Mu’min Islam

{Theme Song Plays}

Mu’min Islam: But you don’t realize it, but these people remember you for the rest of their life … Then I had the issue of how do I get the family to sign off. So I had to go to Mexico, hire an interpreter, go meet the family, have them sign off … Because I can do it from soup to nuts, you know, whether it be doing a litigation where I actually go to court or even working the case from the beginning.

Narrator: Welcome to “Celebrating Justice,” presented by the Trial Lawyer’s Journal and 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: Tell me the story about why you wanted to become a trial lawyer.

Mu’min Islam: Well, my mom and dad will tell you that all since I’ve been a kid, I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer. They said they saw it first when I was in kindergarten and I used to argue with the the gym teacher, trying to teach her how to play the actual way to play kickball. So allegedly that’s where it started from. But I would say probably kind of like college. I was at Temple University and I was in a business school, and I realized that a lot of the lawyer a lot a lot of the executives of the business company, I think American Express. The one I remember off the top of my head, they were all there a lot of them was former lawyers. So I saw it as a track where you can go, “Hey, go to law school, be a lawyer, work your way up to C-suite, and then eventually you become a CEO.” So that was kind of like my goal originally, and somehow along the way I I started litigating. So…

Chad Sands: And so you were at Temple University but on a business track, but kind of realized that hey, all these executives have law degrees, and so if I want to crack my way into the C-suite, as you said, that maybe I should go get a law degree and that will help me on my business.

Mu’min Islam: Exactly, exactly. The one caveat though, what was cool cool about Temple, they were one of the first universities that started having this legal studies program. So a lot of times when you go to law undergrad, you do at least back in the day, do like psychology or you do political science, something that has no relevance to anything, right? And then you go to law school. Well, I like that Temple, you can go to a business school and it was a legal studies program, get a business degree and then still go to law school. So it was like it gave me the best of both worlds. So that’s where I did and it worked out.

Chad Sands: And then where did you where did you end up going to law?

Mu’min Islam: I went to Samford in Birmingham, Alabama. So coming from Philly, I went all the way down to Alabama and went there for law school. It was a it was a change of world for me.

Chad Sands: And what was it like in your early days as a as an attorney? Did you go, you know, work for a big law firm so you could get a paycheck or did you start on the defense side and how did you work your way?

Mu’min Islam: So you know when I came out of law school I only wanted to do corporate law. That was the only thing I was willing to do. So I literally went to a firm in Philadelphia just for the purpose of going to do corporate law ’cause one of the things I would tell people I didn’t want to litigate. I was like, “I don’t want to litigate.” So I went to Philadelphia, but unfortunately it was two thousand and eight when I graduated. So I started at a firm doing very well, getting I was published like three or f about three times, get getting rid of my name out there, and then all of a sudden the firm laid off like our entire law school class, like our entire first year class. I think we only left like three out of fifteen or something like that.

Chad Sands: What is it last in the door first fired, I guess, in the two thousand eight financial crisis?

Mu’min Islam: And it’s funny, people who didn’t who didn’t graduate the next year had it easy because what they were doing, they were like telling people, “Hey, go take off a year, do whatever, we’ll pay you half your salary.” So instead of giving them like 130,000, 150,000 a year, they’re giving them like 60 grand. But they didn’t have to do anything. But because they weren’t at the firm yet, they had that luxury. So a year or two years later, they come back like all fresh. But the people who were there, man, we got screwed. Because it was like you’re already here. So it was like, “We gotta just let you off.”

Chad Sands: And then so what did you do after you were shown the door there in the middle of this financial crisis when you’re a fresh law school graduate? Thought you maybe kind of made it on your way with your law degree. What happened?

Mu’min Islam: Kind of talked around everyone was like, well, the war, like everything is over. It’s gonna pass, right? So they told me that. So I went back to law school and went to Georgetown. And I got a master’s of law in securities and finance. ’Cause I was doing a lot of securities work. So I focused on that. And then my goal at that point was to stay, I mean was to then go back into the market. But the market didn’t really change. And then the other thing was I had a daughter in Philadelphia and she was already when I went to law school she was in Philadelphia so I wasn’t I was like not there as much as I wanted to be. So I I I just decided just to go back home and start my own firm and just start working.

Chad Sands: And did you start did you just open up your shingle and do and say, “Hey, I’m a personal injury attorney?”

Mu’min Islam: No, J — I just whoever whoever friends called me, I just did what I had to do. I just I just kinda like just started getting rolling. And and then after about two to three years, a nonprofit community community development corporation and they were also a charge cooperator, they needed a lawyer. So I started working with them and I eventually became their in house counsel. And the good thing was I was working as a nonprofit with the nonprofits in house counsel, but I also had my own practice on the side. So it was like kinda like the best of both worlds.

Chad Sands: Okay, so you had your own shingle but you were maybe on payroll in house counsel and how long did that go on until you kind of went out on your own full time?

