Legal Insights and Life Lessons with Bell Wilson Law

Join Alex Seay from Bird Law Group in the inaugural episode of "Bird's Eye View," a vlog-cast that brings together legal professionals for insightful discussions and relationship building. In this episode, Alex welcomes Peyton Bell and Matthew Wilson of the newly formed Bell Wilson Law firm. The trio, friends since law school, dive into a range of topics.

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Transcript

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I'm Alex C. with Bird Law Group. I'm Alex C. with Bird Law Group and this is the first episode of Bird's Eye View, a new vlog cast that we're doing here at the firm to bring other lawyers in the community in to speak with them, to grow relationships, and really just to have some fun. And today, here with us, we have Bell Wilson Law, we have Peyton and Matthew. If you guys want to introduce yourselves. Alex, so good to be with you. I'm so glad you guys are here. On the first episode, so I think that means we're VIPs, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, we've known each other since law school, so who better than to have on here than old friends? That's right. So I'm Matthew Wilson and this is Peyton Bell and we just started our new firm, Bell Wilson Law. Peyton, you want to tell them about our new firm? Yeah. So my name is Peyton Bell. Just like Matthew and I just started our new firm, Bell Wilson Law. Before that, I actually leased space from Alex and Bird Law Group for the first two years that I had launched my own law firm. And being on this podcast is really a fun way to bring all of my worlds together. The first firm I've worked at during law school, I was a summer associate with Alex at Bird Law Group. I forgot about that. Yeah. And then when I graduated from law school, I didn't have a job and I called Alex and I was like, hey, can y 'all help me out? And she got me a contract position at Bird Law Group that I did for like four or five months before I went and worked at a couple of different firms over the course of several years. And when I started my own firm, I was like, hey, I want to come back. to work around in this space with y 'all. And so worked here for two years out of this office before Matthew and I started our own firm. Came home to Bird Law Group and then Matthew stole him. He flew the coop. He did, he did. I'm so glad that you guys are here today though. So instead of jumping right into serious content, I wanted to start with something that maybe is a little more fun. So what is your favorite wing place in Atlanta? So I actually just learned that Matthew's a pescatarian except for chicken wings. Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing, okay? Because I'm a pescatarian, which means I only eat fish. I don't eat any other meat, but I haven't always been a pescatarian and chicken wings are my weakness. So whenever my husband has chicken wings for dinner, I do steal a few of them, but we like to call those salmon wings. They're not technically chicken wings. Oh, then that way you're still a pescarian, right? Yeah, but you live in Atlanta. You have to eat wings, right? I think that's like a given, isn't it? And then throw them on the ground, right? And then take a photo of it and post it on social media. That's right. If you don't do that, then you don't live in Atlanta. So where's the favorite place to get salmon wings or chicken wings for you guys in Atlanta? Yeah, I don't really understand this salmon wing concept, so I'm going to ignore that. Really, the top places for chicken wings are J .R. Crickets has really great lemon pepper wings. And then there's a couple different places around town that smoke their wings really nicely. So Fox Brothers makes really good chicken wings. And they smoke them and then I think they flash fry them. And that really brings out this nice little smoky flavor in the wing and moisture in the actual meat of it. But it's a little crispy on the outside. So that's the best. I feel like some of your culinary, maybe nerdiness is coming out here. You're a Traeger guy, right? Yes, yes. So that is your, I can't smoke food. The best smoked food is food that someone else smokes for me. Because that does not come out well. But I'll have to try Fox Brothers. I don't think I've ever had their wings. Yeah, very, very, very good chicken wings. Oh, what about you, Matthew? Whatever's on Robert's plate. Fair enough, fair enough. So speaking of Atlanta, one of the news stories I saw recently kind of touches on law that I think you guys do a lot of. I saw that the racetrack on Piedmont was closing down after a 21 -year -old was killed on their property. What did you guys think about that? Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people think of personal injury firms and you think of your automobile crashes. your slip and falls. But most people don't think about premises liability cases if you don't practice them on a regular basis. But those landlords and owners have a duty and a responsibility to keep their premises safe. And unfortunately, this place was known for not doing that. But experience on premises liability cases. That racetrack is actually just a couple blocks south of our office. I think it's a good thing if a business like that closes. Because we have these crime issues that come up in society. And there's two ways that crime is really addressed through the legal system. Most people are aware of the criminal aspect of it where you the police or whoever arrests the actual person who commits a crime. But that doesn't really have a lot of success in preventing future crimes. Other people commit crimes