KIC Back Episode 3 | Mark Persaud | Law, Trust, and Showing Up When It Matters

KIC Back Episode 3, we sit down with Mark Persaud, a Guyanese American personal injury attorney who’s built his career on stepping into people’s lives when everything goes wrong.

From working his way through law school to now representing clients across New York, Mark’s journey is rooted in discipline, consistency, and a real understanding of what people go through during some of the hardest moments of their lives.

In this episode, we go deeper than just law. We talk about what it actually takes to build trust in a space where people often feel overlooked, the importance of staying connected to your culture while navigating professional spaces, and why being present for your clients matters more than anything else.

We also get into the reality of the legal world, the mistakes people make after accidents, and how easily things can go wrong when you don’t have the right guidance.

This is a conversation about responsibility, reputation, and what it means to truly show up for your community.

Thanks to our sponsor – Mark Persaud @lawbypersaud

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

By step into someone's life where they're having like the worst day of life. Like the community is definitely changing, it's growing, which is you know, especially in New York where you're dealing with so much diverse people, you need to have the feel of law change as well. There is no such thing as work-life balance. You just work, you put your head down. Parents, your hustle. I'm from Queens. Queens get the money, you know. In New York, it's important that people know just because you're with an attorney doesn't mean you're stuck with them. You can literally leave your attorney anytime. This is what you do take a deep breath. If you have insurance, you're okay. If you don't, start praying to God. When I was in that scenario, because of my name is Mark Prasad. I'm a personal injury attorney located in New York. Uh, my firm and myself are located in Queens, New York. We represent all of New York, whether you're in Queens County, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, Long Island, NASA, or Suffolk. I'm an attorney that can get you the maximum compensation for the injuries that you have from an accident. If you've ever been involved in an accident, give me a call at 657-799-6171. I guarantee you I will fight till the end to get the maximum compensation for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

All right, guys. Welcome back to the Kickback Podcast. Today we've got a powerful conversation lined up with someone who's not only making waves in the legal field, but also representing the culture and the community in a great way. Uh, we're joined by Mark Prasad, a Guinese American personal injury attorney serving clients across New York. Uh, he's helping people really navigate some of the most difficult moments in their lives through litigation and advocacy. A graduate from SJU Law. Mark has built his career on standing up for those who need it most and making sure their voices are heard. Mark, we appreciate you being here today, man. Thank you very much. Appreciate being here. And uh being here with all the guys today. So tell us uh Mark a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

So I'm on a personal injury attorney. Um, I've been doing I've been working in the personal injury um field for about 10 years. I think May actually makes 10 years in the industry. I've been an attorney for over two years now. Um, but you know, my story is I've been working through law school, um, before through undergraduate, really learned this practice that way. You know, I'm not just a young attorney right out of school. I have the ins and outs, and I work for the largest personal injury law firm in Queens. So I have a lot of backing behind me with guys who have 30, 40, and some with even 50 years' experience in the field. So that's um just what I kind of do. I would not sorry, what I do at this point, really just represent the people of New York uh and I get them big fat checks.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

How old is that? 30, 40, 50 years?

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

So damn man's as old as you.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

My the founder of the firm is has 55 years of legal experience. Wow. So, you know, when you have that and like like my office is right next to his. So when you have that like knowledge, you know, to give it on somebody, I'm growing every single day. I'm getting that advice right from the source who knows it inside out. And for my clients, I tell them, listen, you're not just getting me as an attorney, you're getting about 20, 25 attorneys with expense. I mean, not expense, they're not expensive, but with extensive, extensive um legal knowledge to help them through their cases and get the maximum settlement for them.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Absolutely. So, Mark, so sounds like you decided on law when you were very, very young, all right? Right. So, what what about law really you know intrigued you when you were uh you know a lot younger?

SPEAKER_02 3:23

So I think, you know, growing up, uh it was kind of like in my parents' back mind, you know, like you know, being Caribbean, you know, you're here and your parents want you well, we're I'm a first generation uh uh Guy's American. So they want the best for us so they know the fields. They're like, we want you to become a doctor, MD, a lawyer, something, you know, you can go out there, but you we your school is priority number one. Right. Um, so with that like limited choice that I had for my parents, I was like, you know what? I always was good at breaking complex issues and simplifying it for people. I was able to always do well in like writing, reading, and making arguments, not like um like just arguing for the sake of arguing, but like legally fact-based arguments on like this is what the facts are, this is how I can express it to you, and do it in a way where you're like, what did he say? Can I can I understand what he's trying to get to? So I that like growing up, I like kind of kind of doubled down onto it and I was like, this is what I can do in the future.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

So um I want to ask, right? Being Guyanese American, um is your clientele like really like you know just the general Americans, or is it like more based off like you know Caribbean, you know, Indo-Caribbean people that's out here in America? Yeah. Um how that you know, how that change and affect, you know, you being a lawyer. Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

So what I will say right now is I love my community. Um, they really have been showing me a lot of love and support. Um, you know, you live in New York, you see a billboard, you see billboards every corner with uh attorney saying, hire me, basically, or whatever it is. Burns the house. Yeah, the compet the competition is very fierce out there. So, you know, there's not that many in my like time as being an attorney so far, and even being in the industry, there's not that many Guinese or Caribbean attorneys that you know people can relate to. Um, so like the community as of right now has been very supportive towards me. And they're not just supporting me, they're supporting because I can do the work and I show that, you know, I get huge settlements, maximum policy settlements, but the community's been behind me so far, and you know, it's most people from what I see right now, especially with the Caribbean community, they want an attorney that understands their culture, right? Not just, hey, I need you to do this ASAP. But, you know, you might have some people have prayers on Fridays, you know. I underrespect that, like if they have a prayer to go to, they can't do something or be in an appearance, or they have um, you know, Saturday or Sunday Mass, whatever it is. You know, you have to kind of navigate that situation. But culture is very important, and I think people want an attorney that can understand them, relate to them, and that's where I want to step into that field because I feel like our community, um, you know, they don't really know who to turn to. And a lot of times they see they just get kind of caught up with the advertising online, TV, billboards, and like, let me call this guy, and then they sign some paperwork and they never hear back from the attorney and they're like, I don't know what happened to my case. So with me, I'm trying to do more, um, be more personal touch in that industry, understand their situation, and kind of give them the feedback they need and keep them updated on what's going on, and how can I get them the maximum compensation for their cases?

SPEAKER_04 6:27

Oh, go ahead, Mesh. Oh, so Mark, I got a really important question for you. Yeah. Um, so I have to go to jury duty on Monday. Is there any way you can uh I'm joking, I'm joking. Um what are your thoughts on jury duty, Mark?

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Listen, it's your civil duty or waste of time. I don't know, I don't know which judges are watching this or whatever it is. They're gonna be like, my they're gonna say Mark told me this. Um what I will say, jury duty, it's it's part of the process. Don't obviously delay it too much.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Yeah, they I wish they could pay us more than $40 a day, Marcus.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Yeah, you know, listen, you know, that's why we have uh politicians to push for that, uh, as they should. You know, $40 back then was something. Now it's like $40 just to get gas over there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

So my co-workers go over there and they say they base him off his race. Oh, he's or he's yeah, and they just let him go. I don't want to say it on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

What I will say is though, like with jury duty, um, you know, when we do trials, we get the the judge gets to push you first, and then the attorneys get to pick you. Oh, okay. I'm not gonna say any tips to get you out or in because it might cause an issue. But what I will say is, you know, if you're very truthful to the attorneys, like you like, listen, I got a job that doesn't believe in paying me for missing time from work, and I'm only getting $40 for the day, you know, you could tell the attorneys that, and we understand because we get to pick you. If we don't have to be a good thing, I'm a heart chip almost, right? You know, the attorneys have a heart, you know, other than most most people think we don't, but you know, the attorneys understand, like, you know, we're all New Yorkers. Um, all most of the New York attorneys, they live here, they worked here, they probably grew up here for the most part. So we understand how like life in New York is expensive. You come outside, it's a hundred dollars just to breathe the air here. So like we understand. So if you get stuff like that, if you're in school, like I never will keep a student who's like, I gotta test tomorrow, and then I'm about to pick you on my jury for like two weeks.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

No, you're about to fail your class. Well, Mark, that's that's perfect you brought that up because I'm a teacher, right? So everyone here kind of knows that from the first episode. So I'm gonna fall going up the stairs. I just need that note, so Monday I don't gotta go in. I hope my principal don't see this, but you probably gotta call see that number. I'm gonna fall going up so I can roll back down.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Mark, so I mean, I think I'm in medicine, right? And I feel like it really helps people when they see someone who's your own type, you know, from your community and from your culture, right? Um, who is in that authority place to help you. Right. Definitely. Um, do you think folks in your realm feel the same way? Like, you know, your clients who, if they're Guyanese, if they're Trinidadian, if they're Indo-Carabean at all, um, they feel more at ease speaking to you whenever you know something like that does occur?

SPEAKER_02 8:58

I think so. I mean, um, you know, like I said, the community's been great. I think it's because there is no really somebody in the spot right now that's really going above and beyond to make sure their clients are taken care of. Um, you know, with me right now, you know, I learn from the best attorneys in all of New York where the client comes first. You know, a lot of people they get it kind of twisted because of how some attorneys act, you know, like they sign you up and you never hear back from them. The approach of my firm is always it's more of a, you know, we're serving you. You're you're hiring us, right? So we want to make sure that whatever you need, you're not you call us, you're not bothering us. This is your case. What can we do to help you give the advice you need or give you the update? Some attorneys they don't answer the phone, and you know, in this last year, I'd say at least I got 10 cases from clients, West Indian, some Spanish, white, whatever it is, right? The race or nationality at that point doesn't really matter. They come to me and say, I haven't heard from my client, uh, my uh my attorney in about two years or a year. And I'm like, Can you help me? And I said, In New York, it's important that people know just because you're with an attorney doesn't mean you're stuck with them. You can literally leave your attorney anytime you want, and it won't affect well, personal injury, I'll tell you, it doesn't affect that whatever compensation you're gonna get. So the attorneys will battle their attorney fees, but your compensation, most likely, if you go to a firm where I say the resources like mine and myself, we'll get you more money. So there's more money in your pocket in the day, and you'll have a better relationship where you know what's going on with your case, and not like when your attorney call when you turn your when you call your attorney, you feel like you're they're doing you a uh a favor. No, it's your case. You're entitled to um being knowledgeable what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Okay, that's perfect. So hypothetically speaking, right? Right. Hypothetically, right? Let's say, for example, right? Let's say, for example, uh oh, here we go with the rock.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Hypothetically, right? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

I got the blicky, I bought the blicky today. I hypothetically, right? Oh somebody in their foot, right? I don't want this whole screen. But you think, right? Do you think by any of the professional attorney I can uh recommend for you, but oh so you you can help the person that got shot, but you can't help me that shot the person. So technically, yes. Hypothetically speaking, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:07

So I would be able to represent represent you, right? You that shot him, I wouldn't be able to represent you. But like I said, you know, this community is is a small community, especially in the legal world, where some people, like, you know, the I've seen it and people have told me with the attorney, call attorney for help. Something that they don't do, they just hang up the phone. Like, no. For me, like if somebody calls me, especially like people like car accidents, what I do a lot, they say, I just hit someone, what do I do? And I'm like, you know, some people will hang up the phone. I'm like, this is what you do, take a deep breath. If you have insurance, you're okay. If you don't, start praying to God. All right, so I'm gonna go. So if you have insurance, yeah. If you have insurance, you'll be covered. If you have insurance, you're covered, right? So, like for you, like you got shot just now. Um, I'd say like you'd have a criminal case against them. Oh shit, absolutely. That's separate. You also have a civil case against them for the compensation. So the criminal part will put them in in prison for a while. He just shot you on camera. But the civil case, you'll be able to recover damages, damages meaning uh money and compensation for the injury that you resolved and how that's gonna change your life from now until then because you're suffering. Well, but it's a you know a real gun.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

If you sue me, Brian, you ain't getting nothing from me.

