The Business Side Of Law: Sean Andrade Of Andrade Gonzalez On 5 Things You Need To Create Or Lead A Successful Law Firm

An Interview With Eric Pines

Learn from your mistakes. No one is born knowing how to run a business. You can get all the how-to books, talk to all the mentors, and be as prepared as possible, but you will make mistakes. It is all about getting back up and learning from those mistakes.

Law school primarily prepares lawyers for the practice of law. But leading or starting a law firm requires so much more than that. It requires the entrepreneurial skills that any CEO would need to run a business; How to manage personnel, how to hire and fire, how to generate leads, how to advertise, how to manage finances, etc. On the business side of law, what does an attorney need to know to create a successful and thriving law practice? To address these questions, we are talking to successful law firm principals who can share stories and insights from their experience about the “5 Things You Need To Create Or Lead A Successful Law Firm”.

As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Sean Andrade.

Sean Andrade is an aggressive, creative, and experienced litigator who clients retain for their most complex, sensitive, and high-stakes matters. Over two decades, he has achieved numerous victories in cases involving all types of major commercial litigation, recovered more than $100 million for his clients in insurance coverage disputes, and successfully resolved hundreds of matters with catastrophic injuries, mass torts, and sensitive allegations of sexual abuse and harassment. His fierce advocacy for his clients and significant list of achievements have been recognized by numerous publications throughout his career. Sean has also been committed to various legal and community organizations that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are? Specifically we’d love to hear the story of how you began to lead your practice.

I grew up in Santa Maria, a small town on the Central Coast of California. My Dad was a lawyer. I grew up saying, “I’ll never be a lawyer!”

Then, while in college at U.C. Irvine, California was hit by a huge wave of anti-immigrant and anti-affirmative action propositions and sentiments. I got very involved, including becoming head of legal for a hunger strike opposing the removal of affirmative action from the UCs. Realizing I could do more to help people as an attorney, I changed majors and pursued law school.

Before going back east to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, I worked for three years as a Paralegal for a national civil rights organization for Latinos (MALDEF).

After Penn Law, I was recruited by Baker Hostetler, a national law firm, to join its Litigation Group in LA. Eight years later, I joined a prominent litigation boutique of former big firm lawyers. That is where I met co-founder Henry Gonzalez. We both made partner there, but in May 2013, the firm hired a new partner with a client that was adverse to my largest client. My managing partner wanted me to refer out the case that would have created the conflict, but I convinced Henry that it was time to leave. We planned our new firm over the weekend with the help of many friends, and launched Andrade Gonzalez LLP the following week.

All of our clients came with us and over the years, many new ones have joined. It has been so exciting to build the Firm and to see it grow and be honored as a Top Boutique by the Los Angeles & San Francisco Daily Journal.

I’m a huge fan of mentorship throughout one’s career. None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Who has been your biggest mentor? What was the most valuable lesson you learned from them?

I am also a huge fan of mentors; we all need them! I have had so many mentors, those who helped me in college, in law school, at the big firm, when we opened our firm, while we are building it, and everywhere in between. My biggest and most impactful mentors have been my father and Thomas Saenz, my former boss at MALDEF between college and law school. From my father, I learned the value of working hard and helping others in need. He dedicated much of his life to representing farmworkers and the working poor. From Tom, I learned how to be fearless and dedicated as a lawyer, how much bravery it takes for clients to step forward, and how important it is to be a voice for clients who don’t have one. Tom also pushed me to go back east to an Ivy League law school and did everything he could to help me get in. A funny fact: our Firm has one and a half floors in the MALDEF building so Tom is now my landlord too.

From completing your degree to opening a practice and becoming a business owner, your path was most likely challenging. Can you share a story about one of your greatest struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?

For me, the biggest challenge was taking the LSAT and getting into law school. When I first took the LSAT, I didn’t love my score and knew it wasn’t high enough for any of the great law schools to consider me. Even though I hated that test, I dug deep and continued studying so I could keep taking it. Over the next three years, I took the LSAT four times. My score increased some each time, but I was never completely satisfied with it.

