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The Managing Partners Podcast

Jed Kurzban

Episode # 136
Interview on 11.02.2021
Hosted By: Kevin Daisey
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About Jed Kurzban

Representing: Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli & Pratt

Jed Kurzban is the Managing Partner at Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli and Pratt P.A.

He concentrates his practice in the areas of medical malpractice, products liability, and personal injury. He is a member of the Dade County Bar Association, The Florida Bar, the American Association for Justice, Florida Justice Association, The National Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Bar Association.

He has also published several articles in the Florida Bar Journal and the FJA Journal and is the author of “How Justice is Served”, a tactical guide of advice, tips, and techniques for evaluating, preparing, and trying cases.

Learn from his expertise and what trends are helping grow his firm on this episode of The Managing Partners Podcast! Once you’ve finished this episode, check out next week’s guest, Paul Bekman.

Episode Transcript:

Kevin Daisey:
All right. Welcome everyone. We are recording. This is another live recording of The Managing Partners Podcast. I’m Kevin Daisey, your host. I’m also the founder of Array Digital. We exist to help law firms grow their practice areas through digital marketing. Today I got a guest coming out of Miami, Florida, but he also practices around the country and in Hawaii. And we got Jed, welcome to the show. Thanks for coming on.

Jed Kurzban:
Thank you very much for having me, Kevin. I appreciate it. I look forward to talking to you.

Kevin Daisey:
Yeah. Looking forward to hearing your story, your journey. Checked out your bio, checked out your website. We got to chat a little bit before the show here and you’re up to a lot of things, got a lot of things going on, so I’m excited to dive into those things and let everyone know what you’re up to. So I guess give us a little bit of background on, I guess, the areas of practice you have, and then I really want to get into the journey that you’ve been on to get to where you are today.

Jed Kurzban:
Sure. So my name is Jed. I go by Jed, short and sweet. I’m born in Miami, raised in Miami. I went to University of Alabama for college, came back to Miami, went to law school at the University of Miami and practiced here in Miami for the last 26 years. I was very fortunate that my father was an attorney. So I was a public defender initially, then joined my father to… back then we did personal injury, really anything that came in the door. Over the years, I’ve developed a specialty in medical malpractice. I do large catastrophic injury cases. I’m different than most firms in that I only have five or six cases, that’s all I take, it’s all I can take. So my cases are very large. Unfortunately, the injuries are very significant. Usually it’s the area of malpractice, although I have trucking cases, and auto cases, and product cases as well.

Jed Kurzban:
If I think I can help and the injury warrants my involvement. I don’t have paralegals doing all of the work, I don’t have support staff that does everything, it’s me. I have one associate, one secretary, and we handle these six cases, like you said, around the country. Barred in Miami, I’m barred in Hawaii. And I have an office in Miami and an office in Honolulu and I work everywhere in between, but clearly I love the beach.

Kevin Daisey:
Clearly, you’ve made a good choice. I’m at the beach, but in Virginia. Virginia Beach, so not quite as nice, but that’s awesome. So interesting place you’ve got into nicheing in this. And you mentioned that you just wrote a book and that is now out, correct?

Jed Kurzban:
Correct. I did, thanks for mentioning it. It’s a national bestseller, so it’s called, How Justice Is Served, so that is my book. And it is literally a manual on how to evaluate a case, prepare a case and litigate a case. I’ve never seen a trial book and I love to read trial books, I love to read strategy books. I love being a trial lawyer, so it’s to me something I enjoy. And I’ve never seen a book that takes the attorney, the reader from, how to look at a case, to evaluate, to prepare, what to prepare, how to get ready for trial, what to do at trial, how to try a case and the end. And it’s really a journey from beginning to end.

Kevin Daisey:
Awesome.

Jed Kurzban:
It’s a book about communication and skills and how to frame a case, prepare a case, how to objectively prepare the case so that a jury… and since I practice across the country, I’ve had trials in eight states now, they’re different. Juries are different in each state, they’re different in each locale. You need to be able to communicate with them in a way that’s effective. And I think my book helps you try to figure that out.

Kevin Daisey:
That’s excellent. So it’s as you said, like a manual, like a guide. So can you show the book up again if you don’t mind?

Jed Kurzban:
Sure.

Kevin Daisey:
For everyone watching on video, you can check that out, if not, How Justice Is Served, you can look that up and I’m sure you can find it. Is it on Amazon and other places as well?

