José Calderón: Attorney Interview Q&A

The Calderon Law Firm, Houston, TX

José Calderón is the founder and named partner of The Calderon Law Firm, a personal injury firm in his hometown of Houston.

Can you take us back to a recent win? What’s a case or milestone that really lit up the office?

“We recently settled a trucking case for $2 million. Our client was out working in the oil fields of West Texas, driving along, when he got hit by an 18-wheeler that wasn’t paying attention. He was ejected and got checked out at the hospital for his injuries. What’s remarkable about this settlement is the timing. We settled it seven months after the day of the incident.

Most of the time, cases in the seven-figure range take years to develop. In this one, we filed suit the day after it happened in order to preserve evidence. We wanted the dash cam footage, which turned out to be very helpful, and we wanted witness statements. The longer you wait, the more evidence disappears. Filing right away gave us the ability to lock that evidence in.

From there, we moved fast in litigation. We used the facts we uncovered at the beginning to put the trucking company in a position where they knew they were going to have a really bad day in court if we ever got that far. Settling a case that large that soon after the incident is rare. But sometimes that’s part of the value a lawyer adds. It’s not only about how much money you get for your client. Sometimes it’s about how quick.

People ask how we get results like that in Texas, which isn’t known as a plaintiff-friendly state. It starts from day one, with vetting. We only take real cases where someone was actually injured. Our opponents know that if we’re bringing a claim, it’s legitimate, and that we won’t stop until we get what we believe the claim is worth. That reputation is why we can often settle fairly in a short time. But if we need to, we’ll litigate for years.

And I hope that client uses some of that money to buy a home.”

What challenges or obstacles have you faced in your career or business, and how have you overcome them?

“When I decided to go out on my own, I knew I wasn’t going to make a lot of money at first. It was going to be tough. But I’d been a lawyer for several years, I had a reputation for trying cases and getting good results, and I was already getting referrals. So I had faith. And at first it was just me. I was a CEO of nothing. For a whole year there was not one other employee. I wrote every letter. I scheduled everything. I did all the admin and all the marketing.

The other challenge is the cost of doing this right. On the complex cases, you’re going against a Goliath, a very big company with unlimited resources. Those cases are built brick by brick, from a liability perspective and from an injury perspective. Our firm has invested tens of thousands, and on some cases hundreds of thousands, of our own money, plus hundreds of hours. And sometimes, when you start spending that money, you don’t know yet if you have a case. Most of the time we’re able to make one. Sometimes, months later, we realize we can’t. When that happens, we let the client go, we eat our expenses, and we move on.

Finding the right people is part of it too. Not all doctors are willing to testify, because they know the other side is going to pick them apart. And some of the top experts in the country won’t work with just any lawyer. When I was a baby lawyer, I called one expert, the guy who wrote the book on defective tires, and he told me, ‘I only work with these three lawyers.’ He wouldn’t work with me. I’ve worked with him since then. They want to know you know what you’re doing, because their opinions have to be properly defended.”

What sets you apart from others in your industry, and what unique perspective do you bring to your cases?

“The named partner is accessible. My lawyers are more than capable, but sometimes clients want to speak to the boss. So I carve out a big chunk of my day, every day, to talk to the clients who want to speak to me. It’s very time consuming and it takes me away from other parts of my job, but it’s my favorite part. Many times on my drive home from the courthouse, I get fed the report of the day, the clients who want to hear from me, and I call them. Many of them have my cell phone. More than half of our cases come from referrals, from past clients and other professionals.

The second thing is language. Almost all of our staff speaks Spanish. We have dozens of staff members who speak Spanish from top to bottom, from the receptionist all the way up to our lawyers. We work with great translators and interpreters, but there’s no substitute for connecting directly with someone in their own language. When I speak to a potential client in their language, they automatically trust me more. They know I’m one of them, but I’m also an American law school educated lawyer with a family that’s not from here. I have one foot on each side. Other law firms bring us onto their trial teams for that reason, because on a big case they want a Spanish-speaking lawyer who also brings firepower to the litigation.

And we don’t overload our case managers, paralegals and lawyers. That’s not my business model. I’d rather give them fewer cases so they can pay more attention to each one. And from day one, I set expectations. I’m not going to tell anyone what they want to hear just so they sign.”

What inspired you to start your business or become involved in personal injury law?

“When I graduated from the University of Texas, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer, but I knew I wasn’t ready to go to law school. So I got a job at a nonprofit in Austin helping tenants who were having issues with their landlords. That’s when I fell in love with representing individual people. Making a lasting impact on one person’s life. Being that person’s spokesperson in a system they couldn’t handle on their own.

When I started law school back home in Houston, I went in open minded, but I started crossing off the types of law I didn’t want. I knew I didn’t want to be a corporate lawyer. I didn’t want to work for a big company and just be another cog in the wheel. Then a lawyer told me, ‘Hey, I should show you what I do. I represent individual workers down at the dock who get injured. Come with me.’ So I went. I met some of his clients, and I found it honorable to represent those dock workers.

