Sean Claggett:

You actually can predict the outcome, not only the likelihood of success on the case, but the dollar amount that will flow with it.

Chris Dreyer:

Well, I need more revenue. Let’s just add more bodies, more bodies, more bodies. You’re on the hamster wheel higher and higher and higher. Versus no, how can we get more value?

Sean Claggett:

Attorneys that are not using data in their cases are taking unnecessary risks.

Chris Dreyer:

Welcome to Personal Injury Mastermind. I’m your host, Chris Dreyer, founder and CEO of Rankings.io, the no excuses, no BS legal marketing agency that works harder than the competition. Each week you get insights and wisdom from some of the best in the industry. Hit that follow button so that you never miss an episode. All right, let’s dive in. What would you do if you knew there was no limit to your success? What would you do if every fear that held you back one day just melted away?

Sean Claggett:

I had done trials before, but on the bigger ones where there was risk, I’d either bring somebody in or I’d settle, and it was that repeated pattern.

Chris Dreyer:

Sean Claggett has always been a generous man and a great trial attorney with lofty goals.

Sean Claggett:

I wanted to get three eight figure verdicts and a nine figure verdict, and I said, when I accomplish that, I’m done. I’m going to walk away because I figured that that would be a career’s worth of verdicts.

Chris Dreyer:

Back in 2015, Sean’s ambition did not match his confidence.

Sean Claggett:

As of July of 15, I had not had an eight figure verdict and I had set some goals for myself. And then finally after the seizure, I’m like, I am good enough to do this myself.

Chris Dreyer:

The seizure changed everything.

Sean Claggett:

I just wasn’t scared. And I’m like, what’s the worst that could happen? Lose a trial? I almost lost my life. I’m not going to die from losing a trial.

Chris Dreyer:

In 2016, Sean had the fourth most influential verdict in the United States. In that case, the top offer was $1.4 million. The jury came back with 16.4. The scary experience made him fearless. Intentional improvement made him successful. Over the past six years, Sean has obtained nearly $200 million for his clients. If you want to improve your craft, Sean is your lawyer to watch. He’s a giver at heart and today is no exception. He shares with us the importance of learning from others, how big data and focus groups predict the outcome of his cases, and why you need to decouple revenue from headcount. Here’s Sean Claggett, partner at Claggett & Sykes law firm.

Sean Claggett:

When I was in high school, I got into a bunch of trouble, kicked out of junior high. It was ninth grade, and got accused of something I didn’t do and my family needed to hire a lawyer to help out and got me back into school, which was good. And so at that point I thought, hey, being a lawyer is pretty cool. You can help people. I was 14, 15 at the time and we didn’t have any money, and so it was really a burden on the family. I mean, it wasn’t like we had extra money to go hire a lawyer, and so you were up against a corrupt administrator.

You’re in this position where you feel helpless and then this lawyer comes forward and gives you this path to where things will be right. And really it was just him threatening the school district. The litigation didn’t go very far. And it was the greatest thing in the world to happened to me because I get removed from my one school, put into a different school. In my first class, I see this amazingly gorgeous Filipino girl. All these years later, she’s my wife. We’ve been together since we were 16.

Chris Dreyer:

That’s Lou, correct?

Sean Claggett:

That’s Lou. Yeah. Lou and I have been together for a long time and if I don’t get kicked out of that school, I don’t meet Lou and the rest of this isn’t history. It’d be a totally different path.

Chris Dreyer:

Well, first I like the half glass full, the very full optimist about you. Let’s talk about Lou, Lou Claggett. So she’s your Community Relations Director, which I see the word community come up everywhere. It’s all over your site. What does community mean to you and your firm? What’s the role of a Community Relations Director?

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