Latest / Buying Local Podcast / Episode 22: Scott Peterson (D'Orazio-Peterson LLP)
Transcript
- 0:00The superpower that every citizen has is the ability to
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- 0:14world. You can start with buying local.
- 0:21Hello everyone. Mike Nelson here with buying
- 0:24local. We're actually doing a simulcast
- 0:26for both Glens Falls and Saratoga today.
- 0:29I am with Scott Peterson from Derazzio Peterson law firm in
- 0:34Saratoga. And Scott, you guys do a few
- 0:38different things and you cover a kind of a territory Warren,
- 0:42Washington, Saratoga counties because that's kind of where you
- 0:45live, but it and it kind of goes out from there too.
- 0:48So maybe you know let's just take a minute tell you know tell
- 0:51everyone you know who you are and what you guys do over there.
- 0:53All right. Well, first thanks for having us
- 0:54on, having me on. So we are kind of a, I don't
- 1:00like to use the word boutique, but a small firm that handles
- 1:04primarily employment discrimination and serious
- 1:07personal energy cases for kind of a small number of clients.
- 1:12And we handle those cases like you said, locally in our
- 1:14neighborhood. We're based in Saratoga Springs,
- 1:17Saratoga, Washington, Warren Counties, upstate New York and
- 1:21our practice has kind of taken us.
- 1:24Throughout the state and actually into Vermont over the
- 1:26last couple of years, we we try to focus on helping a very small
- 1:32number of people with pretty serious problems.
- 1:36And you know, because of that we have intentionally kept kind of
- 1:39a small practice and we are, you know, we're pretty selective
- 1:43about the cases and the clients that we take on, but we give a
- 1:45very personal level of attention to our personalized level of
- 1:48attention to our clients. So when you say employment
- 1:52discrimination? Right.
- 1:54What does that mean? I think most of the time we're
- 1:59telling people what it doesn't mean actually because we feel
- 2:04the very high volume of calls of people who have had something go
- 2:09wrong in the workplace and they call us New York is a very
- 2:14employer friendly state, so. Many of the things that go on in
- 2:18the workplace that people, you know, that happen to people
- 2:21aren't illegal. They might not be nice, they
- 2:23might not be appropriate, but that doesn't make them illegal.
- 2:26So the kinds of cases that we handle are fairly severe
- 2:30instances of things like really serious sexual harassment where
- 2:35someone has. Been going through something for
- 2:39typically a long period of time. They've made complaints to
- 2:41someone running up the ladder, It continues to go along and
- 2:45they're either forced out or they have to quit or they're
- 2:47fired. Typically it's someone who's
- 2:50working in a fairly high level position.
- 2:52The kind of things that people often say to me, this stuff
- 2:56doesn't really happen anymore, right?
- 2:57And I'm like people are people. I know that's actually what it
- 3:00literally what I was thinking I was like, I can't even believe
- 3:01that that still goes on in today's world like.
- 3:06And the best example, you know, the me too, all the stories that
- 3:10came out of me too, really exposed a lot of what we see
- 3:13behind the scenes to kind of the the masses.
- 3:16And people were shocked when they saw people like, you know,
- 3:18in positions of power, Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, those
- 3:21kinds of people. And they're like, how does this
- 3:23stuff go on? I can't believe it.
- 3:25And it like I said, I think there's a, there's an element of
- 3:29human nature to it that you know, we've the laws have become
- 3:32more strict. The education around these
- 3:35issues has become significantly greater over the years, but to
- 3:38some degree people still do things against their own
- 3:40self-interest, you know, knowing that they're wrong and this kind
- 3:44of stuff still happens and we see it all the time.
- 3:47So that's, you know, that's one example of the kinds of
- 3:49employment discrimination or sexual harassment cases.
- 3:54We also do a lot of work with people who have disabilities.
