16W Media Group Presents The Branding Highway Podcast
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors.
16W Media Group Presents The Branding Highway Podcast
Telese Zuberer: Navigating Legal Horizons - From Sarasota's Community Building to Real Estate Expertise and Balancing Life's Adventures
Curious about the intersection of community building and legal expertise? Join us on the Good Neighbor Podcast as we sit down with Telese Zuberer, the dynamic president of Icard Merrill. Gain unique insights into how this Sarasota-based firm with offices in Lakewood Ranch and Punta Gorda balances a range of services from family law to real estate and community association law. Discover how their preference for in-office work, bolstered by team-building activities like biannual ski trips, fosters a culture of camaraderie and professional excellence.
Managing a 65-seat call center and a legal practice with 30 attorneys might sound daunting, but Telese shares the secrets behind her effective leadership. From her high school epiphany to dodge Friday law school classes, her journey to becoming a lawyer is both intriguing and inspiring. We also venture into the intricate world of homeowners association law, where trivial homeowner complaints can have significant implications. This conversation offers a fascinating look at the challenges and rewards of this specialized legal field.
From tackling complex real estate issues like condominium termination and land use disputes to sharing personal anecdotes about hiking Machu Picchu and attending U2 concerts in Las Vegas, Telese brings a wealth of experience and personal flair. We compare Florida's coastal beauty with mountainous terrain, reflect on Sarasota's transformation, and even touch on our mutual love for college football. This episode is a captivating blend of professional insights and personal stories that you won't want to miss!
Icard Merrill is a full-service law firm based in Sarasota, Florida. Since 1953, Icard Merrill has been committed to providing exceptional legal services to Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte counties. We deliver innovative and effective legal solutions through dedicated and caring professionals. Our individual practice groups, working both independently and cooperatively, strive to provide the most thorough representation possible.
Icard Merrill's dedication to our clients is matched only by our commitment to the community. Our lawyers and staff work diligently to improve the communities in which we work and live, spending countless hours each year supporting organizations that maintain and enrich the lives of residents and visitors alike.
www.icardmerrill.com
(941)366-8100
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Sedita.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast presented by 16W Media Group. I am your host, Mike Sedita, and today we're joined by Talese Zuberer. She is the president of iCard. Merrill Talese, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm great Thanks for asking. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. I'm just kind of like intermittent thunderstorms every day this time of year here in Florida. So this is our second take of trying to do this. I think the last time we tried to record. This is like I'm like Deadpool, I'm breaking down the fourth wall here a little bit for the audience. You know we've tried to record a couple weeks ago and we just weren't able to do it. So thank you so much for being on the Good Neighbor podcast. Just so you know what the Good Neighbor podcast is and how we got started.
Speaker 2:During COVID, the podcast was started as a way for business owners and local charities to get their message out to the community while still being socially distant. You're in your office, I'm in my studio, so we're able to have this open line of communication and get the message out. And now, four plus years later since COVID it seems like it was yesterday, but four plus years later we have Good Neighbor podcasts all over the United States. I'm lucky to be the person here. I'm in Tampa, but I cover the state of Florida, talking to folks that run businesses and are C-level folks. And, with that being said, first and foremost, tell us a little bit about I-Card Merrill, what do you guys do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are located mainly out of Sarasota. We've got a couple of offices that are larger one in downtown Sarasota, one in Lakewood Ranch and then a satellite office in Punta Gorda. We also extend far beyond our physical office locations, doing practicing law in most of central Florida, going further north and a little bit further south as well, but it's a general group of attorneys practicing in almost every area of the law that you might need in your day-to-day living. We've got family law, we've got estate planning and probate. We have a big litigation real estate. We've got certainly, land use and development. I do community association law, which is representation of condo and homeowner associations. So a good number of the types of things that you might need on a day-to-day basis contract, landlord, tenant. We've got just about 30 attorneys between our offices to be able to assist with general legal needs.
