Gigi Grasska

[Theme Song Plays]

Gigi Grasska: I did not always know that I wanted to be a lawyer… I’m a firm believer that when you’re picking a lawyer, you want somebody who is specialized in that area… We were like surrounded by sharks and the boat sinking. My dad’s trying to fix it… My mom will kill me. But even my own mom did not want me to go to law school….

Narrator: Welcome to “Celebrating Justice” presented by the Trial Lawyers Journal at CloudLex, the next-gen legal cloud platform built exclusively for personal injury law. Get inspired by the nation’s top trial lawyers and share in the stories that shape our pursuit of justice. Follow the podcast and join our community at www.triallawyersjournal.com. Now here’s your host, editor of TLJ and VP of marketing at CloudLex, Chad Sands.

Chad Sands: Welcome back, friends, to another episode of “Celebrating Justice.” Today, we’re joined by trial lawyer Gigi Grasska. Since graduating from Pepperdine’s Caruso School of Law, Gigi has been swimming with the toughest sharks in the Los Angeles legal scene. We talk about proving the doubters wrong, even her mom, the adrenaline rush of the grind, and for her “Closing Argument,” she shares an incredible story—how staying behind to protect her family home in the 2025 Palisades fire turned into a fight for her life and ultimately a powerful lesson in law. To get to the heart of her journey, I asked her, why did you want to become a trial lawyer?

Gigi Grasska: I did not always know that I wanted to be a lawyer. In fact, everyone kind of used to always think my sister would be the lawyer because she was very outspoken, argumentative, whereas I’ve always been very shy, reserved, and kind of the peacemaker always. So it wasn’t until I took a business law class in undergrad at Pepperdine where a professor pulled me aside and said, look, I think you have a great legal mind, the way that you’re drafting your legal writing and crafting arguments, you should consider law school. And it kind of got me excited because I was like, wait, but I’m always the one that’s not very outspoken. Somebody thinks that I could be a lawyer too. How exciting. So it was in that moment, I always knew I wanted to help people, but I realized I could now use my active listening skills and honing in a different skill set to be a voice for people that kind of felt shy or like they needed somebody to help them. And that’s what I realized. It’s not always the loudest person in the room that’s going to be the best advocate. But if you’re resilient and you can listen, you’ll end up finding your voice and being able to help people in need. So that’s when I decided to pursue a career in law.

Chad Sands: Pepperdine that kind of started and yes, a lot of times people have this perception of a lawyer needs to be kind of loud and that type of persona, but you kind of have the opposite in terms of your more quieter side compared to the sister. that right?

Gigi Grasska: Yes, exactly. I mean, I think my greatest skill set are my active listening skills because I can actually process what the other side is throwing at me. And it just really hurts an argument when somebody gets very emotional or they’re speaking over somebody because you can’t actually respond to a certain point unless you know what that point is. So I like to always let somebody finish what they’re going to say. Process my thoughts, take a second, and then have an even more powerful argument or response back later.

Chad Sands: So I saw on social media, this is lawyer.gigi on Instagram, and you had a post that said, when they told me I’d make a great assistant one day because law school was too hard, keep doubting me, I’ll keep collecting. So lawyer Gigi, when did the doubters first show up?

Gigi Grasska: My mom will kill me, but even my own mom did not want me to go to law school. I think that I had a lot of mentors growing up, people who just thought you couldn’t have a life and be a lawyer at the same time. Or because I was kind of a quiet person, nobody really thought I had what it took to be a lawyer. So I’ve even had mentors of mine while I was in law school kind of tell me, you don’t know what it takes to be successful. And you don’t understand the hard work that you have to put in and they didn’t think I would be able to achieve the career, the success, the lifestyle that I wanted. But it’s always been people telling me no and doubting my capabilities that makes me work 10 times harder and want it even more. So even if I wasn’t set on being a lawyer, as soon as somebody told me I couldn’t do it, I knew I had to prove them wrong.