- 3:58They find themselves asking for or needing leave for one reason
- 4:01or another. They come back, their job is
- 4:04gone, or they're fired or something along those lines in
- 4:07retaliation. These days, I'd say the primary
- 4:11kind of cases that we work on are related to disabilities,
- 4:14medical conditions, medical leave, and then you get the
- 4:18sexual harassment and then we do a fair bit of work for people
- 4:22who go out on military leave, come back and find themselves
- 4:25frozen or without a job, so. Much of it is not the kind of
- 4:31splashy headline stuff that you see on television.
- 4:33Some of the sexual harassment stuff does really make your
- 4:36eyes, you know, makes your head want to explode the fact that it
- 4:38goes on. But some of it's much more
- 4:40subtle and it's it's, you know, helping people who have worked
- 4:44hard. Most of them are pretty highly
- 4:46educated. And most people who call us who
- 4:49we ultimately take out as clients, or many of them are,
- 4:51they've never worked with a lawyer before.
- 4:52They've never had. They they never thought they'd
- 4:54be in this kind of a situation. So that's kind of our.
- 4:58That's our employment side of the practice.
- 5:00And so there's the employment side and then there's the
- 5:05personal injury side. So tell us a little bit about
- 5:07that, because I think everybody knows or thinks they know, but
- 5:10they don't actually know. So tell us about the personal
- 5:12injury. Stuff.
- 5:14So I kind of equate what we do on the personal injury space
- 5:18too. If you think about, you want to
- 5:20go out to eat at a restaurant, right?
- 5:21A couple weekends ago, on Friday night, I went with my kids and
- 5:25went to Chipotle. And Saturday night my wife and I
- 5:27went to I was just telling you the pharmacy up in West Falls,
- 5:32we they were both meals we ate at both of them but they were
- 5:35very different experiences, right.
- 5:37And so when we when we kind of set out to open our firm, we
- 5:40thought about what kind of experience do we want to give
- 5:42the clients who work with us and you know it's the Chipotle
- 5:48experience exists is out there. I don't fault you know any
- 5:51anybody for doing what they do but there are there are firms
- 5:54that handle. Lots of volume, lots of clients,
- 5:56lots of people come through the doors.
- 5:57You might see them all, you know, on television or all over
- 6:00the place. We decided we wanted to be more
- 6:03of an experience. Like when I went to pharmacy, I
- 6:05sat at the chef's counter, I talked to the chef.
- 6:09There were six or eight people there and I got a very
- 6:12personalized level of experience.
- 6:13And so when we decided that this is the kind of practice we were
- 6:16going to do, you know, 12 years ago, we decided that we wanted
- 6:19to give that personalized level of experience.
- 6:21So the clients who come to us. You know, whether it's they've
- 6:24been in a car accident or they've had a, you know, a
- 6:27misdiagnosis or a really bad error in a facility or a
- 6:31healthcare facility or a nursing home, they typically are the
- 6:35kind of people who will do a lot of research, who will talk to
- 6:38friends and you know, people that they trust in their lives
- 6:42and they're not going to kind of call the first person that they
- 6:45see that they're, they're typically hesitant to think
- 6:48about. Making a claim for something
- 6:51wrong that happened to them. And so we always, I kind of
- 6:54always explain people in the process.
- 6:56You know most people who get hurt, they they may initially
- 7:00think about is there anything I can do about it.
- 7:02Then they kind of work on their treatment and then they think
- 7:04about is this the kind of thing I want to do right.
- 7:07And so the conversations that we have often revolve around, well,
- 7:11there are many ways to approach something like this.
- 7:13There's many ways to try to help yourself and your family without
- 7:17you know. Getting yourself in the paper
- 7:20and making flashy headlines. And so a lot of people come to
- 7:23us, they they want to do things discreetly, they want to do
- 7:25things professionally. Many of them are professionals
- 7:27themselves. And so they, you know, they want
- 7:31that sort of highly personalized level of kind of care and
- 7:35attention. And so that's kind of what we
- 7:37give them. That's a great analogy, by the
- 7:39way, with pharmacy and Chipotle. They're both good.
- 7:43They're both great. Yeah, absolutely.
