We were lucky to catch up with Kennington Groff recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kennington thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

I think there are a lot of things my parents got right and as the oldest child who was the guinea pig for all of it, they learned what worked and what didn’t. One of the most important things they did that I believe impacted by life and career was teaching us the value of hard work and always keeping us busy. From a young age, they encouraged us to work hard and showed us that if you did the work, you would be rewarded. Growing up on four acres, when I was little, we would help my parents in the yard on the weekends. While not working was not an option, we knew that at the end of a hot summer day you were rewarded with a trip to Bruster’s Ice Cream, the greatest gift you could give to a child during a summer in Georgia. As I got older, they encouraged me to seek other jobs like babysitting in the neighborhood, looking after other people’s pets when they were traveling and even starting a gift-wrapping business during the holidays when I was off from school. Additionally, my parents always kept us busy and in sports. With school, sports, and always having some sort of side gig, I had to balance my time carefully so learned a lot about multitasking, time management and prioritizing the tasks before me. There was not a lot of downtime, so I stayed organized and focused which has helped me during my job, especially the busy times.

Kennington , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I work for a firm called Founders Legal that is a corporate, intellectual property and entertainment firm helping clients throughout the United States and internationally. While we are based in Atlanta, we are a tech-forward growing firm with a second office in Nashville and additional locations in the works.

I did not have the traditional attorney trajectory in law school as at the time I had no intentions of working for a firm, but rather wanted to be in-house counsel at a large production studio or network. I had spent some time in college working on the film and television sets around Atlanta and knew that 1) I was going to California for law school and 2) I was going to work in the entertainment industry in one way or another. While all my friends were working on preparing their letters to apply for judicial externships, a conventional path for someone about to wrap up their first year of law school, I was heavily focused on grabbing coffee and lunches with people who had the job that I wanted in the future. One of my coffees turned into my first internship at Lionsgate. After Lionsgate, I moved on to work with NBCUniversal in the Cable Entertainment Legal Affairs department in both LA and NYC, which included working on television shows for USA, Syfy, Bravo and Oxygen. Lastly, I worked for HBO in Business Affairs. Ultimately though when it came time to determine where I wanted to take the bar, Georgia was home and with a rapidly growing entertainment industry, it was the time to dive back into it.

While my first job was in-house with The Weather Channel, when my contract wrapped for the show I was working on, I decided it was time to give firm life a try. I began with a boutique intellectual property firm and as anyone who works for a small company knows, you have to wear many hats. That set us apart by being able to provide a hands on-approach and one-on-one interaction that a larger company does not always afford. While there, I dove into the field of intellectual property from the perspective of helping entrepreneurs and businesses build their brands and protect them from both a litigation side and a transactional one including trademarks, copyrights and contracts to name a few.

I always vigorously protect my clients and am upfront with them about the options and routes ahead because at the end of the day my favorite thing to see is when their business is thriving. While most people think of lawyers as the typical characters you see on a show like Law & Order or Suits with loads of courtroom drama, in the work I predominantly do, I get a front row seat at helping everyone from the one-man shop to a large corporation build and protect their brand, music, artwork, film, television series or invention from all angles. I get excited when I’m driving down the road and I see a billboard, a product, a restaurant, filming location signs, etc. that shows one of my clients and all the hard work they are doing. Most people don’t get to see the behind-the-scenes blood, sweat and tears that were put into building and protecting their work like I do.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I think a lot of times people forget that a simple phone call can make all the difference in creating a relationship with someone. While we live in a text and email world, I find so much value in having phone calls with potential and existing clients. Whether it is a simple 15-minute consultation to help determine what needs to be done for a potential client or a call with an existing client explaining what is going on with their legal needs and strategy for moving forward, putting a voice behind an email or text can create that relationship and save time in the long run. I think having this sort of connection with clients is a small thing that goes a long way when growing clientele, especially in a world that has forced us to do so much from home without the option for that interaction.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I am a huge believer in the “How I Built This with Guy Raz” podcast. In the podcast Guy interviews people behind some of the world’s best-known companies and they provide insight into all the steps, mistakes, advice, etc. they have made into building a successful brand. All the interviewees really open up about their struggles along the way, but also the moments where they knew they had officially made it. These are perfect stories for a commute to work, road trip or just to have in the background as motivation while you plug along at your day. Some of my favorite episodes are “The Knot: Carley Roney & David Liu” and “Spanx: Sara Blakely”. I currently live (and work) where I overlook the Spanx headquarters in Atlanta, so it is a nice little reminder of Sara’s story each day and her persistence to get to where she is. It’s motivating to say the least.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://founderslegal.com/practitioners/kennington-groff/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kenningtongroff/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KenningtonGroffFoundersLegal
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenningtongroff/

Image Credits
Kennington Groff