During that same time, I enjoyed my three years of civil rights work at MALDEF after college, but I was applying to law schools the entire time. Each year, I would go to the Law School Admissions Fair at LAX to meet the various Deans of Admissions. Then, while my applications were pending, I would call the schools, speak to the Deans who I had met, and supplement my applications with more and more letters of recommendation. I made clear that I wasn’t going to go away until they let me in, and slowly, I started getting on waitlists.

What I believe ultimately got me into a great law school was when I turned my greatest challenge into a strength. I decided to write about it all in my personal statement. I wrote about how challenging the LSAT was for me, about how that challenge only made me push myself harder, and about how determined I was to keep taking the test and applying until I got in. That last year, I was accepted into Penn Law and waitlisted at Columbia and Yale.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?

Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally. — David Frost

I’m a big believer in seizing opportunities when they come and believing in yourself. Too many people try to plan out how to quickly get to the top, as if there is a magic formula. When I started, I focused on how to be the best lawyer that I could be for my clients and worked hard at it. Seeing and working with so many lawyers with different styles and practices, good ones, bad ones, those who communicate well with clients, and those who did not, I was able to focus on how to be the best and how to enjoy the practice. The successes and opportunities followed.

This is not easy work. What is your primary motivation and drive behind the work that you do?

My main motivation is making a difference. I love helping our clients. Whether it is an individual, a family, someone’s business, a public entity, or a corporation, I enjoy and am driven to deliver the very best results. I love winning! We are also very selective and only take on cases that we want to work on, for clients who we believe in. Oftentimes, we take on the most difficult cases so winning and delivering exceptional results is that much sweeter.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

That’s always a funny question to ask a lawyer. To me, the most complicated cases are the most interesting. Right now, I am (1) helping an entertainment media company founded by A-List celebrities with an insurance coverage dispute over a reality TV show that it produced; (2) securing 100% insurance coverage for a client in an asbestos-related mesothelioma claim; (3) negotiating a potential settlement of more than 70 cases with numerous different opposing law firms; (4) leading a major insurance coverage and indemnity action seeking more than $100 Million in damages from numerous insurance companies; (5) preparing for trial in a major tire defect case against Michelin where our client suffered grievous bodily injuries after a defective tire caused a head on collision with a heavy duty truck; and (6) representing a client in an international licensing and intellectual property dispute.

Fantastic. Let’s now shift to discussing the business of law. Can you tell us a bit about the nature of your practice and what you focus on?

Andrade Gonzalez handles all types of complex commercial and insurance coverage litigation and disputes, cases involving mass torts and catastrophic injuries, and employment and entertainment matters plus serious white-collar and corporate investigations. We have represented the nation’s second-largest school district, Fortune 100 and 500 companies, media companies, radio stations, construction and plumbing supply companies, and many individuals and families. While we are selective in what clients and cases we take on, once we are engaged, we guarantee all of our clients our best service, regardless of whether they are a large corporation or an individual. We are also heavily committed to the community, devoting time to assist individuals in need in pro bono cases. One unique feature is our Firm is 100% minority-owned and operated.

You are a successful attorney. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? What unique qualities do you have that others may not? Can you please share a story or example for each?

First, don’t be afraid to bet on yourself. Early on, I wanted to attend a Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) Convention in San Jose. My Firm wasn’t inclined to incur the expense for such a young associate so I proposed that I cover my own travel costs. Seeing that I was willing to invest my own money worked . . . the Firm agreed to cover the rest. At my prior firm, I thought I would benefit from a business development coach to help me organize and direct my personal marketing plan. When the managing partner refused to cover it, I paid for it myself. When Henry and I launched our firm, I fought the urge to do everything ourselves and brought in an administrative team and a new associate. Though we didn’t have any income at the time, we bet on ourselves! Over the years, I have seen others struggle with hiring and it always holds them back. If you have a solid vision and are doing everything right, bet on yourself!