all the time. What we do is we apply the Georgia law that requires commercial property owners who make money by operating businesses on properties, and they know that one of the costs associated with their business is that violent conduct crimes will happen on their properties. And if they know that that is a cost to the operation of their property that they're making money on and they do nothing to prevent it, well then they're passing that cost onto their customers and the general public. And that's where we come in and when a murder or a shooting or someone that is injured on a property through no fault of their own, we look at who's responsible. Well obviously a person who actually pulls the trigger has some level of responsibility for what happened. But the property owner or the manager who has known for years that there is this pattern of violent conduct happening in and around this space and has the capability of taking basic steps, adding a security guard, adding a security camera. I mean these are industry standard practices and when they decide not to do them just to save a hundred dollars a month or five hundred dollars a month or a thousand dollars a month, it costs people's lives. And a lot of times the you know the customers and the people in the community assume that the property owner is taking those steps, that they have security, that they have security cameras there because you know most I mean most people in Atlanta have at least one. camera on their house at home, right? Everybody's got a doorbell camera, right? Everybody's got a doorbell camera. That's an easy thing. But a lot of times in these hotspot places, you find out they've done nothing for years and years. And so it just attracts this element that makes the overall community much more dangerous. And they know about it. Yeah. Right. And do you find that in those types of cases when you start investigating and you're looking for security cameras or prior crimes that they do in fact know that they aren't protecting against things that are foreseeable or crimes that are going to happen again because they've happened in the past. Yeah. I've handled several of these cases and there's kind of a pattern to them. And the pattern is that I ask in Discovery for them to produce documents and budgets and information relating to security. And every single time, every single time the response is, We do not have that. We don't know what you're asking for. So then I have to dig a little deeper and a little deeper and I have to send them letters asking for it specifying. I mean, they'll say that they've never had an evaluation of the property made. Well, I can't sell my house, my personal residence, without a due diligence report. And these commercial properties are selling for millions of dollars and they're claiming that no one ever made an assessment about violence or crime in the neighborhood, which is just absurd and it's never true. Right. And I always have to fight them and I have to go to a judge and I have to get a motion to compel a heard by judge granted sometimes sanctions. And then lo and behold, we end up getting budgets for the property. We end up getting due diligence reports, a lot of information that shows that they knew that violent crime was going to happen on their property. Do you all from your experience with premises liability cases, what advice would you give a commercial property owner as far as what they should be doing, the steps they should be taking to protect the public? I mean, I feel like you can just boil it down to be a good neighbor. Fair. You know, be some be a place of business that is thinking about the overall community. And, you know, you should know the other tenants and if you're in a residential area, the other residents that are nearby, you should have a relationship with them. And they'll let you know very quick what you are or not doing to protect the community. But just be a good neighbor. And if you see something is, you know, a bad element on your property, you need to take steps to address that. And that doesn't necessarily mean you've got to spend half of your budget to address that. But you've got to do just small things will will address those very big problems. And if If you do it on the front end, then it doesn't aggregate and become a much bigger problem later on down the road. That makes a lot of sense. There are also industry accepted policies and procedures for these properties. I get asked a lot of times during depositions or the other side will say, well, what did you expect us to do? Well, it's not my job to go through and figure out what each property is supposed to be doing to make it safe. There are national organizations for apartment complex management and for convenience store management and they actually have best practices. They have training. They have national standards and guides on how to keep properties safe. Establishing good, appropriate policies and procedures and then following them. them, and that will help them on the back end because if something does happen at their property and they were taking steps to prevent it and something happened anyway, well, you know, then that's a sad situation. But if they fail to do anything to prevent it from happening, well, then that's their fault. Right. And that's where a firm like Bell Wilson would come in and help that person get justice for what happened. I have a question for you, Alex. So y 'all do mostly medical malpractice and I think that there would be something similar in that world. Like what do you do when doctors or hospitals push back and ask you to explain like, well, what would you have had us do? You know, it's