Turning Tragedy into Positive Experiences | Gerald Carroll

 

About Gerald Carroll

Gerald Carroll is a partner with Burnham Brown law firm in their Oakland office. He specializes in Construction and Professional Liability Law. Prior to coming to Burnham Brown, Jerry along with his partner ran their own law practice, Hartman and Carroll for 20 years. Jerry graduated with honors in English from UC Sacramento and obtained his law degree from Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley’s School of Law.

 

Interview Transcript of: Turning Tragedy into Positive Experiences | Gerald Carroll

 

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Jerry Carroll. He is a partner at Burnham and brown. Jerry, welcome to the show.

Jerry
Thank you, Alan. Nice to be here.F

Alan
So Jerry, for the listeners, can you give some background, your education, your career choices, what led you to where you are today?

Jerry
Sure. I’m a California native. Born in Southern California but really grew up in the Central Valley and Fresno and Roseville areas. A big family, we did a lot of outdoor activities, hunting, camping, fishing, hiking, all sorts of very sports oriented family. I went to Cal State Sacramento, got my English degree with honors. And then I moved to the Bay Area to go to law school at Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley’s Law School. Once I came to the Bay Area, I fell in love with it. I knew that I was never going to go back to the Central Valley. As as much as I loved it. I I loved the Bay Area more. And so after I graduated from law school, I went to work for a law firm called Long and Levitt in San Francisco, worked with a bunch of great lawyers, great trial lawyers there. And then, in 1996, Michael Hartman, who had been a partner at long and love it as well, left, the firm man asked me if I would like to go with him. And so I waited a few months, I just bought a house and didn’t feel that that I can move right then but went out with him. And we formed Hardman and Carol, which lasted for 20 years. And then recently, last year, I decided to make a move into close Hardiman and Carol, and go to Burnham and brown, it has turned out to be a wonderful move. It’s like going into a big extended family. They’re a great firm, they offer me a lot of support. And it’s been a really fun move.

Alan
And so in the Did you always know you can do law? I mean, what was the inspiration to say I want to go be an attorney.

Jerry
I was kind of weird. I knew that I wanted to be a lawyer when I was about 11 years old. In the fifth or sixth grade, we had a mock trial. And I, the teacher thought that I would be a good lawyer and asked me to be the defense lawyer. We ended up doing this mock trial for our class and then for the entire school, ended up doing it three times and all three times I got the accused acquitted even though as it turned out, which I didn’t know he had actually done the crime.

Alan
So long in love it when you were practicing there was Did you have a certain specialty or?

Jerry
London limited specialty is professional malpractice defending other lawyers, especially. And I found that to be really fascinating, because not only did I have to learn the law of legal malpractice, but I had to learn whatever underlying law was involved in the case. So it gave me a broad exposure to lots of different areas of the law, from probate to family law, to towards to contracts to securities, because I would have to learn about each of those to defend the lawyers that I was working for.

Alan
And when you’re working Burnham and brown, did you carry that over? Did you change up the the specialty at all?

Jerry
Certainly, with Burnham Brown, I’ve done less professional liability, but that intervening 20 years is is with with Harmon and Carol is really kind of what what formed the practice that I have today. It’s specializing in construction law, I represent contractors, developers, subcontractors, anybody involved in the the construction of a building. And I represent them whether it’s from the sense that the building has a problem or if someone is injured on the workplace. So all types of construction law, that’s probably about half of my work. And then a broad range of general litigation, everything from wrongful death to catastrophic injuries, paraplegics, quadriplegics, and then a small section of my business is also advising small businesses such as construction companies, wineries, different different small businesses, advising them about insurance about leases about any other types of agreements they might have.

Alan
And you know, in the construction industry, obviously this is a big area, California is really hot on you know, are they employees versus Yeah, and then how would you advise a person coming to you, you know, Jerry, what do I need to watch out for when I when I set up my relationships?

Jerry
The biggest thing I tell contractors is to pay attention to the little hairs on the back of their neck when they’re meeting a client for the first time. If, if the client doesn’t seem right, as long as the person is in a position to be able to choose what business they take, they should pay attention to that little voice in the back of their head that says, I don’t know about this person. I see it so many times where a person comes to me that’s in a lawsuit and says, you know, when I first started, I had this feeling about that person, and people should pay attention to that dealer.

Alan
But that’s good. Good advice. So Jerry, I need to take a quick break. And when we get back after these messages, I want to carry on with your, your your story, and then something really big happened within the last year. And I’d like you to explain what that is. Sure. Okay. We’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back and visit here today with Jerry Carroll. He’s an attorney with Burma brown up in Oakland. And in Jerry, the last segment we talked about, you know, your your career successful attorney, started your own firm for 20 years. And then several months ago, something something big happen is a life changing event. And for our listeners, can you tell the story what what happened in your life?