Jed Kurzban:
Yeah, it’s on Amazon.

Kevin Daisey:
Okay.

Jed Kurzban:
There’s a link for my website, kktplaw.com, and you can also find it on Amazon.

Kevin Daisey:
Okay, excellent. Yeah, that sounds amazing. So anyone watching, listening, sounds like you should definitely check that book out if you’re a trial lawyer. And that’s very interesting. So give me a little bit… so the firm that you’re… you said it’s just you and you’re doing a lot of the work, but your firm consists of [crosstalk 00:04:53] how many lawyers and staff and practices that you guys cover?

Jed Kurzban:
All right. So my firm is 14 attorneys, it’s grown over the last 25 years. It started 40 years ago, my father and my uncle started this firm. My father did personal injury and my uncle is a very famous immigration attorney, his name is Ira Kurzban. And over the years we’ve grown, of the 14 attorneys, me and one associate do personal injury, what I do, the other 12 do immigration. So people think of us as a large immigration firm, which we are, and we’re quite famous in immigration, but it is the PI work, as I tell people all the time, “We pay for the immigration department to take these giant cases to the Supreme Court of America and become famous.” There’s a joke in my firm between my uncle and I, my uncle’s the greatest immigration attorney in the country, he really is. He also has written a book and it’s the actual Bible of immigration law.

Kevin Daisey:
Oh, wow.

Jed Kurzban:
And he’s one of the finest attorneys in the country. And I tell him all the time, he’s the second best attorney in the firm. We also have two other partners, John Pratt and Helena Tetzeli. And we’ve added recently to new junior partners named Kevin Gregg and Eddie Ramos, they’re all immigration attorneys. But that’s what we’re known for, is immigration law and these large scale catastrophic injury cases that I handle with my associate Lauren.

Kevin Daisey:
Yeah. So that’s really cool though, I think how the firm is known for that and it’s… but you found your own niche, your own way, and to stand out on your own, which is pretty cool. Which is unique, it’s interesting that you, that… And I’d say, everyone check out, look at the website here, it’s kktplaw.com. You see all the areas of practice, you can see the other partners, and is your uncle, you said, right? That’s the one [crosstalk 00:06:53].

Jed Kurzban:
Right. So my Uncle, he’s one of the partners. He-

Kevin Daisey:
Ira.

Jed Kurzban:
… co-founder, Ira Kurzban, with Marvin Kurzban. Since it’s The Managing Partner Podcast, which I’ve listened to several episodes and they’re excellent. My father was the managing partner for 30 years, he retired about five years ago. About seven, eight years ago, I took over, they voted me in to manage the firm and so I’m the manager partner of the firm. I run the firm day-to-day. But of course I have partners and we have partner meetings. So the way our firm does it is, we have partner meetings Monday nights, talk about things going on, what we’re doing. Because we’re sort of a two-headed snake in the way the firm is set up, one head is immigration, one head is personal injury or [tort 00:07:43]. We talk about resources and what we’re going to do in terms of managing our caseload, our volume of cases, our staff. We’ve grown from literally two people, there’s now 22 overall employees at the firm. So over these years we’ve grown and I think we’ll continue to grow.

Kevin Daisey:
That’s excellent. Well, good topic is the next question I was going to ask you is, now this could be two different answers, I would assume. With the firm’s growth and what you’re doing and focused on now is, what has worked well to get clients? Now, again the personal injury side, where you’re handling a handful of cases versus immigration, which I assume is quite a bit more. Maybe tell us, how are you getting cases for each of those areas?

Jed Kurzban:
Sure. I would say honestly, the immigration firm has maybe 300 cases, they’re a much more volume part of the firm, whereas I have six cases, so we really focus in on our clients. But our belief system is the same, which is if we really service our clients, do a great job, then they will let other clients know about us and they will get us our clients. And that has been our model for 40 years and has worked, knock on wood, it continues to work. Do we do some social media? We do social media. Recently I’ve hired a social media person to help with social media, Instagram and LinkedIn and… so that’s new, We’ve never done that before, but it’s a new world and things change. We have, I think a terrific website, I actually spent a lot of time.

