Patrick Iyampillai is a Partner and Accident Attorney at Hale Law, a personal injury law firm focused on client needs and concerns. Patrick’s devotion to serving victims of personal injury cases has granted him experience in negotiation, litigation, mediation, and courtroom trials. As a distinguished attorney, he has been instrumental in securing multi-million dollar recoveries for his clients. Patrick is a member of The Florida Bar, Florida Justice Association, Manasota Trial Lawyers Board, and the Sarasota County Bar Association. He received a 2021 AV Preeminent Rating from Martindale-Hubbell and was included in the 2021 Florida Rising Stars list by Super Lawyers.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Patrick Iyampillai shares why he chose a career as an attorney
• Patrick’s journey from law school to becoming a partner at Hale Law
• The biggest turning point in Patrick’s career
• How Patrick feels going into a trial and how he prepares
• The greatest challenge Patrick has overcome in his career
• What attracts Patrick to personal injury law
• The significance of having an emotional connection to the case
• The greatest advice Patrick received from his mentor

In this episode…

Experiencing physical damage in an accident you’re not responsible for can leave you vulnerable and unsure of how to proceed with the legal process. Thankfully, personal injury attorneys can help mitigate the magnitude of your situation by representing your case in court and fighting for fair compensation. Attorneys’ sole focus when representing a client is to defend their rights and settle the injustices committed against them. For personal injury attorneys, the stakes are higher due to the nature of who they are deafening — victims wrongfully harmed. Patrick Iyampillai believes it’s inevitable not to become emotionally invested in cases involving personal injury and advocates that it makes you a better lawyer. When representing your clients in court, the best thing you can do is be prudent in your preparation to win the case on their behalf. In this episode of 15 Minutes, Chad Franzen sits down with Patrick Iyampillai, Partner and Accident Attorney at Hale Law to talk about his career as a personal injury lawyer, how he prepares a client’s case, and the challenges he’s overcome. He also shares why having an emotional connection to his clients and their cases matters.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Chad Franzen on LinkedIn
• Gladiator Law Marketing
• Patrick Iyampillai on LinkedIn
• Hale Law
• Hale Law’s phone number – 941-735-4529
• Brittany Maxey-Fisher on LinkedIn

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Gladiator Law Marketing, where we deliver tailor-made services to help you accomplish your objectives and maximize your growth potential. To have a successful marketing campaign and make sure you’re getting the best ROI, your firm needs to have a better website and better content. At Gladiator Law Marketing, we use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and decades of experience to outperform the competition. To learn more, go to gladiatorlawmarketing.com or schedule a free marketing consultation. You can also send an email to adam@gladiatorlawmarketing.com.