Speaker 2:So you know, talking about COVID and how it's kind of changed the work dynamic, are most of your folks based like in an office, or do they just kind of use an office, for lack of a better example, like a real estate agent, like when they need to come have a meeting in an office? A lot of stuff is done this way these days.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we're the anomaly, we're one of the few law firms that I know of where just about all of our attorneys are full-time in the office. That doesn't mean we don't have days that we won't work from home Okay. But I'm often asked the question how do we get everybody back to the office? And I think it's our general culture and just the feeling that we would prefer to be together. We do a lot of things, obviously, in the office together as far as networking and helping each other out, but we have a good number of attorneys that will do things socially outside of the office and we take annual retreats and I think that has created this nexus and this synergy which actually makes attorneys want to come into the office. So 90, 95% of our attorneys work mainly in the office, with some remote days, but not for the most part.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you guys do you do annual retreats? What time of year do you guys usually do that, and is it just you guys pick a location? Is it organized to pick a location to go around?
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, we've been around since 1953. For the last 70 years we just hit our 70th anniversary last year we have had about every other year a ski trip. We're talking about all the fun things. I'm so glad we're able to talk about the fun things that make us unique in our firm. Well, listen.
Speaker 2:This is the thing about the Good Neighbor podcast. We interview lawyers and doctors and real estate people and very, very professional folks.
Speaker 2:The game plan is to take down that wall a little bit so that people see like you know, you lawyers, you're just people too there's not, you know as much as we have lawyer jokes oh, I mean, there's lawyer jokes till the end of the day but we want to be like you guys do cool stuff and you don't have to be afraid to contact a lawyer. Unless you're a karen in a in a subdivision, then you don't want to contact you. That's we'll get into that in a minute.
Speaker 3:But in a minute, right? No, absolutely right, and it is. It's created this nexus and where we have this synergy, so we end up on ski trips, uh, mainly every other year. It's been our firm history and it's definitely done, done about february or march, and we take all of the attorneys and uh, at this, at this time, where we're at in today's world, the spouses are significant, others are, you know, can come as well, and it just helps us to connect and I think that connection has given us an opportunity to get along with each other and want to be together. But I find it certainly strengthens our relationships then with our clients as well, our relationships then with our clients as well, and where we it's not just me and what I can do for you, it's what the firm can do collectively, and so it's given us a little bit of a different style, and if your attorney is not as fun as those that go on ski trips or want to hang out together, then you might have the wrong attorney. They should be a little bit more fun.
Speaker 2:Well. So there's a couple of things with that right, like if you're bringing spouses on the trip, when you're working your long hours, your significant other knows like, oh, I'm doing this to help somebody else at the office, or we're working on something collectively. Now does every significant other like the home life balance has to be important, but at least there's a connection. It's not just I'm going to a faceless place where you don't know anybody. That's there. It definitely builds that community aspect to the firm, which is nice. The only other firm, like Bendetti and Locke on the movie, the firm had the much closer, close knit, but we won't get into what they were doing. So the other question I had um, oh gosh, it totally. Oh, that's what I was gonna ask you.
Speaker 2:So as a firm, you guys handle all these different lines, like these different, you know, legal lines. Do a lot of your clients or do it like, um, don't know. I'm trying to think of a company. Say, you have a large property manager, a commercial real estate company. Do you guys handle if they're part of an association? You would handle that. Then there's a real estate attorney that handles something else. There's, I don't know, multiple attorneys work on one account. I mean a long way to me. Forget to get to that question, or is it kind of just one off? Like you have a group of clients, another line has a group of clients, etc.
Speaker 3:And now it's a little bit more like the former. Now, ultimately, the buck stops for my clients, the buck stops with me. But I have many, many clients with land use issues. For example, you're trying to figure out easements, trying to deal with zoning questions. In my area of law we've got a wetland preserves behind the homeowners association and things like that. So I'm bringing in our litigation attorney, I'm bringing our land, but only when needed and ultimately, if the client needs something, you know I'm the one the buck stops with me. So I will make sure that I'm not just passing them off to the next attorney. And our whole network is set up this way for the firm, where the client remains your client, and so you're ultimately in charge. You're ultimately in charge, which gives some credence to the client's ability to be able to say, hey, I need something and I need something fast. Here's my one connection I know I can always reach, but it really gives us the bandwidth to help on a lot of different issues that might otherwise be outside of my purview.