Jed Kurzban:
I’ve built our entire website with a web designer, and we page on our website is me putting together how I want our website to look. I’m very particular in the way we present ourselves, because I think it’s important to me that we are not a giant firm with a million clients that make lots of money to pay for more advertisement, to get more clients, to pay for more advertisement. And that’s fine, that’s a business model, I talk about that in my book a lot. It’s a business model that’s worked for a lot of lawyers, it’s not my model. I never wanted to be a businessman. I never wanted to only worry about profit and income and how much I can make to buy more of TV time or more billboards. I wanted to be an attorney and I wanted to be an attorney that affected change in society.

Jed Kurzban:
And it’s the same belief of my uncle and my partners, John and Helena, which is, a lot of our fights, we know we can’t make money on these fights. Whether it’s me taking a pro bono case for someone that I just want to effectuate change in the hospital system, or the immigration department right now there’s a case going up to the Supreme Court of America, on a really interesting immigration issue. And so effectuating change is what we’ve always been about. Servicing our clients, making sure they know that for me, their story’s been told, they’ve been destroyed. They’ve physically been destroyed, mentally been destroyed, financially been destroyed. No one helps them, the government doesn’t help these people. In fact, all the laws in the State of Florida are geared to hurt these people even more and only protect large insurance companies.

Jed Kurzban:
That is the premise of Florida legislation, the whole premise of it. Hurt people, help [inaudible 00:11:16] insurance companies. With that being said, no one can really help them if they don’t put everything they have into it. And taking a bunch of cases to settle for a little bit of money, then brag about it is not what I’ve ever been about. I’m here to really go after them and make change. And my clients love that they know someone’s fighting to tell their story, because that’s what they want, they want justice. Why I name my book, How Justice Is Served. It doesn’t have to be criminal justice, there’s civil justice.

Kevin Daisey:
Sure.

Jed Kurzban:
“I was hurt, it wasn’t my fault, someone else did it. They should have followed these simple rules not to hurt me, or there were no rules even created to protect me. And I want my story told, I want the system to be better, so the next person doesn’t suffer what I’ve suffered from.” And I feel that’s my obligation to them.

Kevin Daisey:
I love it, man. I really do. Yeah, and I agree with you. And I think honestly, I get to talk to a lot of amazing people, managing partners, attorneys, most of which want to be attorneys and wanted to be attorneys not a business owner, an entrepreneur or whatever you want to say. They weren’t taught that usually, it’s something they just had to get into. And so it is nice to hear honestly, a consistent message across the board for the majority, that the these attorneys want to help people and they want to change lives. And that’s most of our audience, I would say, and honestly my clientele is not the ambulance chasers and crazy advertisers and yelling on TV and stuff, that’s not the kind of folks that we work with.

Kevin Daisey:
But everyone we do and have on the show, has a mission, they have goals they have integrity, they want to have their clients taken care of. So glad you shared that and that’s going to lead to work. That’s going to lead to more good clients for you. So I think the model, [crosstalk 00:13:25] yeah, tried and tested and will work forever. Okay, excellent. I love that. And you mentioned you are doing some stuff and digital stuff, and that’s kind of what we do, but so you’re investing some effort in that. I’ve seen your website, I assume SEO and things like that are something you guys have dabbled in too, based on what I see.

Jed Kurzban:
Sure.

Kevin Daisey:
So what are some of the plans really outside of that for the medical malpractice stuff, the big case? What has really worked well to get… is that all referral based? Is it something that you fell into and you just got a good handle on it and you got people referring you? How are you getting those larger cases?

Jed Kurzban:
All right. So it’s funny you say I fell into it, there’s truth to that [crosstalk 00:14:18].

Kevin Daisey:
… just assuming, sorry.

Jed Kurzban:
No, there’s truth to that to a degree. So I have my friends that I grew up with, I have my friends from law school. I have attorneys that do different areas of practice and they’ll refer cases to me, if it’s medical malpractice, I refer cases to them if it’s criminal or family law because I don’t do that, so there’s some of that. There’s my clients that bring me cases. And then in the area of medical malpractice, I had a case with a Mexican long distance truck driver that had kidney failure. No one diagnosed him, no one was treating him. The case to me seemed outrageous, he wasn’t getting help. And when he got to me, he was already on dialysis trying to get a kidney transplant or he was going to die. And I couldn’t understand how this man that was healthy one day, the next they said you need dialysis.

