Hunter Garnett

Hunter Garnett (00:00):
So I decided I wanted to try cases and here I am. The Lord closed a lot of doors, like I had opportunities I thought I was going to have and it fell through.

(00:17):
I took a job in Huntsville, the personal injury firm was the last thing I thought I wanted to do was personal injury. And within a week I figured out the Lord had been positioning for me for this my whole life.

Bob Simon (00:27):
For you to get to.

Hunter Garnett (00:35):
And I love it. And I wake up every day really, really excited to go do what we get to do for... It's incredible they pay us to do this.

Bob Simon (00:49):
Welcome to this episode of Bourbon of Proof, where we interview those who have been successful both long life. We're here to get educated and entertained. We do so over a series of bourbons, whiskies, rye's, sometimes scotches, right, Mauro?

Mauro Fiore (01:04):
Sometimes, unfortunately.

Bob Simon (01:05):
Unfortunately, we never big fan-

Mauro Fiore (01:06):
We're American for God's sake.

Bob Simon (01:08):
Geez. Here we go. Well, co-host Mauro Fiore. Thank you for coming on as always.

Mauro Fiore (01:12):
I'm here I'm sure at your pleasure, Mr. Simon.

Bob Simon (01:15):
Okay, here we go. And we also are very honored to have Mr. Hunter Garnett on this episode. Hunter, how are you?

Hunter Garnett (01:21):
I'm doing great. Super excited.

Bob Simon (01:24):
We're going to start this off with a pour from we're filming live in Birmingham, Alabama at the Dread River Distillery. And Hunter with first pick we got for you is actually from Alabama. This is our first Alabama.

Hunter Garnett (01:42):
I think it's from Huntsville.

Bob Simon (01:42):
It is from Huntsville. Wow.

Hunter Garnett (01:44):
I haven't had it though.

Bob Simon (01:46):
Yeah, this is, I mean this is a limited edition, Irons ONR. [inaudible 00:01:51]-

Mauro Fiore (01:50):
They spoke very highly of it at the ABC store we were at yesterday.

Bob Simon (01:54):
Yeah. We took picks up LeNell's here local in Birmingham. We went through a lot of research, but this, they char this, they do an alligator char on this barrel. It kind of looks like a tire because imagine an alligator skin that they do on this. And I'm very, very interested to have this one. But this is from your... Is it your hometown, but it's where you are now?

Hunter Garnett (02:09):
Yeah, that's where I'm at now.

Bob Simon (02:11):
What's your hometown?

Hunter Garnett (02:12):
My hometown is a little farm town called Danville.

Bob Simon (02:15):
Danville?

Hunter Garnett (02:16):
Super small.

Bob Simon (02:17):
We have a Danville in California that's very small.

Mauro Fiore (02:19):
There's a Danville California that's also a farm town.

Hunter Garnett (02:20):
Is it?

Bob Simon (02:21):
It's up in NorCal.

Mauro Fiore (02:23):
That's a healthy pour there, Mr. Simon. We got two more shows today.

Bob Simon (02:26):
We have a lot of time, plenty of ice. Hunter, welcome to the show my friend.

Hunter Garnett (02:31):
Cheers.

Mauro Fiore (02:32):
Hunter, great to have you. It was nice to meet you and your lovely wife last night.

Hunter Garnett (02:36):
Yeah, she is lovely. This is good. I'm really-

Bob Simon (02:41):
Oh wow.

Mauro Fiore (02:42):
I could drink that all day.

Hunter Garnett (02:43):
It is good. I'm taking one for the team here. I'm actually allergic to alcohol.

Mauro Fiore (02:47):
What?

Bob Simon (02:47):
Wow.

Hunter Garnett (02:48):
When I drink too much of it makes me throw up and I feel really bad the next day.

Bob Simon (02:56):
Yeah.

Mauro Fiore (02:57):
Maybe that's what I've got. I just figured I just drank too much.

Bob Simon (02:58):
Well, you probably do, but you have that too. Now, man, we're excited to have you on, Hunter, because for those of you watching and listening, Hunter's only 31 years old. I've reached out to Hunter for mentorship. I've reached out to Hunter for mentorship because I think he's mastered the art of being able to run a firm as a solo or small support with a lot of virtual assistants to get ground-up cases, know what to do with them, has kind of figure this stuff out. Stuff that Mauro and I've been in this game for a long time and-

Mauro Fiore (03:29):
Yeah, I mean that's what I admire about the young, not just young lawyers, just young business people-

Bob Simon (03:35):
Entrepreneurs.

Mauro Fiore (03:36):
... young entrepreneurs. They're so tech-savvy now everybody. Everybody who's 25, 30 years old, they're so tech-savvy and they know how to make stuff so much more efficient than when we were... Shit, I used to send letters and fax them to people when I started practicing law. Now you probably don't even have fax machine.

Hunter Garnett (03:55):
We do for medical records, but that's all.

Mauro Fiore (03:58):
Yeah. So these young people, these young entrepreneurs have really learned how to take advantage of the technology.

Bob Simon (04:05):
Yeah. So Hunter, you're in Huntsville now, but you weren't always, you never set yourself up to be a trial lawyer, an injury lawyer, right? What was that path like for you?

Hunter Garnett (04:16):
No, so I grew up on a small family farm, was the oldest of seven. It wasn't a big enough farm for me to step into it and take it over and provide a living for myself, but that's all I ever wanted to do. The two things I was interested in is I wanted to be a farmer or honestly, I felt called to the ministry for a while. And so all through college I was kind of lost. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I was dating my wife in Birmingham and the head of my ag business department pulled me aside one day. His wife was a judge in Mississippi and he said, "You should go to law school." I was like, "Well, I had never thought about that."

Bob Simon (04:51):
How old were you at this point?

Hunter Garnett (04:53):
20. I was actually going to graduate undergrad a year early. And so I took the LSAT and I did okay. And I prayed about it and I really decided, listen, if this is meant to be, I need some doors to open. And so I prayed about it. And if I could go to Birmingham, to Samford Cumberland School of Law where my wife was an undergrad and not pay anything, I would go. Okay, tall order, tall order. And so my grades weren't exceptional. My LSAT score was not that good. Wasn't looking realistic.

Mauro Fiore (05:22):
Join the club.

Hunter Garnett (05:25):
That's right. That's what I appreciate about you guys. You do not strike me as stellar students.

Mauro Fiore (05:29):
My pedigree is nothing I'm going to be flashing around.

Hunter Garnett (05:34):
So I really did work hard to study for the LSAT. I took an extra semester and studied real hard. I did well and I Samford and they offered me 75%. Was like, "No, listen guys, it's got to be be 100."

Bob Simon (05:44):
Wow.