SPEAKER_04 12:18

I also suffered um PTSD from this shot.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

If you suffer pain, you need law. So, what I want to ask, right? As a as a um attorney that deals with a lot of accidents, right? What is the best excuse you heard from a client? Excuse in um what do you what exactly do you think? As in like what was the best like scenario they made up for you?

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Oh, like how how they got hit in an accident?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yes. Well, it sounds like there's sometimes Mark's a lot of lying in regard in you know, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

So definitely what I would say is, you know, when we get a case, right? Um, you know, I made I made a video I think recently that you know you shouldn't lie to your attorney. I saw that video. Um, you know, but if you are lying to your remember, your insurance is involved, you're lying to your insurance company, uh, which most people do, right? So I always recommend make a police report, get your side of the story on on paper. Most people won't lie to you in front of your face unless they just really don't care. Um, some people lie to police officers, it's you know that's what they do, but some people, most people in front of a police officer, in front of the other party involved in the accident, they're not gonna make a make a story up because you know, people kind of get mad, and you know, we're in New York, you don't know what can kind of pop off. So like they're gonna keep it very like whatever happened happened on the report. They locate where you are, the accident's there. With the clients that, you know, they think like I've had it in scenario where like, you know, they call a scene like one of my, I guess my my face, my Facebook or Instagram page where I got a client like $150,000. They're like, oh, my car just got hit. Um, and let me call Mark. And he's like, I was involved in an accident. I was in in the car. So they call me, I'm like, all right, um, do you have the police report? It's like, yes, I do. So he sends me the police report. I'm like, your name is not on the police report. He goes, Well, you weren't in the he goes, I wasn't in the car. Do I still got a case? I'm like, it's very important you understand that you know there was witnesses first. You know, as an attorney, you have an ethical duty to always do the right thing. Correct. Right? Um, you know, you want your attorney to fight for you, but they we don't want to lose our license. That's the number one thing. So I told the client, I was like, listen, um, I don't know if you do understand what personal injury is. So just letting you know, you can only sue somebody for their insurance policy if you actually got injured from the accident. If it's property damage, somebody hit your car, that's an insurance matter only, and that's fine. You know, but if it's you're not in the car, you can't actually sue him because how did you actually get injured if you were and if you were in like a store having dinner and your car got hit? He's like, we can't do nothing about that. I was like, listen, this conversation's over because you know it's not worth it for me to put my like seven to ten years of school on the line for that, and you know, it's fraud. If you get caught with it, you're gonna you're gonna you're looking at criminal penalties for yourself.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Hypothetical scenario. Yeah. Say I'm in my car driving from Queens to the to the Bronx, right? And I get sight swiped by two different cars, right? Wow, this is an interesting scenario.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

How do you get sight swiped twice? Hey, it happened. I've seen it happen, so it happens.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

You get sight swiped by two different cars. After hitting the first car, you get hit by two sides. I'd have to question your driving.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Where is the exact location of the side swipe?

SPEAKER_03 15:23

You're in the middle lane, you got the left lane, and you got the right lane. Oh, so you're in the middle? And you're in the middle lane, and you get sideswiped by two cars. Um you go into the rail or anything? Get into accident, you hit the rails. Oh, perfect.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

I know exactly where you're going with this. Um, I'm just gonna I need the details.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

You get dragged away with the in the ambulance and everything, get dragged away to the hospital.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Yeah. Dragged away? Uh, how injured are you from the side swipe? You get surprised.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

They stop. They're still at the at the scene. Right. Um, they don't go to the hospital or anything like that. What they do instead, they full out a police report.

SPEAKER_05 15:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

Your car is the one that's, you know, that's here. Yeah. But you're not able to fill out a police report. You're going to the hospital.

SPEAKER_05 16:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Right? They're there at the scene, they fill out the police report. How that works? Like, who gets who gets the blame?

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Yeah. So always in a police report, there's always like the the police officer will make an analysis, obviously. So if you got hit from the rear, hate to say that in New York, you will always be 100% at fault. You're the one of the right. Unless you have a dash camera and you see a video of somebody like brain checking you.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

What about is like the side of the car?

SPEAKER_02 16:26

So if you're like you're the car that's you know, somebody you got hit side swipe twice, both of those vehicles are gonna be um liable for the accident. It's up to those insurance policies on their cars to fight who was more responsible. Now, the scenario where you said like you got it really injured, and this is the clients that we actually have a lot, you know, not just like fender benders, where you know, if I had seen people like fly through windshields, I've seen people like break bones. Oh my god. Like, you know, like things things like these do still happen, even with the technology we have. So, like, scenario like that, like you don't have time to wait for a police report, or you as soon as the ambulance undertaking you to rush to the hospital, make sure you're stable. So, like, you know, the police will make their own inference on what happened at the scene. You know, sometimes the police are right where you know it's accurate, and sometimes they put in the report that it's not accurate. As an attorney, you hire me, we go and strike that. Or we'll we'll make sure that's if the if the police officer wrote what we need for the for the accident and was correct, obviously, that's what we're gonna go off of. And like, this is good. If it's not right based on what our client told us later on when we speak to them, we're gonna make sure that doesn't come in the evidence and it's not that's that's an issue because the police officer actually didn't witness the car accident. Um, but like your your story will always get out um in litigation, so a lot of people don't know is personal injury like myself. I'm in court every single day for the most part or doing a deposition where I'm questioning people about the accident. So if you lie, right, and this is what happens all the time, if you're lying, right? The other side attorney gets to question my client. Oh. And then usually examination, yeah. Not a regular, a regular examination, just about how the accident occurred, right? Um, you know, and then the other client that told their insurance carrier, even though they're fully at fault, they know they are, they just told their insurance carrier because they're like, I don't want my rates to go up. But oh, he he's the reason why the accident occurred. I get to come in a room with you and ask you questions now based on my client's testimony and the facts that I have in front of me. So looking at the pictures, I'll throw some exhibits up and you're gonna be like flustered because most people that are lying, they it's really hard to remember a lie. And you know, you do it very in a way where you're trained as an attorney to get that answers, and then once they, you know, your lies you become hard and harder to remember. And this is going on for hours. So if it's the truth, usually it's very straightforward. If I'm trying to catch you in a lie for hours and hours and I'm asking you questions, eventually you're gonna slip up, and then it's my time to capitalize on you. So I always tell people, listen, if you're if you know you're um going against attorney Mark Prasad or Malulone Grossman and you're lying on your side, just fold right now because you know what? You're gonna end up having criminal penalties, your insurance is gonna drop you, you're gonna have fraud charges because it's not worth it at that end. You know, if you're involved in a civil action in New York, the main thing is remember it's civil. You're not you're not in trouble for anything. You have insurance, they're gonna take care of everything for you. Be honest, let that claim go through. Done. Don't lie. If you lie, you get caught lying. Now you're looking at criminal penalties, and that's an issue.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

But to be honest, Brian, if you get swipe, side swipe from both sides, just go to Mondeiro on Sunday, bro. What? Mark God hates you, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:22

It sounds though, like, you know, in personal injury, there's a little bit of a gray area because like pe a lot of people can lie, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:28

It you can people lie. I mean, that's just what it is. You know, the problem is like I always tell people, get the police report if you're able to. If you know it's not really where you like so injured where you can kind of wait for the police to come. You know, our law enforcement have a really active job where you know New York City right now is pushing for people just to exchange information. Recently, I've been I made a video where I was like, you guys need to, if you can, and you're not too banged up, is most people after an accident. I don't know if you guys ever been involved in a car accident, they don't feel pain until what you don't really feel pain until like a couple days later. Because you're after an accident, when metal hits metal, your adrenaline's rushing because you're like, Whoa, that was a big hit. That's like kind of a sound. So, like a day or two later is when you really start feeling like, oh, my back is killing me, my my neck, my shoulder went flying, the seatbelt kind of holded it, the airbag hit me, my head. Those are the things that like in the time, like it happened so fast that like, okay, I'm just happy to be here. I'm happy that I'm I'm okay right now. But then you start feeling pain when your body starts relaxing the next day. And then usually that's when clients call me like, I didn't want to pursue anything, but like, you know what, who's gonna pay for my medical bills? And that's where I step in to be like, listen, New York State will pay $50,000 in medical um recovery, whether you have insurance or not. And more importantly, I think if you're getting anything from this podcast, so people know whether you're at fault for an accident, whether you're not at fault for an accident, if you're involved in any motor vehicle accident or you're hit as a pedestrian, you will get $50,000 from New York State no fault for medical treatment.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Mesh, run me over. You sure saw Richie. Richie looked like a dog with the cone around his neck when he got into his accident.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

I was hurt. I was hurt. But um have a question.

SPEAKER_04 21:04

Um yeah, sure. This guy's crazy. Uh so Mark, going back to a little bit about you, right? So I know you know we spoke about this before, but maybe let everybody else know like what got you into law, you know, why'd you decide to pursue personal injury instead of like civil law or any other type of law?

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yeah. So I was the way I started, I was at John Jay from my undergraduate, and I did a combined master's program there. Oh, nice. So law was always on my like spectrum. Like, especially if you if you you guys know CUNY's, like they're very specialized.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Yeah, but Mark, was there someone in your family who was special?