Chad Sands: If you weren’t a lawyer, what do you think you’d be doing?

Gigi Grasska: I have no idea. Honestly, once I thought about going to law school and that’s what I set my mind to, I haven’t looked back. It’s really the only thing I’ve felt a vocation for. I haven’t really been pulled to any other sort of career.

Chad Sands: Grew up in LA, yes, and then went to Pepperdine for undergrad and law school. Yes. And then now you’ve been out in the grind of Los Angeles in the world of personal injury law. You know, what makes you unique in LA and all the competition out there?

Gigi Grasska: Yeah, exactly. It’s a very competitive space and there are so many personal injury lawyers. I mean, the rep, you know, everybody thinks, oh my goodness, you must be a billboard lawyer. And that’s what they associate with being a personal injury attorney. And a lot of lawyers try and distinguish themselves by saying that they’re relatable or, you know, that they are active 24/7 with their clients, where I think I’m actually distinguishable from my competition is because I’m not at a giant law firm or I started off with smaller roots, I really, really try to be a lawyer that my clients can trust and depend on someone who is relatable and transparency and empathy. Those are huge to me. I want to be available for my clients 24/7 and I want them to know that there’s a real person behind their case. If they want to pick up the phone and call me, they have my direct cell. My clients are my priority. At a lot of these big law firms, I’ve seen it. You know, you only get to talk to your case manager and the attorneys don’t really care until it’s either going to trial or trying to settle something. And I just want to be that safe space for my clients and actually follow through on the promise of being there and being somebody they can trust.

Chad Sands: You know, maybe it’s different. I’ve lived in LA area for a long time now, but you know, what goes on just within the personal injury space alone, and then you put it in the city of Los Angeles. And I think it’s kind of heightened a little bit. Yeah. I also saw you posted on Instagram that you, you love the grind of the job. And you mentioned earlier something about active listening. Talk to me a little bit about that. And when did you kind of first recognize that you had that sort of sense?

Gigi Grasska: Yeah. Well, firstly, when it comes to loving the grind, I think another thing about LA that kind of gives me that distinct edge would be LA has mountains, the beach, you know, we’ve grown up in a very active lifestyle and my dad always wanted two boys and instead he got two girls. So we were kind of raised as tomboys and I always was participating in extreme sports. So whether it was dirt biking, skiing, you know, our family’s big surfers, spearfishers, everything like that. I kind of got a sense that I loved the adrenaline rush that all these different wild sports that not a lot of people can participate in unless you live in a place like LA. So I love knowing that in those sports, you can push the boundaries. I’m still an avid skier. If I know, okay, the next time I ski down this, I could do it even faster or ski something steeper. I’m so addicted to that feeling of pushing as hard as I can and achieving better results every single time. And somehow that’s kind of translated into my addiction to the grind for being a lawyer because whether it’s settling a case for my client or proving an adjuster wrong, I am so addicted to that feeling. I get the same adrenaline rush every time I get policy limits tendered or I close a case for my client. And I just want to do better and better and get bigger settlement amounts every time. And you get that same adrenaline rush when you’re working as an attorney.

Chad Sands: What’s one of the bigger adrenaline rushes you’ve gotten on the extreme sports side? I mean, I’ve never skied out. You will not, I will never jump out of an airplane. So that’s not on my list, but what about you?

Gigi Grasska: Yeah. Yeah, bungee jumping is a no for me, but I’ve swam with sharks a couple of times. One time though I was in Bora Bora and I didn’t realize when we were going to go swim with them there was no cage involved, that the people I was on the boat with were gonna be feeding the sharks at the same time. Okay, so that was a little nerve-racking because I think one did kind of come in and it looked like they were gonna try and attack us and then we had some other fish come in and try and get us but even another time we were shark fishing, we were chumming the water, right? We’re catch and release, of course, but chumming the water like crazy. Hadn’t seen any sharks all day long. It was my dad, sister and I. We were about ready to give up, blood in the water everywhere. All of a sudden, like a crazy alarm started going off. And my sister and I are like, what is this, dad? What’s this crazy alarm? He’s like, hold on a second. He goes down to the engine room and all of a sudden it was the bilge alarm. So our boat was starting to sink and he’s like, girls, pull in all the chum now. Right as that happens, we look out and we start seeing fin pop up after the next. We were like surrounded by sharks and the boat sinking. My dad’s trying to fix it, pouring water out of the boat. My sister and I are just grabbing in this chum. It was a horrible thing. We ended up being fine, but that was something to me that always stuck with me. And I was like, no more sharks for now.

