Ever wonder what fuels a relentless pursuit of greatness? In my conversation with John Griffith, we uncover the secrets behind building a thriving law firm, mastering jujitsu, and living life on your own terms. How does a redneck from Middle Tennessee transform setbacks into a legacy of growth? Dive into his inspiring journey and challenge your own path to excellence.

Let's dive in.

Jonathan Hawkins: Welcome to Family Partner Podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Hawkins, really excited about today's guests. he's done some really cool stuff and still doing some cool stuff. We've got John Griffith of Griffith Law in Nashville, Tennessee. And man we got more to cover than we've got time for John, but why don't you introduce yourself briefly?

Tell us about your firm, what you guys do. You know, how big you are, how long you've been around, that kind of stuff.

My dad was a lawyer, but we didn't get along very well. So I wasn't sure that I wanted to go to law school. I was in a little bit of a rebellion stage. And so I had a friend of mine who just so happened. To be a claims adjuster and said, Hey, Progressive's looking to fill some slots with claims adjusters.

And I was playing in a rock and roll band at the time. I just graduated and didn't know what I wanted to do. So I was just playing a band and that was a lot of fun. Now we can talk about that too. But anyway, I started working for Progressive Insurance. I was transferred to Atlanta, lived in Cartersville, handled North Georgia.

So, I had an opportunity. Well, I decided at that point I was thinking more seriously about going to law school and doing the other side.

So I befriended some plaintiff lawyers that I would negotiate with in my P. I. Cases. And they said, John, you really ought to consider it doing plaintiff work. Yeah. And one man said to me, son, get out of this racket as soon as you can. And so I decided to go to law school. So I applied and got into Nashville School of Law, which is a night school.

So I transferred back to Nashville and went to law school at night. I worked about 50 hours a week and went to law school and just got out. I knew that all I want to do was plaintiff work. That's, I just had a passion for that from day one. And so I only cared about torts, civil procedure, evidence, and constitutional law and remedies.

And man, we're just. You know, it's still work, but you know, we're, we seem to be, I hope a happy family. And, you know, I tell my people all the time, we're going to be Monday through Friday, you're gonna be around these people more than your family and your spouse. I hope we at least pretend to like each other, if not love each other.

So we're growing. I'm really thankful for that. I believe you're not growing, you're dying. And uh, our goal is to be a 50 million law firm. That's a very, very lofty goal, but that's, we're on track. we've been doing the EOS traction model and that's been very helpful. And We've set big hairy goals and we're, we're exceeding those goals.

So, it's scary you know, there's ups and downs. But I always say as long as my children don't have cancer or not dying, you know, it's been a good day, you know, so there's good days, not so good days, but I'm just very thankful to be part of this journey. I'm just, I'm having a blast. I'm, loving this job.

I love our firm's reputation. I'm just, man, I'm, very, very humbled and thankful for whatever amount of quote success, whatever that means, you know, that we have.

I don't want to be a lawyer, but here I am. I ended up. A lawyer sort of like you too, right?

John Griffith: Yeah, yeah, you understand

Jonathan Hawkins: It's destiny

John Griffith: Why is it we fight with our dads from like 16 to 20? Why is that? I don't know. Woo. Yeah.

Jonathan Hawkins: You're a musician So so I grew up in mobile and you know, I was in a band in high school and we were doing originals and I this was you know, This was back the grunge, you know, had broken out and Pearl jam and all that. I thought we were going to be famous and that's what I wanted to do.

I want to be a rock and roll star. And there's a South Alabama is a college mobile. And I was like I got a full ride, all that. And I said, dad, I'm staying in town. To pursue the band and I'd gotten into a couple other schools, one of them, Georgia Tech, and he just said you're making a mistake.

And I said, show you. And after about two weeks of really thinking about it, I came back, said, yeah, I'm going to go to Georgia tech instead. So killed my dreams, killed my dreams, but yeah,

John Griffith: Yeah.

Jonathan Hawkins: all for the better.

John Griffith: Well, you never know. I mean, you could have, you know, you could be like I don't know, some famous rock star now.

Jonathan Hawkins: The other thing about music and we'll talk about it in a minute, but you can be the best musician. I mean, you're there in Nashville. You're the best musician in the world. But if you're just not in the right place at the right time, there's only so much you can do where, at least law and other things, if you're pretty good, you don't even have to be the best lawyer and you can still be pretty good, right?

