Matt Granda

Claggett & Sykes

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I was born and raised in New Jersey. I was really into sports growing up, but basketball was my favorite. I was probably slightly above average and, at some point, realized I wasn’t making the NBA. As a kid in the 80s, I was really into GI Joe. I think that must have left an imprint on me because, in high school, I started looking into military academies. Turns out you need to have really good grades (I did ok there), a pretty good SAT score (close, but not close enough), and be either really involved in lots of activities or really good in sports (I’m out). 

So, I did the next most logical thing and enlisted in the Marine Corps. I saw an ad in Sports Illustrated for a Marine Corps keychain, and I sent in the little postcard to get it. To this day, I have not gotten the keychain (it’s been 20+ years, but I’m holding out hope), but I did get a visit from the recruiter, and I was probably the easiest enlistment he ever had. I served four years in the infantry, traveled to far-off lands, and moved to Las Vegas when I got out.

In Las Vegas, I started working in bars and restaurants and going to school. It wasn’t until around 2008-09 the law school crossed my mind. I was finishing up undergrad and knew I was done working in restaurants. It was the middle of the recession, and I figured lawyers must always have jobs and make lots of money. I had recently purchased a house that was now worth nothing, so I applied to the only law school in Nevada and luckily got accepted.

In my second year of law school, I saw an email on the school listserv about a small PI firm named Claggett & Associates hiring a law clerk. The law clerk had to speak Spanish. I did not. But I knew that’s what I wanted to do, so I applied. I got the job and have been at the firm ever since. I was the third attorney to join the firm and now act as the managing partner running the operations of the firm.

Will Sykes · Matt Granda · Christian Augustin · Sean Claggett

Building Your Pre-Lit and Lit Systems Part 2

• Trial work means fewer cases (can't have hundreds of cases per attorney in lit)
• You can make more money by saying no, but you have to be patient
• Focusing on what matters in lit - what moves cases forward and gets full value on cases
• What are you incentivizing with your pay structure? Are you inadvertently incentivizing people to settle cases instead of taking cases to trial and working them up to get full value?
• Compensation and bonus structure for lit teams
• Go over the litigation system and timeline we built

Will Sykes · Matt Granda · Christian Augustin · Sean Claggett

Building Your Pre-Lit and Lit Systems Part 1

• Difference between trial firms and volume firms
• Using a systems-based approach - Increasing case value by creating a system
• The need to separate pre-lit volume from lit and trial cases
• The role of your pre-lit team (customer service, knowing what your lit teams are looking for, knowing which cases will have to be litigated and working them up properly) - Christian you may cover some of this in your other sessions but I think a little overlap is ok
• What to do with cases that don't settle in pre-lit but aren't the right fit for your lit team
• Compensation for your pre-lit team (how to bonus)