interesting. And I think I would go to a similar set of guidelines that are in the medical community, right? It's called the standard of care and it's developed and understood by doctors who practice in the same area as what's involved in the case that I'm looking at. There are hospital policies and procedures, but a lot of times, just like the defendants in these premises cases, we have hospitals who come back to us and we ask for the relevant policies and procedures and say, well, which ones do you want? Well, how am I supposed to know what your policies and procedures are, right? So we usually end up having to get a table of contents from the hospital or the physician's office and go through and find the relevant ones. And we find, unfortunately, that the policies may be there on paper, but they're not being followed in practice. And that's where mistakes happen. Bad things happen to patients and where we come in is when those bad things or bad results were avoidable. And sometimes they were avoidable by just simply following the policy that was already written down. So I guess it's a common thread amongst some of our cases, right? we have these standards out there, but people aren't following them. Yeah. I mean, one of the reasons that we started doing this vodcast is to talk to other lawyers, have a little fun at the same time. But a lot of people out there don't know that there are industry standards for commercial property owners, that there are policies and procedures that physicians should be following. And I think it's important for the public to know because something could happen and a person could get injured or even worse killed, but the family or the injured person doesn't know that there was something out there that made it avoidable. And I think that a lot of people look at these types of cases and at first they'll say like, well, it's not their fault or it was just an accident. And what people need to realize is there is a difference between what is required to do at someone's. home or their residence and what is required to do at a profit -making business. You open your doors to the public, the public has a right to assume that when they enter your property at your invitation, they're safe. And if the businesses aren't doing what they need to do, which are basic steps that don't cost a lot, it just takes a little bit of thought and execution, and if they're not doing that, then they're passing along the cost. I think the economic term for it is they're passing on negative externalities onto the public. And so instead of the business itself paying for this true cost, they're passing along to the public, which is resulting in lifelong injuries, deaths that are unnecessary, so a tremendously greater cost is being passed on to individuals and society than if a couple hundred dollars a month is spent to execute a very basic procedure for safety. I think you can get like a brain camera and Arlo on Amazon for less than a hundred dollars, right? And it just puts the video in the cloud. It's also fun when you get to see, and I don't know how much you get to see this in the medical malpractice cases, but it's fun in the premises cases when it feels good when you see a change in the way that a property is done. So I've done several curb ramp cases where a property owner has a handicap curb ramp, and a couple of them, they have not complied with ADA standards or building codes. And people have been injured whether, like in one case, a woman was in a wheelchair and she went down a curb ramp that was not to code. She fell out and she went from being wheelchair bound to being bedridden. Both of her femurs broke. And they said that they didn't do anything wrong, but by the time that case was over, they had a brand new curb ramp on their property that I saw. And you better believe that new curb ramp was compliant with ADA standards. Yeah. I like to think in some of our medical cases where we find that the policies and procedures weren't followed, that just by virtue of going through the litigation, hopefully, right? And sometimes we try to make this a piece of the settlement or the resolution, but hopefully, they are going back and looking through their procedures and saying, okay, from an administrative perspective, what can we do to make sure these policies are executed and this doesn't happen to someone else, right? Right. A lot of times, that's what my clients and the families are really driving for, right? They're angry that it happened in the first place. Money isn't going to undo the harm or bring the person back. So. another step beyond that is, well, what can we do to make sure it doesn't happen to someone else? And, you know, I think talking about it in forums like this is helpful so that more people know and can learn and hear about these different policies and standards and what can be done. But also just continuing to fight for our clients, right? That's right. From a personal perspective, let's talk firm ownership, right? I mean, all of us have been on that road for the last, gosh, I think, Matthew, you were probably the first one out of the three of us, right? 