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Nobody, nobody was really doing law in my family. I had my grandpa's cousin, um, you know, yeah, a lot older than me, very wise and very respected in the community. Um, he was a real a real real estate attorney. He gave a lot of great advice, but you know, somebody like more closer and like to give me great advice on that spectrum of like how law is law changes. So like things happen. The exams change getting in. Um, all that's always moving around. So like to get that like really, you know, when you even when you're with your grandparents, you're nana you're none of them, you're kind of very respectful. You can't like ask certain questions. Yeah, you know, you keep it very respectful. So like that led that was a relationship with my my grandfather's cousin. Great person, very well respected in the community, but I couldn't really get down and ask those questions that I needed. Um so like when I was at John Jay, you kind of stuck. Um grade school, but I knew when I went there either I was gonna go in law enforcement or or law school. Because that's kind of what they offer, and they offer I think also the they have the best in the country um for either it's criminal justice obviously, but they also do uh something else I can't think of right now. But either way, I was like, all right, I took all the law courses at John Jay undergraduate and masters. Uh my master's role is actually in criminal law. So I did that there, and I was like, you know, I'm knocking these out of the park. Let's go next take the next step, take it deeper. Let's start for the entrance exams again in law school. Um and I started working at the firm. Uh my sophomore year end. So that's why I said I'm almost at 10 years now. Um, where literally, you know, when you're like nine, I was 19 years old. Nobody wants to give you an opportunity. So like now everything's online, like there's so many platforms. Back then, LinkedIn wasn't a thing. So you can't reach out to employers. Um, it was there, but it wasn't like uh people were using it, especially lawyers. Like, you know, they're outdated with uh a lot of older attorneys, they're outdated with technology, right? Um, so like that wasn't a thing. I literally would call law firms and like, hi, can I get an opportunity to work in your firm? The firm that I'm currently an attorney for gave me that opportunity. I came in there, they said, All right, you want to start? One condition. We need you to come in at 7 a.m. in the morning. And remember, I'm 19 years old, and I was like, 7 a.m. So they wanted to meet. Yeah, they wanted me to train before they got into their work. So I came in like my hours was like seven to three, and I was like, because the paralegal and the attorney that was that I was gonna be working with, that was their times they usually worked. And like, you know, I was like, if you want to learn, you gotta come in this time. And I was like, I could do it. That's what I'm I'm really appreciative for the opportunity. So I called firms, they gave me an opportunity, and 10 years later, I'm still this great firm that gave me an opportunity, and now I'm proving to them that that was a great, that was a great that they picked me up from an intern basically coming in now, stepping in. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

How was your time at St. John's? Because you also said that you went to St. John's. Let's go, Johnny's. Oh, let's go. Let's go Johnny's.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

This year was a little disappointing, you know. I think we had the chance to go all the way. I know, man. All right, it's all right. But listen, it looks strong, you know. We made it fall, we made it fall. Yep. Um, so St. John's, you know, I want to say St. John's Law was probably, you know, the school should really um push this video probably later on, too. Yeah. It's definitely, you know, they're not paying me. I'm just letting you know. It's alright. They are the they are probably the one of the best decisions that I've made in my life to go into St. John's Law. So when you pick law schools, you get a lot of offers depending how well you do in the entrance exam and your grades and undergraduate uh and your package, kind of your essays and all that other stuff. So, like, I did well in the exam, I studied really hard for it, and they gave me a a very good scholarship to come. I always tell like people that want to go to law school, law school is expensive. You think about New York law schools right now, they're averaging around like 65 to like $80,000 a year.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Yeah, it's really expensive.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Now that sounds expensive, but think about it like, listen, they tell you that after your law school, whether you're employed or not, whether you pass the bar meaning that you can practice law and make money, still gotta pay price. You gotta pay six months after. So if you fail the bar exam, you you end up dropping out, you still gotta pay those loans, and the interest rate is absolutely crazy. So, like, yeah, say if your loan is $250,000, your loan, like by year two, year three, is gonna be like $350, $450,000 you're like constantly digging out of hell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, I always recommend people go out, um, really take your time and study for that exam. Go get a tutor, pay whatever you got to pay for it right now because that would save you so much money. And you come out practicing law, you have more options. You could pick fields where they may not be paying you so much, but you that's what you genuinely want to do. Help people give back, do those good, great jobs that you know, if you you can't do those jobs if you have that much in debt, you gotta pay back. You gotta take higher paying jobs. So I would recommend people that's gonna be able to do that. I forgot the question you asked just now. I kind of got a little sidetracked, but you said you went to St. John's, right? Best decision uh best.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

How did you like Tobin? Because I used to go to Tobin all the time to eat my dollar rice and curry chicken.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

So the the law school is like a separate building. It's you're kind of like, you know, you're in there, you're there with you like and you get out, right? So like Tobin, I think. Um, you know, my fiance went to the business school at Tobin. Um so I had an idea, but when she would tell me, like, why don't you go change up, like to go eat something, or like go walk around the campus, and I'm like, the Chinese food is great. Yeah, but good food there, though. Yeah. Yeah, the food the food at Tobin was good. It's more of a modern building. So I would go like maybe walk around, but really I was like fully when you're in law school, like you're fully invested. Like you're there, like you you show up, like imagine going somewhere, you show up just studying, you go to class, you're learning, and then you come back out of there, you're you're learning again, you're studying for what's tomorrow. So like I was always in the school. Um, thank God I lived, you know, St. John's Law was in Queens. You know, I've always I lived my whole life in Queens.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

So I used to travel like almost two hours to get there. Yeah, it was tough. He's trying to roll from the Bronx, right? Yeah, it was tough. But I enjoy my time at St. John's. Even this man over here, he's coming meet me. Yeah. The Nikos. Oh, we used to get Nikos and Coles the whole time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

So at St. John's Law, because I was there, I was born and raised in Queens. I was about 15 minutes from home. You know, nothing better than having What Port of Queens were you raised in? Uh Bayside. Bayside, okay. So nothing better, I'll tell you, is like when your parents are, they want the best for you, right? So if you're a Caribbean culture, there's always a hot plate of food home, right? So all I had to worry about was just focus on school. Anytime I wanted to pop in the house, it was always food. But whatever I needed, my parents were always, I always, you know, love my parents to death because they made my job like in school. That's all I had to worry about. So they provided for like food, always something there. I gotta come in, run out, gotta grab a instead of paying five dollars for a coffee, I'll come home, have a coffee for free, get out.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

So what you prefer? You prefer to eat at home or you would buy food outside, like uh at home, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

You know, nothing beats uh, you know, a West Indian meal. Like nothing beats that. Obviously, I think the only problem was like when I would eat I had classes where they kind of split. Sometimes I would go home for the hour or two, come back. Uh you can't eat too much and you get the itis, you know? Like so you gotta you gotta be in class ready to go. But in law school, the problem is they call you randomly and you're expected to know like what's going on, like with this case. And if that's how they know if you read the cases. So like they'll call you and you got like kind of the itis, you're like, don't call me, don't call me.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Was there classes in like auditorium-based, or was it like classroom-based? So the way law school works is your first year, right?

SPEAKER_02 28:39

You're with the same hundred kids. It's about there's probably like two fifty, I think, or at St. John's Law, maybe 200, 300 students. I was with the same group of kids for the first year for like it was like 60 centi of us together. So like they're pretty big classrooms. Classrooms are like um, I say auditoriums. Some law schools are actually a little bigger, um, but like you're with the same kids, so you get to know them. So now my network, I know like I know 60 people, 60 other attorneys that inside out. They all do different types of work, some even the same work that I do. We help each other out. So, like, but then in your second and third year, you get to pick your own classes. Um and you meet other attorneys, you meet attorneys who are a year above you, a year below you, and you now my network of attorneys, I have like probably three, four hundred people that I know, and you know, the the amount of work it is and the types of fields that you practice. I have, I know they do good have a good work ethic. So I tell people in law school, like, whatever you do in law school, remember, people are watching you. You don't want to go hang out, have a couple too many drinks. Yeah, they watched the bar now. They're gonna remember that for the rest of your life, and they'll never refer you a case, never recommend you to anybody because you made a fool of yourself at the bar and stuff like that. So I always tell people in law school everything. Keep it professional, you know. It's always good, and you you study like hours for an exam, you go out with your friends at at school, go have a couple drinks and relax, you know. But like keep it professional because these people are gonna remember everything you possibly say and do in the future, and they it could be a blessing, or it could be really just something that holds you down the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Mark, so um, say all right, quick, quick scenario for you, Mark. If you had a stressful day of school, you have to read this very long case you guys are giving, having discussions about you have a test or something. Yeah. When you go home, right? What is your favorite meal that you want there at home for vodka water? Come on now. No, no, like what your favorite like home cooked meal.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

For me, I'm like pretty simple. I want like some I like fried rice. All right. You use that pilau, right? Yeah, palau will be a ghost. No, no, no, not cookup. Get out of here with that. We don't want that over here.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

We guys, so we know never say pilau. I gotta send a couple people all in one. We see.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

I'm gonna go. So I have in my family, I also have a lot of trainings in my family. I'm Ghinese, so I have a lot of trainings also. So like I'm gonna go cook up, right? But I know when you say Palau, I gotta I got a training uncle that makes his palau. I'm like, wow, it blows you away. Oh palau's better than the couple. So let me ask you which one do you like better than which one do you like better than the cook?

SPEAKER_01 30:58

The cookup or the palau?

SPEAKER_02 31:00

So it depends who's making it. Like me. Like, you know, if my dad is making cookup, you know, um, that's that's that's my go too.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Deep down he won't say palau, trust me.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

No, no, no, no, no. Alright, so here, I have to ask you, right? Being an attorney in New York at that, also being Guyanese American at that, right? Um, is it difficult for you when you go to like, you know, go to your job and you know, you're taking your food from home because you're saying that, you know, home cooked meal rather than buying food outside because at the end of the day, you don't know what's what's the process of buying food outside, right? So taking your home cooked food to work, yeah, right? Eating your lunch. I know for us Guineas or like you know, us Caribbeans, we have a lot of spices in our food. Damn it, Karen. A lot of spices, you know. It smells, it smells very high. Damn it, Karen. So um, I wanted to ask, I wanted to ask, right? As an attorney, yeah, that that's around other people, like, you know, that's very diverse people.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

So I'll tell you I'll cut you out real quick. I keep my suits, right? So they don't smell like curry. I keep them in a separate, I keep it in, I keep it like in the basement so there's no like curry smell on my suits when I go like, I know I know who it is. Like I go to court.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

So once once a Guyanese or a Trinidadian or once a Caribbean or an Indian for that matter, um, being the fact that you live in this environment where curry is being cooked, you know, spices is being cooked and heated up all the time, um, it's gonna linger in your, you know, it's gonna linger in your skin, it's gonna linger in your clothes.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

You're working out, it's it comes out your sweat. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

So now when you go out, when you go out to like very well. Do you ever have like do you ever have anyone in like your colleagues or like you know, friends or coworkers ask you, like, oh, you know, what do you what you guys cooked or like basically?