Speaker 2:Right, you don't got to refer out. Like I have a friend who handles MedMal. That's their one specialty. When they get certain cases, like if they get a marital law or family law, they refer that out. You guys kind of keep all of it basically in house with all those different arms. You know, when we introduced you in the beginning we said president. You know your title is president. I mean, are you overseeing 30 other attorneys? Are you the head cheese? Like you are the top of the list there. So you have to deal with 29 other lawyers and the personalities in the firm.
Speaker 3:I think you just called me the cheese head.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:I'm the head cheese.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so are you from Green Bay? Are you from Wisconsin?
Speaker 3:I just picked up on that. I am, I am the president of the firm, so I am the one calling our board meetings internally, our shareholder meetings, on the ones that are looking at vision. Where do we want to be? How do we want to be? What's our culture? You know big decisions, such as, you know, upgrades to our software, our systems, whether we're open or business. So the actual business of the law firm is run by a board of directors and I am the point I am the point on that.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny. I just thinking about that. It got a little overwhelming in my head as I started to ask that question Because at one point in my career I managed in a 65 seat call center and it was the worst job ever because it was like adult daycare, it was literally babysitting.
Speaker 2:And then I started to panic because I'm thinking of you doing it with 30 attorneys that are all like legal, like objection, like I can picture them coming to you and finding objection that is not out of order. That is out of order. I can picture them coming to you and finding objection that is not out of that is out of work. I can picture the arguments being very litigious in the office, back and forth.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is like herding cats and if you and how you are envisioning it can be absolutely accurate. So, inherently, while I'm a lot of fun and enjoy what I do, yes, I can put my foot down and be a little.
Speaker 2:You got to be the boss.
Speaker 3:You do, you got to fit in that role. If you're going to do it, I will say we've got a great board of directors. We have a firm administrator that deals a lot with the staff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you delegate a lot. We've got committees for different things, which helps, so it's not all just me, which is very fortunate. You wouldn't want one person running.
Speaker 2:No, no no, yeah, I mean you'd be miserable. I mean you would be absolutely miserable. You would never be smiling, you would just grunt at people at various hours of the day depending on your caffeine level and hunger level. So let me ask you a little bit about your personal background. So clearly you know being a lawyer. You're obviously highly educated, passed the bar, did all that stuff when you were a little girl. Did you want to be a lawyer? I mean, were you on the playground like yelling at other kids to get in line and do stuff, or did you have dreams of, you know, maybe playing, you know field hockey, or being a ballerina or something else that wasn't as stringent, as strict as this?
Speaker 3:Well, you can't see me since I'm sitting down, but I was never going to be able to be the ballerina at 5'11", so that dream was already gone, right away WNBA.
Speaker 3:So there you go, so looking more along those lines. I actually figured out in high school, as you're taking, and trying to figure out what you want to do, where you want to go to school. It did not run in my family. I don't have attorneys in my family it just ended up being that a niche that I had found, that I like the research, I liked writing, I like speaking.
Speaker 1:Like reading yeah.
Speaker 3:I like reading. There's a lot of reading a lot of reading. And I've been doing it for 25 years now, since 1999. And, quite honestly, still love what I do, so I obviously chose the right thing.
Speaker 2:You know, when you said 1999 and that was 25 years ago that was a little shot, a little shot to my heart that you said that. But like being why? Like homeowners associations, like how did you funnel into that? Because that is a very specific niche. And I made a joke about Karen's because in my old neighborhood that I lived in when I first moved to Tampa, like there would be police coming to these meetings for the to deal with the attorney that had to put people in order. But do you deal with a lot of Karens from communities that are mad because their neighbors don't pull the garbage can in? Or is it not that granular, it's more global setting it up?