- 7:44But yeah, that's a completely different product, completely
- 7:47different level service. Shout out to those guys at the
- 7:51pharmacy. They do a great job.
- 7:52The food's amazing. Amazing.
- 7:53The whole experience is fantastic.
- 7:55Yeah. And we're in Saratoga and
- 7:56there's lots of great restaurants, but that's up there
- 7:58with, you know, any of the best ones up there.
- 7:59Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Paul Smith, Renovo Real Estate
- 8:04With over 3 decades of experience in construction, Paul
- 8:07brings a unique perspective to the real estate industry.
- 8:10His construction background helps his clients throughout the
- 8:12buying and selling process. Buyers are able to leverage his
- 8:15knowledge to identify potential issues that could be costly down
- 8:18the road or even get a better price on their new home.
- 8:22If you are buying or selling real estate, think of Paul Smith
- 8:25with Renovo Real Estate. On the on the personal injury
- 8:29side, I mean what I really hear you saying is that someone's
- 8:31gone well and really on both sides of your business, right,
- 8:33someone's gone through something that potentially is horrific,
- 8:36right, whether it's a sexual harassment.
- 8:39You know discriminatory thing at work, you know or if it's a slip
- 8:43and fall or some some sort of accident or whatever it is And
- 8:47then you guys are really there to kind of help them through the
- 8:49process to make sure that they. And I'm trying to remember how
- 8:53you the last time we spoke you phrased it in a specific way
- 8:57that really made me. I had never thought about it
- 8:59that way and now I'm trying to remember what how you phrased it
- 9:02but something along the lines of.
- 9:09I'm kind of trying to blink on this.
- 9:11Well, so we kind of have a philosophy of and it's on our
- 9:17website of educate and power and guide.
- 9:19And our whole approach to the process is we want people who
- 9:24are going through these situations to understand what
- 9:29this world looks like because it's so far into them and it's.
- 9:33It's extremely confusing and it's extremely intimidating.
- 9:36And so our sort of mindset and approach is we want you to be as
- 9:41educated and as comfortable as you need to be to understand how
- 9:45this works and what you want to achieve and how to get there as
- 9:50opposed to. Somebody walking in my office
- 9:52and me banging on the table and flipping the table over and
- 9:55saying I'm calling the Times Union and I'm calling this and
- 9:57we're doing that. And maybe that's not exactly
- 9:59like in their best interest. Not everybody wants that, nor do
- 10:03they even know that that's something that's available.
- 10:05Yeah. And I mean, I'd imagine that
- 10:08some of these people are a bit reticent to.
- 10:13Would go through this process, right?
- 10:14I can't imagine it's an easy process.
- 10:16And I think, I mean, I think if I was about to go through this
- 10:19process, I'd like, you know, I don't want people to think I'm
- 10:21trying to get something for nothing or I'm trying to work
- 10:24the system or any of that stuff, right.
- 10:27And so like what do you tell those people in those
- 10:29situations? That's a great question.
- 10:32We're sort of harmed by the headlines around like, you know,
- 10:36the hot coffee case or you know, cases that.
- 10:40You know, or a complete joke. And I'm not saying the hot
- 10:43coffee one was that was actually, you know, in in our
- 10:45community. That's actually something that
- 10:48it was so hot that McDonald's I think, changed the standards
- 10:50afterwards. I mean, I've burned myself on
- 10:52hot coffee. Before but but you know so when
- 10:56we when we talk to them about it we we we try to explain it to
- 10:59them in a way that you know your your what happened to you is is
- 11:05very personal to you it. It has nothing to do with what
- 11:09you see everywhere else. Nor does it have to be something
- 11:13that kind of going back to what I said before, that makes the
- 11:16front page of, you know, the news for being, you know,
- 11:21something that offends people or gets them upset.
- 11:24The long and the short of it is that, you know, let's use an
- 11:26example of a man or a woman who's in their 40s, has kids and
- 11:30is a professional and they, you know, they, maybe they go into
- 11:33the hospital and they. They prescribed the wrong
- 11:35medication or they have surgery in the wrong body.