A pretty good music

John Griffith: Yeah.

John Griffith: Well, you're right.

You don't have to be the best lawyer. You just have to appear to be the best lawyer, right?

That's look at all the advertisers. That kind of motivated me to advertise on TV recently within the past year. I'm like, I'm not saying those guys aren't, some of them aren't good, but I'm like, some of them aren't, you know, we use know what they are.

We see them, we see them in court. We see some of the problems and fall out. And I'm like, I can do at least as good a job as that guy, you know, or that firm, whatever.

Jonathan Hawkins: So you anyway.

John Griffith: You doing it?

John Griffith: I've been a big direct advertiser. I credit a lot of whatever growth we've had to Ben Glass, great legal marketing, and he's done a man.

And so we moved to Murfreesboro to increase our reach and like, man, I can't do, you can't do, it's difficult to do direct marketing an hour away. I can meet doctors and take them to lunch a couple of times a month, but it's hard when you've got to drive an hour to get there. It's hard when you've got to drive an hour here, an hour there, all over the map when you're spreading out your locations.

The broadcast media is, is the way to go. And, so it's, that's been a transition for us, but it's, starting to pay off and working out. I'm just, I'm learning a lot, you know, filming commercials, trying to see what's the best route to go. You never know. And the money, you know, the problem with broadcast is once you spend the money, it's just disappeared into the ether.

Jonathan Hawkins: so yeah, take me through that. My sense again, I've represented some advertising lawyers. I don't my practice area is not suited for it, but my sense is. Has always been you got to commit it's not a one and done. It's not a three months and done It's a 12 to 24, maybe more months

John Griffith: right.

Jonathan Hawkins: hey i'm going to do this consistently And then then it starts to pay off.

So what was your thought going in and you know Has you know, have you started to see you think that it's working and you're going to keep going

John Griffith: So one of the guys who's had a huge influence in my life and a big mentor for me is Mark Breyer out of Scottsdale, Arizona. And that just one of the smart, you meet some guys in your life and like, man, that dude is just eminently smarter than I am, you know, but he told me the same thing you just said. He said, you know, if you commit to this.

You know, I'm, I've turned more into a data man. I know exactly what our average case per average fee per case is. I know it's easier to make decisions when you do that. Well, I need. You know, our, new Murfreesboro office needs to make X number 100, 000 a year and this much to be profitable. So we need to generate at least 40 cases out of the office to be pretty profitable and within that area of that SEO.

So, we are seeing the frustrating thing about. Broadcast marketing is that you don't always have a direct return on investment directly attributable to that medium. And so people will say, I saw you on Google when that's probably true. But I think what happens is they see us on broadcast media.

We do have some, but majority are not. So it's just a weird way to measure thing. and for somebody who wants data, like I do, I'm like, I'm not getting the data, but I'm getting the results.

Jonathan Hawkins: That's what matters, right? so let's go back. So you you went to law school. You want to be a plaintiff's lawyer you had been an adjuster, so you had probably interacted with plaintiff's lawyers and people told you to do it or that you'd be good at it. When you graduated, did you immediately go to plaintiff's law or did you have to do sort of a stint with a defense firm?

Because my experience, it is really hard unless you just start your firm to go straight out of law school to the, to the plaintiff's side. Seems like they usually want some experience first.

You know, we would even slide across the hood of our car. Cause we thought we were, that's how redneck we were. So, out of law school, I worked for my dad. My dad did real estate, criminal. And just whatever he could get his hands on, mainly real estate. He did a lot of work for the banks and he was a very, very smart real estate attorney.

So he said, you could own this town doing real estate. So I started doing real estate as part of our practice. And I realized very quickly, I hated that. I hated the agents telling me you're going to be to do half the closing at 7pm tonight and you can do the other half at 6. 30am in the morning so that people can make it to work.

I can sit down and I can make 500 I mean you've got to be kidding me. I just thought I thought this the ticket is valid, you know, it works, you know, knowledge is a good thing, but I remember one of the first cases I settled for as a personal injury lawyer with my dad. I was so excited to get the check.

It was a check from State Farm for 25, 000 and I was so excited, I ripped the check.

