Brian Glass

Glass admits he “should have a better answer.” His father, Ben Glass, was a medical malpractice and serious injury trial lawyer in Virginia, but Brian left William & Mary in 2008 without a plan, took the only offer he got at a general practice firm and lasted about four months. In 2009 he joined an auto accident firm, tried both criminal and civil cases and found he liked talking to judges and juries — and that contingency-fee work rewards becoming a better lawyer rather than billing more hours.

Because the vast majority of cases never reach trial, Glass says being “a better trial lawyer” is a limited selling point. Ben Glass Law competes on client service instead: every client gets a call at least every 30 days, case-stage updates arrive by push notification, new clients receive a “shock and awe box” with a T-shirt, a branded teddy bear and a book on being a great client, and an eight-page monthly print newsletter features staff rather than law. Most of the firm’s Google reviews, he notes, praise the team.

A 2022 Fairfax County trial for a woman hit head-on by a drunk driver — 11 surgeries, 40 days in the hospital and about half a million dollars in medical costs. The driver’s blood alcohol was 0.16, and police found a bottle of Fireball in his door well, yet the defense suggested someone else placed it there. Glass asked the jury for $10 million; it returned $4.24 million, including $1 million in punitive damages, tying Virginia’s record. His client, he says, mostly wanted her voice heard.

Glass calls it “Living Life by Design.” Lawyers, he says, chase the next case, dollar and title in a profession near the top for anxiety, depression and divorce, without asking where they want to end up. He urges them to earn more and spend less to create options at life’s pivot points. His own came when his wife nearly died giving birth to their third son; with his father at 60, he decided to practice with him before the chance passed. The firm has since grown fourfold.

A Fairfax native, Glass attended Robinson Secondary School and earned a B.A. from James Madison University in 2005 before completing his J.D. at William & Mary Law School in 2008, where he was named a Benjamin Rush Scholar for excellence in health law and policy. He is licensed in Virginia and Maryland and belongs to the Fairfax Bar Association, the Virginia Bar Association and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. He made partner at Ben Glass Law in 2019 and became president of Great Legal Marketing in 2023.

The National Trial Lawyers Association named him one of Virginia’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2013, and Super Lawyers magazine designated him a Rising Star every year from 2017 to 2023. His results include the $4.24 million Fairfax County verdict against a drunk driver, described as one of the largest punitive awards in Virginia for a drunk driving case, and a $1 million settlement for a back-seat passenger in an Oakton, Virginia, drunk driving crash who suffered multiple fractures and needed three major surgeries.

In “Brian Glass’s ‘Closing Argument’” for Trial Lawyer’s Journal, Glass discusses the mindset shifts that transformed his legal career — growth, authenticity and redefining success on his own terms. Outside the firm, he hosts the “Time Freedom for Lawyers” podcast on business building, vision setting, investing and epic adventures. He coaches his sons’ soccer and baseball teams, travels with his family and is a long-distance runner who finished the Umstead 100-mile race in under 24 hours.