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Uniting a Passion for Law With Latino Heritage · The Lawtino™

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Latino podcast where we discuss the intersection of law and our Latino communities with legal, political, and community leaders and visionaries.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: John Gomez, your host for the podcast, where I feature thought and community leaders who discuss the intersection of law in our Latino community.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: This episode is brought to you by Gomez Trial Attorneys, a personal entry law firm based in San Diego and one of the largest Latino plaintiffs law firms in the country.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Award-winning attorney John Gomez has developed a nationally recognized legal team that goes above and beyond for injured clients.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: With numerous designations, distinctions, and top-notch resources, we have what it takes to fight and win against major corporations.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: For a free case evaluation, visit www.thegome's firm.com.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Today I have Chad here from Rise25, who has done thousands of interviews with successful entrepreneurs and CEOs.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have flipped the script, and today he will be interviewing me.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Chad, welcome to the show.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, thanks so much, John.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's great to be here.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: I'm looking forward to talking with you.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: How are you doing today?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing great.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: Good, good.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, as we get into it, this is kind of your first podcast episode, so we're looking forward to learning more, a little bit more about you, and uh a little bit about your life and your legal journey.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: If you could start by uh just telling me how and when you knew you wanted to become an attorney.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's a funny question because, you know, growing up, I didn't know any lawyers, didn't have any ideas about being a lawyer.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: But um, my senior year in college, my roommate at the time, was in law school.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: He was a good friend of mine.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: I knew him from junior college, those days.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: He was going to law school, he was describing it to me.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: I saw what it looked like for him, and I decided, hey, I'm gonna be a lawyer like my friend.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, very nice, very nice.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you certainly didn't decide to take the easy route.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: You uh attended Yale for law school.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: What was that like, and how did you kind of overcome all the challenges associated with you know going to a school like that?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Yale law school, probably one of the most academic, rigorous environments in the world.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, every kid I met there was like a Rhodes Scholar or uh this scholar or Fulbright Scholar, top of their class at like an Ivy Leaf school.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I was kind of over my head to begin with.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: I would actually every day go to class and write down a bunch of words I'd never heard before, and uh I would define them.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And uh over time, you know, I just kind of caught up and found my way.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the thing that got me through is just working really hard.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, good for you.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: So um you you graduated from Yale.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: How did you kind of you know get started in the legal industry then?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so a lot of kids that come out of Yale, they want to work for judges.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: We have these clerkships.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had a clerkship with a judge right here in San Diego where I'm from, Judge Huff.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I worked with her for one year, and then I went to a large law firm in Los Angeles called Latham Watkins.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: What did you learn there?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Latham, very, very, very good firm.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, really learned commitment to excellence.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everything that we produced there was very, very, very high quality.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, also just worked a ton, you know, like a lot, a lot, a lot.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think I learned to really, you know, give a lot of time and energy to perfecting my craft.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_03: I know you uh part of your journey includes being a federal prosecutor.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: Is that what came next?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was the next move.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, at Leighton Watkins, you've got these like billion-dollar matters, and I wanted to try cases that is be in front of juries, and no way they're gonna let a kid like me do that.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: So um I decided I would come back to San Diego where I clerked and work as a federal prosecutor, and I knew that would get me into trial.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: What uh so so that was what made you decide to become a federal prosecutor.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: What did you enjoy most about that?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, just camaraderie, you know, working with the agents, being in court every day.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's the first place where I really began to try cases, so you know, we'd be in trial quite often.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so like I, you know, there was a good camaraderie about the office.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: We were in trial all the time.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: I really enjoyed being in trial, you know, so so those kinds of things.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: What was it about um being, you know, especially as a relatively younger lawyer?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: What was it about being in the courtroom and in trial that was, you know, particularly invigorating for you?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's just cool, you know, like um as a young prosecutor, I get the case.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's just my case.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm standing in front of the jury on behalf of the United States of America.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's a powerful feeling.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um and, you know, I'd always I at that point I determined I wanted to try cases.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so here, actually having the chance to do that and you know, working with the agents and the side of the law that I thought was the right side of the law was always a cool thing.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, sounds great.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: So, what motivated you to transition then from federal prosecutor to civil plaintiff's lawyer?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you know, I did that for a while and it was it was fun and fulfilling, but at a point in time, um, you know, it became clear to me that my life's work was not going to be putting people into prison, you know, and most of the work I was doing uh involved border issues, and so a lot of my defendants were Mexican nationals.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And at least early in my career, a lot of them kind of, you know, economically disadvantaged, challenged Mexican nationals.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so, you know, that didn't superflow my boat.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of what I was doing was, you know, um narcotics like war on drugs, cartel work, you know, and and in the end, you know, that didn't superflow my boat.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't think, you know, I'd be changing the world that much by taking on the war on drugs or this particular cartel versus that cartel.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so like it really became more of a um, you know, life's value kind of question, you know, is this what I want to spend my life doing?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I thought, well, you know, rather than working on behalf of the United States, putting people in prison, it might be cool to take these skills that I now have and use them to help, you know, regular people.