I haven't thought about this stuff in so long, John. That's funny that we're talking about this, but anyway to answer your question, I have never done defense work. I've just I grew up, well, I gained experience with the insurance companies and I just wanted to get out of the environment. I hated that.

There's, I have some great friends that are defense lawyers, and I have been defense lawyers, but I just. I couldn't deprive a widow of benefits. I couldn't give him a hard time. I'm like, why don't we just go ahead and write you a check for our limits? You know, why don't we do that? And I wouldn't be allowed to do that.

So I just, I'm proud of what we do. And I'm thankful what we do. And I'm thankful for the defense lawyers that do what they do. But I'm, I'm very. I just feel like this is my journey that I was cut to do. That is my cloth cut, cut from when I unlocked into that claims adjuster position, I just, I think it was God's plan for what I am supposed to do.

That's what I think. Everything has worked out like that.

So workers comp, imagine part of your practice just disappearing by legislative fiat, it's gone. And then. Our case volume just started shrinking. We had a stable of cases, but we weren't replenishing enough without workers comp filling in the void. And he'd say, what are you going to do? And I'm like, what are you going to do?

And I had to pay child support, alimony. And then my partner was wanting to slow down and think about retiring. I'm like, I, that's not an option for me. I got to churn and burn. I got to get going. And so I just realized we just had a conflict of visions. And so I wanted to so I just decided that I was done.

So anyway that worked out. And it's just been every year has gotten better and better and better. And it's just been a lot of work, but it's just a work of passion that I love and I'm just very thankful for that. It's, you know, there's still, there's ebbs and flows in any business, not every day's, I recently had a medical malpractice trial and, I lost that trial two weeks ago and it, it hurts, man.

It, it, and it. took a lot out of me. I feel like I've just been kicked in the gut 15 times and in the head and I just need to take off two or three days and I was emotional. I was down about it. I usually don't get emotional. And then I came back to the office and like, Oh, this Case got summary judgment.

Don't get too low don't make your life decision based on one day or one week or one month even and then just Keep your head in the game and just keep coming back. Just the consistency, that Goggins mentality wins the day.

Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah. And I mean, a PI practice, I mean, you're living it. You get up and down, you can have your best year ever. And then the next year, your worst year ever, it's just up and down, up and down. So you definitely got to have the right mindset for it. when you started your firm when you went out on your own again you know, did you bring people with you?

And then was it easier since you had sort of done it before and you've been doing it a while, or did you find it was hard to start over

And then just slowly over time, it's grown, just working through our great referral sources, our referral partners, just yeah. I mean, I'm not above just stopping at a doctor's office and give him on my book or a chiropractor's office or another attorney at the bar association, the local bar association.

I've got so many cases to them just make it there are so many as a, you know, who's your avatar, your perfect client and, you know, mine are my former clients. Other lawyers and health care providers. Those are my top three referring clients. So I just worked the heck out of those and did, and just stayed on it.

You know, those are some of the best referral sources that I've got. And they, they're usually not little cases. I mean, they've already weeded out the chaff, so to speak.

Jonathan Hawkins: and I'm with you. If, you're not. Moving forward, then you're, you're dying in my view. I think, you know, the scientific term, you know, entropy there's just a natural tendency for things to decay always. So if you're not and growing, you're decaying. So, completely groovy on that.

So, you know. You're still having to bust it, but it's working, right? I mean, you've grown to what? Six lawyers, what you're about to have, is it going to be five total locations?

John Griffith: Four total locations. We're adding two. We've got two. We're adding two more in the next two months next month. I'm adding Clarksville next month. We're just getting ready to sign a lease agreement on that. And then I've got to open up another office, an office in Nashville. Which it just makes perfect sense.

I approached the owner four years ago and I said, and I, I'm not supposed to say this, but I want your building. I'm willing to pay very handsomely on this. It's a great location. Good size building. It's got 26 offices in it. At the time we only had 18 staff. And then a year later I noticed after COVID that nobody was coming back to work here.

So I'm like, man, you got a lot of space you're not using. I sure would love to have it again. Here's another offer and you're not asking for it. And then about a year later, he started spending that money. And he said, John, I'm ready to talk to you about that. So. He got a good deal. I got a good deal. And we've been here, but we filled up the office with, I mean, we're, we don't have extra rooms now.

And then Nashville, we're already covering Nashville, but it'll give us a greater SEO presence.