Hunter Garnett (05:46):
So they came back and said, "We'll do 90." I still, I'm not coming. So I'm working at my dad's lawnmower shop. I've graduated a semester early. Law schools still four or five months away to start visiting my wife twice a month. And every time I would stop by the law school and just say hello. And one day I'd go by and it's like the end of March, beginning of April.

Bob Simon (06:07):
Wow, dude, you got to make a decision at this point. Oh my God.

Hunter Garnett (06:10):
It's like the deadline. Okay. So I literally, I show up to tell him, "Hey, I'm not coming. Just didn't want to string you along." And the head of the recruiting department or whatever they're called, admissions, she said, "Hey, actually there's a letter for you in my mailbox. It was going out today. Go open it." So I opened it. It was 100% scholarship. So I was like, okay. I took that as a sign from the Lord. Hey, I'm supposed to go to law school. I had no idea.

Mauro Fiore (06:30):
You didn't think that the 90% was a sign?

Hunter Garnett (06:34):
No. Seriously, it's like I don't want to be a lawyer. So getting into law school, I don't know any lawyers. I don't have any idea what I'm going to do. I don't really like the law school classes. I'm trying to figure out how am I going to use this to help people. It's not tangible to me. I can't use these cases to figure out how I'm going to apply this in the real world.

Bob Simon (06:57):
[inaudible 00:06:57] Pierson v. Post cases about property and shit.

Hunter Garnett (07:00):
You know what's funny, so property and contracts I enjoyed because they had a bunch of farming cases in there. And so I would volunteer in every farming. I remember all the chicken cases, all the cow cases, all the corn cases.

Bob Simon (07:11):
Mauro, remembers all the banana peel slip cases.

Mauro Fiore (07:14):
I remember all the slip and falls and the banana. There was a banana peel case.

Bob Simon (07:21):
A lot of them. A lot of them.

Hunter Garnett (07:22):
That's funny. Cumberland had this real unique program where as a first year law student you can join the trial competition and-

Bob Simon (07:26):
First year?

Hunter Garnett (07:28):
First year. Yeah, first year, second semester.

Bob Simon (07:30):
Oh, that's good.

Hunter Garnett (07:30):
And so I did it. A friend talked me into it and he wanted to be a trial lawyer. That was the last thing I wanted to do. And after the first round we swapped, he was like, I'm never trying another case again the rest of my life.

Bob Simon (07:39):
Wow.

Hunter Garnett (07:40):
Dixie tried his first jury trial last week. I need to talk to him about it. And I loved it. I was just like, "Man, this is like what I'm cut out for." So I decided I wanted to try cases and here I am. The Lord closed a lot of doors. I had opportunities I thought I was going to have that fell through. I took a job in Huntsville at a personal injury firm, was the last thing I thought I wanted to do, was personal injury. And within a week I figured out the Lord had been positioning for me for this my whole life.

Bob Simon (08:07):
For you to get to.

Hunter Garnett (08:08):
And I love it. And I wake up every day really, really excited to go do what we get to do for... It's incredible. They pay us to do this. Can you believe it?

Bob Simon (08:17):
Yeah. When you get paid to do what you love to do, you know you've made it, right?

Hunter Garnett (08:23):
Yeah.

Bob Simon (08:23):
Same thing. I wake up, Mauro talk about this all the time. We love waking up and just energized to work and help people. But when you were back doing trial add, you were at Cumberland, right?

Hunter Garnett (08:33):
Yeah. Yep.

Bob Simon (08:34):
We've had a few other lawyers that are now teaching trial and are professors at Cumberland, Sarah Williams.

Hunter Garnett (08:41):
Yeah, Sarah Williams, my first-

Bob Simon (08:42):
Ashley Pinehart.

Hunter Garnett (08:43):
Yep.

Bob Simon (08:43):
Do you know them?

Hunter Garnett (08:44):
Yes. Sarah was my first trial team coach. I actually listened to her interview recently and I disagree with some of the things that she said. I actually think I'm a very good dancer. But different strokes for different folks.

Mauro Fiore (08:57):
[inaudible 00:08:57] think they're the best dancers.

Bob Simon (08:58):
Yeah, think the best.

Hunter Garnett (08:59):
She just didn't appreciate good old cowboy two-step.

Bob Simon (09:02):
There you go. And you're also known as the cowboy lawyer.

Hunter Garnett (09:04):
Yeah, cowboy lawyer. Hometown lawyer. That's my [inaudible 00:09:09]-

Mauro Fiore (09:09):
In LA believe it or not, we have a Cowboy Lawyer's Association.

Bob Simon (09:12):
That's right.

Hunter Garnett (09:13):
Do you?

Bob Simon (09:13):
Lot of judges. Lot of judges.

Hunter Garnett (09:14):
I should join it.

Bob Simon (09:16):
Actually you should join it. Lot of judges.

Mauro Fiore (09:17):
Think about it, Los Angeles is big, right? But once you get out of the metropolitan area, it's rural in Malibu where-

Bob Simon (09:24):
Palos Verdes,

Mauro Fiore (09:25):
... Palos Verdes were in Malibu where the cowboy lawyers are. You could be in Montana and you wouldn't know and you're like 40 minutes from where the Lakers play.

Hunter Garnett (09:34):
That's awesome.

Mauro Fiore (09:35):
So it's crazy, even rural. And they have the cowboy lawyers out there that they go on rides and there's lots of cowboys.

Bob Simon (09:40):
A lot of our friends, because I live in Manhattan Beach and the South Bay, 20, 30 minute drive is where all the horse stables are up on the peninsula. So my wife's actually pressuring me because she wants to get our daughters into horse riding. And I'm kind of hesitant more so because it's something else I have to do. We have a lot of activities.

Mauro Fiore (09:59):
Dangerous too, horses.

Bob Simon (10:00):
That's what I told her and her friend that wants to get her into it, she just told me, she's like, "Yeah, she fell off her horse, got a concussion. The doctor says she can't do X, Y, Z."

Mauro Fiore (10:07):
Yeah, it's dangerous.

Bob Simon (10:07):
I'm like, "Don't you think it's kind of a sign for kids?" But I saw a picture of Hunter and I'm going to drop this in this episode. I followed Hunter on LinkedIn. That's how I kind of met him and followed him. He's big on, I mean teaching, but he posted a photo of him when he was like 14 or 15 on a pony. It was a horse.

Hunter Garnett (10:24):
It was a pony.

Bob Simon (10:25):
And then the pony full-grown and him. It's really funny.

Hunter Garnett (10:29):
Well, I'm straddling the pony in both pictures and my feet are still on the ground. And then what it is, it was my grandpa's pony when I was a kid and I bought him back last week. He's in my house now. His name's Greg.

Bob Simon (10:41):
But it wasn't Greg to start. What was the name before Greg?

Hunter Garnett (10:43):
Peanut.

Bob Simon (10:43):
Peanut.