Episode Transcript

Intro  0:01   You’re listening to 15 Minutes, where we feature community leaders sharing what the rest of us should know but likely don’t. Chad Franzen  0:13   Hi, Chad Franzen here one of the co-hosts of 15 Minutes where we talk about or we talk with top notch law firms and lawyers about what it takes to grow a successful law practice. This episode is brought to you by gladiator law marketing, delivering tailor made services to help you accomplish your objectives and maximize your growth potential to have a successful marketing campaign and make sure you’re getting the best ROI your law firm needs to have a better website and better content. Gladiator Law Marketing uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and decades of experience to outperform the competition. To learn more go to gladiatorlawmarketing.com where you can schedule a free marketing consultation also at gladiatorlawmarketing.com. Patrick Iyampillai is an award winning an attorney and partner with Hale Law, a personal injury firm serving serving all of Florida, with its main office headquartered in Sarasota for his entire career, Patrick has solely worked in personal injury law only on the side of the injured. He’s worked on hundreds of different personal injury cases and settled billions of dollars on behalf of his clients. Patrick, thanks so much for joining me today. Patrick Iyampillai  1:16   How are you? Good to chat. Thanks for having me. How are you? Chad Franzen  1:20   Good. Thanks. Hey, I appreciate your time. Hey, how did you get started as an attorney? Patrick Iyampillai  1:26   Yes. So I just knew from the from the get go and say that, going back all the way to kindergarten, that I like to stand up for things and people that needs standing up for I just didn’t like to see things that weren’t right going on. So I like to call them out. And I think that coupled with just my, my immigrant father’s mentality, pushed me into being a lawyer, and never looked back. I really, really enjoyed my career, and even the path to get. Chad Franzen  2:07   So when you say going back to kindergarten, what’s the earliest occasion that you can remember where you thought you did some sort of attorney type work? Standing up for somebody? Patrick Iyampillai  2:17   Yeah, I don’t know if you remember a little game called Foursquare, on the pavement? Oh, no. It was just this kid getting picked on and I just, I really just felt my blood boil. I didn’t like it. I got into the middle of it. There was like two or three people kind of getting in his face. And I just called it out. That’s, that’s my earliest recollection. Chad Franzen  2:42   Do you remember when you decided, Okay. Being a lawyer is for me then. Patrick Iyampillai  2:47   It was in. It was in history class. I liked how most of the presidents had been lawyers. And I knew the presidency was important. So I figured, okay, being a lawyer must be important, too. It’s kind of a prerequisite for that. You know, these are leaders that I looked up to. So you know, I just kept falling that drain. Chad Franzen  3:11   Very nice. So how did you get into the legal industry then? What was your like, specific path? Patrick Iyampillai  3:15   Yeah, so I went to Florida State for undergrad knew I had to get an undergraduate degree in something before law school. So I chose Florida State go Knowles. And the air I encountered the pre law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta, got involved with them. And really what secured it for me was doing mock trials. I really enjoyed mock trials and knew, hey, I want to be a trial lawyer. I want to get in the ring and represent people. Chad Franzen  3:49   So what were the early days of your career, like after you left Florida State? Patrick Iyampillai  3:53   Yeah, after Florida State was was Stetson Law. That’s where I went to law school. It was the number one trial school in the country at the time. And I knew, you know, that’s where I wanted to be because I wanted to be trained how to be a trial lawyer, worked really, really hard to get on the trial team there. And I ended up doing at least 15 Different mock trials throughout my time there, which is really awesome. And from there, I was chosen. Before I even graduated, to be a personal injury attorney down in Boca Raton, Chad Franzen  4:28   For Hale Law or for a different firm? Patrick Iyampillai  4:31   For a different firm. Chad Franzen  4:32   Okay, how did you kind of how did your progression go to where you found yourself at Hale Law? Patrick Iyampillai  4:37   Yes. So after I had been a personal injury attorney at that firm I initially worked at, I did all litigation there and moved on to another law firm where I did all three suit negotiating everything up to litigation. I kind of did things backwards. One of my best friends from high from law school Patrick Hale, he had started his own firm. It was growing. And he reached out to me to see if I wanted to come on board. And, you know, I took a look at things. And I said, Yes. And I never looked back. Chad Franzen  5:14   What would you say have been maybe some of the biggest turning points in your career? Patrick Iyampillai  5:22   Biggest turning points in my career. Definitely just my first job. Getting into actually litigating lawyering totally different than what I ever expected. It was really, really hard mentally, physically, just put in those hours that are required, especially preparing for trial and doing a real trial. Yeah, that was your, Chad Franzen  5:48   what was your first trial? Like? What was your feeling going into it? Patrick Iyampillai  5:52   Yeah, so it was a tough case, it was a tough case, I wasn’t sure. If we were going to win, I just knew I was going to do my best for this client. So I was nervous. But it was cool is down in Miami at the, you know, classic courthouse there now tried to rebuild, I hear spin around forever, it was really old courtroom, the really experienced judge. And, yeah, I just remember preparing my butt off. And the judge telling me, you know, between the four attorneys that were in the ring, I wasn’t in last place, so to speak. So that was a win for me. It didn’t go the way that we wanted, which was also a great learning experience, you know, you never know which way we’re gonna go. But you know, it was a great experience overall, Chad Franzen  6:42   how do you feel going into