Jonathan Hawkins: Well, it's cool. So, you know, growing a firm take, as you know, it takes a lot of work. You're busy doing, you know, to cases, you know, recruiting and getting all that stuff, the marketing. But you do a lot of other stuff too. I want to start talking about some of that. So, you served as the president of the Tennessee trial lawyers for a term.

John Griffith: Yes.

And how was that? I I've been involved with, bar associations and I know you, you get on the bottom of the ladder and you work up and it takes many years to get there. And then you're there, you got to lobby at the legislature and you're, traveling and do all this stuff.

It's, It's like another job, right? I mean, how much time did that take and what, was the experience like for you?

Jonathan Hawkins: So is immediate past present. Right.

John Griffith: yeah, that's right. And I always wondered because you do have to serve, you have to serve all the chairs and I was the legislative chair for about 10 years, which was great.

And it just very eyeopening, you know, you go into these legislators offices and they. They really, they don't want to see you. They've already made up their mind. They're just doing their duty to give you five minutes, but be treated so disrespectfully sometimes. And you know that they're opposite angles and that's fine.

You got lawyers acting like kindergartners sometimes, you know, you're settling disputes among your own and trying to keep everybody trying to keep all the oars rolling in the same direction and having the same vision. And, but I really enjoyed that. I was very thankful. We've got a great group of trial lawyers, got a great executive director, Suzanne Keith.

I was ready to get out though. I always wondered why. I said, you know, it's I'm not going to be like all these prior past TTLA presidents who get out and they don't do anything and they don't get back involved for a year or two. Well, I understand now because it's like I just. I had burned out.

I mean, I was really not negative towards the organization. it's the added pressure of running a law firm. And then my law firm took a hit a little bit of that year. and I wasn't, my head wasn't 100 percent in the game because I felt a stronger obligation to this organization I was donating my time to.

Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah. You mentioned all the legislative stuff, you know, here in Georgia right now, huge bush for tort reform, huge bush. We'll see what's, what's going on. So I know the Georgia trial lawyers are down there. Every day, I'm sure. I don't know what it's like in Tennessee, if it, it sort of comes in waves in different States.

You know, I guess it was Florida a couple of years ago and now it's Georgia.

John Griffith: Yeah.

Jonathan Hawkins: Has anything there in a while?

I know Georgia has no caps, but we also fought collateral source a lot, and we've just been very fortunate to keep our laws as they are we're just a very conservative state that loves insurance companies overall. that's the bottom line. I always say. Argue that conservatives are not for really for tort reform.

They believe you break it you pay for it And it's just tort reform is actually anti conservative agenda in my opinion, but that's just a philosophical argument But it's at the bottom line. It's like insurance companies want protection. They're paying for that They're paying their lobbyists to lobby hard.

We can't out money them We just can't at least in Georgia Jonathan you guys have a I think y'all got over four three or four thousand Lawyers member of your Georgia trial lawyers and that's extremely strong. We only have about less than a thousand in Tennessee. So When I found out you guys had so many I was really impressed by that But so far y'all done a great job for your people hard.

John Griffith: Yeah,

Jonathan Hawkins: we'll see what happens. But speaking it affects me.

John Griffith: I've got a lot of tort cases in Georgia right now.

Jonathan Hawkins: Speaking of fighting you're also a fighter, you do some jujitsu, right?

John Griffith: Yeah,

Jonathan Hawkins: I'm so tell me about that. How long have you been?

John Griffith: Case Griffith is a senior at U. T. But four years ago he was a senior in Franklin High and it's one of those dad experiences where I promised my son we kept talking about it like, Hey, we need to take a martial art together, you know? And so I had made an appointment to go have a Krav Maga experience with my son.

And he said, well, he said, do you like MMA fighting? I'm like, yeah. He said, well, what do all those guys do in addition to boxing and striking? And I said, probably jujitsu. And he said, yeah. He said, there's a reason for that. And so I was like, okay. He said, come by and we'll give you free lessons for a month.

And so I did that and I took my son and my son and I were so into it. At the end of that, my son had to start lacrosse. So I was hooked and that was four years ago, four years ago this month actually. And I am, I just love it, man. I'm so addicted to it. It is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, Jonathan, by far.