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Oh, definitely, yeah. Yeah. So, well, I'll I'll first thing I'll say is like I said, my suits, I make sure they don't smell like anything else. I want to be treated like everybody else in the courtroom. You know, so like I I keep them in a separate room away from where my parents make curry. So that's that's squared away. But when I bring food, right? So most of the days I'm in court in the mornings. Most of the parents are. Um sometimes you get afternoon ones, but most of them are gonna be in the mornings. Then I come back to the office. So my food, I'll either I have a cooler in my in my trunk. Oh, yeah. It's just a yeti. Not for nothing for anything else, just for food. So I keep my I keep my cooler in the car, I keep my lunch in there. If I'm you know, I try to meal prep or my parents cooking, I'll use that. Um, so when I'm in the office, right, uh, you know, remember this is 20 plus attorneys, our staff is about 100 people. So we have different people doing different things, paralegal, secretaries, a medical department. Um, so whenever I go make my way to the microwave to go heat it up, everyone's like, what does Mark have? You know, like and then I share an office. Um, this is like probably one of the best things about like my firm. At first, I didn't like it, in all honesty. Hopefully, he doesn't take it the wrong way with my my roommate. Um, but now it's I realize it's the best thing that could possibly happen to me. He's an attorney that's 65 years old. He has 30, 40 years experience. Having him next to me when I do things is like great, but he's also a big foodie. He's Italian, very powerful in their taste. So when he smells those spices coming off, he's like, oh, but what you got over there? What you got over there, Mark? One time I I know you're you're the cookup guy off.

SPEAKER_03 34:12

The cook-up guy.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

So we my dad made cookup and I brought it to the office. Pilla, yeah. No, no, cook up cook. Cookup. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We lost that one. The community is gonna come after me. So I'm gonna go, I'm gonna say cookup. Pala, like I said, both taste great, you know, but I'm gonna go cook up for the rest of the for the episode. So I brought it to the office, I heated up, everyone's gonna walk into my office, everyone's like, oh man, what is that? And he's like, his eyes, like he smells, he loves like Italians really like love the smell and and all the spices and everything going on. So he sees like, wow, you got some ox tail in there, you got this, you got some China in there. He's like, Oh, great. So I said, Alright, listen, I don't live too far from home. I was like, let me go surprise him. I went home, my dad had like the pot, I think still out. Um, and I I took some for him.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

I gotta ask, right? Sorry to cut you up, but you said China, right? So does he say China or does he say chickpeas? China. He says that who, my dad? The Italian guy. Yeah, the Italian guy. He says China. Yeah, so that's great. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

He's actually his he um is very in the in the mix of the West Indian culture. Oh, nice, that's nice. Yeah, so he knows every he knows like he knows certain things that like you'd be like you'd be surprised. Like, how do you know that? You're like a born Italian guy. Like, what do you what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_03 35:20

That guy next to you can eat a plateful of china any day, anytime. I love china anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

There you go, man.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

Um, so I gotta say, right? Yeah, I'm Guyanese, right? I was born in Guyana, so I grew up with like certain habits and stuff, right? Yeah, so so a certain food that I love to eat, it tastes so much more better when you eat it with your hand. For sure. Hands down. So much more better. I don't know what it is. Like literally, I do not know what it is. It's like the way you saune that food. Yeah, I do it.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

I mean, that's what my saune means, my door. Mark, you know what the word saune means? Oh, I'm gonna say no. That word is not in my vocabulary. That was not it is so yes. Um, wait, Brian, tell me what the word sane means.

SPEAKER_03 36:01

Sane for a lot of people that don't know. Um, it's pretty much when you know you're mixing your food. Yeah, instead of using a spoon or a fork, you're using, you know, god-given spoon or fork. The best given spoon. Literally, god-given spoon. There you go. Um, and you're mixing your food, right? You're making you're making sure that the curry gets on every single grain of rice. Yeah. Or like, for example, yeah, you know, so you want to make sure that everything is that hand motion in the middle of the room.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

See the hand motion?

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Like, you gotta make sure that everything is it's it's one of those. You look like you're screwing a light bulb.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Have you ever done that, Mark?

SPEAKER_02 36:36

This guy with the what I do is I'll like close my office. You know, like I said, I got I got a great Italian roommate, so he's like, oh, Mark's about to dig in right now, right? And like what I'll do is I close my office, I have a sign, like, do not enter. It's usually like for I'm doing a diaposition, like a virtual deposition or a court appearance. I'll throw it on my door. That way no one's coming in, like, my hands are all messed up. Like, hey, what they're like, I have a question. I'm like, I'm like this. Uh hold on.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

Have there ever been an incident where you know you're signing their food because it's so good, right? It's so good, it's so smacking good, and you're there sunny in it, and somebody busts that door open, like, Mark, we need you real quick.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

Yeah, so I keep a roll of um paper towel right next to me. So I'm like, oh hold on. Give me some of that bouncy real quick. Because all the time my phone is always ringing. So like I always tell my clients I can call you, I will always answer your call. Like, that's the problem like a lot of attorneys have with their clients. I mean, clients have with their attorney right now, that they don't answer their phone. Like me, if I'm in the office, I'm gonna answer my phone. If I'm like, you know, doing this right now. So make it me, how you do it? I do it right there, right? I'll like get in there, like, you know. So if I'm doing that right now, I'm like, all right, give me, I need my five. I I think I deserve five, ten minutes, but I'll call you back, you know. I'm not gonna answer my phone or like touch my iPhone, like, oh, let me uh wait.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

So guys, so I used to take some really weird things to like. Oh, we know we know my mom used to make me like by gun and sadaroti sometimes, and I used to be taking that to like for a lot of people that know what by gun is, it's eggplant. Yeah, right. I used to have like sawfish and bake in PA school and undergrad no shame.

SPEAKER_04 38:09

No, but look, look, look, certain things you should not bring, and that's then I don't know. Oh, there's nothing wrong with that. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Well now used to bring has a little tough. I work with a lot of like Jamaican folks.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

You see how you're saying hassa? But you see how you saying hassa? Well, I gotta speak in his people call it haskadu.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

We call it hassa. I gotta speak in his terms, damn. No, wait, wait, so guys, look, what is too much to take to work, right? So, like whatever you say, yeah, whatever has it. All right, so mesh works in finance. Mesh, what do you take to work?

SPEAKER_04 38:38

I take chicken in regular foaming, nothing crazy.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

No, but would you take like, you know, um Alu and China? No, what the how how? Huh? How? That's that's your mom made that for you and you're like, you know, I'm about to chow it.

SPEAKER_03 38:51

I think one of the worst things that you could ever take to a job or take to work would have to be like a fish curry.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Yeah, yeah, so fish fish.

SPEAKER_03 38:58

Literally a fish curry.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

So she's taking all the time.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

I didn't know that was like a work stigma. So like again, I started this from like 19 years old. So like the cafeteria, I'm now my office is all the way on top floor. So I had to like literally run through two floors walking up the stairs to go, everyone's smelling my food. They're like, who who everyone goes, who's bringing fish? Who's bringing fish? And I'm like, oh, not me. Not the 19-year-old like intern. No, no, it wasn't. Wait, was Mark?

SPEAKER_00 39:24

You was bringing fish, Curry?

SPEAKER_02 39:26

Yeah, of course he was. He has a pause in it. I brought it one time, but I think it was um, I think it was crab. I think it was crab.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Oh, that's next level, man.

SPEAKER_02 39:37

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Nah, we gotta be more specific. We gotta look for this. Let's be but let's be specific. What type of crab was it? Because there's a lot of type of crabs.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

No, no, this is like the the the soft crab. What you call it. Um it's not the the not the one where I'm like any of this cracking crab, like curry flying everywhere, like the bibble.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

Us Guyanese, we got two favorite types of crab. Yeah. We got the sherida crab, which is the blue crab.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:06

And then we have Sherida? Some people, it's different different names. Okay. Yeah, but if you say blue crab, everyone knows. Blue crab, a lot of people know it like that. Um, then we have the buck crab. Oh god. Which is can you spell that for me, Brian? Buck crab. He didn't say he didn't tell you say it. He said spell it. He tells you buck crab. Oh, B-U-C-K. Right? Yeah, like buck crab. Um, it's a lot of like it's very hairy, kind of. Yeah. One of the sweetest crab. One of the sweetest crab you can eat. Wait, wait, hold on. God. What is it? What do you do with the hair though? Does the hair also absorb the fruit? No, no, no, no. So obviously you gotta clean the hair so often you clean the crab to cook it and clean it. Um but it's like you know, the hair that distinct the crab that lets you know it's it's a buck crab because I think there's different crab that looks like that as well. Okay, but that's not edible. Yeah. Um so yeah. One of the best, one of the sweetest crabs you can eat with coconut milk. Coconut milk. That I never had.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

No, that I didn't have.

SPEAKER_03 41:05

Wait, wait, Mark. Coconut milk curry, buck crab. Coconut milk carbon.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

That exists. That's what I'm bringing to the office on Monday. Well, Brandon, what do you take to school that is like clean?

SPEAKER_01 41:16

So when I go to work, right, I'll lock my door. I got I put a microwave, an AC fridge, you know. So when I lock my door, I'll bring my dollar rice and bhaji and my fry aloo and all that stuff, and I eat it. Just lock the doors and don't come in. But like, just like as Mark said, right? Like when my mom cooks curry and stuff, you know, I try to hide away all my clothes. So, Mark, I really gotta ask you, did Richie tell you wear a soup today? Because he told me to come business casual. So I try to, you know, business casual. I try I try to match you. And you look so sophisticated, well put it, brother.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

I wish I could wear that today. You look like you just came from uh what I will say is today, like uh today's Saturday, right? So like as an attorney, like your job really never ends. Like somebody called me last night, Friday. I had I know with you guys I was doing this podcast this morning. My goal today was basically, you know, do the podcast and then go play some golf in the afternoon. But the client calls me, I'm there. So like after this, at the podcast, um go in to see this client. They can't make it to the office, so I'm gonna go to their house, do the paperwork with them, make sure they're situated, their car's taken care of, um, the medical treatment they need and they need to get better. You must really love your job. It's you know, it's I think you know, a lot of people they think of lawyers like they why you want to be a lawyer, like you need to actually have an interest of what you're doing and like what you do. I like what I do. I step into someone's life where they're having like the worst day of their life. Like they their car they just pay, like scenarios that just happen every day. Their car they just ended up paying off, just got total. You know, that's like, oh my god, I just lost like 50, 40 grand. No, I understand. Um now, and then they're not even thinking like, oh my god, my back and neck are starting to kill me, uh, my knee, whatever it is. So like I step into a spot where you know people are always calling me a bad news, and then I try my job is to make it better, make sure that they're situated.