Speaker 3:It definitely has a piece of that. I describe it more as corporate law. I represent the association. It's run by a board of directors. We're trying to figure out our contracts. We're trying to figure out budgeting, what we can use the money for, dealing with, you know, very significant issues, the bigger that they are dealing with land use and real estate questions. So it's a lot more corporate. Some of it has employment, but there is the piece of it that everybody knows Covenants and things like that.
Speaker 3:Covenants. You know you parked in the wrong place. Your dog is too fat. You know your tenant wasn't approved. There's a piece of it.
Speaker 2:I can tell you some of the I mean some neighborhoods are crazy. Like I work in a bunch of these neighborhoods that my ad agency, we do a bunch of stuff with some of the neighborhoods and one you couldn't have a fence, so I was out because I have dogs, so they're like you see Norman in the graphic, I literally couldn't live there. I mean not that Norman would go anywhere, he's too fat. No, no offense, norman, he's here in the studio, um, but like I needed a fence, couldn't do that. Another one you couldn't have a basketball court up like a rim in the front of your house. Some of the stuff you got. You couldn't have more than one.
Speaker 2:This is my favorite one. You couldn't have more than two planters in front of your house, like some of that and people get like you couldn't pay me. I don't know what you make. I don't need to know what you make. There is not amount. There's not an amount enough to sit in one of those meetings and let a person come up and berate me because my neighbor has three planters in front of their house and they're violating the covenant. I just could not do it, god bless.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it does, it comes up. I will say in this area of law that I fell into in law school, by the way, because this one class fit into my schedule so I didn't have to have Friday classes. I mean, you know how that goes right, so wait a minute.
Speaker 2:You practice.
Speaker 3:You practice this type of law because you wanted to have a three day weekend. Is that what you're telling everybody? I mean, at least it worked out for me in the long run and you got a career out of it and you got three day weekends in college.
Speaker 2:You can start going to the bar on Thursday night instead of waiting until Friday. Okay, I get it. Now I see how we're going here.
Speaker 3:So I figured out I actually liked it and then so I took a second class and then I ended up working for the professor in his firm and so the reality is, there's pieces of it that that piece on the covenant enforcement is the part that is truly the most. What do you want to call it? Glamorous, shocking, all of it. That that piece on the covenant enforcement is the part that is it is truly can the most.
Speaker 3:What do you want to call it glamorous, shocking, all of it it is it's newsworthy, so that's what you hear about, but and it doesn't happen. But inherently, the the piece that is um bigger is that it's a it's corporate law it's right, you right, you're doing contracts, you're negotiating vendor relationships, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it happens. So would that be. I mean, listen, when I hear that you do association law, that's the first thing I go to. Is that the biggest misconception that you run into? When you tell people this is what I do? And then the flip side to that is, as the president of the firm and you're kind of the over, you know the overlying person in the group how much of the day to day are you practicing versus managing all the other things that are going on in the firm? What is that percentage allocation?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's starting with that question. First, it is interesting what I think I do because now we've got summer interns. We have two summer interns which are law school students for the summer, and both weeks that I've had the interns assigned to me for, you know, learn my area of law I've had to tell them well, you're going to have to leave my office, You're going to have to go do something for the afternoon, something else, because I'm doing my admin part and other issues come up. We've got a meeting, I've got an emergency, so more than you'd think. But I've got a really good team of attorneys, paralegals, that inherently I can say, hey, get this started, deal with this issue, and so that helps, so that I'm not really dropping the ball. The buck stops with me, as I said. But that helps.
Speaker 3:And then you know, is it really as accurate? Yeah, sometimes it really is as accurate. On the glamorous of the violations, that is what people think, but I think there's so much more that is really heavy and substantive things that are very complicated. I'm dealing with the termination of a condominium right now. That's a complicated deal. I'm dealing with several lawsuits having to do with land use and who has rights for the golf course that's embedded or next door and things like that. Those are totally different kinds of levels of issues than the overweight dog, and for the overweight dog issues we're required to go to pre-suit mediation. So 90% of those get resolved before you ever get into litigation, right?
Speaker 2:So Okay, so you just you've made reference to terminating a condo and again, this is again misconception, kind of misunderstanding. You say that and what I think is a condo is like falling apart and it needs to be like taken down somehow. When you say that, am I reading that right or is it something different from that?