Mu’min Islam: I do death for about 12 years, 11 years, man. It was like it was like the perfect what do you call it? You had the stability, you had the you had the benefits, I didn’t have no problems, you know, everything was taken care of. But then I also had the opportunity to go out there and make some money with, you know, bigger cases, personal injury cases, things like that. So I kind of was like always doing it on my own. And they just allowed me to do it, the the the have the firm in I’m sorry, inside the nonprofit to work that avenue there. So it wasn’t until I left for Georgia where I kind of branched out at that point or well shortly after that branched out.

Chad Sands: How long you’ve been in Georgia? Georgia’s a pretty competitive place. What do you think makes you unique as a trial law down there?

Mu’min Islam: Me, it’s a couple of things. I’ve been in Georgia about five years. So the thing that makes me unique is probably two things. Georgia is nice. I’m not gonna lie, it’s very beautiful. I love it here. But the people here are like, how do I say this? They have it easy. I’m not gonna lie. Like I’m not talking about like real life, I’m talking about like the lawyers, like you get settlements all easy. In Philly, you had to grind, you had to really grind and work. And you’ll you can Google “what is a Philadelphia lawyer.” It’s just like a tenacity we have to have. So like I bring that that’s a little different. You know, even now I take a case and I’ll work it up to the umpteenth degree where I see other attorneys, not that they don’t do a good job, but they’re not really that aggressive. They’re not really that that that “I’m gonna make this happen, I’m gonna push this or push that.” They kind of let things happen as it goes about or goes on its way. So I think that’s the one thing that really stands sets me apart from that that aspect. And also I think that the biggest thing I feel is a lot of lawyers, and I hate to say it, you know, they they they come from a cut of cut from a certain cloth. They they have a certain mentality of like, “I’m just a regular guy. I’m just somebody who just happened to turn out to be a lawyer.” So I kind of like I tell everyone, you know, my family’s Jamaican. So I work every job under the sun. So I say that to say like I know all experiences. So if I have someone who’s working at UPS and they’re in their problem, I I am I can relate to that. I can relate to someone who’s in a tight band and then they decide to make a bad they do something. It’s a bad decision and then they need help. So I kind of like relate to people. And I think that’s another thing that makes me a little different than most lawyers and especially here in Georgia.

Chad Sands: Yeah, but you bring a little bit of your Philadelphia grit down to Georgia, the streets of Georgia.

Mu’min Islam: Man, we we we that’s fulfilling pride. Gratitude.

Chad Sands: So do do you see in Georgia, do you see a lot of the billboard lawyers down in Georgia and a lot of these settlement mills? And do you kind of look at those guys as the people who aren’t real willing to fight and push to go to trial?

Mu’min Islam: I think they’re mixed match. I I do know there is a strong group or a strong progression here in Georgia where if they can’t settle a case very quickly, they’ll they’ll just farm it out. Because you know what’s funny, it wasn’t too in Georgia, in Philadelphia, you very rarely I mean now they have some, but very rarely do you find attorneys who would take cases just to settle and then farm it out for litigation. They’ll take it, they’ll try to settle. They can’t, they’ll litigate. Here in Georgia is completely different. A lot of people, and there’s nothing against it, it’s just a different mentality. But they will take a case and if in nine months, a year they can’t, they’ll have they’ll give it to an outside counsel. Like there are people literally that’s all they do is just work cases and then send them off. So I said all that to say that that that’s the thing I found that’s a big difference. So down here I I I can bring that to a lot of clients that I do it I can do it from soup to nuts, you know, whether it be doing a litigation where I actually go to court or even working a case in from the beginning.

Chad Sands: Yeah, I think the one thing that’s very clear to me is that in the world of PI, there’s just different business models for different firms. And you know, some people have opinions about what’s right and what’s not, but the reality is is that there are different ways for firms to operate and different moral compasses that some of them, you know, follow, but that’s the that’s the name of the game.

Mu’min Islam: And then I can litigate it. ’Cause they may not want to litigate it. So it it kind of works both ways. I mean, it could works it works out for everyone. So I I don’t think it’s different I don’t think it’s bad. I just know that that was unique to me, like when I got here, like, “What you don’t you don’t litigate the case?” And they’re like, “No, we just if we can’t settle, we give it to someone else.” Like, okay.

Chad Sands: Can you share a story about a case that you’ve had that had a significant impact? I mean, not necessarily the verdict amount, but the client, just someone who you know, story who stuck with you that you remember?