• 6:52
  unknown: Right.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: So how did you get started then as a civil plaintiff's lawyer?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I first went to work.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: I applied to all the top plaintiffs' lawyers here in San Diego.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, at that time, you know, I'd worked at Latham Watkins, Yale Law School, tried to win 20 cases.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I thought everybody would give me a job, you know, but I only got one reply.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: And um it was a guy named Craig McClellan, a very well-known plaintiff's lawyer here in San Diego.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: He gave me a job, and um, you know, so I went to work for him.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we were mainly doing uh big automotive defect cases, so a lot of cases against Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Japanese manufacturers, um, very uh interesting and um challenging work.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um what made you decide to start your own firm?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think many of us kind of want to do things our own way.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he certainly had his way.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, maybe he was uh a generation different than me.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, probably like some of my lawyers look at me today, you know.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I wanted to get out there and kind of do things my way, uh, maybe do things a little more different, you know, um, test my own self and my own brand and see if I could make it on my own.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well, your your firm is almost 20 years old, you're about 19 years old now.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um what are what is maybe something you're most proud of during your time at the at the helm of your own firm?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: I would say like most proud, probably twofold.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: One, you know, we've helped a ton of people in very significant ways.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of times when clients come to us, their life is at a crossroads, you know, they're on the verge of, you know, maybe losing, you know, their their home, their family.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, things are quite perilous for them.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, helping those families put life back together, you know, helping people get on with their lives.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: I would say one, and then two, like over the course of, like you said, 19 years, you know, you have whole generations, you have like employees have kids and the kids grow up, and you know, you see all that and you, you know, take some small, you know, reward from having a part in that, you know, that's I would say the second coolest thing.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's gotta be that's gotta be quite satisfying.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, what are some of the core values of your firm?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have 10.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I could name them all, but you know, the first one is we always do the right thing.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that means that we always act with ethics and integrity in everything we do.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're never gonna put our interests above the interests of our clients or be dishonest or anything else.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're the best at everything we do.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: That just means super high performance levels expected at every position and every task.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um we try cases to juries.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: That means that what it says, you know, we're active trial lords.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: We know the customer service matters.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: We really, you know, take very good care of our clients, very open lines of communication.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we never stop learning.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: That means that we're always, you know, advancing, whether it be in trial presentation or technology, um, all of those things, we're always kind of marching ahead.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um we uh make our communities better.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we give back to our communities and causes that matter to us.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um we believe in one for all and all for one, so we support each other.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: We reward loyalty, you know, we reward loyalty within the firm and outside of the firm.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have fun, it just means what it says.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: We work hard again, just kind of means what it says.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I think that that's probably 10 of them, more or less.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: If there's one I forgot, then my apologies.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: No, that's a I think you summed them up quite well.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_03: As you look back on then on the last 19 years, what would you say is that is there like a an accomplishment or a moment that you feel is the most significant to you or or most memorable?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: Probably a few.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um I tried a case very early in the firm's history, very well-known case.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was called the American Beauty Murder.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Got a lot of press.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was on TV all day, not all day, like while we're in trial.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: And we won that case.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was a very difficult case, and so that really launched us.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, after that, uh, we tried, or we were uh involved in a case in which a CHP officer and his family died at the end of a freeway.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: They were in basically a runaway Lexus vehicle.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: It started all the Toyota recalls.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that was a big moment for us and for the firm, and obviously for that family.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we tried the first DePew hip case in the country.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: This was a defective hip, which basically, you know, there are probably 100,000 of those cases.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: And those cases resolved, I think, in part because of that verdict.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and so, you know, there's a ton of kind of big moments, but you know, those are kind of three that kind of stick out.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_03: What is your approach to leadership when it comes to you know leading your firm?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: It very um, you know, I think the more I've done this, the more I've learned that you have to be very intentional about leadership.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think the first thing I like to do is just lead from the front.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: That is, you know, I'm in here early and working hard and trying cases and walking the walk, you know, doing all those things.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, another one is like um uh transparency, like sharing information, you know, sharing, you know, uh pathways and how we think, you know, where we're going, what we plan to do to get there, how they're gonna be a part of it.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think um really, you know, not reacting in the moment to things, you know, a lot of employees or team members will bring things to my attention.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you have kind of this visceral kind of reaction sometimes, you know, but I think it's important to, you know, honor and appreciate, you know, whatever's brought to you.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I think just, you know, if you if you circle back to our core values in every decision, whether it be management or hiring or firing or elevation, then that'll provide a lot of guidance, I think.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_03: I know you are uh deeply involved in a number of charitable and community organizations.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: Can you just kind of talk about how you give back to the community?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, for us as a firm, kids really matter.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we try to do a lot for kids in the community.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: We have maybe our kind of bedrock uh charity is a youth boxing gym here in town that provides free after-school boxing and tutoring to you know at-risk kids.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: So heavily involved in that, heavily involved in a number of other charities that kind of cater to and take care of um, you know, disadvantaged communities and particularly kids.