You know, so the first times I did it, I couldn't last a six minute round. And now, you know, on Saturdays on our open mat, I'll go for an hour and a half, you know, six minute rounds with maybe three or four minutes resting in between, but you just go back to back to back and you just learn how to pace yourself in part.

But man, it's. I watch videos at night. Now, my wife says, are you over there watching Juujitsu porn again? I'm like, yeah, I'm sorry. Jokingly, I mean, I just love it, man. I just, I'm not as great as a lot of, you know, I real you, it makes, it shows your age. I'm 58 years old and I'm wrestling with 22, 18, 20 8-year-old men that are just buff.

I was in Paris, France with my wife and two guys were getting in a fight on the train. I just calmly gave her my bags. And I said, hold these. And she said, why? I said, I'm getting ready to take this dude out. She goes, you are not. He could have a knife. Don't do that. And I'm like, but it's just like. You're not worried about it because you're engaged in conflict all the time.

You're used to being in terrible situations. You're used to somebody mounting on top of you, you know, or, you know, got you got your back, you know, you know how to get out of the situations, you know, at a hundred percent now, you don't know if they have a weapon or not.

That's true. And you need to exercise caution, not go looking for a fight, but I can pee. I, love it you can probably tell my heart rate gets excited. And somebody asked me about jujitsu. I just, I love it. I love it.

Jonathan Hawkins: It's the you've had some success. I saw you've gotten what is it? I don't know how you, what they get gold medals. I don't know what trophies, what do you get, but you've won some, some competitions, right?

I'm always trying to get his approval. You know, like, did I do good coach? But yeah, we've got to work on my mindset for competing because he said your jujitsu on the mat is a lot better than it is when you're a junior. Then when you're competing and sometimes people, sometimes I freeze up compete. I get so tense.

I want to win so badly that I revert to wrestling as opposed to jujitsu and you just got to keep your mind out. You got to flow your mind. You just can't, you can't have an agenda. You got to be reading and evaluating what the person's doing all the time. It's like chess while you're on a log roll. You know, it's just like doing that at the same time.

It's so cool. I love it.

John Griffith: I would just say the confidence of it. I mean, even I don't know. There's just I'm such a redneck I just think there's a confidence that you have being able to control the situation or You're being in bad situations that you know you can get out of. You're going to have good days and bad days. I mean, it's just part of the other lessons of life.

that's all I can really say about that. But it is a great stress relief because when I do it, no matter what's going on, whether I'm having a, you know, maybe a fight with my wife or my business is taking a hit or something, or we had a great day. All I can do is concentrate in that time and that space.

I don't think of anything else. I'm 100 percent locked in on what I'm doing. So I think it does teach you that. It does teach you to focus. It's like, just focus. You can worry about the other stuff later.

Jonathan Hawkins: That's cool. I don't know if I'll ever do it. I got some back issues, But

So now I've learned tap early and tap off and live to fight another day. There's you're not going to impress. Anybody in that room,

Jonathan Hawkins: yeah.

Real quick. Thanks for listening. If you're getting any value out of this podcast, please take two seconds to hit the subscribe button and leave a five star review. It would really mean a lot to me. Now back to the show.

Jonathan Hawkins: So let's talk about, so you played, football at Vandy. What was that like? how long were you there? Just, was it one year or a couple years?

And it really kind of gave me an ego complex, if I'm totally transparent and honest. Because I'd go in a restaurant and say, Oh, Johnny, you ready for the big game Friday? And I'm like, yeah, I'm ready. And, all right, this is on the house, brother. Good for you. Go get them. You know, and I'm like, I started walking a little bit taller than I actually was.

And so I thought that I, and I got a lot of offers to play football in Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee, Memphis, but mostly smaller schools. But anyway, I didn't get an SEC offer and I knew the SEC was the best conference around. So, My dad lobbied for me to get me into Vanderbilt. So I was a walk on at Vanderbilt and I, my parents couldn't really afford the school.

And so this is me again with my ego, but. Did pretty well, got to play on special teams first year. I got hurt my middle of the first year. And so I got registered early on and then I came back and the next year in the black and gold game. Spring game, I tore my Achilles, and so I rehabbed from that.

I came back in that fall. I tore ligaments in my hand and I was like, man, I'd never been hurt one time in high school. I was just very fortunate. I don't think I sat out at one play being hurt in high school, and then then I just, I kept getting injured and nothing. That was pretty traumatic, the, as tear that I had.