- 11:38You know, something that we see that, you know, gets kind of
- 11:41swept under the rug typically. And now they can't work right.
- 11:44And now they're, you know, their their family's losing out and
- 11:48they, they can't pay their medical bills and their kids,
- 11:50college tuition and money is gone.
- 11:52And so for them, it quickly becomes less about.
- 11:56Worrying about what? What that you know that that
- 12:00perception is more about how am I going to get through this.
- 12:03And so our our kind of job and goal is to to try to show them
- 12:06that, look, this is about one of the most serious things that can
- 12:11happen to your family and your life.
- 12:12And there is, there's a way through this without you having
- 12:18to worry about what other people are thinking.
- 12:21And you know it's it's sort of the situation where you know
- 12:25most of the people who call us say.
- 12:26I'm not the kind of person who sues.
- 12:28That's like the first thing that.
- 12:29Right. And I always say, you know,
- 12:31everybody says that until they find themselves in that
- 12:33position. It's very easy to sort of take
- 12:35shots at the guys in the billboards and, you know, the
- 12:38people with the silly commercials.
- 12:40I get it, you know, And but until something like that
- 12:43happens to you, you know, and when it does, it becomes a lot
- 12:46more serious and a lot more more personal.
- 12:50And so that's the conversation that we have.
- 12:51It's. Sort of explaining to them that
- 12:53it's OK to be doing this right and it's it's OK to be thinking
- 12:57about this. And you thinking about this does
- 12:59not make you someone who belongs on a, you know, a cheesy ad or,
- 13:04you know, a funny, a funny video or, you know, getting talked
- 13:07about on the news. That's a very different
- 13:09scenario. So that's the kind of
- 13:10conversations we like to have. Yeah, it's it's interesting to
- 13:16you know because in some situations where there is
- 13:19neglect or. I don't want to say malice, but
- 13:23there there was something that happened because someone wasn't
- 13:25doing what they're, you know, like I think of the, you operate
- 13:28on the wrong body part or whatever, you know, So there's
- 13:30obviously a problem there and that person suing the
- 13:35organization that did that, they're potentially preventing
- 13:38that from ever happening again. And I like, I don't think that's
- 13:41something and I only think that way because of one of our
- 13:43previous conversations. I wouldn't have thought that
- 13:45way. Otherwise I'd be in the mode of.
- 13:48You know, we just, we live in such a litigious society and you
- 13:51know, everybody wants to sue for everything.
- 13:53And a lot of lawsuits are, you know, in my humble opinion and
- 13:57I'm not a lawyer. You know what?
- 13:59There's a lot of them are just silly, you know, a lot of things
- 14:02that are going on and legally are silly.
- 14:04And it's like, you know, I wouldn't want to be a part of
- 14:06that system At the same time if something horrific like that
- 14:09happened and had a huge negative impact on my life and my kids
- 14:13life. And potentially it could happen
- 14:15to other people. Unless I step forward, I
- 14:16definitely, I mean it's needs to be done.
- 14:20Well, so yeah. And I've sort of two responses
- 14:23to that. Yeah.
- 14:24The 1st is that what the public doesn't necessarily see and know
- 14:28is that. The standard is actually it's
- 14:31fairly difficult to succeed in a lot of these lawsuits.
- 14:34Yeah, in particular involving the medical profession.
- 14:37But just in general, you know the the, the standards are high.
- 14:41Judges dismiss cases all the time and just because you read
- 14:44something in the headlines doesn't necessarily mean that
- 14:46it's accurate, right. So I always, I'm always talking
- 14:49in on our podcast in our blogs and about.
- 14:53What you see on television, what you see in the news, is probably
- 14:55not accurate relative to what actually happens.
- 14:57You might see, oh, there was a $50 million jury verdict.
- 15:00What it doesn't tell you is, well, there's actually only, you
- 15:02know, $1,000,000 of insurance coverage and that claim settled
- 15:06for 1,000,000, not 50. Or it got reversed on appeal or
- 15:09it got reduced like that stuff you don't see.
