How Fighting for the Underdog Built a Respected Law Firm

I've had times where I've had for water and the soup to make ends meet,

and then I've had other times a bind to biggest stake in the menu. I think that's a big, big deal is I enjoy getting the justice from my clients. David Kurlander is a trial attorney, community leader, and the founder of David Kurlander, attorney at law, PA. Through his work, he advocates for individuals and families,

while championing fairness, accountability and client-centered representation.

“Pause a niche where you have to have the passion to do it.”

I remember thinking myself, "I can't believe how often you have people taking advantage of people who are just me trying to make an honest living." And that's what kind of drove me and sent to us me to go into law is, "I want to do the right thing."

I know that the law field can get muddied at times. What's your general opinion on just like, do you see a lot of malpractice? I think what we're seeing a lot of is... [music playing]

[music playing] It spans the glory, like a super high school, internet Elvis. [music playing] Today, Apple is going to reinvent the fall. It's our over, our town, our queer.

The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. [music playing] [music playing] Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast. I'm your host for today, Jason Tyler.

And I am joined today by David Curlander, attorney at law. David, welcome to the show. How are you feeling? Good. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome, welcome to Sunny Miami.

Where are you flying into? From Pompino. Oh, you're from Pompino. Oh, so you already know about South Florida. Oh, we don't even need to go down that rabbit hole.

So David, you are here today to film your episode of America's Top Lawyers. What would you say is the number one lesson that you want people to be able to learn from your story?

“The number one lesson from my story, I guess, would be you have to try to do the right thing.”

And you know, goodwill goes a long way. Mm-hmm. And for all you lawyers out there, that was directed specifically at you. Do the right thing, all right? I know that the law field can get muddied at times.

What's your general opinion on just like, do you see a lot of malpractice? Do you see a lot of like, I think what we're seeing a lot of is you have big companies. Who are paying thousands of dollars for defense litigation? They have deep pockets. They can spend as much money as they want to litigate a case.

And to give an idea, they'll spend a hundred thousand dollars if they're going to try to defend a million dollars.

Mm-hmm. So you have opposing counsel on the other side that will lie, cheat, steal to the courtroom's face, to the judges' face.

“And you have to sit there and just try to explain the court of your honor and we discuss this already.”

This is a third time we've appeared on the same thing and you're allowing this to happen. Mm-hmm. And it's not with every court, but with my experience, you know, you have one or two situations where this occurs. And then you kind of lose faith in the judicial system. Yeah, I mean, there's so much that's happening in a courtroom, you know, these judges have 1,700 cases.

I am just spoken the wheel to that. You're just like kind of another number on the board as a pertain, because I mean, you imagine the scale of dealing with that many cases all at the same time. You know, my family, all my family up until me, they're all up until my dad really, but they're all attorneys. So my grandfather was a really big attorney in Jamaica. My aunt, they both took over his law firm in Jamaica.

He wrote laws to help out with rust affairs, becoming able to smoke as a part of the religion. So he got to meet Bob Marley and do the whole thing in like the 70s.

But one thing that I've always noticed is that when you look at law, when you look at that field, and it's kind of a microcosm of society, but it's a financial incentives drive everything.

Yes, would you say so 100% in to think of it this way also, you know, if you're representing a plaintiff on a contingency matter, and the other side is getting paid as defense counsel on a retainer. The longer the harder they can delay, the more effort they can drag things out, the more money defense is getting paid. So there's 100% of financial interest. Gotcha.

I guess I started experiencing issues when I was younger, specifically where, you know, someone would stiff me out of money when I was a kid. You know, maybe I was in high school, or I was in college, just little stuff, and you'd be like, look, I did a job, I need to get paid, and they'd be like, well, we're not going to pay you what you're going to do. So I was a little man on a tonpal, and they would take advantage of that.

“And I remember thinking myself, I can't believe how often you have people taking advantage of people who are just trying to make an honest living, and that's what kind of drove me and incentivized me to go into laws.”

I wanted to do the right thing. So you wanted to fight for that, exactly. Exactly. I mean, and for a lot of, you know, I talked to a lot of, you know, people in different law, different fields of law on this show.