Speaker 3:You're reading it right, and this particular one is that kind of situation where it is bought out.
Speaker 2:It's a disrepair.
Speaker 3:Well, it wasn't, but it's better.
Speaker 3:Higher and better use is for a high rise, not for what's there oh, okay, gotcha yeah, I've also done partial terminations where it's just it's not gonna ever get off the ground, so we're not going to do this part of it. Um, where it's not falling down, it just hasn't been built and so we'll do a partial termination based on what's actually was planned originally. We're going to change the plan, so it just depends. But it is, you're right, it's fairly complicated. There's a lot to it. Each one's different. Those are a lot of the heavier related issues that you might not even know or think of. We just think of covenant enforcement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's crazy Like I can tell you a quick story. I grew up in northern new jersey in a town called woodridge woodridge and you could look this up. I mean I'm probably some of the facts are a little diluted here, but woodridge, um, is a one square mile town in bergen county, new jersey that for 50 years had the lowest tax rate of any town in this area and it's super expensive to live there. The reason for that was a company called Curtis Wright was an airplane manufacturer and their underground warehouses where all the planes were like a bunch of planes were built for World War II. They were the single largest taxpayer in Woodridge for my youth in the 70s and into the 80s. And then a very thought he was a very smart attorney, a local city attorney, community attorney said you know what? We're going to go back to them and we're going to rezone X, y and Z and get them to pay their fair share. Of course Curtis Wright had, you know, their fleet of attorneys and it ended up working out where they found a loophole to get out of paying a bunch of the taxes they were paying and my community went from the lowest taxes in Bergen County, new Jersey to one of the higher tax rates in the community.
Speaker 2:And the reason I tell that whole story is because then 30, 40 years later the town went back and eminent domained a chunk of this property because it was just not being used. It was truly in disrepair, like it was factories. It was run down and they turned it around and they got something out of it 30 years later. But one cutesy attorney in the local area kind of thought he was going to get slick and say we're going to increase your rateable amount and it ended up screwing the whole town for a long, long time. That's the type of stuff here we think in Florida, we think communities like Lakewood Ranch or Tampa Palms or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:But that was kind of a situation where that happened Pretty cool and I just happened to be involved in it. I wasn't involved in it, my dad was involved in the local community, so I kind of got to see a lot of the stuff that went on. It was crazy. So we've talked for 20 minutes about pretty heady stuff about your firm and all the different arms you guys have, and that you're the head lady in charge, the head cheese head in charge. What do you do for fun when you're not in the office. I mean, do you, you know, go? Do you like the beach? Do you like to go? Go skydiving? What do you do when you're not in the office?
Speaker 3:I love to travel, I love to hike, um so traveling that's exercise well, kind of. I just got back from montepiccio.
Speaker 2:That was both traveling and hiking that's all right, that's full, yeah, so, so, yeah, so, traveling where so, other than montepichu? Where else have you been in 2024?
Speaker 3:in 2024. Where have I been? Well, I saw um. I saw you two play in vegas.
Speaker 2:By the way, it was fair, just I'm going to see girl jam playing missoula montana in august montana is where I'm headed in two weeks.
Speaker 3:So there we go. Like the same areas again, I'll be hiking, and in the mountains that's the area to do it.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's beautiful country, not like here where everything's flat yeah, I'll be, headed to rotterdam, um, in the fall, um, and you know we've been, uh, skiing, we went skiing in colorado, um, so really just a lot, of, a lot of travel, if we can, you know, as much as you can try to, and you can take the laptop with you in the morning, I get up to kind of do a little here and there to keep everything you know, make sure we're good.
Speaker 3:It works for the most part, so I'm able to travel a decent amount and and check things out. And you kind of got to do that for your sanity, especially after you know the intensity of a lot of these issues.
Speaker 2:So are you from Florida originally? Where are you originally from St Pete?
Speaker 3:I was born and raised there, st Pete.
Speaker 2:So you're telling me you're from St Pete, literally on the beach, but you prefer to go to like the mountains and hike. You're a.