Second, there is just no substitute for working harder than everyone else. As a lawyer, you must not only do the work to perfect your craft, but also to always be fully prepared. When you are arguing at a hearing, taking a deposition, or meeting with a client or opposing counsel, you should be the most prepared person in the room. You never want to walk away wondering if things would have gone better had you done something more. I recall people laughing at how much work I put into my deposition and trial witness outlines, but I wanted to make sure that I knew it all backwards and forwards. That’s what helps you get solid results! Building a firm is the same. It takes a lot of work and you are constantly changing hats from lawyer to businessperson.

Third, make sure you are seizing opportunities as they come! I brought this up before because one of the most critical skills for leaders is being able to seize opportunities. I actually have two related stories from attending that first HNBA Convention where I paid for my own travel. The first was a friend at MALDEF was supposed to lead a panel on redistricting, but something came up so he asked me to cover it since he heard I was attending. Nervously, I agreed and the panel turned out great. But one attendee asked some questions that no one could answer. I got her card, connected with my friend the following week, and wrote back to the woman. Next, I get cc’d on an email from the Deputy General Counsel of Bank of America to my Firm’s Managing Partner and Head of Corporate raving about what an amazing job I did on the panel and my exceptional follow through. As if that wasn’t enough to make the trip worth it, I got a call from Jerry Ruiz, who was in house with Wells Fargo and the HNBA’s Regional President of Southern California, asking me if I would become a Deputy. Of course, I jumped head first at that opportunity to join the Board of Governors. But that was the easy part. About two years later, after I had proven myself, Jerry Ruiz called me and asked if he could recommend me to take over his position because he was moving to another place in the bank. I struggled with whether this was the time to do it because I was still a young associate. Ultimately, I decided to do it, believing that the world was giving me that opportunity and I had to seize it. From there, I catapulted and ended up serving eight terms on the HNBA Board of Governors with four on the Executive Committee as National Secretary and Vice President of Programs. I also was Chair for the 2008 Convention and Co-Chair for many other events. These experiences involved much work, but they continue to open many doors for me.

Fourth, if you will allow me to add one more, a leader needs to get involved in things outside of your firm, hopefully supporting non-profit organizations that you believe in. I believe we have a duty to make the world a better place. For that reason, I have been so active in the HNBA and locally, in the Mexican American Bar Association (MABA). I was appointed to the Redistricting Commission for Los Angeles County in 2010. I now serve on the Board of the California Minority Counsel Program (CMCP) and am a Co-Chair of a major committee for the National Association of Minority & Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF). I also support MALDEF, the California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), the Eastmont Community Center, and the Hollenbeck Youth Center. I enjoy supporting these organizations and by being an active member and supporter, you will meet others who enjoy supporting the same organizations, allowing you to develop deep real relationships based on interests and community, not just around business. This helps ground you, gives you a greater purpose, and gives you something for your team and clients to embrace.

Do you think where you went to school has any bearing on your success? How important is it for a lawyer to go to a top-tier school?

I received my J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School while simultaneously obtaining a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Business & Public Policy from The Wharton School. I believe the school mattered early in my career and it still makes a difference to some, but great lawyers come from everywhere and much of my professional growth occurred outside the campus. That being said, I had many great professors and learned a lot from them and some exceptional classmates. In the end, law school teaches you the essentials, but no matter what tier university you attended, it is up to you to determine your own successes through hard work and determination.

Managing being a law practitioner and a business owner is a constant balancing act. How do you manage both roles?

Managing a firm while practicing law has been the biggest challenge, particularly as we have grown to 10 lawyers and two of counsel. While I am continuing to learn, the key is to balance your time. Sometimes this means working later hours and being available at all times of the day, but it is just as important to prioritize yourself and know when it is time to take a step back. Having a solid team around me with good processes in place and the latest technology allows us to ensure that everything is being handled right and tracked when I need to take a break.

Can you help articulate the entrepreneurial skills a lawyer needs to run and lead a successful law firm?