- 15:11So the first part of it is it's actually pretty difficult to
- 15:14succeed. And our standards are, you know,
- 15:17pretty high. When we select cases, we want to
- 15:19make sure that. It's there was something really
- 15:21bad did happen could actually prove it And the 2nd to your
- 15:24point is, and I I didn't see this as much or I didn't
- 15:27appreciate this as much until I got really into this world but
- 15:31it actually does affect change and you know it's for better or
- 15:36worse in the capitalist world or society.
- 15:39You know monies or companies and businesses they need to make
- 15:42money right and they will do things that will typically help
- 15:45them generate profits and. I think the system that is
- 15:51designed in our world of the litigation system does allow you
- 15:56to force change where it might not otherwise occur, and it's
- 16:00through somebody's wallet, right?
- 16:02I've had multiple cases over the over the years where pretty
- 16:05egregious things have happened, whether they were really bad
- 16:08sexual harassment or egregious errors in hospitals or
- 16:13healthcare facilities where I know.
- 16:17That after the case policies changed, right.
- 16:21People were fired. People who should have been gone
- 16:23a long time ago in cases of sexual harassment or you know,
- 16:26we've had cases where there were no constraints around the
- 16:29behavior of people in the workplace.
- 16:31People were just, you know, women were just trying to go to
- 16:34work and do their job. And because there were no
- 16:36constraints, these these environments were were created
- 16:39that were absolutely ridiculous if you had a daughter or a wife.
- 16:43You would. You would never.
- 16:44Would not. Want them there?
- 16:45Yeah. And and we know that when we
- 16:48filed lawsuits and took depositions and asked really
- 16:50uncomfortable questions after that those those things were
- 16:53gone. And I'm not saying they were
- 16:54eliminated, but they were better.
- 16:56And you know in the in the setting of the healthcare
- 16:59system, you know we've had cases where there was a really
- 17:03egregious misdiagnosis and someone you know maybe went on
- 17:06to to to have a form of cancer that progressed really bad or or
- 17:11something along those lines that.
- 17:13We filed lawsuits and took those depositions.
- 17:16And you can guarantee that that provider or that person didn't
- 17:21make that mistake again, right? And so the system is designed
- 17:25this way. It's a positive outcome at
- 17:27least. It is.
- 17:28And from a negative circumstance it.
- 17:29Is it's the best you can do cuz you can't get someone.
- 17:32You know, you can't even ring the bell and so a bit of it's
- 17:35you know Monday morning quarterbacking, but that's the
- 17:38way the system's designed. You know there are, This is why
- 17:41people and companies have insurance.
- 17:43And so you know we're the system is hopefully set up in a way
- 17:47that it does help kind of move the ball forward and kind of
- 17:50lead us towards some measure of progress as possible.
- 17:53That's at least the idealistic way that we try to look at it.
- 17:55Yeah, it's. It's fine too, because I
- 17:59remember from our discussion well, we, you know, what we
- 18:01should talk about right now is your podcast.
- 18:05Right, Yeah. So, so you and what?
- 18:09We haven't even talked about the fact that your wife is your
- 18:12partner in your law firm, and you and I'm sorry, I can't
- 18:15remember your wife's name. Giovanna.
- 18:17Giovanna, you 2 have a podcast we do called Talk Lex.
- 18:22Which Lex is the Latin for law. Is that correct?
- 18:25Yeah, that's correct. Brilliant.
- 18:27So tell us about the podcast. Yeah.
- 18:28So that was my wife always jokes that podcasting was like perfect
- 18:33for my personality like the talk.
- 18:36And so Giovanna handles she handles most of our much of our
- 18:41employment discrimination practice and and so we had this
- 18:45idea to try to make a podcast that would bring some common
- 18:49sense discussion to legal issues in the news and you know legal
- 18:54issues that people kind of face every day that that.
- 18:56You know, like I said, it's a very confusing world.