Speaker 3:Florida girl, florida woman, and you want to get out and go to the mountains to get away from everything. You know, I don't think it was always that way. I think, as I've gotten older and checked more things out, I think at this point it's been a little bit of been there, done that and it doesn't excite me to get up and do that, quite as much as you know the cooler weather or some different scenery.
Speaker 3:So don't get me wrong, we live in paradise, this whole area, sarasota in particular. I'd say but but yeah, I'm looking forward to I'm always looking forward to getting out and taking a hike where I, as I walk out the door, you know I don't look like I've just taken a shower and sweat.
Speaker 2:So that's what it is. You walk outside, especially this time of year, you just sweat. I will tell you so. I lived in atlanta for 11 years before I moved to tampa in 2019, but my parents lived in venice. So I would come to venice, which is right down the road from sarasota and sarasota. I'll tell you if you you've been there, for you've been there since 99. I mean, I don't know how long you've been in sarasota, but how long, uh?
Speaker 3:2001 I moved here to sarasota from miami.
Speaker 2:My grandparents were in in venice, so so watching the transformation of sarasota over the last 20 years. It's amazing. Like when we first started coming to sarasota, my parents moved to venice in 2000, um, and they lived on. They didn't live on the island, they lived just off the island, but but we would go to Sarasota because Siesta Key, in my opinion still. I've been to Maui, I've been to the Caribbean, I've done all that. To me Siesta Key's beach is still the nicest. The sand is the most beautiful whatever People can critique me and tell me clear water and all these other places. But you used to go to Sarasota and it was kind of like you'd try to get to the beach to avoid some of the stuff you know in that area and Bradenton and all that. And now it's absolutely beautiful what they've done in that area. It amazes me. It's just it's transformed. The whole city has transformed, as I'm sure Tampa has. But I just know firsthand from that, from Sarasota.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely it, as I'm sure Tampa has. But I just know firsthand from that from Sarasota yeah, absolutely, it's changed immensely. I would say generally for the butter. But I do understand what's that small town intimate feel. But the beauty of it I think so much of what they have done has has been to grow it very well and it's, it's gorgeous well it's crazy Like.
Speaker 2:So a good friend of mine lives in Lakewood ranch. I train, I work out with him. He has a private gym in Lakewood ranch so I go there pretty frequently and it's crazy. Getting off at university, I just go to the left, I go East Cause his place is right there towards Lakewood ranch but like just going to the right and watching the flow of traffic it is. It used to be like you could run to the Sarasota airport from Venice and it's like, oh, no big deal, I'll just run up there and pick somebody up. And then it got to a point where it was just like woof, this Sarasota airport's, this tiny airport, but that road is just is slammed, it's tough to get around. Do you? I mean, do you live close to the office? Do you fight a lot of that traffic or it's still not too bad for you?
Speaker 3:I actually live in Bradenton, almost to Anna Maria.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you got to come down.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's, you know it's. It's pretty close to a 35, 45 minute drive to downtown Sarasota. But I went to law school in Miami so everything seems doable. It still doesn't bother me to do the.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I listen. I lived in Atlanta for a while. I lived in Atlanta in the 90s, before the Olympics, when I was younger, and then I moved back in 08 and lived there for 11 years. Every time somebody complains about some road in Wesley Chapel, I'm just like listen, you just have no idea. Like having to catch the light twice here is nothing compared to sitting in stopped traffic on a highway in Atlanta that's eight lanes wide. It's just, it's just insanity. So so you were in. Did you go to the University of Miami? Is that where you went to law school? It is, so you're a hurricane. So, like you're here, do you like root for? Are you into sports? Do you watch any of that stuff?
Speaker 3:oh yeah, very like big time jerseys. I got the ibis that you blow up. You know, everybody knows when the opening day is so it's all canes all the time well, it's a little bit of a problem for the rest of my family who went to gainesville well, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 2:If you're from st pete, they probably went right up the road they did, and I lived.