Jed Kurzban:
And so I took the time to look into the case, and this case had been rejected by like three other law firms. I looked into the case and it’s because no one told him his kidneys were failing for three or four years as he did his yearly physicals for the DOT, no one told him. And so they let his kidneys fail. So I took his kidney to trial, I got a enormous verdict at the time and was very happy. The client was thanking me, was able to make his life a little more bearable because he could afford to live, he could afford the kidney transplant. Which led to another case in kidney failure that was not diagnosed, which then led to a case in Hawaii where the lawyer out there said, “My clients read about these kidney cases of yours. I don’t know anything about kidney cases, would you help me with this case?”

Jed Kurzban:
And so I took a case on, in Hawaii. And I was admitted Pro hac vice a guest of the state. And that led to a case out there, which led to a second and a third case in Hawaii. And it’s a long story, but after a judge sort of threatened to not let me try my third case out there, I got annoyed and I took the bar in Hawaii and passed the bar. Got licensed. The law firm I was working with, asked me to be their [tort 00:16:26] partner out there, so I have an office out there. But that led to a case in South Carolina. And then I had then two of them in Arizona, and I have one going on right now currently in North Dakota. Plus I have in Florida, plus I’ve done cases in Washington state for kidney disease.

Jed Kurzban:
So now I have these local lawyers, some of which have hired me to help them. And some of which the clients come to me and I’ve hired the local lawyer to be my local attorney in that jurisdiction. And so they found other kidney cases and they refer kidney cases to me, because they’re very happy with the quality of work we’ve done the clientele and they know that they can be part of a larger case. So that’s sort of [crosstalk 00:17:09] a little bit. Not that I intended to have a national practice, I did not, but the way it happened, I have a national practice in failure to diagnose kidney disease, and I try these cases around the country. And quite frankly, I love going to these jurisdictions and meeting different attorneys, meeting different juries, seeing how I can communicate with them. Because an Arizona jury is very different than a South Miami jury, which is very different than a jury in Hawaii or South Carolina. And so it’s a challenge, but one that I love and again, some been successful, thank God. So it’s been a good journey.

Kevin Daisey:
That’s excellent, man. And so that’s very interesting as well, I guess for me being a little ignorant not knowing… I guess explain how you’re going to these other states, is this more at a federal level? Or how is that whole process work where you’re going to take your state as in other states, without being barred in those states?

Jed Kurzban:
Sure. So originally I’m a barred Florida attorney, now I’m also a barred Hawaii attorney. But essentially I’ll get this case, I’m working on now in North Dakota, the client comes to me, ask me to help him, I look at the case. He clearly has been malpracticed on, he clearly had kidney disease for years and they just ignored it. So I then will, in this case, it was me that found local counsel, which would be a North Dakota attorney and say, “I have this case, I’d like to work with you. Will you help me. One, help me learn the North Dakota rules of civil procedure, which I certainly am not an expert on.” And to be allowed to practice in other states, they have to petition the court. It’s called a motion for Pro hac vice, meaning guest of the state.

Kevin Daisey:
Okay.

Jed Kurzban:
And in this motion for Pro hac vice, I have to prove I’m in good standing in my state, I’ve never been suspended or in trouble, and I have specialized knowledge that would help that state get better at the area that I’m bringing to that state. And as an expert, so to speak in kidney disease, I filed my petition for Pro hac vice and I’ve never had a judge deny it so far. Except the one in Hawaii that gave me a hard time which as I said, led to me taking the bar out there. [crosstalk 00:19:34] I want to take another bar. It was very taxing taking a bar 25 years after I had graduated from law school.

Kevin Daisey:
I’ll never know. But yeah, you went around the judge on that one, right, so. Okay, that helps me a lot. But I think it’s just really cool, again, I wouldn’t say fell into, but you never know where you’re going to go and where your journey’s going to take you. But you’ve ended up in a place that you are passionate about and that you’re good at, so I think that’s pretty amazing that that’s what you’ve been able to do. I would assume, and again, I’m a digital marketing guy, so I got to assume these people are probably searching for help online.

Jed Kurzban:
Correct.

Kevin Daisey:
And they probably come across articles or your website, probably talking about some of these cases because it’s so specific, that they probably can’t find much help out there. And then, they [crosstalk 00:20:38].