- 19:00And if you, you know, when you see how the how legislature
- 19:04works and how the government works, they're the ones writing
- 19:06the laws. So you kind of understand why
- 19:08much of this is. Yeah.
- 19:10But also, you know, the, the reporting on a lot of it is not
- 19:14always accurate, right. The stories you read, like I
- 19:16said, aren't always. An accurate depiction of what's
- 19:19happening and we thought maybe people would be interested in
- 19:22hearing about that and hearing you know what actually is going
- 19:25on here. And you know when you read this,
- 19:27what does that actually mean? And so we try to talk about kind
- 19:31of legal issues in the news, kind of break them down for in a
- 19:34common sense way and also bring on some guests in other areas of
- 19:38law. So we have had adoption
- 19:40attorneys and matrimonial attorneys and.
- 19:43The state planning attorneys and people who can kind of break
- 19:45down for for the average person, what does this actually, what's
- 19:49this world actually look like? You know, hopefully people won't
- 19:53necessarily have to get involved in these kinds of things, but
- 19:57the reality is that most people eventually need a lawyer for one
- 19:59of those things. It's a good idea to kind of have
- 20:01an idea of how the system works, I think.
- 20:03I think transparency and education is is really critical
- 20:07and important and I think. The more people know, the
- 20:10better. I don't think it's.
- 20:11I don't think it's benefits us as lawyers to hide what we do or
- 20:14to make it seem like it's this, you know, facade of of, you
- 20:18know, secrecy. I think, you know, explain to
- 20:20people, tell him how it works. Tell him what the system looks
- 20:22like. A very complicated system.
- 20:27It's so complicated. Well, our legal system in
- 20:30general is just so complicated. It's crazy.
- 20:34Bob Fitch, your local state. Farm Insurance agent with a
- 20:36mission of helping people manage.
- 20:38The risks of everyday life. Recover from the unexpected and
- 20:41realize their dreams. Whatever.
- 20:43Your needs may be. State Farm has got you covered
- 20:46and Bob. Fitch is your man now.
- 20:49You guys had. I'm trying to think of the
- 20:51episodes. Did you do the Johnny Depp
- 20:55trial? We did, yeah.
- 20:56That was our that's our most listened to episode.
- 20:58Is it really? Yeah, I mean it's interesting
- 21:01stuff. I mean that how much viewership
- 21:03that that that case in general got.
- 21:06It is, you know, it's it's funny what the public latches on to,
- 21:10right? I say this as someone who's
- 21:11named Scott Peterson, who's been getting.
- 21:15Listen, I forgot all about that. And.
- 21:18Then one of the guys brought it up before the show.
- 21:20I'm like, oh, I didn't even think about that.
- 21:22I mean, I'm not kidding you. At least three times a week
- 21:25somebody makes a comment about that.
- 21:26Really. Yeah.
- 21:27And it's I. It started when I was in law
- 21:29school the the the case happened when I was so and that's almost
- 21:3320 years ago and. When I started dating Jovanna, I
- 21:37was, I had just graduated law school and and she's got two
- 21:40brothers who, you know, we're all the kind of guys who like to
- 21:44get on each other. Bus.
- 21:45Chops they've they've been busting me on the name ever
- 21:48since and very early on she's like, you know, you got one
- 21:50chance to change your name and I didn't do it and I should have.
- 21:55So, man, that's funny that yeah, they must have had a lot of fun
- 21:58with you, you know, and their sister as well.
- 22:00Are you sure you want to date a guy named Scott Peterson?
- 22:04But back to the the. Johnny Depp thing, it's people
- 22:08you know, they love celebrity as you guys know your media and
- 22:11when when there's a splashy, you know trial it, it airs all The
- 22:16Dirty laundry. And and in fact that actually
- 22:19goes to kind of one of your questions before is when someone
- 22:21comes to us with, you know let's say they've gotten they're a
- 22:25local professional who's gotten in a really bad accident.
