouldn't it be great if we each had 10 to 15 multimillion dollar cases and we could just pour all our time and effort into that small set of cases, really get to know the clients well, really just do an absolutely bang up job on a smaller set of cases? And you know what I realized? Because Brendan told me about a year ago he goes you've got that right now. He says I can handle a lot of the smaller cases for you and you can completely dedicate, you can pick and choose which ones you want to handle. And but my mind hasn't quite shifted because you know, I've always had, you know, 50, 60, 70 cases. Vuk's always had 50, 60, 70 cases and I have this notion. That's the way you're supposed to do it. But what I'm trying to do now is. I'm trying to pick like five to 10 of the most and, by the way, it's not always the biggest cases, it's the cases that interest me the most and really do a deep. What the thing?
Speaker 1:I one of the things I love about the law is when I can go super deep on a case and like just sit there and completely focus and just do a amazing job. What causes me stress is when I'm doing little piddly things on 50 different cases. Like that's stressful to me. I'm a Cal Newport guy. As a matter of fact, I'm going to take credit for sending you that book. It's one of my annual rereads, yeah, and I sent and, by the way, he's got a great podcast that you should listen to. He talks about a lot of that stuff. I'm a big fan of Cal Newport. But I think I'm way happier when I am completely focused on one thing and one thing only and I can do a super deep dive and put everything aside. I get stressed when I'm like, okay, I got to do this, so that's really where I'm trying to go is like when you hire me, I'm going to personally. If I personally hand you your case, you are going to get absolutely the most best represent, like the Tiffany level of representation.
Speaker 2:At the end of the day, I think that's what we're supposed to be getting paid for. Is like our creativity and focus because, honestly, like anybody can take a deposition and write a complaint, but who's strategizing about how are we going to help the client solve this problem right? Whatever their problem is, doesn't matter your practice area, and so to be able to run a practice and run a life that allows you to go deep, that is the place to be. Brian, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Lessons from Leaders with Brian Beckham podcast. You have had some fantastic guests on that, so I highly recommend that lawyers who are listening to this go find Lessons from Leaders with Brian Beckham. Brian, give us the URL, the firm name. If folks want to just check out what you're doing. If they have a big, giant case and they need a team like you and your team, how do they find you?
Speaker 1:I want to say one thing about the podcast real quick. But VB Attorneys, that's V. As in VB Attorneys, we're on all the social media, we're on all the YouTube, we're on the web. All you got to do is type in Brian Beckham or VB and you'll find us everywhere. I'm real active on Instagram now because that's where all the jujitsu guys are and, frankly, there's not a lot of politics on it, which I like. But let me I want to say one thing about the podcast.
Speaker 1:So my podcast Lessons from Leaders started during quarantine. The idea was to focus on. I was seeing all this negative stuff online and stuff and I was like let's put a little positivity out in the world. But I really I had a profound experience with a recent podcast episode and I want to encourage your listeners, if they have time, to listen to this particular episode.
Speaker 1:So in the fall, a very close friend of mine who had cancer for five years got a terminal diagnosis and I had been talking to him over the last four or five years about different things and my mom had died of cancer and we had become even closer. And he calls me up and says I got, I got a four to six month terminal diagnosis and I want to write a book, like you've written some books, and I want you to tell me how you've done it. And, by the way, I learned how to write the books was from you. And I told Jim, my friend. I said why don't you come on the podcast? And he said, well, nobody's going to want to listen to me. Well, come on the podcast. And he said, well, nobody's going to want to listen to me. Well, nobody cares what I have to say. And I was like I think, jim, you might be surprised. So he comes on my podcast and we spend an hour talking about his perspective, living, dying, faith. Family had no idea how it was going to turn out.
Speaker 1:When I was done shooting the podcast, I went downstairs and I told my wife. I said that was one of the most positive believe it or not experiences I've ever had and that podcast Jim died about four weeks ago and that podcast is by far my most popular podcast. It has reached so many people. I've gotten so many comments from that. I've had people say, man, I had lost touch with Jim. I saw your podcast, I reached out to him. The message that he has, the perspective he has, is absolutely incredible, and so, if any of your listeners are interested in a topic like that Jim Goldsmith is his name. It's one of the most recent podcasts, lessons from Leaders. I think it's got 5,000 listens on YouTube and another 10,000 on all that.
Speaker 2:I mean it is and it wasn't planned, it just kind of worked out, but it's a really good show and you could take that episode now and write the book that he probably didn't get around to writing Right, and I know you have turned in the past. You've turned your success articles in your newsletter into a book. I think you turned podcast episodes into something. I may be wrong on that.
Speaker 1:And it's about so. I did a speech twice to United States Air Force officers on leadership, based on what I learned in the podcast, and then I turned that into a book on leadership, which is basically me saying these are the things I've learned from all these.
Speaker 2:Really super cool guests and if you stayed around to listen to the very end of this, brian just gave you a fabulous idea to how you can, you know, take something like a podcast. And the reason many of us do podcasts is because we get to talk to interesting people and it's fine just outside of the legal work and the legal stuff we often talk about. It's just fun to talk to interesting people and get ideas. And then Brian has repurposed work that he has done Really and this is all a topic for another day but it's all about building out his personal brand as well. You know the things that Brian is known for, besides being a great trial lawyer, come through in his podcast, his newsletter, his website, things like that. So, my friend, it has really been great to catch up with you. I'm so glad that we have this opportunity to do that. We'll have to catch up on your podcast, too, when you see me live.
Speaker 2:That would be really fun.
Speaker 1:I was going to say I want you to come back on, and one of the things I do, Ben, is I've been on a number of podcasts and what I like to do, especially when they go really well, is, once you release your podcast, I then have my people call your people and say, hey, can I release the podcast we just did on my platform and that, hopefully, will give you some extra juice. It also helped me introduce people to people I like, so I'm going to have Alba reach out to you and we'll for sure get something set up.
Speaker 1:You were the very first guest.
Speaker 2:That's right. Oh, that's right, yes.
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you something. When, in all seriousness, when I announced that I'll never forget Jim Goldsmith, my friend who died, messaged me and he goes, boy, ben Glass, that's a big gift. Like he knew who you were. He was a practicing lawyer. He knew exactly who you were.
Speaker 2:Well, look, say hello to your lovely family. It is interesting when they get to that kind of college age and they all come back for the summer, so I'm sure it'll be. Hopefully your generator won't actually have to do a whole lot of heavy lifting this summer and the weather will improve. But, brian, my blessings to you and to your family.
Speaker 1:It's been a really fun hour, sir. You look great, ben Great talking to you, and we'll definitely get you on my show soon my friend Go to chat All right.
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