Plucked from the sky: Podhurst Orseck earned a reputation—and millions of dollars—representing the victims of airline disasters. But its plucky founder Aaron S. Podhurst says the firm has just begun to define its niche

South Florida CEO, August, 2005 by Jaime Hernandez

Jury or court awards, for cases that Podhurst Orseck typically accepts, range from a few million dollars up to nearly $200 million. Podhurst says the firm usually charges clients a 30 percent to 40 percent contingency fee to represent them.

"Our revenue per lawyer and profitability is as good or better than any law firm in South Florida," he boasts.

Podhurst law partner Diaz describes it this way: "I think it is safe to say that this firm has been more profitable each year for the past [several] years. There may be one or two years that are aberrations where ... it goes up and then it goes down a bit, but the general trend has been it goes up, up, up."

LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING

At first glance, Podhurst Orseck hardly looks like a firm that rakes in millions of dollars each year in jury awards and settlements. The firm boasts fewer than 50 employees overall--13 of them attorneys. The practice's eighth floor office in downtown Miami does not have a bird's eye view of Biscayne Bay, but rather of a torn-up section of Miami's West Flagler Street bustling with noisy traffic and tourists. It is safe to say the office looks about like it did when it was renovated 20 years ago, right down to the lobby's 1970s-era leather couches.

Law partner Diaz says unless the state and federal courthouses move from their current locations a few blocks away, he doubts the firm will ever relocate. Expansive offices with breathtaking waterfront, he says, are meant to wow clients but can often turn off potential clients who feel like they would be paying for elegant offices instead of legal expertise. Expensive offices also cut into profits, the partners are quick to point out.

Decor notwithstanding, area legal experts, and those familiar with the organization, say Podhurst Orseck is a formidable firm whose disciplined management has allowed it to stay relevant over the years while retaining its top talent.

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"From where I sit, they're one of the top two or three firms in terms of attorney compensation," says Stuart Z. Grossman, whose Miami-based firm Grossman and Roth PA specializes in medical malpractice litigation and is similar in size to Podhurst Orseck. "The trial firms, such as ours, tend to have the highest revenue streams of all law firms. It's the nature of the cases, and they work them [hard]."

Last August, attorney Joel Perwin left Podhurst Orseck's appellate division after 23 years to start his own firm in downtown Miami. He says Podhurst Orseck's inventory of cases has always been "incomparable," allowing money from settlements and jury awards to keep flowing in while other cases remain pending. The fact that his former employer typically takes the most difficult--and most lucrative--cases and wins them also is a boon, Perwin says.

"When you have such a substantial inventory of cases, and similar cases are always coming in, you know at some point a substantial percentage of them will favorably turn over, and the fees of those cases will come in," Perwin says. "It's not ever a question of a given 12-month period. It's about working hard on cases and knowing they will turn over, if not this year then next year."