Jerry
Sure. It was January 20 of 2016. I’ve been a duck hunter for 40. Some years, my entire family has hunted and I was duck hunting. And I got into a situation where I was looking for a duck that I had shot. And I was in a pond near a big patch of toolies. And I found the duck that I was looking for it as I stood up, everything was wet and my gun slipped out of my hand. And I tried to grab it, which was as I’ve later learned a foolish thing to do, I should have just let it go. But as I tried to grab it, I pushed the barrel down and it went into the water. And just as the barrel came in contact with my boot, some toolies sticking up out of the water hit the trigger. And there was an explosion of sound and pain in my foot. And I spent the next two and a half hours in that pond with a tourniquet on holding a tourniquet on my leg laying on my back in the toolies trying to keep my leg up because there was quite a bit of blood that was coming out of my boot. As with anybody at the time when I was hunting with my brother, Jeff, he was about 50 to 75 yards away. He came over as fast as he could, helps me get on my back helped me get a tourniquet on my leg. And then he was on the phone with 911 It took 911 Because of where we were in the middle of nowhere, no mapped roads, it took 9112 and a half hours to get to me. And during that time I lost five of the 10 pints of blood that are in my body. As I later learned when they finally got me out of the pond and to an ambulance. They cut my boot off and all the pellets came clattering out. The EMT looked at it and and swore. Very colourful. And that made me think wow, How bad must this be if somebody who who deals with this kind of thing every day is looking at that so they got me out to pavement and to a waiting helicopter took me to trauma hospital. I was laid on the table and I counted 16 nurses and doctors descended on my body cut everything off. It was just beeping monitors and cold metal and a lot of organized chaos. The surgeon then bent down and said that I was going to live but that when I woke up I may not have my left foot and that was the first time throughout the ordeal that it occurred to me knew that I might lose my foot. I woke up several hours later in the hospital and looked down with relief to see that I still had my foot. But that relief was short lived. Over the next several days, I had several surgeries. And they decided that it was going to be difficult to save the foot, but they offered me a choice. And ultimately, I chose to cut it off, the alternative was up to a dozen surgeries over three years, continued pain, continued problems, and I just decided it was better to, to cut it off. I had some very good advisors, health friends, and my brother who’s a doctor. And everyone said that the best outcomes usually come from amputation. So I elected to amputate my left foot.

Alan
They was at the silver lining that when you had the accident your brother was with you as a doctor.

Jerry
My brother that was with me was I have three brothers and the brother that was with me was not a doctor.

Alan
Okay, so. So obviously it’s impacted your life. Tremendous significantly. And you know it and overnight within that, that one event life suddenly changed. And Jerry, I’d like to it we’re running up against a break here. Sure. But I’d like to get back in tears of life’s experience. What? What have you learned? What have you? What do you do differently than you did before? When we get back after these messages. fizzing here today with Jerry Carroll Attorney at Law with Bernie Brown and has a very unique life story and we’ll get we’ll be with you right.

Alan
Welcome back and visiting here today with Jerry Carroll is attorney law with tournament Brown and in theory, in the last second, we talked about the hunting accident that happened roughly a year ago. We’re in you, you lost your leg. What’s the biggest takeaway that that has been in your life since losing your leg?

Jerry
Probably how quickly everything can change in life. We hear a lot of cliches about seizing the day, and never knowing what life can bring. But this ordeal has really brought that home to me. I am trying to focus much more on on what’s important to me and what makes me happy. And what’s the best thing for for myself and for my family. But the other thing that I have to say that I that I’ve taken away is the the strength and courage that I got from all of my friends and family. I have heard in that sometimes you have to die to see and hear how much people love you at your funeral. I’m lucky that I got to experience that in person while I was alive. I would not be here if it weren’t for the support and love and generosity that so many of my friends and family showed.

Alan
You had a lot of time in in the hospital recovery. Approximately how long was that?

Jerry
I was in the hospital for 10 days. And then I was pretty much confined to bed except to go to the bathroom for two months, and then slowly I started to to go out on crutches with a walker. I eventually got my prosthetic leg in April and then began learning to walk again which has been quite an ordeal.

Alan
So how has this experience positively impacted your life when there’s so much negative around it?

Jerry
So it’s funny and and more recently in the last several weeks, I have talked to people about I’ve lost my leg. But if I look at everything else have in my life, I’m actually right now, in a happier place than I was before the accident, which sounds amazing to say that, that you could lose a leg and feel that way. But I’m in a better place professionally. I am, which which has led to more happiness at home. I really believe that that in a lot of ways, my my life is better, my marriage is stronger. My what my wife has shown me during this ordeal really made me appreciate her. And when you get further along in, in your marriage, sometimes you start to take things for granted. And what what she’s shown me in the last year has has been tremendous.

Alan
So have you learned more about yourself?

