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Johnpatrick O’Brien understands why many lawyers hesitate to hang out their own shingles. But the career personal injury lawyer also knows that opening a solo practice was the best decision he ever made.
“It was scary at first,” O’Brien admits. “But it’s amazing how it starts to flow. I tell other lawyers that you have to have good people around you: a great accountant, a good paralegal. I’m not the only one who can do this, and after a year, I can tell you that it was worth the effort.”
Before going solo, O’Brien had a distinguished career that earned him multiple accolades. His honors include a Top 100 trial lawyer designation by the National Trial Lawyers Association, a Top 10 attorneys for client satisfaction nod from the American Institute of Personal Injury Lawyers, and ranking among the top 1 percent of attorneys from the National Association of Distinguished Counsels.
“I love personal injury law because it is always David versus Goliath,” O’Brien explains. “You’re going up against insurance companies that have unlimited amounts of time, experts, and money. On the other side, it’s just me and my clients. But their experiences are what give me the courage to keep fighting harder and harder in a situation where, statistically, it’s so hard to win. I just love being the underdog.”
Many law students who think they’ll spend their careers in courtrooms ultimately opt for different paths. But the first case O’Brien argued in court was all the affirmation he needed that it’s where he belonged. A well-known personal injury lawyer recruited O’Brien away from his clerkship, gave him two weeks, and handed him a case file. O’Brien selected his first jury, tried his first case, and secured a favorable verdict.
“[My clients’] experiences are what give me the courage to keep fighting harder and harder in a situation where, statistically, it’s so hard to win.”
Johnpatrick O’Brien
As the trial concluded, the judge let the jury know that it was O’Brien’s first ever case. The jury was surprised. The young man before them had argued confidently, even when the chips seemed down. He didn’t appear self-conscious or unsure, and he’d thoroughly convinced them of the merit of his client’s case.
“During the course of the trial, even if I lost certain objections or arguments, I’d acted as if I’d won, like I’d always won,” O’Brien remembers. “I needed to do that so the jury always felt that I was in control of the courtroom.”
He adds, “I learned very quickly that this was what I was born to do.”
Even as a young attorney, O’Brien had a knack for making the right move at the right time. He jokes that he probably holds records for shortest clerkship and shortest associate tenure because his instincts drew him to the courtroom. There are lawyers who spend a decade figuring out exactly what they don’t want to do, but O’Brien found it almost immediately.
So what prompted a trial lawyer recognized by a dozen different organizations and periodicals to leave the firm environment that he loved so much? O’Brien spent decades in midsize firms because he loved the camaraderie and community of a fine-tuned firm executing at the highest level. The lawyer had grown accustomed to associates watching his trials—and later breaking down key moments with them.
“As I started getting into my fifties, I guess I just stopped wanting to share all of my toys,” O’Brien says, laughing. “I felt like I was giving more than I was getting, and while that’s important at certain points of your career, I wanted to spend the last ten or fifteen years of my practice on my own.”
“I learned very quickly that [personal injury law] was what I was born to do.”
Johnpatrick O’Brien
O’Brien is middle-aged, but when he talks about a case, he may as well be a teenager. The attorney has a well-earned reputation for selecting a jury. He once had a case move straight to settlement after the opposing counsel watched him dismiss jurors as if he knew them inside and out.
That’s the experience, tenacity, and vibrancy O’Brien now brings to his clients. O’Brien, whose parents both worked multiple jobs to pay for their three sons’ private education, has always been the underdog. But he knows how much it can mean to have people in your corner who believe in and support you. That’s what he offers his clients. O’Brien is an underdog off the chain, and he’s never been happier.