Hunter Garnett (10:45):
Yeah. When my grandpa had him it was Peanut and I sold him when my grandpa died and now he's Greg. We're going to stick with Greg though.

Bob Simon (10:50):
Greg.

Mauro Fiore (10:50):
I had a pony when I was a kid. Did I ever tell you?

Bob Simon (10:52):
No.

Hunter Garnett (10:52):
Did you?

Mauro Fiore (10:53):
I had a pony. I grew up in a rural town outside of... 30 miles from LA called Diamond Bar. It was kind of a rural place.

Bob Simon (10:59):
There's no diamonds.

Mauro Fiore (11:02):
Yeah. There's no diamonds there. A lot of Koreans, but no diamonds. That's for another show. Sorry.

Bob Simon (11:08):
Wait. Start the story over again, because you can't say shit like that. We're only two episodes in. Come on, start where you grew-

Mauro Fiore (11:14):
I grew up in Diamond Bar, very rural place.

Bob Simon (11:17):
There's no diamonds there.

Mauro Fiore (11:18):
Yeah, it's 30 miles from LA, but it's rural place. Our house I grew up on, it was on three acres and we had a barn and my dad, he liked goats. So we had goats and chickens. My dad's from the mountains of Sicily. My dad was a Italian cowboy. I used to call him. He's from the mountains, so he thought he was still in Sicily. We had goats and we didn't have cows but we had chickens, goats. And he bought me a pony when I was like seven. And the pony ate some plant, I think it's called Oleander and it died, but I guess it's poisonous. And I just remember going out in the backyard, I told him, "Where's my pony?" And he's like, "Oh yeah, he ran away." I was like, "What do you mean he ran away. Let's go find him." So then my mom, who was much more direct than my dad was like, "Just tell him it died." I was like, "Oh my god, my pony died." Than my dad explained to me how it ate some plant that killed it.

Bob Simon (12:12):
I feel like this has a lot to do with your origin story and why you're like who you are today was your pony died.

Mauro Fiore (12:17):
And then my dad being an Italian from the mountains, we had rabbits and chicken stuff. But my dad, he was eating these things. He wasn't just for the hell of it. So I had this one white rabbit that had the floppy ears. I loved this rabbit, called him Floppy. One day Floppy was gone.

Bob Simon (12:36):
What did you have for dinner?

Mauro Fiore (12:36):
I was like, "What happened to Floppy?" And my dad, it's like, "Oh, I made sausage." I was like, "You made sausage out of out of my rabbit." So my dad would make his own sausage. It was like a wheel.

Hunter Garnett (12:48):
See I want to raise my kids just like... My kids 50 years from now are going to sitting around and telling stories about me feeding them rabbits too.

Bob Simon (12:53):
Well, I mean, but it tell a story, because everybody sees lawyer and they see lawyer as like wearing sharp suit like we see on Suits literally. And they're doing these things and they're in high rises. That's not anybody here. And it certainly ain't Hunter Garnett.

Hunter Garnett (13:06):
No. No [inaudible 00:13:07]-

Bob Simon (13:06):
So I mean, because you're young, so how did you go into this game like F it, I'm just going to be myself and be who I am? How did that come about? And before we do that, I'm going to pour you your next one because this is your cowboy pour my friend.

(13:23):
We got one called Deadwood, straight bourbon whiskey.

Hunter Garnett (13:27):
Okay. That's for me?

Bob Simon (13:28):
This is for you. Why we pick this one for him, Mauro?

Mauro Fiore (13:29):
Well, it's Aces and Eights who is on the label. Everyone knows Aces and Eights is the dead man's hand. Wild Bill Hickok got shot on Main Street and Deadwood in the back while playing poker. And he was holding aces and eights. And the cool thing about the story is that no one knows what the fifth card is. Everyone has an opinion, but no one knows what the fifth card is. But he had aces and eights and you ever been to Deadwood?

Hunter Garnett (13:55):
Mm-mm.

Bob Simon (13:56):
No.

Mauro Fiore (13:57):
I've been to Deadwood a couple of times and with my buddy Gary Dordek. One time we went to Deadwood. It's right outside of Sturgis, South Dakota where we went to the motorcycle rally. It's about 20 minutes from Sturgis. But Deadwood I always tell people is like if you went to Disneyland or something and you went to the frontier town where they're trying to make a place look like an old west town, but it's actually real. If you went to Deadwood today, it looks exactly like it did in the 1800s. It'll blow your mind. You're a cowboy, I can't believe you haven't been to Deadwood.

Hunter Garnett (14:28):
Yeah, I need to go out there.

Mauro Fiore (14:29):
You have to go to Deadwood. It's like real cowboy. It's like you can go in there. They got old saloons exactly how it existed. They have the bar where Wild Bill got shot. Still there, same way. It's open, you can go in there now and having a drink. I went in there and had a drink.

Hunter Garnett (14:43):
That's awesome.

Bob Simon (14:44):
This is to the cowboy lawyer in Alabama.

Mauro Fiore (14:46):
To the cowboys.

Bob Simon (14:46):
Hometown lawyer. Hometown.

Hunter Garnett (14:48):
To cowboys and pony wranglers.

Bob Simon (14:50):
Pony wranglers.

Mauro Fiore (14:52):
Bob, you were are a pony wrangler, aren't you?

Bob Simon (14:53):
Yeah, that's what they used to call me.

Mauro Fiore (14:55):
Is that one of the nicknames they used to give you?

Bob Simon (14:56):
Yeah, in the city of Pittsburgh they used to call me the Pony Wrangler. Stupid.

Hunter Garnett (14:59):
Well, I actually had this idea when we were talking about your pony stories. You should get a pony and then we will start a Pony Lawyers Association. We'll be the founders.

Bob Simon (15:08):
I was really good in pony league for baseball. Those were my heyday for-

Mauro Fiore (15:11):
I think I could handle a pony right now. I don't know about a horse, but I could definitely handle a pony.

Hunter Garnett (15:15):
So my wife has ponies. We have ponies. Whenever I'm fighting a wild pony and it gets the best of me, that's when I know it's time to get back in the gym.

Bob Simon (15:26):
So because I've talked to you a little bit about this, where you want your firm be, where you want to be in life. So where does Hunter Garnett 10 years from now, what does your life look like if you did it right?

Hunter Garnett (15:42):
Man, I have no idea. I love what I do and I could see myself cutting back to 30 hours a week and just kind of coasting and really focusing on family and the stuff that matters more than work. On the other end of the spectrum, I could see myself having five times as many cases and 20 people in person and 50 people offshore. I have no idea right now.

Bob Simon (16:13):
Yeah, but your home life, what does that look like for you?

Hunter Garnett (16:16):
Yeah. So my wife and I, we want to start having kids, I mean anytime. We're going to Europe-

Bob Simon (16:22):
It's five o'clock.

Hunter Garnett (16:23):
Yeah, no, we're going to Europe in April for most of the month.