But anyway. I just decided at that point I was done with football. And so I just said I'm not having fun with this. And I decided to leave and go to UT Knoxville and which was a mistake in retrospect and to switch schools two years into it. Cause you don't really make any friends at either place.

That was cool. That was really cool. But I just didn't, I just got frustrated with it. And I, if I was stuck it out, I would've gotten to play more. I mean, I left, I was third string. Behind two great players one was a senior one was a junior and I was a red shirt sophomore here Yeah, so I still had three more years.

I could have gotten I probably at least would have gotten some Decent amount of playing time other than special teams. So but I never got to play as much as I really want

Jonathan Hawkins: So, big question. I, I know Vandy and UT, man, and they, big rivals. Who do you root for now?

Vandy scores the touchdown, then they intercept the ball and run it back, and at that point I can't contain myself. I'm in the Alabama session with an Alabama shirt, and Vandy scored, and I'm like, YES! My wife was there, and she said, she's like, John, these people look like they want to kill you. So yeah, that's fine.

But I'm a huge UT fan, man. My blood runs orange through and through. I love UT. You know, Vanderbilt hates UT, but Tennessee looks at Vanderbilt, it's like, you know, it's like swatting a fly. You know, it's like, they're really not their nemesis. Alabama's the nemesis, you know. That's the one that both teams get up for.

So, I love Vanderbilt, but I love UT. A little more. I, I shouldn't be saying that. My Vandy alum friends are going to be ticked if they hear this, but that's just,

John Griffith: yeah, yeah, Vandy beat Tennessee in basketball. They did great, but they both got good teams. So go wrong.

Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah.

Jonathan Hawkins: All right. So let's move on. So, I mean, you really, I mean, you do just about everything. So you play football, you do jujitsu, you know, you, you're president trial lawyers but you also play guitar. You've mentioned that we've talked about that a little bit. So long you been playing guitar?

What, what kind of music you know, you in bands, you play live.

John Griffith: Yeah, I've been playing since I was in fifth grade. My dad got me uh, a PVT 60 crap guitar with an amp and a distortion pedal. And I had uh, one of those eight cassette players and I had ACDC back in black and I grew up on that and Van Halen and I would just sit there. I would sit in my room on Saturdays sometimes for eight hours a day and I would lose track of time.

I wish that I, you know, one of my dreams is if I had nothing to do and I could do anything in the world I want, I would go to Berkeley School of Music or the Belmont School of Music more locally and just take every guitar class that I could because I just want to learn it. I went to downtown Nashville.

Out to a club one time about five years ago after a lawyer event and I saw this kid It didn't look like he's 19 years old and I know enough about music say that dude is Railing on that guitar. He's phenomenal not just speed but just the different modes He was playing and I went up to him during a break.

I'm like, I want to go to the music school. I want to learn to play like that. I love to play, but I'm just playing the same old pentatonic licks, you know, that all these old school rockers are playing. I want to know the guitar, like. People like Joe Satriani and those guys play and all those great guitar players.

Jonathan Hawkins: You know, we were talking, I grew up playing the drum set and, you know, love it. I moved to Atlanta and you know, started taking lessons from, you know, some musicians and it's, and I was like, yeah, I'm starting to get pretty good. Right. And, there's this uh, jazz club right near Georgia tech.

It's crazy. of thing that I'd be so inspired, also so defeated at the same time. Cause it's like, I will never be able to do what he's doing. So it's just like,

John Griffith: Yeah.

Jonathan Hawkins: You ever feel that way

John Griffith: Yeah I can't play I'm not like a super super fast Like I can tap like Eddie Van Halen But you know like some of Joe Satriani any of these there's so many good guitar players today so many of them and I just I'll play for You know, a couple of days straight and think of my chops are getting better.

So anyway, we had a reunion party this year, a reunion concert or gig at Yeehaw Brewery in Knoxville on October 8th, right before the UT Alabama football game. And we played for about 350, 400 people and it was rockin it was so fun and it was so cool because our band had a great chemistry and it just, it didn't go anywhere.

It is still exactly like it was, except a lot of us, especially me, have gray hair and white hair now, but we took a picture of And in the same pose we did for our, advertising when we were in college. And it was just so cool to see those guys and they're all doing great. And they've all kept up with their music and we're all probably better musicians now than we were then.