Chad Sands: You had two shark stories in less than two minutes. That’s too many shark stories.

Gigi Grasska: Yes, but one thing I have learned is it’s how you react in those moments. And if you can stay calm in a time where most people would panic, that is a great skill set. And I think that that also translates over into law because if you’re speaking with opposing counsel or you’re put on the spot and you don’t know what to do or you would normally get into a frenzy, it’s a lose-lose scenario. You need to be able to stay calm so that you can collect your thoughts and think of what the next step is.

Chad Sands: Speaking of swimming with sharks and trying to stay in control, can you tell me a story about a case that you’ve had that had an impact on you?

Gigi Grasska: Yeah, of course. One that really hits home for me was my mom was actually injured in a premises liability case. And it was when I first kind of started off as a lawyer and I didn’t have as much experience with premises cases. So I ran it by a couple of my mentors who had been in the legal practice for a very long time. And they kind of all told me not to pursue the claim or that if it wasn’t my mom, they would have never taken it. And they said, do with this what you will, but we can’t really help. You know, they thought there might’ve been liability waiver issues, things like that. But because it was my mom, of course I had a duty. I mean, she was really hurt. It was sad cause I would see her not be able to do things she enjoyed anymore. She couldn’t go to her workout classes. She couldn’t sit in the car for a long time. Even her work was affected. So I was like, I’m going to give this a shot and see what I can do. And it turned out we ended up settling the case for a very significant amount. And it was our first time sending a demand. We didn’t have to file a lawsuit. And it was in that moment when I kind of realized as a fresh lawyer, it’s good to have a fresh perspective. You can’t always listen to what other people are going to tell you. And if you have a gut feeling that your client has a case or has been wronged or another party was negligent, you really need to go after it and pursue it. So it just showed me persistence and trust are everything. And if a client’s going to believe in you, you really owe it to them to fight until the very end. So after that case, I started getting a lot more messages on my social media, even now, and it will be potential clients telling me, I’ve had eight lawyers turn down my case. I’m kind of reaching out to you as a last chance. Can you help me? And I’ll review the facts of their case and our firm will sign it and we end up getting settlements for them that they’re very happy about or we hire experts and it goes to our litigation team as well. So it’s just kind of like pushing for your clients and trusting that gut. And my mom’s case gave me the confidence to do so.

Chad Sands: The mom who maybe questioned me used to be a lawyer.

Gigi Grasska: Yes, and then she was very happy with me and she’s not a litigious person but it’s funny too because after I graduated law school now she loves to brag about it and she’s very proud and thankful too.

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Now here is this episode’s “Closing Argument.”

Gigi Grasska: I’m going to start this off by defining how my legal voyage has transformed over, I guess about the last year, as a lawyer. When I used to think about my experience being an attorney, I have of course, I’ve always seen it through the lens of being a spokesperson for a client in need and how I can be a better advocate for them. A couple weeks ago, my legal voyage would have likely been crafted based off of people doubting me my entire life. For me, it was all about proving people wrong and taking the path that’s not as easy to get better results. That was my journey from the side of being a tough lawyer where hardships can build character and it really makes you want the successes even more. However, I feel like it’s always important to grow personally as well as professionally. So on the flip side, something that I never would have thought had an impact on my legal career did.