Mauro Fiore (16:27):
You're going to do some practicing?

Hunter Garnett (16:28):
Yeah, we're going to practice a few times and then actually start trying. And we're both one of seven. I would love to have honestly whatever the Lord's will is for us. You and I talked about this, I have four adopted siblings.

Bob Simon (16:41):
That's awesome.

Hunter Garnett (16:42):
I think that's what Bob and I actually originally connected over is we'll call our background with adopting children. And there's a big need for adoption, especially in the south and through foster care specifically. And so my wife and I feel led to foster kids and if the Lord blesses us financially and lets us adopt kids, I don't have a limit on how many... We could be sitting down 15 years from now and I might have 10 kids. Okay.

Bob Simon (17:10):
Wow.

Hunter Garnett (17:11):
But it's just kind of whatever. I'm open to whatever God has in store for me. Along the same lines, y'all know I'm really involved with Guatemala. We talked about that last night. Man, if the Lord calls me to Guatemala, I'm there. Okay. It's just not what I feel called to do right now. So 10 years from now, I might be doing a month in Guatemala, a month in Huntsville.

Bob Simon (17:31):
You said, you've been very, very good at setting yourself up to have a support system at your firm that a lot are not in person so that you can do this, what's being called to you to actually do. The things that are still your passion, the things you want to do with your life. And I always tell people, lawyers come to me and they always ask me to help guide them. And first question's always the same, what do you want to do? What actually fulfills you as a human being?

Mauro Fiore (18:00):
I'm a slave to my passions, as I always say. Most of those are hanging out with my kids and eating, but other than that...

Bob Simon (18:06):
But that's what you like.

Mauro Fiore (18:09):
And playing golf.

Bob Simon (18:10):
But that's what you do. But for you, it's you're heavy about helping people and doing this mission work and helping people in Guatemala. So how are you able to, and I think you're the master at this, how are you able to, if you wanted to work 30 hours a week or 20 hours a week, how have you set yourself up at such a young age to do it?

Hunter Garnett (18:29):
So I'll be honest, I think one advantage I have is both my parents are small business owners and so I'm a natural entrepreneur. I've been around it. And so at a very young age, like second, third year practice, I started listening to podcasts and listening to audiobooks and reading books on just the ways that you run a business because we're trial lawyers, we try cases, but trial lawyers are notorious for being bad at business.

Bob Simon (18:57):
The worst business man.

Hunter Garnett (18:59):
They're bad marketers.

Mauro Fiore (19:00):
Yeah, that's [inaudible 00:19:01].

Hunter Garnett (19:00):
They're bad managers.

Bob Simon (19:02):
We would know a lot of bankrupt trial lawyers that did some of the biggest verdicts ever just have no idea what they're doing.

Mauro Fiore (19:06):
Some amazing trial lawyers, but they couldn't run a business.

Hunter Garnett (19:13):
And even there's some that have a firm and have a business, but they are leaving nickels, dimes, quarters on the table all the time because they just don't have good business sense. And so I started to develop that early on and started figuring out how to get cases from a business perspective rather than just through getting big verdicts. Okay. Typically, what you did at young, but most of the time, at least in the south, you got to have some gray hair to really get referrals from other lawyers.

Bob Simon (19:39):
Or to even get that trial experience.

Hunter Garnett (19:41):
Yeah. You got to have some verdicts under your belt before you have any clout. Cases are king. You got to have cases and the next thing you have to have is some systems and processes, which I hate. I do not like [inaudible 00:19:55]... I'm serious, I hate having to do it, but sometimes you just have to... There's certain things you have to grind on and then training your folks and trusting your folks and delegating things.

(20:04):
And so one little practical thing that I do is we do like a quadrant, all my high level, mid-level people, we do a quadrant at least once a quarter where we track our time for a week and we set silent alarms and we write down what we're doing every hour on the hour for a week. And we sit down at the end of the week and we all look at it together and we find things that the quadrant is, here's the things that we're good at and we enjoy. Here's the things that we hate and we're not really that good at. We could teach somebody else to do. And we try to get everything out of that lower right quadrant and put it on somebody else that has a lower cost associated with their employment.

Bob Simon (20:43):
And is that how you work in your virtual assistants to try to fill those gaps for the lower quadrant?

Hunter Garnett (20:48):
Yes.

Bob Simon (20:48):
Wow.

Hunter Garnett (20:48):
And so we hire a lot of-

Bob Simon (20:49):
That's awesome.

Mauro Fiore (20:51):
That's like John Wooden's Pyramid of Success kind of thing.

Bob Simon (20:54):
And I've been a big believer. I always tell people, if you're not doing the stuff that you love to do and outsourcing, you're finding ways to delegate those other things, what are you doing? I know so many lawyers get lost in the muck and they're living in that lower quadrant. Wow.

Hunter Garnett (21:08):
It's sad.

Bob Simon (21:10):
And employees, I mean they got to evolve too.

Hunter Garnett (21:13):
I guarantee you everybody that ever listens to this as a paralegal, if you go to your paralegal and you say, "What's bogging you down? What do you hate? What can I do to make your job better and more enjoyable?" They will have a list of things that you'll look at it and you'll say, "Why the heck is anybody doing this? I didn't even know we had to do this." And you can find somebody in Latin America, the Philippines for five to eight bucks an hour that will do that and they will excel at it and they'll be thankful that you gave them the opportunity to do it.

Bob Simon (21:40):
And that's two to three times the money that they're making now in those areas and gives them higher quality of life.

Mauro Fiore (21:45):
Yeah, that's the one thing. Okay. I have friends of mine who do the virtual stuff. They have employees in the Philippines, employees in Honduras, El Salvador. And they talk about how I have these people that work for five bucks an hour. You know what I mean? And that's kind of like boasting or bragging about, they do this for five bucks. I don't have any virtual assistants. I feel like, "Oh wow, they're taking advantage of them." But in reality they wouldn't be making a dollar an hour. So you're not taking advantage of them, you're actually giving them a tremendous opportunity.

Bob Simon (22:21):
Have you ever had, because I know you do a lot of work with Colombian lawyers and assistants and stuff like that, have you ever even offered them to bring them in-house to Alabama?

Hunter Garnett (22:31):
Yeah, so I've actually got American citizens that work for me in Mexico. They could come to Huntsville and work in my office and I've offered this and I would pay them three times as much money, pay their travel to come here. They stay, come and go as they please. And they would rather make $200 a week in their little town in Mexico where they are upper middle class than come to Huntsville and make 15 bucks an hour and be lower middle class. And I don't blame them. But even another example, I've got this exceptional paralegal. She found me on LinkedIn and she-

Bob Simon (23:09):
She didn't find you on LinkedIn, that was intentional that she-

Hunter Garnett (23:11):
I attracted her on LinkedIn. I really do put myself out there on LinkedIn. I try to show who I am and part of that is to attract talent and it worked. And so her name is Andrea. If anybody poaches her, I will burn their house down.