So anyway, it was just, it was a lot of fun. That was a, that was a bucket list thing from October 8th.

Jonathan Hawkins: That's awesome. So you got a big vision for your firm, you know, growing a big firm, you're doing jujitsu, you're doing all this stuff.

How do you find the time?

John Griffith: Man, I've got great people that you know, I always think that this cup can only hold so many marbles, you know, and so I've learned to delegate and elevate. That's kind of our motto around here. You know, the first thing I did, I got an office manager, Kirby white who works for me and he is fantastic.

He protects my time like a lion. You know, everybody has to go through him. and then uh, we've just, the good thing about getting bigger is now we can specialize in different departments that we need and find the time, man. I just One of the things that helped me greatly, and I preach this to all my people, it's one of my required readings for all my staff and my lawyers, is gosh, Miracle Mornings by Hal Elrod.

And it's such a simple book. It's basically just get up an hour early and do these five or these seven things, you know, and it, but it, it's just the mindset, just being disciplined to do it. And so that really helps me a lot to get my day planned. And I've been, honestly, I don't want to be a hypocrite.

It's 24 7. I can't think of anything else. I didn't return any emails. I barely talked to my wife. You know, I always tell my family, Hey, I've got this trial coming up. It's very important. You guys are more important. We're going to celebrate afterwards, win, lose or draw, but daddy's going to be gone for two weeks and I love you and we're going to celebrate when we get back.

And so, yeah, this was really tough because I'm not used to losing and it's probably the third trial I've lost in 27 years, but I'm it was tough. And, but you know, I came home and with that, just with the experience of knowing, Hey, This can happen. I knew going in this is a real possibility. This could happen.

I'm thankful I got all you guys. I talked to my intake manager. We had a great number of cases come in. You guys have done your job. Y'all been moving these cases forward. We settled a bunch of cases while I was gone. I didn't have that luxury before when it was just by myself. You know, it was truly a loss.

At least we cut our losses by having people do what they do so well here. So, truly thankful. I hate it for my client more than anything that we lost that case, but I'm truly thankful as far as the business goes that we are rocking and rolling and we've got a good process, a good system that keeps us rolling.

John Griffith: I am still involved in all the trials. I'm usually the lead lawyer in all the trials and I would I've tried to work giving that up so I just there's a certain amount of trials I want all the lawyers to see and it doesn't have to be just my way I always tell them don't be like me be yourself, but there are certain minimum standards.

You've got to got to meet so I would like to get out of that. I'm just I feel like this is egotistical of me, but I feel like my lawyers My clients need the best lawyer they can get and I feel that some of my lawyers uh, especially some of my lawyers have been with me for a while, I think they have the capability to do just as good a job as me and I'm, training them to get to that point.

I love it. I love the people aspect of cases. I love jury selection. Man, I love that. I love talking to people. I feel like these are my people. These are middle Tennesseans. They're, I'm a bigger redneck than they are for the most part, you know, and I'm I don't know, I get maybe a little bit too friendly with them, but I'm, I'm always transparent with them.

I'm always brutally honest with them. I'm asking them to be brutally honest with me, but I'll tell jurors all the time, like, you know, you said you used to work with a friend of this lawyer, a friend of this doctor, I said, that, can I be honest with you, that makes me really scared of you. I'm a little bit scared.

Tell me, am I wrong to be scared? Tell me why I shouldn't worry about you being a fair juror on this case. You know, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. I feel like you gotta be just brutally honest with people. And, I think that's what jurors need, want. You know, they're, they're looking for the truth.

Jonathan Hawkins: So anyway, I mean, I will to grow that, you know, try on cases you enjoy it. So that's, that's not going to be something you give up lightly. I mean, other people do it too, but.

John Griffith: I will. Yeah, I think Josh, one of my lawyers, I'm ready for him to try a case. He doesn't, I don't think he needs me. Others. Yeah, they're working that way. And there's no perfect trials are messy. This last one was a little messy. I mean, it just that's the way it is. So I don't expect perfection.

I just want them to follow our procedures. You know, one thing we're very diligent about Jonathan is every time we have a trial, we sit down meeting like, okay, this is our procedure. How can we improve on that procedure? What work? What didn't work? What's something we wish we'd have done better and we always address that immediately and we've got one I think one of the best Pre trial procedures there is.

