ALUMNI FOCUS
Called to the Courtroom: B. Richard Young
By Beth N. Pannell
R
ichard Young reached a point in his life when he felt more comfortable sitting in the courtroom than anywhere else in the world. Born and raised in South Alabama, Young’s family moved to Pensacola when he was 11 years old. But Young, now the managing partner at Young, Bill, Boles, Palmer, Duke & Thompson, almost didn’t choose a life in the law. When he started law school, he came to a crossroads between teaching martial arts and becoming a lawyer. It was the encouraging words of a law professor that helped him get through three years
12
F L O R I D A S TAT E L AW
lawyer at the firm to get some automobile cases because that was where the courtroom work was. “Before I knew it, I had tried 25 auto cases to verdict and had a really good track record winning them.” Several years later, because he developed a good relationship with Geico as a client and because of his success rate for them, Young was invited to open Geico’s house counsel office in Miami, their first house counsel office in the state. He then opened their next house counsel office in Ft. Lauderdale and then one in Tampa. He ran those offices from 1988–1992. Young moved back home to Pensacola at the end of 1992 and ran a house counsel office for Geico there before deciding he wanted to practice a wider range of trial law than just auto accident cases. With essentially no clients, he decided to branch out on his own. And with two young sons to provide for, he of law school and put him on the trajec- threw himself into building a practice. tory of his current success. “I spent every day for a year trying to “I couldn’t have picked a better pro- drum up clients.” fession,” said Young, a 1984 graduate A turning point came in 1998 when of FSU Law. “I don’t think anything Young received a call from a claims would have suited me better than what manager who thought a bad faith case I’ve been doing.” they had was a little too difficult for his Since Young knew he wanted to be in-house attorney. Today, Young’s firm a trial lawyer and “be where the action specializes in bad faith and coverage was,” after graduating from law school work, but they have done just about he took a job in Miami at the firm everything—including products liability, now known as Kimbrell & Hamann. admiralty law, auto work and premises Although he first started with aviation liability. crash work, the aviation cases rarely “I love pitting my wits against another went to trial. He was advised by another lawyer in a courtroom,” said Young. “It