These are the people who make the world go around. Everything you and I buy, everything hanging on the wall behind me, came on a shipping container. Those containers move around like Legos, but they weigh tons, so people are going to get hurt. That’s when I really started learning about personal injury law, about helping people who get injured because of someone else’s fault.

Part of who I am comes from home, too. My parents came here from Monterrey, Nuevo León, to give me a better opportunity. I didn’t speak English at home, and I spent whole summers at my grandma’s house in Monterrey with my cousins. So I understand what it’s like to be an immigrant, to arrive somewhere and not know the system or the language.”

Do you have any personal anecdotes or stories that you would like to include in this article?

“My bank is on the first floor of my building. My mom works with me now and handles the deposits, but before that I did them myself, so the tellers know me. One day one of the bank tellers hired us. She’d been in an accident and had done some treatment, and the insurance company was offering her six thousand dollars. I told her that was way too little, and I promised her I’d lower my fee so she wouldn’t take home anything less than that.

Long story short, three weeks later we settled her case for $50,000. Even after my fee and minimal expenses, she took home multiples of what they’d offered. And I kid you not, soon after that I went down to do deposits, and it was like a movie. She was telling her coworkers, ‘Girl, they were trying to give me this, and I got fifty thousand,’ and I walked in right then. It’s nice to hear. We work really hard, and people think we make it look easy, but it’s not.

I had another client who told me she’d been in an accident before and never hired a lawyer. They fixed her car and paid her medical bills. I asked her how much money she took home. She said, ‘Nothing.’ She thought she’d beat the system because she didn’t have to pay a lawyer. I had to explain that she didn’t win. Under Texas law, your medical bills and your car are only part of it. You’re also entitled to what the law calls pain and suffering and mental anguish. The trauma. The stress. She was never made whole. The insurance company got a big discount.

Outside the office, it’s my wife and our two kids. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been playing with my children or bird watching at my ranch and gotten a great idea for a case. ‘We got him. I need to call this expert.’”

What are some notable career highlights? (Awards, recognition, accomplishments, etc.)

“My first seven-figure case came my first year as a lawyer. A worker was jackhammering at a construction site in a very popular area of Houston. The company responsible for marking the underground power lines didn’t do its job, and he hit a live power line. Serious burn injuries, back injuries. That case took several years to develop. But eventually he got a settlement that let him buy his first home, cash outright. Nobody can take that house away from him, and he still had money left over to furnish it.

He’s a laborer, and it’s getting harder and harder for people to buy a first home. I never bought a home until I became a lawyer, and even then it took two lawyer incomes, because my wife’s also a lawyer. Since then we’ve had several clients buy their first homes with their take-home settlement money. They went through something tragic, but at least some good comes out of it. Their spouses and kids are going to live in a home they might not have had otherwise.

I also got thrown straight into the fire. Out of law school I went to work for a prominent attorney who handled some of the biggest, most complex cases. I was flying around the country investigating industrial accidents and wrongful death cases. Explosions. People dying. They were tough and they were a lot of work, but we recovered millions of dollars for our clients, and we helped change laws, make products safer, and get industry giants to change their practices.

That early exposure is a big reason I was recognized on the National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40. What I like about that one is that it’s voted on by peers. It’s not one of those ‘everyone go click this link and vote for my cousin’ contests.”

Where do you see yourself/your brand in a few years? What are some of your dreams and aspirations?

“I want to be known as someone who helped people. I try to do all the disbursements here myself, when we hand a client their money, and I live for that. I love the look on their face. Some of them only take home ten thousand dollars, but for a lot of them, that’s the most money they’ll ever receive at once.

As I become more successful, I want to give back. I come from pretty humble places, my family’s not from here, and I’m first generation to do a lot of things. For me, it’s not enough to make it for myself, my family and my friends. We have to give beyond that. I gave from the day I started this firm, before we’d even settled a case, a couple of hundred dollars here and there. I’m happy to say we’ve given tens of thousands since then.

One of those causes is Hispanic lawyers. Here in Texas, about forty percent of the population is Spanish speaking, and in some parts of the state it’s more than half. There aren’t enough Spanish-speaking attorneys. I’ve been trying to hire them, and I’m learning there just aren’t enough. I already mentor Hispanic law students, and we support Hispanic scholarships. I think that’s going to be one of our next projects, and it doesn’t help me get more cases. It’s beyond that.

What built this firm won’t change. The client’s interest is at the top of the pyramid, and the rest follows. When I talk to Spanish-speaking clients, I put it this way: ‘Yo estoy aquí para ser honesto y sincero contigo. Yo nada más voy a tomar tu caso si yo pienso que te puedo ayudar.’ I’m here to be honest and sincere with you, and I’ll only take your case if I think I can help you.”