2019 started my solo practice. Yeah, so what's that been like? How's that been different, you know, working for yourself and now having a law partner? Yeah, it's, well, I always intended to have a law partner. I didn't always want to have a solo practice because it was just very stressful. But when I was elected to the legislature you know, I basically had two full -time jobs and having a solo practice gave me the flexibility to be able to do the political job and still practice law. And, you know, now that I'm not in the legislature, my focus is growing my practice. So, Peyton and I have been working together on cases the last year and a half or so, and it was just sort of a natural fit for us to merge our practices together. But it's really nice having a true partner that you can rely on and who can push you in ways you need to be pushed. And, you know, it sort of balances out my strengths and weaknesses. It's nice to be able to feel like you're not carrying the entire brunt of it. No, I understand that. When I started my firm in 2020 or assumed the firm in 2020, it was just me for a minute and that was terrifying. Well, especially when you have people, you know, on payroll that are depending on you to bring in the business to sustain the entire business, it was just me at my solo practice. It was a true solo practice. So I can't even imagine the pressure of that. It took about two months before I just said, okay, uncle, and made it a priority to go find another lawyer. And I'm really lucky that I did find Reshiv because then not even a year later, I was pregnant. And what would I have done in that situation had I not had someone to like my team and Reshiv to pick it up for me? You know, that was it was a whirlwind. It's been a whirlwind the last four years, but I'm being honest with you. Taking over the firm, having a baby, getting married, buying a house. I like to say I just did it all at once. So but I couldn't have done it without Reshiv. Multiple band -aids being ripped off. Oh, absolutely. If you're going to do it, just rip them all off at the same time. because I don't know. Yeah, and the kids are real helpful in the practice of law. Yes, they are. They like really understand. Actually, I do think that they make it a really, they help, my kids help me break off from work because like when I'm picking them up, I have to leave the office, I have to leave the office by five to get them because I got to fight through Midtown to get one kid and then head over to the elementary school to get the other. And I find it to be really helpful for me because when I'm with them, I cannot think about the law firm and the law practice. Right. And it's really helpful for me to, it's a healthy way for me to get out of my head space, get them home. I go through a very standard routine with them. They're three and five. So it's dinner, bath, book, bed, bath, book, bed. You're right. It's like, get one down, do the other. And then it's like 8 .30 and I'm usually in bed by nine, but I wake up at 5 .30, 5 .45, get a little bit done before they get up, take them to school and then I'm in my office by eight. I don't think I've seen 5 .30 on the clock in a long time. At least not on purpose. No. But my daughter is in this, I was almost late today because she's in this new a three nager stage, she's not even three yet, but this is the only thing I can think to call it from like the mommy posts and books, but she wants to sleep in now. And if I go wake her up before she's ready to get up, you best be ready to deal with the cracking. Like she, no mommy, you can't change my diaper. No mommy, I'm not putting my clothes on. I don't want those shoes. It was a whole thing this morning. And it took my husband and I both together. to get her out the door and just to get me here by 10 o'clock this morning because she wants to sleep in. Just to verify that Alex is telling the truth, she texted me this morning and wrote, that she was running a little late and she wrote, apparently being a three nature also means liking to sleep in and if you wake the crack in early, there's hell to pay. I was dead serious. I was feeling it in that moment when I texted you. You guys are not selling childhood on me right now. Sorry, it has, you see all the wonderful pictures I put on social media, I don't want the crack and stuff on social media, so it has the, it has really great times too, so I don't mean to make it sound like it's all stressful and crack and oriented. But I do feel like, I feel like people in our generation with kids and practicing law, we take off more time for. kid stuff than attorneys did for years before, you know, and I think that a lot of people are very supportive. I mean, I don't really care sometimes if people aren't, but I think people generally are pretty supportive and okay with that. I mean, I don't... Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think, you know, our generation, there's been this surge of wellness, right? And awareness, especially in our community as lawyers too, and not just taking time for your kids or taking time for your spouse or your family, but the work -life balance conversation has been coming up a lot, right? What are some of the things that you guys do to make that happen? Well, this is a constant conversation in my household because my husband's also a lawyer, as you all know, and he works for a big law firm. And so, early in our marriage, I used to refer to it as a throuple. It was me, him, and his laptop, you know, and I kid him a lot about it, but he's actually really good about taking time, you know, figuring out when he can squeeze time in to take the dog for a walk, you know, before he has to get logged back online and get some more work done at night, but we don't have children in our household. So, it's just the two of us, so if there's work that needs to be done, you know, we'll do work at home, so many nights we're working after dinner, but we're working on that because it's just not healthy. Nobody can just work all the time. It's just really not healthy. But right now, it's a real thing, right? It is, yeah. I mean, I think we got closer to it at my house when we both started our businesses. My