10 minute read
Case Barnett, Case Barnett Law, Laguna Beach
ATTORNEY OF THE MONTH 2021
Cover Feature
The Happy Attorneys
Cover Feature Finding a True Calling Reveals the Joy of Work In Civil Litigation for Case Barnett
by Dan Baldwin
Following your true calling and shedding limiting beliefs about yourself is essential in life. Lawyers need to run their practices so they can live the life they want. To live your true calling leads to a happy life—yes, to happy lawyers,” says Case Barnett, Founder, Case Barnett Law.
Barnett believes living that type of life is essential to running a successful law practice. Lawyers are miserable because they work off the expectations and beliefs instilled in them by law school and old ways of thinking. Law students and lawyers compete for the highest paying jobs and the most unsatisfying life, he says. “So many attorneys just grind away at their careers only to find at the end of 30 years or so they’ve just ground themselves down.”
He and his wife, Nicole, have taken major steps in that direction and have established Case Barnett Law on the basic principle of doing good work and at the same time taking pride and genuine joy in that work.
Barnett has 17 years of trial experience and has managed his own personal injury firm since 2015. The firm employs three trial lawyers, one managing attorney, one director of marketing, two paralegals, and two financial operations/accounting people. “Nicole is our CEO—Chief Everything Officer,” he says.
The firm is totally committed to service in civil litigation and Case has taken more than 50 cases to trial throughout his legal career. Case Barnett Law practice areas include catastrophic injuries like traumatic brain injuries and quadriplegia, sexual abuse cases at churches and schools, wrongful death and nursing home bed sore cases.
The Beginnings of a Revolution
Although Barnett is a third-generation attorney, the journey toward living a successful, meaningful and happy lifestyle in the legal profession began in 1992 when he was 12 years old observing his father’s arguments in the Rodney King trial. “That’s when and where I decided to be an attorney,” he says.
He is a lifelong resident of Orange County who graduated from The University of Santa Clara. He earned his J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law.
Case and Nicole Barnett
Barnett joined the Orange County Public Defender’s Office in 2005 where he represented clients at each of Orange County’s criminal courthouses. “As a public defender I represented people accused of violating that most sacred of trusts and who did terrible things to children. I couldn’t do it. I saw the suffering of victims I had to cross examine and made the choice to help them and do what I could to get them justice,” he says.
He left the Public Defender’s Office to go into private practice and established his personal injury firm. And that’s where the revolution began.
Beginning a Personal Journey in Personal Injury
Barnett says, “Nicole and I started this firm because we wanted to provide a different sort of personal injury firm for clients. We wanted to offer people a more human approach. We want to connect with our clients and make them feel comfortable.” Their partnership may be unique in the legal field. Nicole Barnett is not an attorney, but has a background in fine arts and is a former 4th grade teacher. She’s responsible for the vision of the firm and works tirelessly to provide the best possible experience for their clients. “We jumped into this firm together and saw what our clients needed. Nicole brought me to the realization that you don’t have to do things the way they’ve always been done. She is the engine that drives the firm, but she is also the one who has shown me the path of true enlightenment through my personal development. It takes bravery to be different and honest with who you are. She has given me that strength and we want to empower other lawyers to do the same,” Barnett says. The firm is committed to the philosophy that the little things make the big difference. They take a very different approach to client care and client attention. The litigation is important and being able to try a case is important, but most clients are frightened of litigation, including the lawyers on the other side, the legal process and even their own lawyer. Barnett says, “We work hard in all areas of our firm from the way we handle intake, to the paralegal contact to the preparation for deposition and trial to make clients feel comfortable. We teach them about the litigation, and we take them behind the curtain, so they’re not afraid of us, defense counsel or the process. We make it so they feel comfortable, so they ask questions and are engaged in the process. They then feel empowered and understand the process and the outcome.”
Barnett says that more than one client has said, “You guys aren’t like lawyers. You’re like people.”
“We take a lot of pride in that,” Barnett says.
© Christopher TODD Studios
A Holistic Approach to Lawyering
Recently Case and Nicole have begun to make some big changes to Case Barnett Law and they hope to create a space that’s even more healing and supportive for their clients.
After suffering for months from “Long Haul Covid,” Nicole became frustrated with having no answers from the medical community. She enrolled herself in an Integrative Health
Practitioner program and is about to become a certified health coach. As she was learning about how to heal her own body, she quickly realized that she could use this new knowledge to help the clients of Case Barnett Law. She says, “Our clients have all suffered from injuries and events that have created trauma and damage to both their body and their mind. These things can be healed through integrative health practices. While we can never go back to ‘before the accident,’ we can certainly take steps to heal.”