Jed Kurzban:
I also write articles about it, so there’s some publications of things I’ve written about. But you’re right, a lot of it’s my website, a little bit of it is the new world of social media and digital marketing, which I know you do. And so a lot of this is somewhat word of mouth, somewhat digital search, maybe some literature search or case results search. And how the conglomerate of all works till they finally contact me. It’s really hard to trace, a lot of people can’t actually trace exactly where their first contact was. But I’m different than most law firms also that I take every call that comes into my office. I don’t have a screening person. I don’t have someone that screens my calls before they get to me. If I’m out of the office because I’m in trial, my assistant will take a message.

Jed Kurzban:
But otherwise I’m here, I take every call, I screen every call, I talk to every person. And even though I don’t take most cases, I tell people I take one out of 100 cases I get. The other 99 cases I don’t take. But because they’re talking to me, a partner and a professional and I answer their questions, I take the time to really discuss it with them. I’ve had, I can’t even tell you, hundreds, maybe not hundreds, but scores of cases that have come from someone’s case who I rejected.

Kevin Daisey:
Yeah. Well, and Jed even gave me the time of day to talk to me today, so this guy’s an open book. [crosstalk 00:22:08] Well yeah, I love that. And when you’re taking that few cases, you’re going to talk to a lot of people that you probably cannot help. There’s probably the majority, and like you said, you can’t help, but you can help them some way, point them in the right direction. And I would like to say that we do that too. And actually I just got off the phone just a few minutes ago, we only work with law firms. And I had a company reach out in Florida actually, that they offer assistance for families to avoid any type of legal or litigation, but they’re not a law firm. So they offer more of like programs and things like that.

Kevin Daisey:
And so I said, “It is hard to tell, are you a law firm?” I couldn’t really tell exactly. Because it looked like they just had a brand that looked, “We don’t want to look like a law firm, but we are a law firm.” But then she was like, “No, we’re not a law firm.” And I said, “Well, I apologize, but we don’t work with anyone that’s not a law firm. But guess what? I have tons of people I know that I can refer you to and here’s what I would do. And what kind of money are you looking to spend? And point them in the right direction.” So you just got to be able to say no to the things that aren’t a fit, and then give a little free consultation or point them in the right direction and [crosstalk 00:23:28].

Jed Kurzban:
Be professional, be helpful. There’s no skin off your nose to try to help people, even if you can’t help them.

Kevin Daisey:
Yeah.

Jed Kurzban:
Unfortunately the great majority of cases I reject, because Florida’s so bad when it comes to the laws to helping people, that I give them names and numbers and say, “Here’s your Congressman, here’s your Senator, here’s the governor, write a letter, make a phone call. You can effectuate change in the legislature if enough people like you write letters and call.” And I get these wonderful thank you notes. “Thank you so much. I wrote, Congressman wrote me back. I appreciate you helping me.”

Kevin Daisey:
That’s super cool.

Jed Kurzban:
And that’s a nice thing to know. Even though you can’t really help them, you’re still helping them in the ways you can.

Kevin Daisey:
I love it. So Jeb, what’s on the radar? You’re managing the firm, what are some of the plans that you see in the next couple years in your new initiatives, plans for growth? What are you thinking about right now?

Jed Kurzban:
Well, honestly, COVID really changed a lot of things in everyone’s world, I’m no exception. I had a lot of trials that were shut down because of COVID. So I’m now facing for the first time in my career, a backlog of trials. So I’m going to hire another associate, we’re going to grow because we’re going to need more help trying cases. So in terms of growth, another associate. With another associate, I may or may not need another assistant that will lead to growth. The immigration department, not only did COVID effective, but the prior administration trying to end all immigration in America was complicated and we did a lot of federal litigation. It seems crazy to say, “If you’re Muslim, you can’t come to America.” That’s just a crazy thing to say and do.

Jed Kurzban:
So there was a lot of federal litigation that we did on behalf of groups of people that entire swath, groups of people were cut out of immigration because someone doesn’t like that group, which is literally anti-American. And the whole point of America is, we take this giant conglomerate of people and we make this melting pot and have this wonderful world we create out of all these different societies and beliefs and systems that we’re able to incorporate into an American system. And so to do the opposite of that seems outrageous. So we were involved in a lot of litigation in the immigration department because it’s so anti-American, it’s so despicable in its form to say, groups of people are not worthy of America. Now there may be a person who’s a bad person, and we would all agree, there are bad people we don’t want in America. But a group as a whole is outrageous.