Bob Simon (23:27):
And we have a couple of fixers on the show with you here that will make sure that that happens.

Hunter Garnett (23:29):
Yeah, you got. I mean, he's from Sicily.

Mauro Fiore (23:29):
Don't worry I have some Sicilian friends that can take care of it.

Hunter Garnett (23:31):
You got some connections. Anyway, so Andrea reached out to me and sent a really nice message about she appreciated my content and she could tell that I cared about the folks that worked for me and asked for a job. I didn't need anybody at the time, but I interviewed her. It's actually funny, my first interview was on my cell phone on horseback riding through the woods.

Bob Simon (23:49):
Of course you were.

Hunter Garnett (23:51):
I'm like, "Okay, I like this."

Mauro Fiore (23:52):
This guy is so authentic.

Bob Simon (23:54):
Oh, I know.

Mauro Fiore (23:54):
If you didn't know him you'd think he's full of shit. But he's authentic, man. It's real.

Hunter Garnett (23:59):
And so hired her and she is so exceptional. I mean, she's one of the most valuable members of my team. She got her visa denied recently. Her family's here, she's in Venezuela and she practices in Columbia. And so I told her, I said, "Well, why don't you apply? I'll help you apply for a skilled labor visa. You can come to Huntsville and work in my office full time. I'll pay you more than market rate here." It was like 75 to $90,000 a year job, which is two and a half, three times what she makes in Columbia. And she doesn't want to come because she understands that the cost of living would not offset. I'd have to pay her 200,000 a year for it to be a wash in terms of cost of living.

Bob Simon (24:41):
Yeah. We were talking last night here in Birmingham at Dread River and there's one individual, I think he's in Mexico if I remember correctly.

Hunter Garnett (24:55):
Yeah. He's outside Monterey, Julio?

Bob Simon (24:56):
Yeah. And [inaudible 00:24:58] and how you've changed these people's lives.

Hunter Garnett (25:01):
Yeah, so Julio will always be super special to me. We talk almost every day. Half the time we're talking about playing pickup basketball. He's like 5'10, which he's like a four or five in Mexico. He's the big guy.

Bob Simon (25:15):
I'm 5'11. I was 5'11 when I was in third grade. So I only know the four or five. So I only know post moves. They never taught me how to dribble. So if we play right now, I would clear you the fuck out. Just so you know. Don't make [inaudible 00:25:27].

Hunter Garnett (25:26):
Let's see. We'll find a [inaudible 00:25:30].

Mauro Fiore (25:29):
I was always a shooter. I'm a shooter. I can shoot a three.

Bob Simon (25:32):
He does a good set shot. Actually he has a basketball court at his house in the Hollywood Hills. I went there and I dominated these fools and I never left the ground.

Mauro Fiore (25:42):
[inaudible 00:25:41] shit. [inaudible 00:25:42] shit.

Bob Simon (25:42):
That's true.

Hunter Garnett (25:43):
Actually this evening, this is our first week of the year there's a bunch of lawyers and judges and some kind of other professionals that play three on three outdoor. And I'm going straight from here to there.

Bob Simon (25:51):
We're going to do our last pour, because before you tell this story-

Hunter Garnett (25:52):
I do want to tell you about Julio though.

Bob Simon (25:54):
Well, we're going to talk about Julio while we do this because this is why Mauro selected this for you. This is William Dalton out of Indiana.

Mauro Fiore (26:06):
This is from French Lick, Indiana. And I'm an older guy even though amazingly I look so young, but I am 50 fucking years old.

Bob Simon (26:16):
Not yet. By the time this airs you might be.

Mauro Fiore (26:19):
50 in May. So when I was a kid, Larry Bird was a basketball player.

Hunter Garnett (26:23):
Heard of him.

Mauro Fiore (26:23):
You heard of him. And this is from French Lick, Indiana. They used to call Bird the hick from French Lick.

Bob Simon (26:28):
French Lick.

Mauro Fiore (26:28):
Right. And I'm born and raised in LA. I'm a Laker fan. I used to go watch Magic and Kareem and James Worthy, Big Game James play. And then I was watching Kobe and Shaq and everything and I've seen Bird play a few times in person. And I don't care what anyone says about basketball players because I've seen this motherfucker, Bird, in person. He had the nastiest, weirdest move, weird move, moves no one will ever have again. Bird would, you'd be like, you'd see him and then he would have this weird drop step and next thing you know he was already running down the court, because he already scored. And I used to see it at the forum and I'd be like, what the fuck is this guy? Bird was like-

Bob Simon (27:10):
Talking shit the whole time.

Mauro Fiore (27:11):
Yeah. Never stopped talking. But bird had moves that would blow your mind. You know what I mean? If you could see the shit on Instagram now, in person it was even more amazing. He stands flat-footed too. Didn't even get off the ground one inch. It was amazing. So Bird was amazing. He was the hick from French Lick. So you're our basketball playing lawyer from Alabama. So we got this French Lick Indiana bourbon. It's supposed to be amazing. They talked it up. It's a weeded bourbon, which is like a-

Bob Simon (27:40):
This is bottle-in-bond too. I heard this is-

Mauro Fiore (27:42):
Weeded is like a Pappy Van Winkle is a weeded bourbon. So maybe it's got a little Pappy in it. Who knows?

Hunter Garnett (27:48):
Yeah. How long does it take y'all to buy all the bottles when y'all do this kind of stuff?

Bob Simon (27:52):
So we went to LeNell's here in Birmingham yesterday and we bought a lot of these bottles. We just try to do stuff for different stories for guests. And we saw these ones. We said these are definitely picks for Hunter, because we can help story tell with you.

Hunter Garnett (28:06):
Yeah, these are good.

Bob Simon (28:09):
But you were talking last night about it and how you're supposed to as a lawyer and lawyer, you're supposed to get on the golf course, you're supposed to do deals and that's just the way that it is.

Mauro Fiore (28:17):
I believe in that.

Bob Simon (28:19):
Well, it's because you golf. I don't golf so much, but Hunter makes his living on the court.

Hunter Garnett (28:25):
[inaudible 00:28:26].

Bob Simon (28:26):
So this is to doing shit differently.

Mauro Fiore (28:30):
Oh, a little spicy.

Bob Simon (28:34):
Oh, wow. I like this one.

Hunter Garnett (28:35):
It is a little spicy.

Bob Simon (28:38):
This one's pretty good.

Hunter Garnett (28:39):
Okay, before we talk about basketball-

Mauro Fiore (28:41):
Hunter approved.

Bob Simon (28:42):
Yeah, we're going to Julio to basketball, but yeah.

Hunter Garnett (28:44):
Easy transition because Julio loves basketball.