To run a law firm right, lawyers need many of the same entrepreneurial skills as any business owner would.

First, you need to be able to create a strategic vision for your firm. You don’t need to have a fancy business plan, but there should be a clear statement and understanding of the firm’s plan for business with practice areas, prospective clients, and goals. In being strategic, make sure you are looking at and adapting to changes in the law and legal environment.

Second, you need to be an effective communicator who can inspire others. This means not only being able to explain your vision internally and externally, but also being able to listen to others and being open to their suggestions and ideas. Making sure that everyone feels heard and involved in building and supporting the firm is an important part of building a cohesive vested team.

Third, you have to be a good decision-maker. Whether you are hiring, evaluating a long-term lease, bringing on a new of counsel, or deciding whether to make a move into a new practice area, you need to be able to make a well-reasoned and informed decision. Get the information you need, evaluate what you need to evaluate, and then, make the decision. Whether it is a hard decision or an easy one, the delay or failure to make timely decisions will end up hurting your business. Also, in making decisions, remember that a critical part of being an entrepreneur is taking reasoned chances, betting on yourself and your team.

As a business owner you spend most of your time working IN your practice, seeing clients. When and how do you shift to working ON your practice? (Marketing, upgrading systems, growing your practice, etc.) How much time do you spend on the business elements?

I spend A LOT of time working ON our practice! Running a law firm like any business requires dedication and time. I am continuously marketing, recruiting talent, and looking for better and more efficient ways to do things. Right now, there are newer technologies coming out all the time. To continue to thrive in a competitive space, you need to be aware of these emerging technologies so you can evaluate them and decide whether they will help you be more efficient and/or lower your costs. One tip is to make sure that you learn about upgrades and advancements in your current systems. I always follow them and send them around the firm to keep people aware of them. If they are complicated, I will assign one of my more “techy” people to study them and do a training for me and others. If you are looking to start a firm, be prepared to put your heart into it, and don’t be afraid to delegate to others when needed.

Can you share some specific, non intuitive insights from our personal experience about how a leader of a law firm should:

• Manage personnel: Be kind and supportive and invest in them because having loyal dedicated employees is essential. I recommend arranging social outings, retreats, and other events to allow employees to connect on a personal level while enjoying a needed break together. This summer, I hosted a BBQ at my home and we had a beach day where we met for some pickleball and then had a picnic and bonfire at the beach.
• Hire and fire: When hiring, we look for the best talent, but we also keep in mind our goal of creating an environment with diverse knowledge, experiences, cultures, beliefs, and skill sets. A well-rounded and diverse practice will push employees to offer new perspectives and allow your firm to reflect the makeup of its community. Firing is never easy, but is often necessary for the well-being of both the individual and the practice. But, it is also important for leaders to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their employees and move them into their places of strength. When things aren’t working out, look to see if you need to move people into new positions, which could save you enormous costs from turnover, recruiting, and hiring.
• Generate leads: I am a huge proponent of getting involved in nonprofit community organizations and bar associations because you can develop deep relationships while volunteering and working together in areas that interest you. Beyond that, we try to stay up to date with our clients and friends of the firm through social media and networking. Because most of our business is from word-of-mouth referrals, social media is an easy way to remain in contact with clients and friends to increase the chances that they will remember us when an issue arises and they are thinking about who to retain. Networking groups and Linkedin are also good to expand your network as long as you make a habit of following up after making the initial connections.
• Advertise: We don’t do a lot of straight advertising, but we have started to participate more when we get awards and recognitions, and we buy tables and ads for the nonprofit community organizations and bar associations that we support. We also advertise our work and the organizations we support on social media. It can be time-consuming and difficult to handle alone so I recommend leaning on an agency or freelancers for additional support. Our own staff does its part in promoting the firm through their personal social media pages and networking events. We have also bought t-shirts and hats, which are a fun way of advertising the firm brand.
• Manage finances: Don’t do this yourself! You need to have a good team to handle the tracking and organizing of your firm’s financial transactions and reporting. Also, set up good checks and balances so that no single person has unchecked control. One tip: don’t be afraid to make investments that will make your business stronger and more efficient in the long run.