And one of the unanimous things that I've noticed about, at least all of the ones that I know that are very successful, is that they put people first.

You have to be able to put people first, and in any business, really, like you have to be able to put your clients needs above your own. Would you say that that's something that you see is missing in a lot of people? I think so. I think that when you have attorneys who are doing it just for the money, just for a job. Because the money good.

But yeah, the money is good when it's there. It's different. You know, they're focused on this is my job. I want to get paid, and I don't care about anything else.

You know, I've had times where I've had a foot water and the soup to make ends meet.

And then I've had other times a bind the biggest stake in the menu. You know, it goes in absent flows and as a solo practitioner, you know, that's it. What I get, I bring in and I'm happy, but I don't do it just for the money.

“I think that's a big, big deal is I enjoy getting the justice from my clients when they get screwed or they get taken advantage of or they get hurt and they're in sufferable pain.”

You know, trying to make things right for them is what I aim to do. Now, you mentioned, I think a couple of times now that you're a solo practitioner. Are there any plans in the future of expanding into your own firm, getting other people involved? What's your, what's your plans for, what do David's plans for the future? So 100% I'm slowly growing, I'm actually, I'm growing pretty fast.

I do very little marketing, but it's all worth a mouth. And, you know, your work is an example of who you are, you know, so the amount of cases I've litigate the amount of cases I do. People come and they find me, I've had multiple calls where they go, I've found you because you sued someone who did a crappy job on a, I don't know, construction issue. And I saw that you've sued this person before. I have the same issue.

You know, I can, you come help me, I want to hire you. And that's, that's rewarding. You know, they know that I'm, I've tried to defend or protect someone who was being taken advantage of. And they see the results.

I'm, you know, here at Insight's Success, we're always big proponents of marketing, but I, I never want to lose the, the importance of being able to get a good referral.

Because it means that I did such a good job for my client, that they, not, not only did they, you know, leave me a positive review, but they went out and told somebody else who then became a client as well. And I think that speaks, you know, that's a testament to your ability to do a good job for people 100%. And that's just, you know, that's your character. If you had to give any advice to any aspiring lawyers out there, anybody who wants to get into the field of law, but might be on the fence about it.

What advice would you give them?

“So laws a niche where you have to have the passion to do it.”

If you don't have the passion to do it, you're not going to enjoy it. There's lots of people out there who become attorneys. And then they decide, I don't want to practice law anymore. It's too stressful. Because it is a very stressful job.

You care. You care about your clients. You know, the instant that you're taking your clients and you're not caring about them and you're treating them as just a, just another file, another number. If you didn't, you don't have the passion anymore.

You're just doing it for other reasons, whether it's just to maintain a nine to five. So you can pay the bills and future family. Or some other reason, but, you know, I truly enjoy what I do. You know, my family having been all the attorneys, they tried to push me down that right. I was absolutely not going to film school or refuse.

Because I, because to your point, like, if you don't have the passion for law, you're going to, the sheer amount of reading that you have to do to get into it is insane.

That'll be coming out shortly after this podcast episode drops.

So make sure you keep an eye out for that. You're going to learn a lot more about David's story.

How he got into the field and just the level of service that he's providing for his clients and what the future holds.

“Where can people find you social media, internet, internet type in my name, David Curlander?”

You know, I have a pretty big history with the local community.

You know, I was a gardener, a lot of for some years and proud of where I would have become and what I've done.

And, you know, it's taken a lot of time and effort, but do you type in my name, David Curlander? Oh, you'll find me. Yeah, actually.

“So we'll make sure that we have a little icon down here somewhere on the screen.”

I don't know where they're going to put it, but they'll put it somewhere on there. And we'll make sure that we have your website or your, well, obviously your name is going to be all over it. But David, it has been an immense pleasure having you on the show.

“I'm excited to see how your episode turns out.”

We're about to go into filming that. So we're ready to roll. Let's do it. Let's do it. All right, guys, this has been another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast.

Again, I am your host Jason Tyler. I will catch you guys in the next one.