Case Barnett Law will provide free information to their clients to teach them how to heal both the trauma of the event as well as the inflammation and damage caused to their body. “It’s unheard of for a law firm to concern themselves with helping a client heal physical or emotional damage. It’s always about the money. We know that our trial experience makes us the best law firm for injured clients, but we wanted more. What do they need? Yes, they need money for future care. But they also need to heal their bodies and gain closure. We felt like we could do more to help so we decided to offer this for free to clients. If they want to try some things out, great. If not, we have other ways to help,” says Case.
Spreading the Joy to Other Lawyers
Barnett is passionate about sharing his knowledge, experience and joy found in serving people and communities through a legal career. He produces a podcast called Law Prophet where lawyers talk about their personal stories and how living their personal story drives their law practice and leads to happiness and fulfillment. The Law Prophet podcast is available on YouTube as well as Spotify and Apple Podcast.
He’s also about to launch an online course that will help lawyers in private practice scale and run their firms in a way that allows them to do the work they always imagined doing. Barnett says, “A lawyer can’t truly serve their clients if they’re wearing all the hats in their business. Clients should get a lawyer who is only focused on high-level legal work, not one who’s answering the phones or doing paralegal work because they don’t have a trained team. So many lawyers go into private practice wanting flexibility and freedom to pursue their passions yet quickly realize they’re doing the exact opposite and end up totally burned out. Our online course and membership
is going to change all of that for lawyers. Whenever possible we will provide them with “done-for-you” marketing, systems/procedures, templates and scripts that will make a huge impact on both their firm and their life. We will teach them how to run a firm like a business and hire a team to support the work they do. Lawyers should be freed up to do what they do best (and only that) and we aim to make that happen for them.”
In addition to their revolutionary thinking and practices, Case Barnett Law has attracted the attention of other attorneys and firms through referrals. Case Barnett Law has paid out more than $2 million in referral fees and expects to hit $5 million in referral fees by the end of 2021. Barnett says, “It’s an honor that other lawyers trust us and refer their clients, friends and family to us. We know that it takes a lot of trust to refer out a case and we make sure to treat their clients just as we would treat our own friends and family.” More than 50 percent of the firm’s business comes from attorney referrals.
“Part of what Law Prophet is about is teaching lawyers how to create stability in their businesses. A huge part of that should be referral fees. Think about it. If you’re a criminal defense attorney and you refer us a case, you’re most likely getting a check that could instantly double your income. All you have to do is refer us one case and you can add 6-figures to your income. I don’t know why every single lawyer isn’t learning how to market for cases so they can add passive income to their firm, but this is what we will teach lawyers in the marketing portion of our course.”
“We thrive on communication with the client and the referring attorney. The referring attorney will know what is going on every step of the way. We do not handle a volume case load and each client feels tended to and cared for. But the referring attorney and client should know we don’t take clients who don’t fit with our firm’s core values.”
Success and happiness in a career is a matter of attitude and the drive to maintain that philosophy in a competitive and complex profession. “We believe that every lawyer’s practice should be different because it should reflect their own true story and personality. If lawyers truly are themselves in their practice and their marketing, they will attract like-minded clients and live a life that makes the entire practice of law better,” Barnett says. n
Contact Case Barnett Case Barnett Law 1968 S. Coast Hwy, Suite 2680 Laguna Beach, CA 92651 (949) 861-2990 info@casebarnettlaw.com www.casebarnettlaw.com instagram.com/casebarnettlaw instagram.com/lawprophet
EXPERIENCE
“ EDUCATION
• University of California Hastings College of the Law,
San Francisco, California, J.D., 2001-2004 • University of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, California,
B.A., English, 1997-2001
• Orange County Public Defender’s Office, Deputy Public
Defender, 2005-2010
“ HONORS, AWARDS AND PUBLICATIONS
• Advocate Magazine, The Defense Expert-Cross
Examination, January 2021 • Better Business Bureau, A+ Rating • Super Lawyers, Top Rated Personal Injury Attorney • Orange Coast Magazine, Attorneys of Distinction April 2018 • Million Dollar Advocates Forum, Lifetime Member • Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, Lifetime Member • Avvo Rating 10.0 Superb, Top Attorney Personal Injury • The National Trial Lawyers, Top 100 Trial Lawyers, 2016 • The National Trial Lawyers, Top 40 Under 40, 2015
AND MEMBERSHIPS
• Orange County Trial Lawyers Association, Foundation
Club Member • Orange County Bar Association, Member • Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, Member • Consumer Attorneys of California, Member • American Bar Association, Member • American Association for Justice (AAJ), Member
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