Kevin Daisey:
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:26:12].

Jed Kurzban:
So we got lot of litigation and we’ve grown some in this litigation. Now that immigration’s coming back, that’s going to change the future of that section of our firm. In the medical malpractice section or tort section, personal injury, a lot of it’s going to… we’re working currently on not only have we been writing articles and lecturing around the state, but we’re involved in a few political races to try to change the political landscape of Florida, so that victims, injured victims, people, people like you, people like me get some protection. Because right now [crosstalk 00:26:47] there’s zero protection for people. It’s all of these giant companies that have millions and millions and millions of dollars of profit, that are pouring money into these races to get disgusting people, to write laws that are even more disgusting and just destroy people’s lives, it’s just not okay.

Jed Kurzban:
So our growth is going to be from the legal perspective of growing, so we can take trials and make sure our trials don’t get delayed and we can move forward. But we’re also becoming a little more active legislatively, because it’s terrible to see what’s happening to the State of Florida and to people’s rights, victims’ rights. It’s really disgusting.

Kevin Daisey:
When is Jed running for office?

Jed Kurzban:
Yeah, I don’t know. Jed-

Kevin Daisey:
Locally, at least. [crosstalk 00:27:43].

Jed Kurzban:
I like helping people. And sitting in a room with a bunch of politically motivated people based on the monies they’re paid by these interest groups, would be something I would’ve a very tough time, as you could tell, keeping my mouth shut. And I don’t know if that’s any time soon. Maybe at some point I’ll learn to not take it so personal, but for now it seems very personal to me. And I like getting into court because juries… I tell people all the time, our civil system, it’s not great, it needs a lot of work. It’s got a lot of problems, but it’s the best in the world by a lot. And juries do the right thing, they want to do the right thing.

Jed Kurzban:
If you talk to them and you educate them, they really want the system to work. And eight out of 10 times juries are on the money. One out of 10, they’re too low. One out of 10, they’re too high, eight out of 10 juries are on the money. And I like talking to juries because if you talk to them and teach them and educate them, they want to do the right thing. Legislature does not want to do the right thing. They’re there for their motivated purpose of, “How can I make money? Who’s going to pay me to say what?” And that is not how juries believe. That’s why I love juries.

Kevin Daisey:
Well, that’s a good point you said there. I think it’s got a lot of problems, but it’s the best in the world, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have a lot of work to do, so.

Jed Kurzban:
Exactly. Well said.

Kevin Daisey:
So, well, I think you said it first, so. But-

Jed Kurzban:
Right. We both said it well, I’ll take that.

Kevin Daisey:
Well, so yeah, I appreciate you sharing those views and your position and what things are going on. With COVID, just kind of changed subject a little bit, have you done a lot of traveling? Have you had stuff going to Zoom trials in other states or do you have to physically be there?

Jed Kurzban:
So a lot of things have moved to Zoom, which like most older attorneys I was against initially, but now I see the benefit of a lot of it. I still like personal connection. I don’t think I ever want to do a Zoom trial, because I want to talk to the jury and look in their eye. And I want them to feel the piece of paper I’m going to hand them, which shows the medical record that says, “We tested,” but then they actually never tested. So I think there’s still a need for in person connection. [crosstalk 00:30:17].

Kevin Daisey:
I’ve heard that from a lot of trial lawyers, they have an advantage by being in front of people-

Jed Kurzban:
Yeah. We do.

Kevin Daisey:
… versus over Zoom.

Jed Kurzban:
I think Zoom is very effective for a lot of maybe one-on-one hearings or one-on-one depositions. So I’ve been doing a lot of Zoom. Actually the book came about because when COVID first started and we were really shut down, the courts were shut down, there was really nothing I could do as a trial attorney. Other law firms that have maybe a larger volume practice and do a little more auto accident work and still move cases some through. But for me, in my large cases, I need trial to move forward, and so I really was shut down for a good year. Which I sat in my office for about a week, crying a little, figuring out what to do, playing a lot of angry birds on my cell phone thinking, “There has to be something better than this.” And that was the Genesis of why I wrote my book.

Jed Kurzban:
I decided to take all 26 years of my trial experience, and I was talking to my wife about it and my wife said, “Instead of bemoaning, just write your book.”