February, 2025. My family was affected by the Palisades fires. I was on my way to a work meeting. I had just gotten dressed. I was ready to leave. The work meeting was in Woodland Hills. And then I saw the smoke popping over the hill and I just figured, I better stay. And I’m so thankful that I did because had I left, I wouldn’t have been able to get back in. My family home, that I had lived in for 20 plus years. My family has always been there. Was right in the epicenter of where the fire started. My sister, dad, my sister’s boyfriend and I all stayed back and we fought the Palisades fire for three and a half days. We had always prepared our entire lives because we are in a fire zone. We thought, you know, if this ever happened, we’d stay back and fight. But we just had no idea what magnitude this fire could have possibly reached.

It took serious strength for us to make it as long as we did. We had no power, no electricity, nothing. We were just there with the light of the flames coming off of all the homes surrounding us. The first night, it was kind of all surreal. There wasn’t really any time to think. Winds were 100 miles an hour plus and they would just blow over burning embers. You did not get a second to breathe. We had no idea what was happening or the magnitude. It was just literally fighting 24/7. So even though that was the scariest night, I don’t think any of us were processing what had happened. Not only was it mentally tough, but physically it was draining. We had ashes and embers in our eyes that felt like glass was piercing through. Almost like if a window had exploded in a car, but it was from the neighbor’s home. We didn’t have proper equipment, but we knew that we only had one option because at this point we were fighting for our lives. It was a minimum four person job. If I wasn’t there, if one of us wasn’t there, we could not have done it. There were moments where each one of us, all four of us were putting out our own fires.

Finally, third and a half day, things sort of started settling down, but they weren’t. Fires kept popping up, little like ember fires that would reignite. And my dad kind of made the executive call that we had to leave, otherwise we were putting our lives even more in danger. I just completely broke down in that moment because I wanted to keep fighting and we’re all such a family of fighters. And I knew the second that we left, we wouldn’t be able to keep protecting our home and we wouldn’t know what was happening. And I just felt like I don’t want to give up. I don’t want to let go. But sometimes you do have to make that executive decision and realize it’s for the best. And I’ve even weirdly had that in like my legal career. Telling yourself that burnout is real and it can hurt you in the long term. You have to give your mind and body breaks. Luckily, we did save our home and we were able to save about 20 other homes on our street. We thought that the hardest was behind us at this point. The fires were out. We were safe. Our homes were standing. However, what we didn’t realize was that some of the hardest parts were still yet to come.

Because after going through all of that anguish and pain of watching our hometown burn quite literally all around us and risking our lives to put out fires, now we had to battle our homeowners insurance. Because even though we had coverage, the insurance companies were trying to deny all of our claims. It was just horrifying because I’m the attorney of the family. So everyone turned to me and I deal with insurance companies every day. It was up to me to find somebody that my family could trust to help with this claim because I’m a firm believer that when you’re picking a lawyer, you want somebody who is specialized in that area, has experience, or at least you can trust that they’re gonna get the results that you want. And it was in this moment I was really able to empathize with what my clients actually go through when they have to choose a lawyer in a time where they feel helpless, hurt and lost. Because all of the hardship that injuries from an accident cause are enough on their own and then realizing that you have no option but to try and navigate with insurance adjusters who won’t respond to you or don’t care about you because you genuinely need the support and monetary aid. My entire vocation has always been to be a rock for someone who needs it in a desperate time. But I think now having gone through that with my family, I have a whole new perspective about just being even more understanding and caring for those who have been through a very significant loss in their life.

Chad Sands: You, trial lawyer Gigi Grasska. Thanks for sharing your stories. To learn more about Gigi, visit her firm’s website, OmegaLaw.com. All right, I’m Chad Sands. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

Narrator: You’ve been listening to “Celebrating Justice” presented by CloudLex and the Trial Lawyers Journal. Remember, the stories don’t end here. Visit www.triallawyersjournal.com to become part of our community and keep the conversation going. And for a deeper dive into the tools that empower personal injury law firms, visit www.cloudlex.com/tlj to learn more.