Jerry
I have, I have. I have learned that I can overcome. Most anything, I never dreamed that I would have to deal with something like this in my life. I have always tried to be a glass half full person. But this was challenging, there were times. And there are still times when I get depressed. But there are times when I realize how lucky I am to be here. I could very easily not be here at all. And that is what has driven me to overcome the problems that I faced and so my own strength has surprised me at times.

Alan
Yeah, it’s interesting how sometimes this adversity helps us give deeper understanding, absolutely. To life there. So what advice would you have for people in life? You know, after going through what you went through this experience, how, what advice would you have for others as they’re looking at adversity in their own life?

Jerry
I think it’s important to see, to tackle those problems, and to look at them and say, you know, what kind of a problem is this? Is it a? Is it a personal problem? Is it a? Is it something that I can resolve by myself do I need help? And not being afraid to ask friends and family for help? That sense of community is really what can can build us and take us through times, I was a very independent person. My wife thinks I was the most independent person in the world. And the fact that this happened to me and forced me to accept love and support and the help of other people was really difficult for me to do. But I’ve learned that that’s that’s the whole point of why we’re here I think is is to be a part of a community and to help one another and there’s there’s no way you can get through life by yourself.

Alan
Visiting here today with Jerry Carroll for those of you who just tuned in, Jerry has been telling about the the hunting acts in the hat a year ago and how that’s changed his life is like being amputated and and and it’s been 180 degree turn perspective. So Jerry, if if you could be remembered for just one thing in life, what would that be?

Jerry
My generosity and my willingness to help other people.

Alan
Tell you have more of a life of service.

Jerry
Yes, I what I found in love from my community of friends and family is what I hope that I’m remembered for by them.

Alan
Jerry really appreciate all the great insight you tell him this story here today and and for being on today’s show. Thank you. It was a pleasure. We’ve been visiting here today with cherry Carroll tourney burnin the brown and we’ll be right back after these messages. Welcome back God over the break Jerry and I were visiting and one of the things that they are very emotional and traumatic event is going through what he went through with the honey accent in this last year. But you know, one thing we didn’t cover is is Why did you move out from Europe? firm owning your own firm with a partner to, to joining with a large organization and how did that whole transition? Yeah.

Jerry
I was laying in bed, literally wondering how I could simplify my life and owning a small business is not a simple thing. And I, my partner had semi retired a few years earlier, he was still working with me. But he had decided that he was going to retire in 2016. And in fact, was going to do so right about the time I accident happened. Being the the partner but much more than a partner, he’s a friend, he’s become a dear friend, he unretired and came back and ran the firm while I was in bed. But while I was laying in bed, wondering how I was going to simplify my life, literally the phone rang. And it was a recruiter who said that he had a law firm who might be interested in a lawyer with trial skills and a book of business, which is me. And so we talked for awhile, and he said, after we talked that he thought there were other firms that might be interested in me. So he ended up marketing me to several firms. As it turned out, I got to burn them brown simply because I knew somebody there and had to happen to run into them. And so I started talking to them as well, I had offers from San Francisco firms, but I ultimately decided I did not want to commute into San Francisco. And so Burnham Brown was a firm that I had known from my early days, very well respected as it turns out, a very old from dating back to 1895. And so I met with them, it was a great feeling from the very beginning. And I ended up signing with him. And it’s it’s been one of the best decisions of my life.

Alan
What things have you gone through in the transition from the small to the big firm?

Jerry
Certainly having to, to ask permission to do things, things that I used to automatically do on my own, I now have to talk to you know people about and make sure that everyone’s okay with it. That’s that’s been one of the more difficult things is, is realizing that I can’t just do anything on my own. But the support that they give me is, is well worth that trade off.

Alan
What about your partner did he come with you to he live a different direction,

Jerry
So he he had postponed his retirement to take care of the firm while I was in bed. Once I was able to come back to work in about June or July of last year, he finally sailed off into the sunset and is very happy now.

Alan
Now, in a day in a weekly basis, are you did you cut back the hour? So you could do different things or what you want? What are you doing differently now?

Jerry
The hours are about the same. What’s nice is that I only have a 10 minute drive to work instead of commuting into San Francisco. And so that’s given me two to three hours a day back of my life. And so I tried to use that time to I have lots of therapies that I’m still doing physical therapy. I also see a psychologist that’s recommended by the doctors anytime you lose a limb. So I have and then I have doctor appointments. So it gives me time to do those sorts of things. It also gives me time frankly, to to rest because there are days where by the time I get home, I’m exhausted.

Alan
Well, Jerry, it’s been it’s been an amazing year from the standpoint of life changing experiences, getting a different perspective. And we appreciate you coming on today’s today’s show.

Jerry
Thank you, Alan, it’s it’s been it’s been a great pleasure.

Alan
Visiting with Jerry Carroll partner Burnham or brown and thanks for being with us this week on American Dreams and join us next week right here on this stage.

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

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