- 22:27You know they may come to me and say the last thing I want is
- 22:30this, I don't want to be. You know, in a courtroom
- 22:34testifying, you know, having somebody covering this trial.
- 22:38And so that's always part of the consideration of, you know, what
- 22:41the path forward is. It's is based upon those kinds
- 22:44of things. Now most local cases aren't
- 22:45getting that kind of coverage, but they, you know, some local
- 22:48cases do for one reason or another grab a headline and
- 22:52that's So that's something we're always thinking about too.
- 22:54Did did Amber end up getting any, anything turned over?
- 22:59Did did he still? Because I remember she was
- 23:01trying to appeal and. Yeah, I'm not.
- 23:04I'm not quite sure where that is currently.
- 23:06I can't even remember. I thought there might have been
- 23:08a settlement of the whole thing. I'll tell you, I've never
- 23:10laughed so hard watching trial footage as when Johnny Depp was
- 23:14on the stand. Unfortunately, It was really
- 23:16funny. I know.
- 23:18I hope the trials that you go to and sit through are equally
- 23:21funny. So they're not you know, it's
- 23:24it's it's it's really interesting because the topics
- 23:27are serious. Right.
- 23:28And you're dealing with lives and and you know often very, you
- 23:33know significant amount of damages.
- 23:35But at the same time you know you're you're, I love trying
- 23:39cases. You're you're talking to a jury
- 23:41and you're you're trying to explain this whole system to
- 23:43them in a window of, you know, a couple of days, right.
- 23:47And you need to connect to them and you're trying to build that
- 23:49rapport And so there's you know, I'm a.
- 23:52I like to kind of tell jokes off the cuff and and you know
- 23:56connect people. So there's there's definitely
- 23:57that balance. I will say I've had some trials
- 24:01where I've had some fun with some witnesses and it's never
- 24:05risen to the Johnny Depp level, but it's been, you know, I
- 24:07walked out and and really, really been happy about it.
- 24:10That's good, that's good. I also like to have fun and
- 24:12crack jokes and but unfortunately doesn't always go
- 24:14the direction I want it to go in, so.
- 24:17All you got to do is listen to my podcast, you know what I
- 24:19mean? It happens at least once an
- 24:21episode, I think where I'm just like, Yep, yeah, that was that
- 24:24was ill placed. Well, I have a podcast with my
- 24:28wife, so you can imagine when I. When I say something stupid.
- 24:31She lets you know. She'll let me know.
- 24:33Yeah. Does she wait till you hit the
- 24:34stop button or do you know does? Usually they'll be a the handle.
- 24:40She'll kind of raise a hand and say you can't say that.
- 24:43So, well, we'll just keep recording and then I'll.
- 24:46Edit it out later. Yeah, it's funny to you say like
- 24:50we almost once an episode because we have Mac, our podcast
- 24:54producer. He's in the other room and.
- 24:56I I'll talk to Mac on these podcasts where and I'll be like
- 24:59Mac, if you could just do me a favor and go back and cut that
- 25:01out of there. That sounded really not okay or
- 25:05silly or still whatever it was, you know, it was a bomb joke or
- 25:08whatever. But yesterday we had a podcast
- 25:10and I put my foot in my mouth and had to have Mac remove that
- 25:14section. Well, nobody will ever hear it.
- 25:17So yeah, you know, I mean, hope not anyway.
- 25:19No, it wasn't that bad. But so.
- 25:25Workplace discrimination, personal injury, and anything
- 25:30else that you guys really get into.
- 25:31No, that's kind of it. You know we do some work for
- 25:36some small local businesses. We have sort of a loose policy
- 25:43of you know we don't, we don't typically go after small local
- 25:46businesses in our cases which is why we're our practice kind of
- 25:49takes us all over the state we. You know we picked specific
- 25:53cases and you know we we will go, we will pursue them but we
- 25:56so we do some work for some small local businesses and you
- 25:59know litigation kind of context. But when we when we opened our
- 26:02practice we decided that we were going to do only a couple of
- 26:04things and try to do them well and try to really limit our our
- 26:08base right. We both worked for big firms and
- 26:12kind of thought about what we wanted our our practice to look
- 26:15like and it was not a. You know, anything that comes in
- 26:18the door we're going to do, it's let's let's work with people, we
- 26:21like, people we can help and let's work with a small enough
- 26:25number that you know, anyone can call us at any time and we can
- 26:27tell them exactly what's happening and have a
- 26:29conversation with them with our clients.