Jonathan Hawkins: So you've got a really big vision you know, early on in your, firm, you had certain motivations to make it work yet, you know, your family and, you know, kids and all that you had to take care of. So you've grown it a lot. You're doing well. You got an even bigger vision. So what, is it that's driving you? Why do you want to do it?

John Griffith: Well, I do believe that if you're not growing you're dying. We talked about that. I also I saw my father practice and I saw him Decide to retire and it was like vultures dividing a carcass, you know, some cases went to these lawyers, some cases went there. I took a case or two and it was just, it just disappeared.

It's not all about the money, but I'm just saying, I have devoted, you know, almost 30 years to the practice of law that I've done five to seven days a week most weeks. And for that just to disappear just seems, I'm doing it in part for a legacy, I guess. I want the firm to live past me. I want it to continue to grow and like, Hey man, I had a part in that, you know, that was part of what I did, but I just don't want it to, I just don't want to retire one day and then scatter, you know, people take part of it here and part of it there.

I haven't figured it out yet, Jonathan, I'm really working hard on that. I've got a lot of plans in place that we're currently doing to motivate them, to give them incentive to stay here because I realized that longevity. And loyalty are very infrequent, but valuable. So, I'm trying to build a place that they love and, that they will continue the culture.

Hopefully that I've had a good ground in starting and will keep the same culture here. A culture of giving, a culture of love and respect and honesty and integrity. And superior legal services and excellent client communication. Those are our core values and I just, I want that to endure.

So, I do believe the more you grow it and seek to grow it and have the vision to grow it, the more excited they'll be and the more opportunity they'll have. And then, like you said, when it's time to sort of hand it off to them. can take it even bigger.

John Griffith: Yeah, keep it going. Keep rolling.

Jonathan Hawkins: So we're running out of time here, but for those out there that are, you know, many years behind you, or maybe just starting their firm or, you know, been at it for a couple of years, as you look back on your career, law firms, you know, any advice that you would give them as they're trying to build something.

Go to Vegas and see the big boys and learn one thing from them and bring it back and grow on it. And so I did that. I went to see Mark Lanier years ago. I went to see Nick Rowley not too long ago and, you know, Keith Mitnick and those guys. I went to the Trial Lawyers College. To make myself a better lawyer and that that was a life changer by the way that trial lawyers college I went to the ranch jerry spence's ranch in 13 and that was good.

But I have dedicated my life to being the best lawyer that I can, and I'm still working on it. I still read lawyer books by great lawyers hone my craft and become better, and to watch Courtroom Viewing Network. I'm not obsessed with it, but I just, I continue to make it a part of my weekly practice.

You're going to wake up the same day. Why not? Look back and say man. I'm glad I did that so you can live like no one else or you can live like no one else Live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later And so I I'm really motivated by things like that and I try to motivate my people To just to make themselves better.

So that's a long winded answer But I would say pick your path and hone it and become the best lawyer you can especially if you're working for another law firm Man, you got so many, I tell my lawyers, look, I hope you're working here 10 years from now, but if you're not, use me, go to trial and bust your butt and try to make something great happen.

Jonathan Hawkins: That's great advice. It reminds me of that old saying, and you have 20 years of experience or one year of experience, 20 times, right? Like

John Griffith: Keep getting off that merry go round. Same place. Oh, here I am again.

Jonathan Hawkins: exactly. Well, John, this has been great, man. It's been real fun. And, I'm going to have to see you playing guitar, man. So if you're ever coming down to Atlanta, let me know. But if I come up to Nashville, you gotta let me know when you're playing. I gotta see you see your next gig.

John Griffith: We're not that far apart. I come to Atlanta at least once a year for some baseball. So I would, I really want to take you up on that.

Jonathan Hawkins: Nice. Well, for those people who want to get in touch with you, what's the best way to find you?

Jonathan Hawkins: Awesome, John. It's been fun.

John Griffith: All right. Thank you, Jonathan

Thanks for listening to this episode of the founding partner podcast. Be sure to subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to stay up to date on the latest episodes. You can also connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn and check out the show notes. With links to resources mentioned throughout our discussion by visiting www.

lawfirmgc. com. We'll see you next time for more origin stories and insights from successful law firm founders.