We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robert Wianecki a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Robert, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I had been employed with State Farm Insurance for eighteen years. I had been promoted to high level management position in charge of the New Jersey bodily injury department – managing a 120 employee department. I was not happy with my position and made the risky decision to leave State Farm and start my own law practice. I was leaving a six figure salary with benefits to start a law practice from scratch.
Robert, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I became interested in the practice of law while employed at State Farm as a claim representative whose primary responsibility was the negotiation and settlement of bodily injury lawsuits. I started with State Fram out of college. Within two years, I started law school in the evening. I completed my law degree and passed the NJ Bar exam in four years – all in the evening.
Discipling and work ethic enabled me to work hard at my job during the day and continue with my law studies in the evening. During the four-year period, I also bought a home, got married and had my first child.
After completing my law degree and being admitted to the NJ Bar, I excelled at State Farm – moving from a claim representative to State Farm’s Public Affairs Department, to claims management then finally to managing the Bodily Injury Section. My interest for the law grew to a point where I made a decision to leave State Farm and create my law practice.
Taking on risk and being able to think out of the box in order to solve problems have always been my strong points. This was true in my personal life as well where my recreation was technical, deep water scuba diving. Some of the complicated shipwrecks I have dove and explored over the years were the Andrea Doria (known as the Mt Everest of diving), the SS Carolina and the Bianca C,.
Customer Service for my clients continues to be what sets me apart from my competitors. Clients are able to reach m 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When a client is stressed, or has a problem they need to discuss, I make myself available to them.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Building a reputation is done in a number of ways. In my experience, networking and word of mouth have been the most impactful. Sometime ago, a title representative wanted to introduce me to a very successful realtor who was looking to start partnering with another attorney. I went to this real estate agent’s open house and had a moment to introduce myself and talk about my availability and customer service. The real estate agent agreed to see if we could develop a solid working relationship.
A few days later, on a Sunday evening at 8:00 PM, the realtor called me and advised she was with clients and wanted to know if the clients could ask some questions. We had a 20-minute call, and the clients were very happy. An hour later, the realtor called me back and thanked me as I made her look great in front of clients by showing she could get an attorney on the phone late on a Sunday night. She was excited to start working with me but ended the call by saying “I am wondering if you are like the new cleaning company that does a great job on the first visit but goes back to their usually routine from thereafter.” Well, 15 years later, that real estate agent and I continue to enjoy an outstanding professional relationship.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I enjoy staying on top of the law and changes that may affect the industry. I do this with diving as well. Always preparing for a problem of a curve ball being thrown at you. In an industry where most attorneys don’t handle their own closings, I am one of the few that continues to do so. I trained myself to be proficient in closing disclosures. This is important because the client is paying my legal fee. It just does not seem acceptable for a client to pay an attorney to handle a closing for them and the attorney then subcontracts the actual closing out to a title company. In the end, the client will pay more for the closing as they have to pay the title company to handle the closing and in reality, they didn’t get what they paid for – the attorney to handle the closing. Thus, I take great pride in handling the entire closing for my clients.
The same applies to my technical diving. I have been diving for over 35 years and up until this past summer, I had never suffered from a condition known as the bends, otherwise known as decompression sickness. After a great day of diving, where I completed all of my decompression obligations, I found my right leg and right torso paralyzed. I easily could of panic and needed to be rushed to a hospital. My training taught me oxygen would relieve my symptoms. After 90 minutes on oxygen, I regained the use of my leg and all feeling came back. Remaining calm and following my training had protected me. This same calm under pressure also serves to help my clients through difficult times.
Contact Info:
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- Other: email – [email protected]