Kevin Daisey:
Writing.

Jed Kurzban:
So I put it down and I spent a year during COVID to write this book, and that’s how the book came about. So I’m very proud of it because of the knowledge I think that’s in it. I think it’ll be very helpful to any attorney that tries case, and it’d be helpful to anyone that really wants to communicate with other people outside of the world of attorneys. But I feel I use my time well in sort of taking everything I had, all my notes, all of the different little lessons I’ve learned over the years… The book started because I have a fat three wing binder, where I take all these little notes over the years of things I saw or I liked, or I read about, and I’d scribble them down and I’d stick them in this binder. And so I turned my three ring binder of assorted notes and theories and ideas and turned it into the book with, thank God the help of an editor, because it was a little scattered to start with, they had to focus me in a little, but no, I think it’s great.

Kevin Daisey:
That’s awesome. Well, I think it’s just great that during downtime, COVID, you could have just gone and sat on the beach and done nothing. But you decided that, you’re like, “This is my opportunity to put some things on paper.” So yeah, you got to do what you got to do, you got to keep moving. But you’re ready to produce that book. So can you hold the book up again if you have it?

Jed Kurzban:
Sure.

Kevin Daisey:
So, yeah.

Jed Kurzban:
How Justice Is Served, by Jed Kurzban.

Kevin Daisey:
That’s awesome.

Jed Kurzban:
The back gives a little idea of what the book is really about. So if you see it on Amazon, make sure to check it out or go to my website. And like the book says, it’s about evaluation, preparation and litigation. And so it takes you through all three of those steps. So it’s divided into 13 chapters, into three sections.

Kevin Daisey:
That’s awesome. [crosstalk 00:33:26] It’s easy to consume. So you make it easy for someone reading it to consume and actually use it.

Jed Kurzban:
Correct.

Kevin Daisey:
Which is great. So I think there’s a huge tip for everyone right there. If you’re going to trial, check out his book, I’m sure it’s amazing. You can go to his website, it’s kktplaw.com. It’s on the screen here as well. I really we’ve had a lot of great attorneys on here this year that are also authors, they published some books, not [inaudible 00:33:55] but there’s been a handful. I feel we should add maybe a book club to the newsletter that we’re putting out or something like that.

Jed Kurzban:
Yeah. I always try to find other books that I find of interest. I have a library in the back of my office, which has, I don’t know, 50, 60 books that over the years I’ve bought and read. And I tell people, if you read this book and you get four or five things out of the book, it’s a great book. [crosstalk 00:34:21].

Kevin Daisey:
It’s worth every dollar, right?

Jed Kurzban:
… 100 ideas out of it, but you get four or five good ideas, that was a good book.

Kevin Daisey:
Absolutely, 100%. For me, if I get one thing I can apply to my business or my life, then it’s a great book. And you put it back on the shelf, probably read it again and maybe find another thing later, but.

Jed Kurzban:
Sure.

Kevin Daisey:
Yeah, I have a goal to read two a month at least wow. [crosstalk 00:34:46] or 24 a year. And yeah, well, I’ve never been a big reader and I wasn’t a big… I didn’t go to law school, I didn’t do all that big stuff, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I said, I went into business for myself, but… So I’ve had over the years to start… I have to read, I have to get this content in. So yeah, two a month for me, it’s about the most I can do right now. But then you hear like, “Oh, the top CEOs in the country read 60 books a year.” Like, “Well, they must have more time than me [crosstalk 00:35:19].”

Jed Kurzban:
It’s hard to find times sometimes. But yeah, I try to always be reading. I always have a book on my shelf that I’m working through. And some days I’m able to read more, some days less, but I believe in consistently reading. And if you think you know everything, you’re fooling yourself. So there’s always people there that know more and different and I love to learn, always have.

Kevin Daisey:
Well, I love it. And I think what you’re doing too with like, taking notes and writing stuff down that you’ve picked up, obviously the three ring binder, that came back to assist you. And I think a lot of times we take stuff in, or you go to a conference or you read a book, “That was a nice book.” And I hear people say that all the time and, what are you going to do with what you pulled out of it? Are you going to apply it? Are you going to do something with it? And so I feel a lot of times me and most people I talk to, you can waste a lot of effort and time and then not apply it. And [crosstalk 00:36:20].