a trial now compared to that day, Patrick Iyampillai  6:47   or that experience, Night Day, you know, Night Day, I was still a young lawyer that you know, stepping in now, I feel that I can be more myself, rather than just kind of, you know, what I thought a lawyer should be, I just am who I am. Now, I’ve been doing this running this law firm for for long enough now that I just am very comfortable in the suit, and get in front of the jury. So I’m really excited. Hopefully, we’ll get a ring here. At the end of the month, on this trial we’ve been waiting for, when you when you Chad Franzen  7:27   first start, what’s the most what’s most intimidating, or maybe you’re just not intimidated by any of it? The judge, the other lawyer, the lawyer on the other side, or the fact that you, Patrick Iyampillai  7:36   you know, you may lose the case. And, you know, what’s intimidating to me is, is losing the case. You know, I enjoy public speaking, I enjoy competition. And I’m not afraid to tell the judge if I disagree with something, and I got the case law got the court reporter. I’ll tell them what I really think and, and, you know, make sure I’m setting up those appellate issues correctly. But it’s, it’s just, you know, the jury, you just don’t know what they’re going to do what they’re feeling. And that anxiety is definitely there. The startup? Chad Franzen  8:16   Sure. What, is there a big challenge that you have had to overcome, either personally or professionally? Patrick Iyampillai  8:23   Um, you know, I would say, yeah, a big hurdle was, you know, some mentors, sorry about that. Some mentors of mine. You know, they did the law differently, then what it’s become today. So just washing away bad habits. That was that was quite the experience, you know, and I think that’s a good lesson for a lot of young lawyers now, is to just take everything with a grain of salt and just reflect on what you learn in an ethics class, which you’ll learn from doing your continuing legal education as to how you should react in certain situations and respond. Chad Franzen  9:11   Is there something about personal personal injury law that you really, that really draws you Patrick Iyampillai  9:18   in? Yeah, I would say is, it’s being there for people. I think I’m a very empathetic person. I kind of felt that all the way back in grade school. You know, just feeling for people, they’re going through a lot. I mean, I’ve had my good share of wrongful death cases, and that’s the worst. You know, and I’m there with the clients, some, I’m crying some times. I’ll admit it. And, you know, and then on the flip side of things, even in the shortest of circumstances, I just enjoy talking to people getting to know them. and really helping them out. In bad situation. When you Chad Franzen  10:05   as a lawyer, is it important to be emotionally invested in the case? Or do you just try and be mentally prepared and put your best case forward? Patrick Iyampillai  10:17   I am a big advocate for for being emotionally there, you got to keep it in check, though, you don’t want to, you know, react too much. But it definitely will make you a better lawyer. If you really care. And you’re really going to just put in the time more, you’re gonna advocate for your client harder. So I’m a, I’m a big advocate for that, as long as you keep it in check, Chad Franzen  10:42   sure. Is it important to care about the person? Or is it important to care about the case? Patrick Iyampillai  10:46   Or both? I would say both, I would say both, you know, because the client may not understand something and you know, telling them, it’s gonna really upset them, you know, just facing the hard truth. But you need to do it for that person, you need to, you know, face the reality of the case sometimes tell them what’s best for them, no matter what Chad Franzen  11:13   would you say to that, you know, caring about the person, I think in personal injury law, that’s probably pretty easy to do, because, you know, they have a case to be made, and you’re on their side. Are there other kinds of types of law, maybe as a defense attorney, or something where that’s not quite as easy, real, like relating to that person? Patrick Iyampillai  11:29   I give it up to public defenders every day. And twice on Sunday for what they do. I mean, you know, everyone has the right to an attorney and to a defense. But there, there may be insurmountable evidence against their client, and they still have to deal with that. And do their, their job. It’s, it’s got to be tough. Chad Franzen  11:54   What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve received, maybe from a mentor? And who might that be? Patrick Iyampillai  12:01   Oh, man, there’s just so many. You know, I always reflect back on my, it’s one of my mentors, someone I worked for Brittany Maxey-Fisher. She runs a trademark law firm in St. Pete, and also in Sarasota now. And she just always told me, you know, to show up on time, do the dirty work and the nitty gritty, no matter what the task is, just give it your all. So I really reflect on that. look back fondly on those memories. Chad Franzen  12:42   I have one more question for you. But first, how can people find out more about you and about Hale Law? Patrick Iyampillai  12:49   Yeah, they can visit our website at halelaw.com. We’re also launching fightlikehale.com soon enough. And you know, even if they just forget everything, they can just google go to Hale. Just remember, you know, if you’re injured in an accident, tell the insurance companies you’re going to Hale and call us up. 941-735-4529 Chad Franzen  13:15   Okay, fantastic. Last question for you. What are a few daily rituals that you find most important or what’s like, what’s on a typical day? Patrick Iyampillai  13:24   Yeah, so I think remembering to eat is important. Getting enough sleep the night before. And just mentally preparing yourself for for everything the day before it happens. As much as you’re preparing, maybe your your written notes, and whatnot, as a personal injury attorney for a deposition or hearing what had happened. Chad Franzen  13:50   Sure. Hey, Patrick, it’s been great talking to you. Thank you so much. Hey, thanks, Chad. Patrick Iyampillai  13:55   You’re great. Chad Franzen  13:56   Legit. So why everybody. Outro  14:00   Thanks for listening to 15 Minutes, be sure to subscribe and we’ll see you next time.