SPEAKER_01 42:54

It's interesting you say it because I deal with a hundred plus of kids. So after when Friday night comes, if they email me, if my my boss call me, I'll throw my phone the other way. Yeah, I don't want to see the kids, I don't want to hear emails. That's that's concerned.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

So being an attorney, um, I will tell people who are interested in the field, um, you know, that's not a luxury you do have. Depending on the field you go into, you know, they have in-house roles where you can just represent like like major companies, and then they have that luxury where like at the five o'clock, see ya, or a lot of government workers, if you work for the prosecution, um, you know, five o'clock, peace. I'll see you later. My phone's off. But like for private practice, you know, your clients are the reason why you have you're able to go out there and have a job. So whatever your clients need, uh, you need to take make make sure that's kind of available.

SPEAKER_01 43:42

At the five o'clock, I need some spare rib tip. I ain't trying to see none of them.

SPEAKER_04 43:49

Thank you, Brendan, for the very thoughtful question. Um so Mark, going back to that, right? Like I know you said this is a twenty four seven job, right? So how do you personally like create a work life balance between that when always having Be on calls with clients because obviously you never know when an accident can happen and a client will call you. So, how do you create kind of a work-life balance for yourself?

SPEAKER_02 44:06

So, the thing I think with our generation is, and you know, this is like by seeing it in practice from like my partners, um, having great role models in my life. When you're young and you're out there trying to go get it, there is no such thing as work-life balance. You just work, you put your head down. Like my parents, you hustle. I'm from Queens. Queens get the money, you know. That's how you guys know. I am hustling fully, like always invested in whatever I I'm in. So, like, I'll tell you is there the work-life balance, it sounds like a it's a great concept, but when the work is there, you gotta put your head down and really get down to working. Like today, like I said, I'm going to see a client, and I'm probably going to go back to the office and just get some things ready for next week. So, like, back to your question is how do I plan ahead? You should always have a plan. You know, in the mornings, I have a like a whiteboard in my office, even in my room, I have one. These are what I want to knock out today. And, you know, let like people call you, and I'm happy they do call me right away because before they get taken advantage of by the insurance companies, which are evil. So like they call me and then I adjust to make sure I can do what I do. But in the morning, I'll wake up a little earlier. If I if I know I have an office day or um my parents is gonna be quick, I'm in and out, I'm gonna bang out whatever's on my list, do number one, do number two. Number three is probably not that important right now because I I got to number three and four. I'll do that. That'll be my number one tomorrow, my number two. And then if like the other part is if you gotta stay the hours late, you know, like yesterday it was Friday, right? Um, you know, most people want to be like clock out, done at five o'clock. Yesterday I was in the office until like 8:30. I gotta get you a whiteboard.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

No more small. I mean, I'm not a white board. I gotta get you a small board. I gotta get you one of those.

SPEAKER_02 45:41

I like to write it out though. I don't know what it is. It's like an old school mentality.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

No, but it does help, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

It's a visual like effect, I think. Yeah. Um, so Mark, one of the reasons why we asked you to be here today, man, is you know, it's really great that you're a lawyer in the community. You're from our you know, culture as well. And for the youth, right? So folks who um younger kids in high school and college right now who want to be a lawyer and an attorney. What advice uh do you have to them, especially coming from our community where like there are not too many lawyers, right?

SPEAKER_02 46:07

So that was something where you know social media, like this is just the age we are in. If you're not on it, you're kind of out of the game. So nobody knows what you do, no one knows the kind of attorney you are. The purpose of it really, you know, obviously, you know, in all truthfulness, marketing is part of the game. You know, you need clients. You can be the best lawyer in the world, but if you have no clients, you you can't you can't beat, you can't have purpose to go to go with what you're saying, right?

SPEAKER_03 46:30

Uh I'll get back to your question also, though. There's a lot of questions, there's a lot of um attorneys in your field, right? Yeah. That's doing the same thing that you're doing. What really, you know, make you stand out from being a good lawyer and a great lawyer? Like, what what's you know, what's the point? By the way, great videos, man. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 46:47

Thanks so much. I want to give a special shout out to my, you know, me personally, like the the law itself is a crazy job. Like, like I said, my days, I don't really know what I'm doing. Like, even sending the podcast, I think. It was like, I don't know, maybe Saturday, like someone did call me yesterday, and I might have dysfunctionally, but if I have it scheduled, I have it scheduled. So Randy Harry Chan um from Legends Cookhouse, you know, he does a great job on my videos. I can't edit anything, so he's what we got here. What we got here? Are you injured?

SPEAKER_03 47:13

Mark Prasad.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

You gotta gotta look at that.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

Gotta support. By the way, yeah. Mark Passad, see, we shared a last name. There we go. Good man. We shared a last name.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

So there you go.

SPEAKER_03 47:22

You know, one thing I wanted to say about that last name, Tim. You're gonna need him, all right. Um so when I migrated over here back in 09, uh you know, Facebook and everything was brand new.

SPEAKER_05 47:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:32

Um, you know, so a lot of people wasn't really on Facebook like that. A lot of people is now getting onto that platform. Used to use like included. Yeah. Um, you know, being being somebody that you know is Guyanese and I have this weird name. When I came out here and, you know, I I created a Facebook page. Brian, what was your username?

SPEAKER_00 47:53

Well, hold on. What was your aim, Brian? Yeah, what was it?

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Mine was Midnight Shift.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

Um Mark, what was your aim? I didn't have any name.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

I didn't have any. I had it. I'm 28.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

Oh, yeah, but so I'm 31. I'm out of the same aim. Yeah, yeah. I didn't have aim. What was your aim?

SPEAKER_02 48:11

I don't know. That was a long time ago. He knows he knows what it is. He just won't say it.

SPEAKER_00 48:15

Oh, you gotta say it, Matt. It was Big Poppy 124.

SPEAKER_02 48:19

No, I used to love when people used to have like Guinese King. You're saw too, right? You want to hear my my my Gmail used to be? Let's see it is. This was uh Perswag 51. Oh, yeah, that's what that was uh don't don't send me any emails, and I don't really use that email anymore. But that was that was the one, and then it actually got hooked up to my Venmo account, and so when people sent me money, like who's Perswag? And I'm like, Yeah, that's me. That was you, but that was like back, you know, like when we were growing up, like swag was the word people used to always use. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

My one was the heartbreaker, and I still use it up to this day.

SPEAKER_03 48:50

Heartbreaker, Shawn Michaels. Yeah, so as I was saying, um, when you know, when I got on Facebook and everything like that, yeah, I I was fresh, like yeah, I was a five. Oh, we know you're fresh off the boat. Fresh off the boat, right?

SPEAKER_00 49:02

But bro, how how like five were you?

SPEAKER_03 49:04

I want to know.

SPEAKER_02 49:05

Let's hear it. Which what on a scale of one to ten, so tell us?

SPEAKER_03 49:08

I I was born in Ghana, yeah. You know, I lived practically half my life in there, like the best half, I would say. Yeah, right. You used to put the best half.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Oh, the best is yet to come, brother. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 49:17

I lived the best half of my life in Ghana because I lived my childhood there. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

You're about to go back.

SPEAKER_03 49:25

Um, coming out here, especially in New York, even though there's a lot of you know, Guyanese people, uh, Trinidad people or Caribbean people, there wasn't really that many people there with that last name. Yeah. Right? It wasn't that like, you know, that really familiar. Um it was kind of like unique. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_00 49:43

But then to me, at least there's like a billion persons. No, here, wait, wait, wait, hold on.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

Hold up, hold up. So to me, that's what I'm trying to say is that to me, when I first got on like, you know, Facebook platform and everything like that, there were not that many Prasads. Yeah. But then as the year grew, you know, as the year got by, yeah, I tend to notice that God damn, there's more Prasads and Sings than than there is like, you know.

SPEAKER_02 50:09

I have a question. So is Prasad your actual family name? Yes. Okay, so mine it's not. So you know, only Korean people will understand this that, you know, like my parents came to this country, you know, my my dad's last name is Ur Prasad. His You are Prasad? Ur Prasad, yeah. But he has we have he has eight siblings. Each one of them has a different variation of that. Oh, geez. One is two of them are Ur Prasad. I have Prasad, um, his sisters. I think they were given Prasad. Um, you know, it's it's it's it's actually when you try to explain to people, like people will never know who my dad is. They never changed his last name. It was a little bit more than a good thing. That's not your dad. I'm like, right? That's my dad.

SPEAKER_03 50:51

But his name is Urpasad. My my dad? That man's name is Si Pasad Prasad.

SPEAKER_02 50:57

What the hell? I'm like my grandfather my grandfather's brother, his name is Ganesh Ganesh. I love that. So the Ganesh is, I think, opposed to be our actual family name.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

Yeah, God twice. He's double blessed. He's a blessed blessed man. It's more of like, you know, when they were naturalized, you had the chance to like change your name or alter your name, right? Right. So there's a lot of that in the community where they'll have like different variations of Prasad or like C or Khan.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Khan, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I had the option, you know. This was my parents told me it was like, you should make your name Urpasad. There's so many Prasads instead of in thinking of like identity theft. And I'm like, I just finished my law degree. I have all my degrees in Prasad. I'm like, I can't go back and change all this now. It's too late. Everyone knows me as Mark Prasad. I was like, all these t-shirts I printed, it's all Mark Prasad. I can't change Mark Urpassad, separate person. Yeah, yeah. So it's too late for that already. But you know, that's my my dad's and my my parents' name, and it should be mine, is Urbasad. But um, Prasad, you know, it's a very common name. Everyone sees it and happens all the time, especially in my firm, where like clients come in as Prasad, like, hey, Mark, is that your cousin? I'm like, it is a very popular name.

SPEAKER_03 52:01

Oh no, I get that, I get that a lot. Like, you know, wherever I go and you know, people see like there's another Prasad, yeah. It'd be like, oh, is that your, you know, is that your cousin? Is that your relative? Like, they're always like affiliate us. Yeah. Because sometimes that's name.

SPEAKER_02 52:13

I'm gonna be honest with you, sometimes it is. It's like, oh, that's my third cousin. I'm somehow.

SPEAKER_03 52:16

No, see, I'd be pulling the strings and be like, yeah, yeah, that's my cousin. Oh no, yeah, that's my brother.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:21

Mind you, I don't know that person.

SPEAKER_00 52:23

I used to work for TLC, right? And I used to be the one putting the licenses, the TLC licenses in the envelope to mail, right? Oh, and big job, right? Big job came along the way. That was my college job, right? No, but during that time, right? I was like, there's so many people named Muhammad Ali. Like they were very common.

SPEAKER_03 52:41

Very, very common. Listen, I just met five guys last week. Great place to eat at. And all five of them was named Mohammed.

SPEAKER_00 52:53

Or MD for sure. And I was like, at first, I was like, are they are they doctors? There was there was either Mo or Mohammed.

