11 minute read
Deon Goldschmidt Attorneys, San Diego
Overcoming significant personal and professional challenges are a sure way to enhance one’s skills in building a law firm dedicated solely to serving the legal needs of people facing the most serious challenges of their lives—personal injury. That is precisely the experience of Deon Goldschmidt, Esq., founder of San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys.
“I have always wanted to fight for the little guy. Big insurance companies have deep pockets and try and deny claims or under settle claims and try take advantage of their ability to intimidate ‘Joe Public’ into accepting low settlements. It gives me great pleasure and a sense of accomplishment in helping client’s obtain justice. We’re often in the famous David vs. Goliath situation, but we’re not intimidated. We thrive on challenges,” Goldschmidt says.
Founded in 2010, San Diego Personal Injury Attorneys focuses on car accidents, workplace accidents, trip and fall, product liability, wrongful death, and elder abuse. Initially only based in San Diego, the firm has expanded beyond San Diego’s borders. The firm, now trading under the name Deon Goldschmidt Attorneys, employs 23 attorneys
and staff and has offices in San Diego, Riverside, San Jose, and Dallas, TX, with plans for opening other office this year. The firm has recovered millions of dollars in damages for accident victims who have been injured though the negligence or carelessness of others. The firm handles every type of case from the simplest injury to tragic consequences leading to quadriplegia or even death.
From South Africa to Southern California
Perhaps the biggest challenge of his professional life was relocating from South Africa to Southern California and starting his professional career from scratch while raising a family in an entirely new environment.
“I had three kids at home with a wife and I had to start earning a real income fast. That in itself was a challenge. But insofar as law is concerned, I knew nothing of U.S. law. So, you’ve come out of writing the bar exam, and you’re in mind that you’re ill equipped to be thrust on the public. That was the real a challenge—to learn the practice of law on my own, without very much mentorship and then start a new career in a new legal environment in a new country,” he says.
Goldschmidt is a native of Johannesburg, South Africa where he earned his law degree from the University of the Witwatersand in 1992. He had an interest in the law from an early age and often attended court sessions. He always had an interest in the law and went to court to watch cases very early on in his college years. He studied especially the power of persuasion at work and became passionate about assisting and representing consumers. Earning that law degree was the next logical step.
His selection of personal injury law as a focus of his career was something of a fortuitous example of “luck of the draw.” A friend who was a personal injury lawyer was scheduled for two trials during the same day. He asked Goldschmidt to cover one of the trials as the defense attorney. He did so well at representing the client that the other attorney offered him a job. Enthused by the challenge of representing clients in genuine dire need, he accepted. “You might say I stumbled into it, but even as a stumble, it was a major step and a new and more exciting direction for my career in the law,” he says.
He started his own practice in South Africa in 1992. Things were looking good for the success of his business and his family life. Life did not turn out that way. Goldschmidt is an avid cyclist and while in Cape Town attending a biking competition, his children (ages three, four and six) and his parents were violently carjacked in Johannesburg. His dad was assaulted and the perpetrators threatened his children by placing guns against their heads. As a result of that traumatic experience, he decided to give up his practice in South Africa and move to San Diego for a completely fresh start.
“After practicing in South Africa for some 16 years I had to come to the USA and write the bar exam notwithstanding never having been to college in America. At age 40 it was definitely a challenge to write the bar exam and start again,” he says.
Goldschmidt studied six months and passed the Bar exam. Today his Bar admissions are the State Bar of California; U.S. District Court, Southern District of California; U.S. District Court, Central District of California, The Texas State Bar, and he is still a licensed attorney in South Africa.
© Bauman Photographers
Deon Goldschmidt, Esq., Founder
Taking Up the Challenge for the Consumer
Goldschmidt believed his best avenue for finding and handling challenging personal injury cases was to start his own firm and to handle business and cases his own way. “I have always been a person who has steadfast ideas and as such I would not be a good employee. I like the challenge that goes with running a business and having the ability to run trials and practice law.”
He says, “Our tagline is Big Enough to Help, Small Enough to Care. And that’s more than just a marketing slogan. We love to provide the best representation for our clients and still have a family feel to our practice. Every client big or small is a valuable part of our practice and no one leaves our office unhappy.”
One client who left very happy was an indigent man who was injured while pushing a shopping cart across the road when he was hit by a vehicle. He had tried to get help from numerous attorneys, but no one would help him. He was not able to get proper treatment due to his indigence and had severe injuries that required treatment and surgery. When the attorneys took on his case, they immediately took him to an orthopedic surgeon whose staff helped get him emergency Medi-Cal. Once this was arranged, they transported him to the hospital where he had surgery and a fortunate recovery. The insurance company has now offered policy limits and the firm is in the process of negotiating a waiver of the Medi-Cal lien so that he can have a chance at rebuilding his life.
A random sampling of cases shows that the indigent man’s case was only one of numerous personal injury successes for the firm: $6,500,000 settlement awarded to a client involved in a car accident; $4 million for a product liability suit, $5 million for a negligent tort, $2.7 million awarded to a client involved in a dog bite accident; $2 million for medical malpractice and a $1 million settlement awarded to a client involved in a commercial vehicle accident to name a few.