- 26:31So we've we've intentionally not grown into other areas.
- 26:35You know, the options have been there, but you know we've we've
- 26:39consciously decided to keep it small and you know.
- 26:44A bit of a like a family kind of feeling to it so and it works.
- 26:48Interesting, so. Yeah.
- 26:51So OK, I'm good. And you've been doing this 20
- 26:57years, you said? Yeah, 19 years.
- 27:02Do we feel weird to say that? 19 years, Yeah.
- 27:04I do feel weird to say that. Something happened the other day
- 27:09and I was reminded of, you know, how long it's been and.
- 27:14It's just, yeah, if time flies, you know, Yeah, with kids in the
- 27:17mix and, you know, busy life and busy practice.
- 27:19And the next, you know, 20 years has gone by.
- 27:21It's insane. So if people want to find you,
- 27:28they want to get a hold of you out of that.
- 27:30Where do they go? What are they where you're on
- 27:31the the interweb? We're on the interweb.
- 27:34We are pretty active on social media.
- 27:37We're kind of all these posting up videos kind of.
- 27:40Back to our philosophy of, you know, telling people what it,
- 27:43you know, giving them information.
- 27:45So on Instagram with Derrazio Peterson.
- 27:49Facebook Derrazio Peterson. I'm on TikTok now.
- 27:51My son was making fun of me yesterday.
- 27:53Very nice. SMP Law, I think it is.
- 27:57And then our website derraziopeterson.com and our
- 27:59podcast talk Lex, which you've nicely mentioned.
- 28:04Yeah. And I know that we've got it up
- 28:06on all of our websites. Saratoga today, Saratoga
- 28:08Business Report, Glens Falls today.
- 28:10Are you? But I can't remember off the top
- 28:12of my head. Are you on Spotify?
- 28:15Apple, Podcast, all all the fun stuff.
- 28:18All the places. All the places.
- 28:20YouTube We have a YouTube's actually the best place to find
- 28:23us because all of our podcasts and videos are up there and you
- 28:26know, my kids have a field day with it.
- 28:29Of course. Quick YouTube story My we we did
- 28:32a, I want to say commercial, but we did a video a few years ago
- 28:36with a. Company out of state, very kind
- 28:40of like flat, flashy ish lawyer video with some former clients
- 28:46and it came out good and we put it up on YouTube and my son or
- 28:50my daughter was in their class and they pulled up a video to
- 28:52watch for the class and the ad and the ad man, that's amazing.
- 28:57And I think they were just like mortified.
- 28:59Yeah, of course they were hilarious.
- 29:03Begging the question of that, I'm not quite sure that's our
- 29:05intended demographic, but you know.
- 29:07Maybe some? Could have been adjusted a
- 29:09little bit there. Well, listen, appreciate you
- 29:15coming on, coming in and for being a community partner up in
- 29:18Glens Falls and you know all the things that you do.
- 29:20So thanks for being. Here, yeah thanks for having me
- 29:23and thanks for everything you. Guys do absolutely thanks
- 29:25everybody for listening and you'll hear from us next week.
- 29:29Don't forget, if you enjoyed the show, please send to a friend.
- 29:32Share it social media. Many of the places that you put
- 29:36your content, we would love it if you would share ours.
- 29:38So thanks everybody and until next time.
- 29:42The superpower that every citizen has is the ability to
- 29:45control where they spend their time, money and attention.
- 29:48By focusing these on supporting local businesses, you are having
- 29:51a profound impact on your friends, your family, and your
- 29:55local community. So if you want to change the
- 29:57world. You can start with buying local.