husband owns his own business, too, and both of us sort of launched out at the same time, right? Rip all the band -aids off, sort of thing. I guess that's maybe a mantra of mine at this point, but we've got to do it. We found ourselves just working around the clock and not making time for each other. Even with Everly, we have to still make time for each other, and she wants to dominate a lot of the time, which is fine. Is she three now? Not yet, but if you Google three nature, her photo might be there. Is that a term three nature? I have never heard that before. I was told it was a term. It describes her perfectly because she's like three going on 17. I thought it was the terrible twos and the threes are supposed to be like delightful. Not a word I would use. Not yet, not yet. No, they're stronger. They're stronger by three. They're stronger and they will to find more opinions. Yes, and she she she told me to shut up in the car this morning. Oh, wow. Yeah, that was a new one. We don't we don't say that. So I don't know what sort of policies and procedures do you set up for her? I just said, man, we probably need to write them down. I don't know. Well, I do know that kids can pick up the strangest things from the most random places because Robert's niece, when she was three, came home from daycare one day and then just out of the blue told her parents, I'm going to take a lunch and walked out of the room. We're like, do you understand what that is? Also, it's dinner time. What are you talking about? And you don't miss a meal. No, it isn't. What are you talking about? I'm taking a lunch. I'm taking a lunch. I don't like that. If I'm in a stressful situation, I want to get out of it. I'm just like, I'm taking a lunch. I'm taking a lunch. Yeah. Now, Everly's, I don't know where she got shut up, but she had her baby doll in the car seat this morning in the back seat. And as we're pulling out of the garage, I usually talk to her, I'm like, okay, baby, let's go to school. Are you ready for your day? You know? And she goes, shut up, mommy. I'm sorry. I stopped the car in the driveway. I was like, what did you just say? Shut up. Where did you learn that? Shut up. Over and over again until finally the conversation turned to we don't say that to people, especially not mommy. That's right. That's not nice. That's not nice. That's not nice. But it's, you know, I have to fight my urge to laugh when she comes out with crazy stuff like that because I don't want to encourage it. But it's pretty funny to hear a two and a half year old in the back seat telling you to shut up. At least right now. It won't be later. You're just raising a strong, independent minded young lady. I don't know where she gets it. Maybe Peyton can close with a joke. He looks like he has one. Peyton always has a joke up his sleeve somewhere, I feel like. I'm sure he's got a long litany of dad jokes. That's why it's one of the many reasons I miss him being in the office. There was always some light heartedness or something funny, whether it's he's like going down the halls, filling his coffee on the way and we're all making fun of him or he comes in with some sort of joke. in the morning or a story about Orange Theory. I miss it. Soar subject right now. I know, quite literally. What's your best dad joke? I don't really have any jokes. I'm not a funny person. Well, that's a big joke. Don't think that people should laugh in the workplace. It's all business. Or on serious podcasts. Vlog casts. Vlog, vlog. Vlog casts. Because we've got all these cameras in our faces, I know. Don't get me started. A vlog. Yeah, okay. It's a New York Times word. What is? Vlog. It was on, I used it for New York Times word puzzle the other day. So it's an actual word now. It is. Dad joke. I don't have a dad joke. Oh, okay, all right. Next time. Next time, I'll think about one. I really appreciate you guys being here today, talking about law, life, opening up, sharing stories. you know, letting the community know about what we do, what you guys do. So, thanks. Thanks so much. No, thank you, Alex. And it's really a privilege for us to be on the first bird's eye blog cast as we're starting our new firm. And especially because, Alex, we've known you for so long and been able to work together on cases. But this is an exciting new venture for you as we're starting our new venture as well. Yeah, that's super great. We're very thankful to be here. Like, we just, we're really in the process of launching our firm, Bell Wilson Law, and where we're going to be focusing on taking, helping clients who've been seriously injured in a variety of different ways. And I think if we have a common theme of the types of cases that we want to be handling, it's where people have been seriously injured and we want to find out why. And we want to find out who's responsible, whether that's in a trucking collision, an auto case, a product liability case, a medical malpractice case, or a premises liability case. We really want clients who are coming to us that have been seriously injured and then put it on us to figure out what happened to them and who was responsible. Because a lot of times they don't even know. Well, don't be taking all my med mail cases now. Hopefully, if you guys do get some of those, we can work on them together. Okay, all right. Well, that's a wrap for the first edition of Bird's Eye View. We hope that you guys enjoyed it and there will be more to come. If anyone out there wants to come on and chat about law, life, let's stay connected, keep the conversation going, follow us online, Bird Law Group, and make sure you check out Bell Wilson and their new website that's about to launch.