Bob Simon (28:47):
But he's only 5'10, so don't talk shit on small guys. How tall are you by the way?

Hunter Garnett (28:51):
Like 6'4 and some change maybe.

Bob Simon (28:53):
But cowboy hat you're like 6'7.

Hunter Garnett (28:54):
If you were in Monterey though, your post moves-

Mauro Fiore (28:56):
6'7 with it. Like Fletch, 6'7 with the hat on.

Hunter Garnett (28:59):
Yeah. Right here.

Bob Simon (29:00):
Fletch is still one of the best movies ever.

Hunter Garnett (29:02):
If you were in Monterey, Mexico, your post moves would crush it, because you'll be playing smaller people.

Bob Simon (29:09):
Yeah, no, I appreciate playing taller folks because they don't appreciate the game.

Hunter Garnett (29:14):
So I'm proud of this. I've got a mini farm now, but I've still got my farm strength. And so pound for pound, I like... You and I would be, our game is probably similar. I don't have a lot of skill.

Bob Simon (29:26):
You'll be hard, but you'll be slow.

Hunter Garnett (29:27):
It's all just grit and leverage.

Bob Simon (29:29):
So I grew up in where the city part of Pittsburgh, when we have to go out to the country-

Hunter Garnett (29:35):
Play the farm kids?

Bob Simon (29:35):
... these motherfuckers would throw us around.

Hunter Garnett (29:39):
It's a real thing. It's a real thing.

Bob Simon (29:40):
It's a real thing.

Mauro Fiore (29:41):
Yeah, I mean they're strong.

Bob Simon (29:43):
I remember rolling up for a game, my dad was always our coach and he demanded to see their birth certificates. These kids were huge. He's like, "What oats you feeding these boys?"

Hunter Garnett (29:51):
Corn fed.

Bob Simon (29:52):
Corn fed. But it was funny, because they were big-

Mauro Fiore (29:55):
They're like, this kids nine, he's like 165 or whatever.

Bob Simon (29:58):
And I was always the biggest kid in our league and it was like, "Oh my god, this kid's twice my size." But they were still kids so it wasn't like... They didn't have adult strength yet. Walk us through, so you have Julio who's [inaudible 00:30:11]-

Hunter Garnett (30:10):
Yeah, Julio is my second VA and he's actually my paralegal who's been with my law partner for 24 years. They're first cousins. And he got deported a long time ago for something petty. I mean, just like you know, DUI or possession of marijuana. Just something that you and I would spend a night in jail and pay 1000 bucks and we're free and clear.

Bob Simon (30:30):
They probably won't even detain us. We'll be fine. Yeah.

Hunter Garnett (30:31):
Yeah, maybe not.

Mauro Fiore (30:33):
I've been detained, believe it or not.

Bob Simon (30:35):
Well yeah, we know you probably have time served.

Hunter Garnett (30:37):
I was about to say, yeah.

Bob Simon (30:39):
This does not surprise me.

Mauro Fiore (30:40):
I have what they call a sealed record.

Bob Simon (30:43):
And he also is hairless like a seal. So it has a double entendre.

Hunter Garnett (30:46):
That's funny. So we are tinkering in the VA space. My paralegal tells me about Julio. We hired him and he's working at the time driving a cab, making-

Bob Simon (30:58):
Wow. Where is he geographically? Mexico?

Hunter Garnett (31:01):
Yeah, outside of Monterey, Mexico.

Bob Simon (31:02):
Wow.

Mauro Fiore (31:03):
That's by Chihuahua up there. Not too far from the border.

Bob Simon (31:10):
When was this?

Hunter Garnett (31:11):
This was July of '22. It's like six months after I started my practice.

Mauro Fiore (31:14):
You know Chris Galindo is from Monterey, Mexico.

Bob Simon (31:15):
Oh yeah, he's in Houston now, right?

Mauro Fiore (31:16):
Chris Galindo is a lawyer in Houston, he's from Monterey, Mexico.

Bob Simon (31:23):
But this wasn't too long ago, but the VA virtual assistant world has been, a lot of other industries have been using this for a long time. Because to me, I reached out for you to ask you questions about this world because it seems like you've understood it for a long time. But I just want you to tell our listeners and viewers of how Julio came to be and then where he is today.

Hunter Garnett (31:48):
So like I said, he's my paralegal's first cousin and he grew up in the US. He came here when he is four years old, he's deported when he is like 30 for something just minor, just nothing. And he's in Mexico and has to restart his life. And he doesn't have a skillset to make a living in... He's literally driving a cab. Okay. He is making 150, $175 on a really good week working 100 hours. So we bought him a computer, sent him a computer, bought him a headset, bought him two monitors and put him to work as he, actually, this is when I kicked off my PFOS campaign indicator and he was my intake.

Bob Simon (32:24):
What does that mean?

Hunter Garnett (32:25):
Well, so this is the forever chemicals that are all over the news, PFOA, PFMS.

Mauro Fiore (32:31):
Nick Rowley tries those cases and hits big verdicts all over the country. You know Nick Rowley? Nick Riley's a buddy of ours.

Hunter Garnett (32:39):
They're going to bankrupt some companies. But my home county, Decatur, is the county seat and the largest manufacturer of PFAS in the world, Decatur 3M is located there. And so I found out, just coincidentally, I'm like reading the news, I'm like, "Oh, what are forever chemicals?" And I look them up and I think, are these in Decatur? And I look up and we're like the hotbed. And so this is before the sciences evolved to where it is today. I remember thinking there's a case here. And so I ran a lead gen campaign on Facebook and got 100, 200 leads. Shout out Ethan Alstroff for helping me with that and kicking that off.

Bob Simon (33:13):
I love Ethan.

Hunter Garnett (33:14):
Ethan's great.

Bob Simon (33:14):
So when you did those lead gen campaigns, was it you doing selfie videos? How'd that work?

Hunter Garnett (33:20):
Yeah, super simple, seriously.

Bob Simon (33:21):
Wow. This fascinates me, because he's generating a lot of wealth.

Hunter Garnett (33:24):
It was like at my desk and literally-

Mauro Fiore (33:26):
Well, he's a handsome man for god's sake.

Hunter Garnett (33:28):
That's part of it. I didn't even have a cowboy hat on.

Mauro Fiore (33:29):
He's a handsome man. If I did a lead gen campaign with this face, I'd be bragging about, I got three leads.

Hunter Garnett (33:35):
I'll be your spokesperson. [inaudible 00:33:37]. Yeah. It's literally like if you or a loved one have a serious medical condition, it may be related to the water, click the link below for more information. Like that's it. And we have, since then we've expanded or created, we do some more educational stuff. Anyway, so we run that campaign, it crushes it. Paying Ethan, working with Ethan. And I realize if I had Julio or somebody in-house, I could do everything myself.