Jed Kurzban:
That’s a good point. I go to a lot of conferences, I lecture a lot as well, but I’m also an attendee, and I’ll lecture on my portion and then I’ll be an attendee. And again, if I hear one or two or three things I’ll take a note, I’ll stick it in my pocket. I’ll bring it back to the office, and I’ll have my assistant type it out for me and I’ll stick it in my binder.

Kevin Daisey:
Yeah. And so that’s helped me. Although the tips there, especially coming from Jed, which they have been coming in hot. And so, but one for me, I think is, when I go to something like that or an event or a conference, I say, “I’m here to get something out of this, because I invested in time and money, I have to leave this with something, with that in mind.” What am I getting out of it? Am I learning something? Am I meeting someone? You’re there for a purpose. And I think some people just float around sometimes, so.

Jed Kurzban:
Whether I lecture on my book or I lecture on a specific topic, so I’ll do web webcast as well.

Kevin Daisey:
Awesome.

Jed Kurzban:
To me when I attend, if I enjoy myself and I learned a couple of things, it’s been terrifically successful. And so I always try to make people enjoy what they’ve heard and if they get one or two things out of it, then they should feel it’s been successful, and I feel it’s been successful. And so I have a lot of war stories, my book has a bunch of really good war stories in it as well. Some are very entertaining, some are beyond belief. Truth is better than fiction as they say, and a lot of my cases prove that. So there’s been a lot that I’ve learned over the years and as you get older, you process information differently. And so you do, you revisit some of those books, or for me, I revisit my three wing binder and I say, “You know what? I like this. I haven’t talked about this in a while in trial, I’m going to incorporate this.”

Jed Kurzban:
And I just think it’s part of the evolution of learning and being a better attorney, to better help your client, better service them in terms of their quest for justice, tell their story and hopefully effectuate change.

Kevin Daisey:
Well, I love it, man. I appreciate you sharing your story today and what you’ve learned, and about your book. I would say definitely if you’re listening check out Jed’s book, it looks amazing. But check that out and we’ll post some stuff about that as well. And then also this episode will be up here soon on our website, thisisarray.com/podcast. Jeb, we’ll also have this edited in the queue to get up on the podcast version, which will be available to everyone in on Spotify, Google, Apple, and every other platform available too. But this episode will be up soon. Jeb, we’re going to let you know when this is up.

Jed Kurzban:
Great.

Kevin Daisey:
And if you need any assistance from us, digital marketing, driving leads, marketing for your firm, that’s what we do. Everything down to just managing the website. Jed’s passionate about his website, he has put a lot of energy into it. If you need help doing that same thing and managing it, that’s what we do. So reach out to us if we can help. And again, if it’s just to have questions. I have people reach out all the time, and just like Jed here, if I can’t help, I will help somehow, whether or not you Start Today or pay us to do something, it doesn’t matter. So happy to help. If you got any questions, reach out. Jed, best way for people to reach out and connect with you if they have questions?

Jed Kurzban:
Sure. My email, which is jed@kktplaw.com, it’s also on my website, or you can call my office at 3-0-5-4-4-4-0-0-6-0. I really do pick the phone up and talk to everyone, so people are always amazed, and like, “Is it really you?” And it’s really me, “I’m talking to you. Yes. What can I do to help? And how are you?” So call me, email me, is always great. I travel for trial a lot, so I’m always on my email. So my website is kktplaw.com, and I’m jed@kktplaw.com. And that’s really a great way to get ahold of me.

Kevin Daisey:
Well, Jed, I appreciate you coming on. You’re approachable and open and out there to help people, so I appreciate your service. And I’m sure you’ve done a lot for, not just your clients, but Florida in general, and your surrounding community. So again, appreciate what you’re doing. Thanks for coming on and sharing that today with us. And anything else to add? If not, we’ll wrap it up.

Jed Kurzban:
Thank you, Kevin. It’s been terrific. I appreciate it. This podcast, I think it’s a wave of the future and I’m excited to be a part of it. So Kevin, thank you for the opportunity.

Kevin Daisey:
Yes, sir. Again, thank you for taking the time to share this with us and the audience and everyone else. We’ll see you later. Jed, I’ll talk to you soon. You can stay on with me, we’ll talk backstage.

Jed Kurzban:
All right.

Kevin Daisey:
Everyone else have a great day. Get after it.

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