Speaker 3:I lived in Gainesville for, let's see, second to seventh grade. So, um, and I do, I do like it. I can't say anything. But yeah, canes, it's where I went to, you know where I went to school.
Speaker 2:When you were there, I mean, was that like the Jeremy Shockey years? I I mean, is that around that time?
Speaker 3:It's just about. I was there a little earlier than that, perhaps slightly.
Speaker 2:We don't have to divulge Enough. Said you were there during the Jeremy Shockey year. We'll just say that and we'll leave it at that. I will say that. They had some great teams, I mean. But again, like anything else, like going to school in Miami and the scene down there, I don't know how anybody and to go to law school, no less, to concentrate with all the stuff going on around you, it's got to. I'm sure you have stories. That's for our Good Neighbor podcast after dark series that we do Totally different, totally different.
Speaker 2:So so, with that being said, as we start to wrap things up, what is the one? I mean you guys do a lot of stuff. I mean there's a lot of things you have going on, but if there was one thing you wanted to tell listeners who might need to hire an attorney, why do they need to come to you guys over the? I don't know. I could throw a rock and hit 15 attorneys from my studio, attorneys from my studio Isn't that right.
Speaker 3:So you know it kind of goes back to the way we began the synergy and congeniality we have with our group. Our attorneys trust each other, Our attorneys trust the process and it shows that in the way that we practice law and the way that our firm deals with the judges. You know our firm, for example, is the number one firm for our pro bono hours and service in this area. So the judges trust us. So we're a group of people that have a high standard of ourselves and our clients should then be able to expect that as well. And if you can't trust your attorney to do the best for you and, by the way, and do it in such a way that it should be somewhat more enjoyable than getting a root canal, I mean it really attorneys don't have to be a complete wet blanket Most of the time.
Speaker 3:If you're seeing an attorney, it can be a very highly stressful time in your life. It can be a situation where it's a life-changing event or decision being made. So there's going to be a lot at stake for the most part when you're dealing with an attorney. Anyway, if your attorney can't make you feel comfortable so that you've got the trust and somewhat enjoy the process, at least as a person, because they are people behind the scenes, and I think that was the biggest message that hopefully we got through today is that we're people, we have family, we have things we like to do, and if you can't talk to them like a person that is educated to be able to help you with whatever you're going through or needing, then you might have the wrong attorney.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean truly, that is the biggest thing. Like no one's have the wrong attorney. So, yeah, I mean that is truly that is the biggest thing. Like no one's coming to an attorney to have ice cream. It's like there's no you know to bring their puppy dog to go pet puppy dogs. You're going to an attorney because you either had a car accident or some sort of PI case, medical malpractice, or you're in probate over some estate, or like nobody goes to an attorney for fun. And I think that's the hardest part about that whole profession which gives it kind of a. You know that all the jokes and all the other stuff with it, but finding somebody you're comfortable with is important. So with that, if, if we need an attorney, how do we get a hold of you guys?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we've got our website, which is wwwicardmarylcom. You Google us, check us out. We've got all our attorney profiles there and general description of the types of law that we do. You can post questions on our website that we'll send through portals and you know, generally, just call and and you know, see the people that you'd be working with, which attorney you'd be working with, the paralegal that might put you involved and so see how we can can fit your needs based on whatever you have going on.
Speaker 2:So more than that 941-366-8100.
Speaker 2:So, folks, if you're listening to this or watching it on our YouTube channel and you need an attorney and you have maybe it's property management, maybe it's some sort of estate planning, whatever it is, In I-Cart Merrill you are going to find a firm that has a culture that cultivates teamwork and collaboration. Anywhere in Central Florida they will be able to work with you, but they're mainly focused in the Sarasota Lakewood Ranch area. Find an attorney that's going to hold their team accountable and make you feel comfortable in what you do, and if you do that, you need to contact iCardMeryl, iCardMerylcom or 941-366-8100. Talese, thank you so much for being on the Good Neighbor podcast. I appreciate your time today.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me. I sure appreciate that as well.
Speaker 2:Talk to you soon.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast PASCO. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPascocom. That's GNPPascocom, or call 813-922-3610.