SPEAKER_02 52:59

Yep. My brother has like four friends, Mo. They're all Mo. They all short name is Mo. So I'm like, how do you know who's who? What do you put up in your phone? Mo. He goes, Mo one, Mo 2, Mo 3. He's like, Mo, Mo just got Mo just got married. That's how you differentiate. So I'm like, you got yo, this is a New York thing. Like, you got five friends named Mo.

SPEAKER_03 53:16

Yeah, yeah, a whole bunch of things. We got Big Mo, Little Mo, Mini Moe. We got Black Mo. You got Mohammed, the actual one.

SPEAKER_02 53:26

He's he's Mohammed.

SPEAKER_03 53:27

You got the Mohammed and O G. And then you got the the prophet. No, listen, it's like it's crazy because the names, it'd be so like for me personally. In high school out here, my f my life, my first name was very difficult for me to say. Ravendra. I was getting called uh revenge.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:47

Revenge. Literally, like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

Who would they say? Mr. Revenge Prasad.

SPEAKER_03 53:51

Yeah, they always call me like revenge, and it was never Prasad, it was pursued. Yeah, but oh yeah, yeah. But here's the thing. I'll tell you our last name, right? There's two different spellings with it. You got P-E-R-S-A-U-D, and then you got P-E-R-S-A S-A-D. S A D, yeah. Take that comment back, but so um with mines, I have the U in it. Uh so when the teachers and when the counsel will like say my name, they'll try to pronounce it like, you know, syllable for syllable, and it'll be like Pursued. Yeah. Mr. Pursuit. I'm like Prasaud. I get that a lot. Persoud. When I got that. It's like, you know, they were trying, they were trying to sound it out, and it wasn't like I'm like, Persad, Brandon's the only one with a uh American name here, right?

SPEAKER_00 54:35

Well Mark, is your real name, Mark? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:37

So my real name is Brandon Sam Bislash.

SPEAKER_02 54:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

At least you don't have two neighbors like me, you know.

SPEAKER_02 54:42

You're just trying to sign out the whole entire thing.

SPEAKER_03 54:44

No, no, no. So I got I got my government name, Tom, which is, you know, and then I got Ryan.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

You know. If you're from New York and you're Ghanaians and you're grooving, you know.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Timesh, you know, has everyone anywhere ever like butchered your name?

SPEAKER_04 54:59

Tomas. My name's been butchered so many times, it's ridiculous. I had to give different types of people different pronunciations. So it's been like Tamesh, Tamash, yeah. Tamash. Like it was.

SPEAKER_00 55:10

Tama was like Capiche, and I was like, Capiche, Tamesh.

SPEAKER_04 55:14

So many different variations to it. It's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

Back with the pursuit. So when I go to court, um, you know, when you go to court and you're dealing with judges, right? They, you know, the judges are very powerful. It's their courtroom, right? Um, but you you're also you're an attorney and you're representing your client, so you're in a port of authority. You can't have the other side thinking that like the judge just screwed up his name, like he really doesn't care, right? So, like obviously I'm going from the judge, and I'm like, Mr. Pursuits here. I'm like, Your Honor, it's Mr. Prasad. And he's like, Oh, Mr. Prasad. All right, but I'm like, you understand, this is this is my name. Then the other side is like, he just corrected the judge.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

This guy's sometimes, you know, sometimes doing that, sometimes doing that, it shows it shows your character. Shows authority, definitely. It shows that, you know, even though, you know, we're not, we're not like, you know, people keep us at at a different level, yeah, because we're Caribbean, right? They hold us at they hold us at a different standard, like, oh, you know, they're not they're not fully up there.

SPEAKER_02 56:10

In the legal community, you know, like say like diversity in the community is definitely changing, it's growing, which is you know, especially in New York where you're dealing with so much diverse people, you need to have the field of law change as well. Um, you know, definitely in that scenario, I've dealt with it in the in the past, but I think part of it, you know, as being an attorney when I show up to court, you have to dress appropriately, you have to I go out of my way. I'm not saying I got spent like so much money on custom suits, whatever, but I always look the part that I'm that I'm in. You know, some people, it's like, I don't know why they're not asking him, is he an attorney? Like, is he not? Like you should be respectful towards the court, but like I've dealt with it um as an intern, uh, not in my firm, but like in other firms while I was in law school, you get to get internships and externships where you get credits for law schools where some people they're setting their mind and they're like one guy asked me, I remember he was a like a partner, big shot he in his head. Um he was like, I was I was at my desk and it says my name, Mark Persad on the desk. Um, and he goes, When you're done fixing that computer, uh, can you see mine? So, you know, me, like, I've always been a straightforward person. I'm like, what are you talking about? And he goes, like, when you're done with the computer, he said it like slower to me. And I was like, Um, I'm a law student. And he's like, he's like, he was so embarrassed, he didn't even he didn't know to say sorry. So then I was like, I went to his office actually. I was like, So did you just assume I was an IT? I'm actually in a suit. So you just assume I was the IT guy, um, or something like that. You just assume I was the law student, um, interning and actually working on your cases. So like, BDE. Yeah, and then you know, he actually like was very apologetic about it. But I was like, I told him, man, this is some like I'm not in the firm in that firm yet. I was you internships for opportunities to get a job. I'm telling the senior partner, like, listen, you should be careful like how you do that in the future, it can be issues for you. But I appreciate you saying sorry, blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

One thing with our community, right, is that being that we have a darker skin tone, yeah. Um people really do this is my lightest shade right now. People really do look down, you know, people really do look down on us being that being that you know like we're like we're minorities, like we're not capable of doing greater things, right? But if you do look at it, we have so many great people that's doing so many great things right now. For sure, yeah. Right? There's definitely that's why we're here to really hide. And it's not being it's not being recognized because our community chooses to to to to you know have a blind eye towards it.

SPEAKER_00 58:37

Yeah, it's not only partying and et cetera.

SPEAKER_02 58:39

You know, my friends was I again I grew up in an area where it's very diverse. I grew up with a lot of Chinese, Korean, Greeks, um, very diverse. Very diverse. Um, and actually, my my next door neighbor was Trinidadian. Whenever they brought them to my family house parties, they had the best time of their life, the best party, the best food. They go home, they like come can we take some food home? That's guaranteed. You have to. They go home, they give it to their parents, then their parents taste the flavor of the culture. They're like, Wow, and they're like, that was the best party went to my life.

SPEAKER_03 59:09

And it was just a it was just like a backyard party or barbecue, and they're like, that was better than the weddings I've been to. Of course, of course. You know, that's because you know, our spices again, yeah. It tells, it tells who we are.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

Yeah, and our culture is very inviting too. I I think that's a you know, just you guys doing a great job with the podcast, it's very important people know. Like, Caribbean culture, if you know it, it's like, you know, you're here, have a good time, enjoying it. It's provocative. You know, it's not like it's the people going.

SPEAKER_03 59:34

One thing, one thing I will say, right? One thing I will say is that whenever we go to like weddings and stuff like this, and we have like younger, younger kids coming up to us, like, oh, how do you do that? Like, you know, how long did that take for you to do? Like, was it hard for you to do it? Right? We look at them and we'd be like, it's not really hard. It's not, it's something that if you put your head to it, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 59:54

Like I discipline, yeah, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:56

You put your head to it and you're willing to learn, it's not that hard.

SPEAKER_00 59:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:59

Right. They're not being exposed to our culture in a way they need to be exposed. Right. Right. To learn about the ways that that we have or like the cultures that we have, or the um the things that we do in our community. Definitely. Right. So when they do come around and they do see it, it's like it's like a very first time for them, and it's it's a bad feeling for us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:25

Because you guys do a lot of events, so you guys see this on your own. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:28

Being that, you know, we're going to all these events and we're always seeing these people, and then to have our own kind be like, oh, I don't know what this is, I don't know what they're doing. Yeah, I don't I don't understand what what why they're doing certain things, right? We wanted to have this podcast where they have a sense of understanding as to what is going on. Why? Why the things that are being done are being done. For sure, yeah. You know, and we also want to give them an opportunity to learn more beyond the culture. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

Well, Mark, that's a good sort of like back to the qu question we had earlier. Like uh young college students, high school students who are interested in law may not have like a law mentor. Right. Right? May not have anyone to really ask questions about, which is I think something pretty difficult to uh sort of navigate if you don't have anyone in the community. Definitely. Uh what advice can you, you know, sort of give them?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:21

So definitely, um, you know, when I was in that scenario because I didn't see any other Caribbean attorneys or Guyanese, Trinidadian, anybody in the in the Caribbean field, South Asian, any of those, like, you know, I'll say the word brown. I haven't I didn't see any brown attorneys really. Um, it was tough, you know. I was turning to YouTube to see what do I do, this, that, the other, right? Now, like, for me, my platform, I want that to change. I want people to see like, I'm here, I'm doing this, you can do it too, you know, like give advice on your journey. And I always stress it, if I'm at an event or I'm even on like my phone, reach out to me. I'm not just here to take personal injury cases. You're considering law, reach out to me. You know, if I can't call you during the day, we'll schedule a time and I always will call you back, especially if it's somebody that you have no one to turn to, and you or even if you have people to turn to, you want to touch my you know, my brain, pick it a little bit and see like, is this the right option for me? And I'm very truthful. I'll tell you, like, I'll tell you straightforward, like, if I can recommend law for you, do it, and I'm like, you you're in it for the wrong reasons. Maybe think more of like why you want to be in in the legal field, then I'll help you. But anybody young who wants to uh pursue it, um, I'm living through it right now, and I can tell you the best advice, and I'm more than happy to do that. Anybody, my numbers are all over the all over the place. You can always call, send me a text, you can DM me, whatever. I'm happy to help anybody that wants to pursue law. That's the purpose of my page, also, like for then see the next generation really strive. And this is like a normal in our in our community, like lawyers that are going out there doing big things, helping the community and giving back, you know. Awesome. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:53

Yeah. Well, Mark, thank you, man. Really appreciate that. Really appreciate your time and your insight and giving us all this information. And you know, just uh one last close-off for people who are out there and who are watching this. I got one more question, too. Okay. The biggest question.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:06

We're gonna have to go. We can edit it after we can edit it and switch it around.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:17

What is it, you know, what's the next step? If they need help and they're watching this, what is the right next step for them to do right now?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:23

So the next step I'd say, like, if somebody's involved in an accident, um, you know, my job is really to protect the people. You know, attorneys have different roles. My job personally is I'm helping the people. Um, you know, I step into that spot where like they don't know what's going on, they're in a really bad time. Give me a call. You know, I'll make sure anything that I can do to help you, um, I can do that. So if you're involved in an accident, that that's something. If you're someone in the community where you need like some support, um, you're doing good things. Obviously, you know, I can't really sponsor um like too many crazy parties. You know, they got some nice ones coming up. You know, I try my best to for marketing rises, but if you're doing good things, you're giving scholarship, you're doing helping the community in one way. If I can give my time, I can give uh whatever resources I can on my end, I'm more than happy to do that. Um that's something that I want to push in the future. Um, and you know, like people that are doing those events already, it's a lot of work, and I'm more than happy to be a tag along and help you help them do that and kind of reach more of the community and help others um the best they best way we possibly can.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:24