Mu’min Islam: I I have a couple, but I’ll give you one that that really it was probably my first major case. And it’s funny because I tell everyone, the person called me like three times at like 6:30 in the morning and I just did not want to answer the phone. I kept like not answering the third time. I’m like, “Who is this?” And it was a young lady who it was a family member. It wasn’t her husband, it was her husband’s brother had died recently in in a construction accident. And it was sad. But you know, I went out there talked to them. And the reason why I always remember this case for two reasons. Number one, because it was interesting because he was a legal alien. So by being a legal alien, it was critical. And could he even receive benefits? Could he even sue? Because the reality is someone could say, “He he couldn’t work here anyway.” So I had to do again back to that grit concept. I had to go find case law and and show other states like New York was a big example, where people would there were actually judgments and and decisions that they can even receive that workers’ comp and thing. Even if they can’t I’m sorry, they can’t receive workers’ comp, but they could receive benefits and lost wages. And it was also interesting because I had to get a financial guy to go through and this is the one saving grace. The guy literally every time he sent money home to his his family, he would have like a little receipt. So he literally had like all of the cash all of the it wasn’t cash at back then, but all of the like the money transfers things, he would have them. So we use that to calculate how much he was making based on how much he was sending home. And then also with that, I had to go to Mexico. So it was like a a law school 101 question because I had that issue, right? Then I had the issue of how do I get the family to sign off. So I had to go to Mexico, hire an interpreter, go meet the family, have them sign off to because they had to probate the estate because he’s deceased. So that was interesting. And then lastly, it was also interesting because it really got to show like the regular folk, you know, right? Regular people, how they work. So I don’t know, he was a day laborer. So a lot of times on these job sites, they’ll get illegal aliens and they’ll get illegal immigrants, you say, they get illegal immigrants, work on the site and pay them daily. And then you pay you there, you pay, you’re not, you’re not. So this guy was pulling up a bucket, and when he was pulling up a bucket, the hook of the bucket hit a hot live wire. So the hot live wire electrocuted him, he fell down and and and and passed. So we were able to sue the end in this, I guess where it’s and two interesting things was one, he was able to sue and I remember going into the the utility department, the utility company, and we just sat down there and he was like, you know, and we just had it was like in the movies, like in the top high the top high floor, and I was just sitting and negotiating with them. And we we came out with a good settlement. And the last part wise it was it was still, I think, touching, because I think about six months, maybe a year ago, less than a year, I was able to give one of the children one of the checks now, because they were minors at the time. So I just recently went back to Philadelphia with the account that we had open for the trust and was able to give that child, you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars as as his his his his now inheritance from his father. So that that that story still has a little, you know, touching for me.

At CloudLex, we understand the unique demands and opportunities that personal injury law firms face every day. That’s why we’ve built a comprehensive platform designed exclusively for personal injury law. Our seamless case management, AI engine litigation support and record retrieval solutions empower you at every stage from intake through settlement and beyond helping you stay productive, organized, and focused on achieving successful outcomes for your clients.

Explore what’s possible at www.cloudlex.com. Now here is this episode’s “Closing Argument.”

Mu’min Islam: One thing I love about this practice is they experience those different relationships with people. It’s plenty of times afterwards. Matter of fact, I just had a story recently. And I’m helping a young lady. Her house was caught on fire from the landlord who didn’t properly, you know, manage the electricity and different things of that nature. And I was talking to her, you know, taking her information, and I said, “By the way, how did you refer, you know, how did you contact me?” And she said, she started naming who the person was. And it was a young lady who had helped her grandfather who had got into an accident where he was on a paratransit bus and as they were moving the paratransit he fell off and got propelled and broke his leg and eventually died. And it just made me feel like full circle where like people can tell you like I I couldn’t remember her name. I mean this was the granddaughter. I remember her her her her grandfather’s name, but I couldn’t remember that. And and it’s like the relationship you have with people by helping them. And sometimes you’re on to the next chase, on to the next thing, but you don’t realize it. But these people remember you for the rest of their life. You know, these people remember you and and then and you have an impact on their life. When I meet people, they say, “Yeah, you did.” First I say, “Was I good?” That’s the first thing I’m asking. Like, “Was I good? Did I do a good job?” And usually they’ll say, “Yeah,” and then so they’re like, “Okay, yeah, let’s talk now.” Because I, you know, it’s like you don’t remember it. So I I guess I say all that to say that this job is fulfilling. It is fulfilling because you know you’re changing people’s lives and helping them. A lot of times when people come into these situations, they’re coming from a situation where they don’t know where to go. They don’t know what’s up. They don’t have no clue how the process works. And you’re being able to guide them and help them. That I just feel blessed and and glad that I can have that impact on people and be able to do that and make some type of change. And sometimes we go through the world and we might not know like, “What are we doing? Is it worth it or is this that?” But like when I get to run into people and they’ll tell me, “Yeah, you did my uncle so and so,” or “Yeah, I remember you, you was a guy who did this, that,” and I’m like, “Okay, thanks.” I think it’s touching. And also, like I said, to to to come full circle literally, the story I was talking about with the young lady, with the young man, for him to come to America and now have, you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars to help provide for him, start his new family, and I was be able to help him get to that point. It’s like it’s like a full circle situation, you know? It’s like you see something, you believe it can happen, and then now fifteen or about ten tw ten years, ten, twelve years later, you see it manifesting in this situation. So I I like it. I like it for that. It can be very stressful. So anybody out there want to do it, yeah, it’s it could be stressful. But I think that’s the the benefit that you have that when the long run you’ll see change and you’ll see things that you’ve impacted and people you’ve impacted, really.

Narrator: You’ve been listening to Celebrating Justice presented by CloudLex and the Trial Lawyer’s 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.