A recent case illustrates the firm’s commitment to serve the needs of clients regardless of status and based solely on need. The father of a family was killed in a pedestrian accident. He left four very young kids behind. The family had no means of support, no resources and, from their perspective, no hope. Yet, the firm was able to provide the family with some means of getting through the trauma from a financial point of view.
“There are so many cases that give me the inspiration to do the work I do. People come in emotionally and physically compromised from severe accidents and are at their wits end. Slowly we work with them to ensure they
get the treatment they need to heal. The satisfaction we get knowing we can help people their recovery and watching them slowly heal month after month, getting to know them as people and finally getting them compensated for their injuries leaves me and my staff with a sense of satisfaction. There is no better feeling then a hug from a client at the end of a case where we could him in his/her journey to healing,” Goldschmidt says.
Communication is Everything
“Communication is everything, we communicate with our clients regularly. I have been on the other end of the table and there is nothing more frustrating than not being informed. If a client knows what is going on with the matter, 99 percent of the job is done,” Goldschmidt says.
For example, every client is met, interviewed, and served by an attorney. The firm does not allow non attorneys to consult with clients. Many firms use case managers who are often the initial contact with a client. The Small Enough to Care element of the firm’s motto is evident from the beginning of every relationship with every client.
Goldschmidt says, “That is somewhat unusual. Most people use case managers to handle intake, I believe in the more personal approach, and I believe the way to grow a practice is through personal interaction and communication with the attorney. I try to foster an environment where there’s relationship building between the attorney and client, not only to that client, but I believe that is a proven method of developing a referral base. In my mind, every existing client is a referral base for the next client. We are very insistent on the relationship between the attorney and the client, as opposed to, let’s say, case manager and a client. All of our clients have our cell phone number, they’re able to get hold of us. And we offer that personal service so that we make sure that every client feels like part of the family.”
That intense level of personal contact is one of the reasons for the significant amount of the firm’s referral business—approximately 20 percent. “We are happy to accept referral work from other attorneys. We are happy to provide a fee sharing arrangement. Personal Injury work is all we do, we know this area of the law backwards. I have dedicated the last 28+ years to the practice of personal injury law. We have succeeded in achieving million-dollar settlement and jury awards for our clients. All our work is attended to by attorneys and is not farmed out to paralegal staff. We believe that communication with client’s is the first order of business and we make sure clients are kept informed of their cases at every step of the way,” he says.
© Bauman Photographers
Michel Shenouda, Attorney
Taking Care of People Takes Care of Business
Since their growth, Goldschmidt has been fortunate enough to surround himself with partners and associates who are invaluable to the practice. Goldschmidt insists that the firm’s success is by no means only his. He is privileged to count his fellow attorneys Kevin Retoriano, Michel Shenouda, Kevin Cowan Matthew Birdwell and Rachelle Law as not only colleagues but “family” and friends. Goldschmidt insists that success is based on a team effort, attorneys working together for the common good of the client’s and each other. “We help each other within the confines of our work but it goes beyond that, I think I speak for my entire team when I say that we are always happy to help each other beyond our work, we all have personal lives, goals and ambitions and we help each other meet both our work and personal goals each lend a helping hand wherever we can.”
“This is an open-door place of business and not a hierarchy of the upper and the lower. My management style is summed up as: Take care of your staff and they will take care of your clients. I teach them everything. You know, take care of your staff, be good to your staff, and in turn, they will be good to your clients. Richard Branson
Michel Shenouda, Kevin Retoriano, and Deon Goldschmidt, Esq.
said it best when he wrote, ‘I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers and that people flourish when they are praised.’ I have found that to be an effective management guide,” Goldschmidt says.
The application of that principle has allowed Goldschmidt to shift his personal priorities in the firm toward more management and less time in the trenches of legal work. He still handles bigger and more complex claims. “I have, thankfully developed a trustworthy team. And together we have a relationship, which fosters the importance of building the business and taking care of our clients.”
Looking ahead, he does not see radical changes in personal injury law for the immediate future. He does see a shift in marketing approaches for personal injury firms, a change that has been in the making for the last decade when radio, television, and billboard advertising was dominant. Today online marketing has significantly altered the marketing strategies necessary for success. The firm currently employs a mix of traditional and online marketing. “You can’t serve clients if you can’t reach clients. So, we make every effort to reach out to find the people who need our form of representation.”
Goldschmidt is quick to note that their increasing success is based on their success with serving client needs, with helping individual people and families overcome the potentially devastating challenges personal injury brings. Overcoming his own significant challenges has allowed Deon Goldschmidt and his team to build a firm that accomplishes just that. “Always remember where you come from, serve your clients passionately and success will follow you,” he says. n
Contact Deon Goldschmidt Deon Goldschmidt Attorneys 4350 Executive Drive #150 San Diego, CA 92121 619-931-1650 www.SanDiegoPersonalInjuryAttorneys.com