Um so I just have one more question. What was like the craziest like excuse um not excuse, but like the craziest case they deal with? Like, what was the payout? Like, was it like I don't know, like a car accident, car flipped, someone died. Yeah, what was the craziest case? Yeah, it was a crazy I had to gotta ask that.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:40

Yeah. So so far, um while I was working with the firm before I became like fully admitted to the firm, uh, there was uh a four and a half, five million dollar case that I was part of. I did a lot of the groundwork on that case, worked with the uh the attorneys who are now my colleagues, uh now my buddies, you know, we're working with each other. Um so we did a lot of the work on that case. That was like a four and a half million dollar case, and that was without even they just because the evidence was so compelling, the person had so many injuries that was like right there in front of them. They we didn't need to even go to trial for it. We did threaten and go to trial, we were ready to go. We actually showed up. Well, the attorneys and my I was actually part of the team, we showed up that first day for jury selection, they were like, Oh no, forget it. So those those your question was like, what was the craziest settlement? I think that's one of them. Um, and then the craziest case, this one, like you know, if you don't want to anyone who wants to pursue personal injury, it's a tough, tough feel. You gotta have a thick skin because you know, if I show you my camera roll right now, it's literally just like blood, broken bones, broken cards. Like, you know, I I don't I tell everyone don't don't don't go through my camera roll. It's always something that can just pop up in there, like, you know, you're like, What what is that? I'm like, Yeah, it's a broken bone.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:52

This man right here is a quarter block in all the right places. Um

SPEAKER_05 1:06:00

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:03

Back with the craziest case um so far I've seen have been a ho help this young kid. Um, and I hope this one sticks with a lot of people, is that they gave Oh, this is a serious case though, so I gotta let me not smile. But um so the the case was basically that this parents, there's like three kids in the household. The parents had bought the oldest son who was like 19 years old, dirt bike. Oh the youngest son was like bought a bike. Oh, be careful with them.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:29

I bought a Harley.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:30

Oh, nice, nice. Be very careful with them though. But um what I say is they bought a dirt bike for the oldest son's like 18, 9 years old. The youngest son, who was like 12 years old, happened to be home, left the home that day. So parents didn't like the lock the bike up. They just they assumed it's a good kid. But boy, let me tell you, boys are gonna be boys. I grew up with two brothers. Boys are gonna be boys.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:48

I know what you're talking about because I used to steal my pop's motorcycle back home.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:52

So it was pop's car and crashed it. Wait, wait, what happened? Let's so you know, the the young kid um took the bike out without anybody knowing. His parents had left for work that day. He was home and he was going down the block. Um, and you know, he actually had the green light to go. He I don't know why he was on the street, but he went straight and he got hit by a truck. Oh man. Now the truck, the person who was driving the truck, they this was really like a really like bad case because there's a video of it. Um the the truck actually stopped after they hit him, and then they were so shocked that they didn't realize what happened. Remember they're in a truck, so they can't really see. They ended up stopping, they couldn't really see or hear they heard something going on, but they didn't know what it was. And they ended up proceeding to roll over him. Oh and I remember when I went to the house, um, you know, the kid, the young young gentleman, um, he actually was discharged from the hospital, multiple fractures, broken bones. Oh, yeah. The mother was screaming because the father had shown me the video, and the mother was screaming, just watching the video, and I was like, this is horrific. Um, you know, you know, we settled that case six months later for a couple million dollars. Um, you know, money doesn't heal uh anything, but you know, they they were able to pay off this this young young gentleman had to have like three or four surgeries. So now the family's not stuck paying those medical bills. Yeah. Um they have some money for him, obviously, for the future, um, to whatever he's gonna do, but you know, nothing's you know, obviously that family couldn't. I always tell people, people always tell me, and this is kind of a little off topic, but people always tell me, like, and I I kind of like, mmm, you really don't. Like, I wish I was hit by a car, I'm gonna get a payout, right? I'm gonna call Mark, right? I'm like, it's not that every client that I've had who has serious injuries, let me tell you, they in a million, million dollars, whatever the money is, in a second they switch off and be like, I wish the accident never happened, I don't care what money is because I can't like walk the same, do this, certain things the same. Yeah. So money doesn't heal everything. Can't bring someone back either. Yeah, you can't bring any back anybody back as well. So that's like the the hardest case. So if you are considering personal injury for the people that are in that who are thinking about it, it's a tough field. You deal with stuff like this all the time, and your job is really to be in that person. You have people really in a tough spot, families are they're calling you for support, whether that be like legal advice or actually just like, can you sit there and can you pray with me for my son? And like I've done that before, so like you know what I mean? Like, those are the scenarios you kind of were being uh where you have to have that people, you can't just be like all about business and whatever it is. You have to have a heart and you have to kind of want to do what you you kind of want to have to help people in this field. You can't just be like, This is a client one, two, three, a, c, d. You want to have like I know who they are, the family knows me, they have my number, and you give back, and that's the way you kind of do it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:31

Um, as we're about to wrap things up, I just wanted to ask you one last thing. Uh Mark Passad, right? Quote unquote, your name. Right. Um, where do you see or what do you want people to say about your name 10 years down from now?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:42

Like 10 years down the road, you know, any anybody in Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, any all of New York, you know, they call me, they're gonna see a reputation that's been growing. Um, in a short amount of time, like graduating law school, I've been in the mix of already big settlement cases, getting the max for my clients and getting in a record time. So in the future, I want them to see like this guy is on business. It's not just because he's, you know, marketing. Marketing is one thing that's great. And I, you know, using social media now, which has been a great tool for me, but I want my work to speak for itself. I want to do big trials and all that stuff going forward. And I also want to help the community, like, you know, in ways where right now there's not people doing certain things, but there's also great groups right there right now who I can piggyback on and help them what they're doing. But I also want to build on that. Uh, my grandparents, you know, my grandfather, uh, he'd give you the last dollar in his pocket. So that's something that was like instilled in me, and I want to do that for my community. Um, his his name is Brother Charles. Everyone knows him. Like, they literally he worked until 90 years old. He's 92 now. So like he's always been serving. He's always been serving the community. They give you the last dollar. He sees you in the street. He's nine years old. Imagine like he sees you hungry, he'll come in the house. He doesn't really he takes everyone as you know, he doesn't see bad in anybody.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:01

I think you gotta be careful. That's one of the good things. That's one of the good things about us Caribbeans is that uh we are brought up in a way that you don't you look past, you look past the bad deeds of people. Yeah. You know, especially we have beggars that comes like every day, day in, day out. There's beggars that always come. And what what you do? You do you turn them down? Do you say no? Or you just give them a dollar, you give them a little bit of food, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:23

Yeah, yeah.

unknown 1:11:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:25

By helping them, by helping them putting some food in their stomach, yeah, you're actually helping yourself.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:30

For sure. I think the more good you can do, don't just do it because you you want to give good because you're expecting a return. Good things will happen. And that's like, you know, that was instilled me from when I was younger with my parents. Like, whenever, you know, wherever you're at in life, you can always go out and help someone. Whether that be you're helping them like financially, helping them get a plate of food or anything like that, you can always do that. Like right now, when I go to court, uh for the last I think year and a half, I've when I've been I've been going, I give people like a lot of people probably can understand this. A lot of lawyers are miserable people, right? They're just miserable. Like, you know, some of them are great people. I'm you know, Ashley, let me rephrase a lot of them are great, great people, but some of them are just diehard, miserable people. You tell I always give a compliment like a nice tie, oh that was a great argument. This, that, the other. Right? Yeah, like your shirt, like your shirt, right? What a you don't know what someone's going through. Before we get no problem. I definitely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:24

Bernie, can you explain what what your office about here today? Well, you said business casual, and then I saw Mark coming, I was like, oh damn. But Mark, is there anywhere like you think us as a group or us personally, is there anywhere like we could improve to even get better? I think just like as you mean like in the legal community or more in general? In general, in the legal community. Oh, I'm sorry. It's all right. In the in the legal community, in general, there's where can we?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:47

In general, I think in our community, we really um look out more and help each other um any way that's possible. There's definitely a lot of people now. I think a lot of the the the younger generation as well is going out of their way to look. I see a lot of other people, whether they be lawyers and real estate, doing things that are different, you know, to help back and give back and be part of events, um, to give back to the community. So that's something where I think if you're able to or you can't donate money, donate time. It really goes a long way. It does. Um, in the legal community, um, I think as well, the same way. There's not there's not that many, even now, there's starting to be a little more diversity in the legal community, but definitely, you know, pave the way for the next generation because you know, you know what, they are gonna be the next generation who's gonna have equipped with the latest technology, gonna be able to do things quicker, faster, move or moving around, and help help their clients the best they can. Help the attorneys that are already in the field get better.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:40

Uh Mark, so we're running out of time right now. Uh, we just want to do something really quick with you. Sure. So we're gonna call this the final four. We're all gonna give you one quick question just to learn a little bit more about you. Um, I'll start first. Uh, what do you like to do outside of work for fun?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:55

Uh just work out, you know, like uh it's uh you gotta do like something to get your mind off of the stress you're dealing with all day. But, you know, most part I'm dealing with other people's issues and problems that they're going through. So, like when you got to go, you know, I used to do martial rush for a long time. Nice. You go hit a bag, you can kick a bag a little bit, you go, yeah, a third degree black ball. Nice. So yeah, I did that. You know, I can go hit a bag a little bit in my gym and go push some weights, put some soaking music, some reggae while I'm listening. For one hour, I'm like, disappear. Like, where's Mark? I don't answer my phone. I'm working out and focusing on myself. That's what I usually do to de-stress. Nice. Brennan, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:27

Skip me. I'm gonna come back to this question. Real quick. Mark, what separates a good attorney from a great one?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:33

So a good attorney and a great one is the one that kind of goes above the above the what you're expecting. Um, they're keeping you updated on your case, um, keeping you part of the process. Some of them, you know, I and it happens all the time where you know, you don't even some people don't even know who their attorney is, right? They like say they mail you a packet, sign this. All my clients and the firm of Malone Engrossman where I work at, they everyone knows who their attorney is. We've never mailed a packet to someone and be like, here, sign this, send it back, and we'll call you in two, three years when your case is over, right? Like that's just horrible business. And it happens, you'd be surprised it happens so much in New York that people are like, I didn't get a call in two years. You know what's going on with my case? And I'm like, we could talk more about your case if you want to transfer as an attorney, but you always have that right. So that's something I think that separates is having that personal element to it, and just you know, at the very basic, give somebody an update what's going on. Because remember, they're you know, they're going through a tough time. Just because you retain them as a client doesn't mean see you later. Like, no, you need to be part of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:29