Bob Simon (34:01):
Crush this.

Hunter Garnett (34:01):
Me and Ethan take care of each other. It's cool. And so that's what Julio did the first two months and he crushed it. We've had 1500 roughly, I haven't looked in two months. We probably had 17, 1800 leads come in since we started this campaign. Julio's talked to every single person, qualified them and converted all but two or three leads that we wanted.

Bob Simon (34:22):
No.

Hunter Garnett (34:23):
Yeah, crushed it. He's got a great personality, perfect English. If you call my office right now, you would never, other than us talking about this, you'd think he's in Huntsville sitting with me. And so he earned my trust through all that. And now he still does that on the side and we run lead chain campaigns. We take some stuff off his plate so we can focus on that. But he's a case manager and he manages our, we call our district court division, it's 20,000 and below cases and clear policy limits cases and he runs them autonomously. We meet once a week for 30 minutes to talk through the case, the things that he wants to talk to me about, set values on cases.

(35:00):
I look at all his cases once a month to just make sure everything's moving along. And he runs autonomously. And honestly the 25,000 and below cases that he handles is more profitable than any other team or division that we have in my firm. Once you account for attorney time and things like that. Since then we've grown a ton. We've got Colombian attorneys that are case managers for us and legal assistants. I really believe that the skillset that's the hardest to find in Latin America is perfect English without an accent where you call and you don't know you're talking to somebody in another country. So when I find somebody like that, I hire them.

Bob Simon (35:41):
Intake.

Hunter Garnett (35:42):
I just train them and I see what their ceiling is and we see where they go. And I've got one young man, actually fired him a year ago, he's Julio's nephew. And he just, typical kid stuff, he's 20 years old, he just wasn't mature enough. I didn't have the systems in place to really help him grow. And I just fired him and I told him, I was like, "You need to go wait tables for six months and you're eligible for rehire, but you got to go figure out that this was a good job and a good opportunity that you almost like if I was not a nice person, it would've slipped by." He contacted me about three or four months ago and said, "Hey, I could really use a job. I've been grinding and life is hard." And I realized like, okay, he's learned his lesson. I had Andrea at this point and she's an exceptional trainer. And I asked Andrea if she needed another assistant, wanted somebody to train and she said yes. And so he's back with us and his ceiling and he's got-

Bob Simon (36:33):
There is no ceiling probably. [inaudible 00:36:34].

Hunter Garnett (36:33):
There's no ceiling. He's as bright as we are. He speaks perfect English, he speaks Spanish.

Bob Simon (36:38):
So you spent the time to train your staff, even people that are thousands of miles away, and this is a lot of lawyers, they don't do that. They don't take the time to even ask that quadrant question. There's no quadrant question for them.

Hunter Garnett (36:50):
Well, I think you have to think about your time. How do you compound your time? Okay.

Bob Simon (36:55):
How do you scale your time?

Hunter Garnett (36:56):
We can go try a case, we can go take a depot and that's probably the best use of our time-

Bob Simon (37:01):
Attorney time.

Hunter Garnett (37:01):
... is taking a doctor's depot in that one time. But I'm 31 years old. I don't care how much money I make next year or the year after or this year, I care about 10, 15, 20 years from now. I care about getting things off my plate that cause me headaches. And so I look at my training as an investment that compounds over time.

Bob Simon (37:23):
I mean nobody fucking talks like this, man. Nobody even thinks about these things.

Hunter Garnett (37:29):
Here's the thing, I think it's like Albert Einstein or somebody talk about compounding interest being one of the seven wonders of the world. It applies to everything. It applies to relationships like when unintentional with you and we develop trust. This trust doesn't degrade over time. It only grows, it only snowballs. And the same thing applies to relationships with your team and the way you train your team and clients. If I was 55, 60 years old, I would run my firm totally differently, but because I'm young and because the fruits of my labor are going to pay dividends for 30 years or more-

Bob Simon (38:02):
It's like growing crops, man.

Hunter Garnett (38:03):
Yes, it's farming. Yes.

Bob Simon (38:05):
So we do a lot of analogies with that too, even though I've never farmed shit.

Hunter Garnett (38:10):
I'll teach you how to farm, come to Huntsville.

Bob Simon (38:10):
Dude, I would actually love it. I would love it.

Mauro Fiore (38:12):
I used to grow radishes and jalapenos.

Bob Simon (38:14):
You never grew it. Get the fuck out of here. You just make shit up.

Mauro Fiore (38:16):
I grow radishes and jalapenos when I was a kid and the fuckers were good. We used to make salsa.

Bob Simon (38:21):
But I want to go back. So we're going to end this show in just a little bit, but I just wanted to take one little quick detour to talk about your calling to go into the church full time.

Hunter Garnett (38:36):
Yeah, I'd love to talk about that.

Bob Simon (38:38):
Because what we do as trial lawyers, some of the best verdicts I ever had, we talked to the jury afterwards and some of the jurors said, especially in conservative venues have said, "I felt like Mr. Simon was speaking the gospel." And I make a point when I'm in more conservative venue is I don't do the theatrics of getting in front of the jury. I take the podium and I use it as if I am in church.

Hunter Garnett (39:05):
Interesting.

Bob Simon (39:06):
But I've never tested this theory before, but every time I do it, because in federal court they don't let you leave the podium. And I did this once at San Bernardino and I intentionally picked more conservative jury because of the way the case was.

Mauro Fiore (39:19):
Now you don't think that using that type of ministry gospel.

Bob Simon (39:27):
But it's not intentional.

Mauro Fiore (39:29):
Do you lose credibility with the jury?

Bob Simon (39:31):
But you're not doing it intentionally, but to them it looks like the same when you're at church. And for me, I first did in federal court because they don't let you leave. The judge said you can't leave with an arm's length of it. Seriously, I could not do it. So I just sat there and instead of doing my normal stuff on the jury, I just sat there and I talked like this and this is the way that it is. And for some reason it slowed me down.

(39:56):
So for some lawyers they always teach you do your shit your way. But I felt like I felt something while I was doing it that way. And one of the jurors, and she was like the GOP, she was 80 years old and she was the leader of her women's GOP in San Bernardino. And I picked her on the jury, the defense like, "She crazy." She gave us our biggest verdict and she came up to me with her pearls afterwards and she said, "Thank you, Mr. Simon, you spoke to me." So Hunter, I mean you come off as the most genuine person we probably have ever had on the show. No BS, this is who you are, what you speak. And let's talk a little bit about the gospel and the calling that you almost picked over being a trial lawyer and how that works now.

Hunter Garnett (40:41):
Well, so first that means a lot to me. I could cry right now, that means so much to me, because you mentioned something earlier about there could be people that see what I talk about and think it's fake or a brand or whatever. And listen I wear my cowboy hat a little more when I'm around guys like you, but this is who I am. And I think that's really the secret to even trying cases and resonating with people and being who you are.