Ok, thank you. Here is the main question of our interview about the business side of law. What are your “5 Things An Attorney Needs To Know In Order To Create A Successful And Thriving Law Practice”?

1. Be realistic and purposeful when planning your firm’s vision. Think through the details of what you have and what you will need. From your current client list, who will be coming with you? In preparation, do you already have the experience and contacts you will need? If not, how will you get them? Also think about technology, which has made firm life so much easier on many fronts.
2. Work does not stop when you leave the office. In order to run a successful law firm, you must be willing to put in the additional hours for networking, client development, recruiting, marketing, learning about new technologies, and sharing best practices.
3. Learn from your mistakes. No one is born knowing how to run a business. You can get all the how-to books, talk to all the mentors, and be as prepared as possible, but you will make mistakes. It is all about getting back up and learning from those mistakes.
4. Never compromise your ethics. As you stay true to your vision and build the firm, keep a solid team around you and never compromise your ethics. As you develop processes, make sure you have solid checks and balances and don’t take shortcuts because they never pay off.
5. Invest in your team and don’t take departures personally. We should always try to get everyone to buy into the firm’s vision and culture, but remember that your team members have their own interests and goals so look for ways to encourage their passion and support them in achieving their goals. Find ways to work together in supporting charities, working on pro bono matters, or doing fun social events. When someone does leave, don’t take it personally.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I wish I could inspire a movement to normalize diversity. As someone who fights to champion diversity, I am frustrated that we only have a handful of diverse leaders at the top. Whether we are talking about different races, ethnicities, languages, gender, or sexual preferences, how many minorities are heading major corporations, legal departments, and law firms? I believe the disparity at the top is the result of too many people supporting the idea of diversity, but still feeling that it means giving someone diverse some undeserved benefit or advantage. That misunderstanding misses the point of diversity and leads to an emphasis on recruiting without any support for transitioning those candidates into leadership roles once they are in the organization.

In reality, diverse candidates have the same skills, dedication, and talents as their peers. But, with their diverse backgrounds, they are likely to be more creative and more open to new and different ideas. This makes them perfect for shaping into great leaders who can make a difference.

Therefore, diversity is about embracing and valuing our differences without ever compromising our values.

But to get diversity at the top, we must go beyond recruiting and valuing diverse candidates. We must ensure that our diverse candidates get great opportunities to grow and take on leadership roles within our organizations. In the legal field, diverse lawyers should be everywhere, not kept at the lower levels and pushed into the less profitable practice areas. For diverse outside counsel, they should also receive opportunities to build great relationships with the companies that engage them. Those relationships of trust do not come from simply giving them the smallest cases with the lowest rates.

I will share an interesting story. Only once in our firm’s history were we hired because we are a Latino owned firm. That client found us by researching strong minority owned firms in California and engaged us for three matters. We assigned them to one of our attorneys, but 18 months later, when the client transitioned to a new general counsel and the attorney we assigned decided to leave to a majority owned firm, the client left with him. I thought it was interesting because that client was clearly never committed to our firm and its commitment to diversity ran its course when its own leadership changed.

Over the years, I have enjoyed describing Andrade Gonzalez LLP as an amazing team of lawyers who happen to be in a Latino owned law firm. That way, clients hire us for our skills, talents, and experience, and benefit from our creativity and diversity. By allowing clients to see our diversity as an extra benefit to them, the opportunities to build relationships come and diversity becomes more normal. That is the way it should be. If I got my wish, diversity would be everywhere and everyone’s normal and no one would need diversity programs and trainings.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

We post regular updates to our website, www.andradefirm.com, and on our social media pages for Andrade Gonzalez: Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Twitter They can also follow me on my personal LinkedIn and Instagram.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!

About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.

While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.

Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.

Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.