Excellent, man. Brian, go ahead. Um, so my final question to you is uh, you know, being an attorney, being someone that does with people that do a lot of injuries and everything like that, right? Yeah. Have you been in a predicament where you needed to take a step back and just like you know, you know, take a deep breath in, or like felt like felt the need that you needed to meditate a little bit just to like, you know, align yourself back.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:52

Yeah, we had any anxiety, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:54

Um, anxiety, you know, I haven't had any anxiety, but I've seen, like I said, I've been to like situations where like I'm in court and somebody calls me, I need you to come to like the hospital. Like right now, this my client, like they may not make it tonight. We need you to do a power of attorney and some paperwork to be filled out right now. So, like whatever I'm doing, obviously that's priority, gotta drop and run to the hospital. And you you're dealing with people that you know they just got really, really, really injured, um, and they need someone to help and step in to like make sure their like finances and their families are taken care of. So, like that's stuff that I also do as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:27

You know, as that attorney, right? And you get that call. Yeah. Okay, I gotta go to the hospital. Now I'm gonna see this person in that bed in this state that they're in. Right. Does that ever like affect you after afterwards? Like coming home, like do you ever like get like nightmares of you know certain things that you see?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:43

I I don't think I get nightmares, but it's always uh you think about it, and you also like, you know, me personally, I call clients, you know, on on off job time, like, hey, how are you doing? You know, you know, I'm the attorney you met like a couple weeks ago just following up, see how you how you doing. And you know, they don't they're you know, some they're very gracious for it. Um, you know, I remember I was in my grandfather's a priest, right? So we used to go to the hospitals all the time, and just for like my my grandmother was in the hospital for a while, every single room he used to stop by, he used to walk in there and be like, Can I pray for you? Can I pray for you? Can I pray for you? I haven't put that step yet where I'm bumping in someone's room, but I always offer somebody, you know, if you're in a tough time, I'll keep you in prayers. You know, that goes a long way, especially with my clients. I'll keep you in prayers. And you know, some people say things just to say it. And you can tell right away. But like I tell you, like if I I say my prayers every day, thank God, you know, I do. And I if I see a client like that, I I tell them I'm gonna say a prayer for you tonight, and I hope you you know you get better. The doctors do their do what they gotta do to make sure you're okay and you progress. You know, and they're very like they can see them actually being like legit with them and being like honest, not like, oh, I'm gonna pray for you, I'll see you later. Make sure you sign the paperwork later when I when I come back. Like, you know, like people can see through it, and if you're like one of those attorneys that just like do that, like it's really just not the best way to do business or you know, it's business, but you also have to have a personal element for your person.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:06

And my final question for the final four, I gotta accent probably not the most important one, but sweats and t-shirt or suit and tie.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:14

Sweats and t-shirt. Every day, all day. You know, but like like I said, like I you gotta know when to wear. Like, you catch me at home, you catch me at the gym. Um, I'm always in shorts, I'm always trying to be comfortable. When I go to court, you know, I'm always I don't want to say the best, I'm not gonna say the best dress, I'll leave that up to the people, but I want to make sure you understand that I'm an attorney, I'm professional. I never will have that issue where my clients at a disadvantage because of the way I look or the way I appear. They always will know, like, this is attorney Mark Prasad who's appearing on my case, and he's always gonna be like the guy that we know right away. It doesn't mean like I said earlier, like you don't gotta drop crazy amount of money, but like for the younger generation, like I see it now, um, and I see with like new attorneys and even some older attorneys, I don't know what they're doing. You can tailor your suit, you could buy a regular suit, like it could be a cheap suit. Just get it altered. Like, you know, don't like you know, shine in your shoes. Wear like, you know what I mean? Like wear appropriate clothing that fits you. If you gain some weight, you know, it's okay. You go get a bigger suit.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:10

I don't get the shine these. Oh my god. Some good bad boys.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:13

But like, no, no, like I said, like during the day, like if you saw me in the street, you probably wouldn't recognize me because I I'm wearing shorts, t-shirt. Um, you know, that's just what I usually wear when I'm out. When I do park events, like a lot of the Ghanaian reunion days we did last year, I'm gonna do it again this year. I'm in my fresh metals. What? All the reunion like you know, my family is from uh Wre from Enterprise? No, no.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:34

I was at Rentner Car?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:37

I was at I was at Enterprise though, uh, but uh my family's from uh Rose Hole and Port Mormont. Oh bro, bro. Maybe they forget the Burbese side, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:49

Listen, that's my territory, baby. Yeah, big big shout out to all my Burbish and all my current team people. You know, uh give a few minutes more. Go ahead. Um listen, I think all the best talent come out of Burbese. All the best talents come out of Burbese. We should have started, we should have started with this.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:05

We should have started with this because listen, I can't let me tell you, when you go to uh Kanji Day Reunion, that one, you know, I'm going to a I'm going to a couple of them this year, so I can't say that's the best one, but that one really does a great job. Kanji Day. People there's other reunions going on that day, and they come to go to Kanji Day Reunion because like I know like this year I went, my my family is like part of one of the organizers of that event. So like Mark, set up a booth. Um, you know, I gave away I did like dash cam raffles. So I'd love to give everyone a free dash camera, but they're they're like a hundred plus dollars each one. I'm gonna be one. So I did a raffle at those events. You know, people people I got three or five five winners. I gave up some t-shirts, um, some marketing, gave out some free legal advice, people had some questions. So that's what we you know we do at those events, and we try to give back. We did a donation for the Kanji Day reunion towards scholarships as well. So, like, you know, Kanji Kanji Day is one of the really good ones. Port Moran Day is a great one as well. Um, Enterprise, like you said.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:03

Brennan, you going to the Enterprise Union? Previously, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:07

But not the right reasons, but yeah. I remember they used to hire us to play at these reunions, man, and it was really hot. It's really hot. That's why you're not gonna catch me in a suit.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:14

I would really like to wear a suit, but you know, but uh it's way too hot. And I'm there for like six, seven hours with my brother.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:20

Like they have like the sack game?

SPEAKER_03 1:21:22

Yeah, you know what I'm gonna have to do?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:24

Sly a kite.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:25

I would enter it. I would have to enter that duck curry competition. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:29

I think you gotta do it. Duck curry duck.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:31

Curry duck. Duck curry competition.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:33

I think it's duck curry, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:34

Duck curry curry. Thank you, thank you. I'm outnumbered the edition.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:38

We need call for back the next guest.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:40

I'm gonna be a contrarian though, right? Like, I feel like the Trinity Way is right, and this is why.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:45

That's right, Ghanaian's person.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:47

See, but that's the thing. He's this video is gonna go viral.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:50

I already know it's going viral.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:53

It's what you're doing to the meat first, right? It's like roast pork, all right? Roast chicken. Imagine you saying You didn't phase him. You didn't phase him. He said, I I heard this argument a hundred times before. And but it just sounds no to like American people, right? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:09

To American people, they got it backwards. It's chicken curry, duck curry. End this podcast quickly, please. It's about to be a brothel in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:17

We were doing so well, too. I was wondering when it was gonna come out.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:22

So well, um, go Knicks tonight, game one against Atlantic. Oh, playoffs, let's go. Let's go, Randy Orton. I hate Cody Rhodes.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:29

WrestleMania Tonight, man. Are you a fan? I used to be. I kind of fell out of it. I'm more of a I'm a diehard Yankee fan. As I said, the Bronx. The Bronx and my players. You never had a crit case? Have you seen these games? Oh no, hell no, not a bad time.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:41

Have you seen these games they did with the Yankees and the Angels? Oh, yeah. It was a home run derby.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:46

I thought you meant like we got the Yankees got their ass whooped. Like, no, no, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But the first second game or the first game, I was like, wow. Like those are the two superstars in the league, just going back at it. Back to back. But that's why like when I go to court, the Bronx court is right next to Yankee Stadium. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:02

Right there, 1610.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:04

I told you the firm, like, send me to the Bronx. I love like going there. I told them, like, even if you send me to the Bronx and there's a game at one o'clock and have a nine o'clock appearance, I am gonna call the rest of the day and go enjoy the Yankee game. Mark, I know we're we're running really late late on time, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:17

But really quick, really quick. My wife tells me all the time that I should start to play golf. Yeah. Because the conversations that occur on the golf course, right? Are real like you'll mix with people you would never interact with otherwise, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:30

Yeah, I think that, but like I I think golf, like I got into it two years ago and I'm like hooked. If you're a competitor, you want somebody, remember, golf is so hard because you compete against yourself. You're not, yeah, you don't care what everyone else is doing. Like you're just trying to get better at yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:42

But have you met like a lot of cool people?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:43

Like Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely people that I never would have met before, um, or even like would probably like talk or whatever it is. Um, like you know, you you speak to about. But if you like, if you're a competitor, you like you just want to get better at something and you start, but it's like usually you're gonna start really bad and you like you see yourself progress, and like that's something like huge. Like, especially for like males, they're like, Oh yeah, uh I'll maybe take that part out.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:04

But like you ever placed any bets?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:06

I'll go back. Maybe it's it's huge for like you know, people in in sports. Um, you know, like you want to see yourself get better. That's something like me. Like, I I honestly I still suck, like you know, but I like to see myself get better, huh?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:18

You ever placed any bets in yourself?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:20

No. The teacher was once a student, you're good there.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:25

No, no, it's it's a fun sport, so you you can do it. Oh yeah, Irish.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:30

All right, we gotta wrap, we gotta wrap, bro. Thank you so much, man, for your time. Thank you guys. Your efforts, we learned a lot about you. Thank you so much. Um, any closing words for you for the uh the folks at home?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:42

Um, like I said, you know, if you're anyone in the community or any, you're not a part of the community, you want to be part of the community, reach out. Uh, if you need any, you're considering going to law school, you're you're on the on the edge of it, um, you reach out to me. I'm more than happy to help you. And then this one's a little more powerful. If you cause an accident or you are involved in an accident, like I said, I'm not gonna hang the phone up on you. Give me a call. I'll tell you how to deal with the insurance companies because you know you can't trust them. Um, I want to help you. Make sure that you know you're covered. And if you're having any medical injuries from an accident, reach out to me. I will get you the best compensation, and that's something that I stand on my ground that I work for the largest personal injury firm in Queens, and I will do the best I can, and I will not leave a penny on the table from the insurance company.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:23

Don't just hold it up, wear it, boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:24

Oh, we got the shirt really quick. Wear it next time.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:26

You gotta get us some mediums and some small shirts, man. Wait, what size is this? That's a lot of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:30

They run small, they run small.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:31

They run small, yeah, yeah. Put in the dry, oh sh right. Yeah, right. But round of applause from Mark, guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:35

Thank you, Mark, so thank you guys. Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it.