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're also very uh, I would say, you know, the core of our firm here is um female, like we're mainly female.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, very we have an internal group called the Women Leaders of GTA, and you know, that group really spearheads a lot of educational outreach, you know, programs around advancement and protection of women in law and elsewhere.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then we do a ton, you know, obviously for the Latino community, whether that be through kind of local um organizations or national ones.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was gonna ask you, how does your Latino heritage influence your personal and professional life?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think um every second of the day, right?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we are who we are.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so, you know, the lens that I see the world through is probably shaped, you know, in part by that identity.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I tend to, you know, look at issues, you know, through that lens.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, where there's um kind of a question, a lot of you know, our questions today involve, you know, peoples and cultures and and um communities, you know, like is this right, is that wrong?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of that goes back to kind of your values, I think, about where you're from, how you're brought up, you know, what your belief system is.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, in terms of you know, my life as a human, I filter a lot of it through that.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I kind of have a heart for what I would call the kind of disenfranchised or you know, the the those communities among us that have faced struggles historically, including, you know, the Latino community.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: As a lawyer, um, we just try to, you know, really make our excellent services available to that community, whether it's in English or Spanish, at the same level, like we want to be provide them the same level of law that like um Wall Street gets, you know, like the the rich people get.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: And we try to do it in their language.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so like, you know, we're consistently, you know, trying to provide super high-level legal services, and then at the same time looking for issues that we can get involved in that we think will, you know, affect, you know, um social change.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: Great, very, very nice.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um last question before we get into your podcast.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_03: What role does your faith play in your life and your work?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I would say um, you know, every day uh I am uh a person of faith.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, everything kind of revolves around my relationship with God and Jesus Christ.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, again, I'll filter my decisions through that lens and the things that I've learned by virtue of that relationship and scripture and you know, teaching.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um I read, you know, I pray obviously and read the Bible daily.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: We have a prayer group here at the firm, a little group, obviously voluntary, uh, where you know we do a little uh Bible study, do a little prayer together, you know, so I'm not you know private or embarrassed about it.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: I try to be public and make it available uh to anyone that needs it or wants it.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: Sounds good.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: Let's uh let's get into your podcast then a little bit.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: As as I mentioned, this is basically your first episode.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me what made you decide to start this podcast.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like I said, um the more I kind of look at issues um that face us as a people or as a nation or as a community, the more I see that you know, race and identity and language and culture has a lot to do with outcomes.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so, you know, um there are so many ways the law can be shaped by um the Latino community influence, and so many ways that the Latino community people can be shaped by law, you know, like it works both ways and in in an evolving fashion.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like um we have here at the firm uh in our boardroom portraits of you know Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: and Bobby Kennedy and and and Jack Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you just think about, you know, you could take any of those examples, you could say, okay, um, women and the law.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, let's talk about the effect of law on women in our society.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: And like you could talk about that for days, and you know, both historically and aspirational.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, obviously you could do the same with um the African-American community, right?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: You could roll it back two generations, and you know, here's their reality world, and then you roll it back to today, and here's the reality and their world.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then you think about it two generations hence.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what does it look like ideally, or what does it look like pragmatically, or what do we really think it looks like?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like, I don't think those discussions have been had with great focus and intention around uh law in the Latino community.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: And the Latino community obviously there is a large community with a whole lot of different parts to it, you know.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: But there are, if you roll it back, if you roll us back two generations, what does that look like?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you roll it back to the 60s, what does it look like?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you get into Cesar Savas, you know, what does it look like?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: If you talk about it today, what does it look like?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have, you know, this anti-immigrant backlash in a lot of places and and and you know, within a lot of people, you know, how does that affect things?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as we go forward, you know, what are we looking at?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of in my community in California, like without question, um the Latino community will be the majority, you know, in California, if not already very soon.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and I would say the same throughout the Southwest.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: And like, what does that really look like?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: And how does law evolve to accommodate that?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and how can we be good, you know, stewards of that law?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because the people I I want to have on are going to be people largely that have some responsibility, whether they're lawyers, whether they're judges, whether they're elected officials or community leaders.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe we have on um some people that have really um championed change for other communities.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: African American, maybe I have like a Ben Crump on here to talk about, you know, the intersection of law and African American community.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe you know, we have someone that was a champion for women and what that looked like.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe we can learn from them.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, like let's talk about, and then you know, you expanded like what does it look like for you know, uh Asian Americans today, or you know, what does it look like for Islamic Americans today?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just like a lot of interesting discussions, you know, that I think need more intentional um Discovery.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's the point of the podcast.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I want to do.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: I want to, you know, get together people that have thoughts and ideas and experiences and put them all together and see what comes out.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that sounds that sounds fantastic and very interesting.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: I will certainly look forward to uh checking out.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it should be cool.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: So long, everybody.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Latino podcast.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you again next time.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.