(41:17):
And so who I am, I'm a follower of Christ. I'm a child of God, first and foremost. My faith is more important to me than my wife, my future children, my friends, my job, my clients, like everything else. It's God's will. I never in a million years thought I would be a personal injury lawyer in Huntsville, Alabama. It just wasn't on my radar at all. And insinuated this and mentioned this earlier that I felt led to the ministry for a long time. I spent two months in Serbia on a mission trip. I've been to Guatemala a bunch of times. My wife and I give generously to Guatemala. But I realized I had a client, so one of my first workers' comp cases, some of my favorite case I've ever handled, she had a really hard case.

(42:04):
And at the end of her case, I'm sliding her workers' comp check across the table to her. And I'm apologetic, because in Alabama and worker's comp, you don't get what your case is worth in terms of what you've actually lost. And so I'm sliding the check across to her and I'm just apologizing, "I'm so sorry. This is a great outcome. I promise you that I've done the best job that I could. I don't think any lawyer could have done a better job, but this is what it is." And she looked at me and she said, "I'm glad that I got hurt in this accident."

(42:33):
I was like, "Well, this doesn't make any sense. Why are you glad? You're tripping." And she told me and was very, very nice. It's my first Hispanic client as well, she said, "Before I got hurt, I had all these friends, we would go out and get margaritas, we'd go to dancing and all this kind of stuff. And one by one they stopped coming to my house after my accident because I can't leave my house. And I lost all those friends. And there was one friend that actually not only stuck with me but actually became a closer friend because she would come to my house, she would spend time with me. She would help take care of me."

(43:08):
And she asked her friend, she said, "Why are you here? I'm not the same person I was before." And her friend explained that it was her relationship with Christ. She was there because it's what God calls us to do as followers of Christ. And my client who had grown up kind of a cultural Catholic, realized that she was missing... This lady had something that my client did not have. And my client right then felt called to the Lord and had a personal relationship with Christ that she'd never had before.

(43:39):
And she explained all this to me and I'm just like, dude, I'm losing it. Okay? I'm a Christian. I'm a devout follower of Christ. And I never even talked to her about this. And I realized then there's a chapter in the Bible, it's John 9. And what it is it's when Jesus heals a blind man, put some mud on his eyes and gives him sight again. And this is kind of the preface to it where, and I'm paraphrasing a lot, but basically the disciples around Jesus and they're like, "Jesus, why is this guy, why was he born blind? Was it something his parents did, his grandparents did?" Because back then the Old Testament, they believed that everything that was wrong in your life was a product of bad decisions or your parents' bad decisions. And Jesus said, he said, "No, he was born this way so that I could work, show good works through him."

(44:35):
And I use John 9 now in my practice all the time. And listen, we serve a sovereign God. God understands what we're going through. There's trials and tribulations that he allows to be placed in our life that here on this earth, sometimes we understand it like my client, sometimes we don't. When we represent parents who have lost children, it's a really hard conversation to have. But I tell you all that to say, I realized when I got into my practice, I live in the mission field. My work is my mission place. My clients are the people that I'm led to disciple. And so it's the most rewarding part of my practice.

(45:15):
And I have the opportunity to disciple my employees, help them grow closer to Christ. I have the opportunity to disciple colleagues in my community. I lead a Bible study every Tuesday for young lawyers in Huntsville and then my clients. We have the unique opportunity where when people come into our office, they're going through the hardest thing they've ever dealt with most of the time. They've lost a loved one. They've lost the ability to provide for their family. They've had some type of catastrophe enter their lives. And we get to be not just a legal counselor, but a spiritual counselor too.

Bob Simon (45:50):
Wow. As the book of Isaiah says, "Come let us reason together." I start a lot of my closing arguments like that.

Hunter Garnett (45:56):
Do you?

Bob Simon (45:56):
I do.

Hunter Garnett (45:57):
I like that.

Bob Simon (45:57):
And now Hunter Garnett, this is your-

Mauro Fiore (46:01):
I've seen a million closing arguments as a trial lawyer. I'm a student of the game, right? I go watch, whatever. Do you think that people lose credibility with juries when they come out with stuff like that?

Bob Simon (46:15):
It depends on who you are, if you're credible or not.

Mauro Fiore (46:17):
Or the one that I've seen-

Bob Simon (46:19):
It depends if it's fake or not.

Mauro Fiore (46:20):
... one million times they come out and they say, "Martin Luther King said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'" That's the one that every trial lawyer throws out at every drug closing argument. I think, "I don't know, man." When I hear those Martin Luther King references-

Bob Simon (46:34):
When you see it looks fake, it looks fake. But if people really believe it-

Mauro Fiore (46:41):
... I feel this guy's full of shit.

Bob Simon (46:41):
But if people believe it.

Mauro Fiore (46:42):
He's bringing up Dr. King and then closing argument.

Bob Simon (46:46):
If you're there the whole trial, that's who people really are and it resonates. I don't do those for every trial. I mean, just depends on how I feel. Sometimes I'm quoting Ronald Reagan, it just depends. But I almost always start that way. And I learned that from Panish, I stole his shit. Brian, I'm not paying your royalties. Stop asking. But I do that one for you. But this is now your selection process, Hunter, because we're at the end of this show and you have to pick your bourbon of proof and you got to pick which one speaks to you the most and why.

Hunter Garnett (47:16):
I got an easy choice. Okay.

Bob Simon (47:18):
Really?

Hunter Garnett (47:19):
Yes. Clear choice, taste and everything was top-notch. One of my brands, I will order stuff, I do hold myself out as a cowboy lawyer, because I am a cowboy lawyer, but I identify even more as the hometown lawyer.

Bob Simon (47:36):
There we go.

Hunter Garnett (47:37):
And the hometown lawyer chooses the hometown whiskey, easy choice.

Mauro Fiore (47:43):
From Huntsville.

Hunter Garnett (47:43):
Irons ONE from Huntsville. Yes.

Bob Simon (47:45):
This is very good.

Hunter Garnett (47:46):
And it was the best.

Mauro Fiore (47:47):
It was a wonderful drink.

Hunter Garnett (47:49):
I'm a little biased because it's from Huntsville, but I did think it was the most [inaudible 00:47:53].

Bob Simon (47:54):
I mean, this was a good whiskey show. So to you, Hunter Garnett, to I'm a recovering Catholic, I'm a Christian and thank you for coming on this show. I mean, this was a very spiritual episode for us, man.

Hunter Garnett (48:06):
It was. I appreciate y'all having me.

Bob Simon (48:07):
I appreciate you coming on, man.

Mauro Fiore (48:08):
Appreciate you.

Bob Simon (48:08):
To Hunter Garnett.

Hunter Garnett (48:11):
Thank you my friends.

Bob Simon (48:12):
Absolutely.