Business Innovators Radio - Building a Successful Criminal Defense Firm: Chris Cavazos Shares His Journey

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

In this episode of Business Innovators Radio, host Marco Salinas engages in a thought-provoking conversation with the co-founder of BRCK Criminal Defense Attorneys, Christopher Cavazos. The discussion delves into a variety of compelling topics, from the importance of gaining diverse legal experience to the challenges and rewards of running a law firm. With a focus on criminal defense law, Chris Cavazos offers valuable insights and perspectives that shed light on the intricacies of the criminal justice system.Cavazos emphasizes the value of working in a prosecutor’s office or public defender’s office to gain essential knowledge and experience in criminal law before venturing into private practice. As a co-founder of BRCK Criminal Defense Attorneys, he reflects on the firm’s journey, including the challenges of building a successful practice and the importance of differentiating the firm in a competitive legal landscape through branding and a modern approach.The conversation touches upon the misconceptions and complexities of criminal law, highlighting the significance of legal representation and due process. Chris Cavazos shares his motivations for specializing in criminal defense law, underscoring the intrigue and engagement offered by high-stakes cases and the human stories behind them. He also addresses the dual nature of the criminal justice system, acknowledging the imperative balance between punishment and rehabilitation.Throughout the episode, Cavazos offers valuable advice for individuals navigating legal trouble, emphasizing the proactive steps that can be taken to address challenging situations and the importance of seeking legal counsel. As the conversation unfolds, listeners gain insight into the thought processes, strategies, and challenges faced by a legal entrepreneur, painting a vivid picture of the interconnected world of criminal law, business, and personal growth.Tune in to this perceptive episode of Business Innovators Radio to gain a deeper understanding of the criminal justice system, the rewards and challenges of running a law firm, and the principles that guide the work of BRCK Criminal Defense Attorneys.https://www.brckdefense.com/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/building-a-successful-criminal-defense-firm-chris-cavazos-shares-his-journey

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. And welcome back to another episode of Business Innovators Radio. I am your host, Marco Salinas. And joining me today, I have Mr. Christopher Cavassos with Brick Criminal Defense Attorneys based out of San Antonio, Texas. And today we're going to be talking to Chris about his journey and where he started and where he's at today and what he's up to with his law firm and who he helps and what type of clients they are and all that good fun stuff. So Chris, welcome to the program. Thank you, Marco. Thank you for having me.

I'm grateful that you invited me on here. Absolutely. These opportunities to talk about our business are always a lot of fun. And this is one of the one of my favorite environments here, the podcast, right, which is not too foreign. a laid-back conversation. We get to have the opportunity to just share and interact. And so it's a, it's a, it's a perfect setup. It's a perfect place for us to discuss things like business and, uh, hobbies and, and all the things that we're doing and all the things that we're into. But I want to learn also a little bit about you today. So I'm, I've got a few questions to ask you about yourself and,

and, you know, what your early journey was like. But before I do that, Chris, do me a favor. If I was, if I just met you, and I didn't know who you were. I call, of course, this the elevator pitch. If we were stuck in an elevator together for about 20, 30 seconds and said, hey, nice to meet you. What do you do? Could you give me your 30 second pitch about, you know, what it is you do and kind of who you specialize on helping?

Sure. So the idea behind our law firm is, you know, you see TV lawyers and they're so aggressive and they're so smooth and it's this thing. And, you know, that's not really our pitch. You know, our pitch is essentially that we try to help good people. that have kind of been arrested and they're going through something in their lives. And we're just trying to get them back on track. You know, and so the idea is always how can we put an arrest behind you?

How can we put a situation behind you? How can we use an arrest or a situation that's come up in your life as a springboard, right, to get better? Whether, you know, you got some issues with, you know, substance abuse or anger or whatever it is, you know, well, okay, something happened. Now's the time to get back on track. get back and bored and try to fix things, you know. And so that's generally our idea. You know, we don't come across as super aggressive and all that kind of stuff. You know, the idea is we want to help people get back on track after they've been arrested. So our law firm, only criminal defense. That's all we do. We don't do car wrecks. We don't do divorces. We don't know anything about it.

I wouldn't know the first thing how to do a trust or a will. But, you know, if you get arrested for something, you call us and we can certainly help you out. I love it, man. I love it. Yeah, my idea of like going to the doctor and, you know, if there's something wrong with my hand or something wrong with my heart, like I want a specialist, you know, I want somebody that specializes in the heart if I've got a heart problem. I would prefer not have the generalist show up who's kind of somewhat versed in all these different areas working on something as important as my heart, right? And I think that law is another category where I want a specialist. I want somebody that doesn't just dabble in certain categories that are super important. I'm sure criminal and, you know, the other types of law that you, that you mentioned, each one of those is probably its own kind of beast, right? And so you can go really deep into each of those categories. And you guys obviously decided to focus on criminal law.

And I think that's a big enough animal as it is. And it probably requires a lot of specialization. So I think that's fantastic that you guys are just focused on that one category. That's really, you know, and the idea, too, is the law is just constantly changing. So, you know, it's, even if you've said, well, I went to law school and I think I know a lot, that's great. But I mean, you know, keeping up with the changes in the law and the new laws that come out every year, it's a full-time job. And so I'm just not sure. I think you have to specialize and not, you're just going to fall behind and you're not going to provide, you know, your clients with the defense or the services that they, they deserve. So, yeah, specialization, incredibly important. in a lot of her areas, particularly in law. Yeah, absolutely. So, Chris, are you from San Antonio? Did you grow up in San Antonio?

Where did you, where are your roots? Where is your upbringing? Sure. Start off in Houston and then moved to Austin for college, Texas Longhorns. And then over here to San Antonio, to St. Mary's Law for my law school. And then, you know, met my wife, started a family and just stayed here in San Antonio. And that's where we're based out of now. And, you know, we're expanding to different markets, different offices, and, you know, we're trying to grow into Austin a little bit and hopefully some other major cities after that as well.

Yeah, absolutely. So tell me a little bit about what prompted you to start looking at that direction of the legal world. Do you have somebody in your family that was already doing that? Like, what was your inspiration for just, you know, I guess maybe when you were in high school or college saying, you know what, I think I want to be a lawyer. Like, can you tell us a little bit about that story? Sure. So I remember pretty clearly. My mom when I was about high school, first year, second year, walked into my bedroom. And in one man, one hand, she had a magazine of the best medical schools. And the other magazine was the best law schools. And she told me, hey, you're picking one of these and this is what you're doing. And so, you know, I had this strong Mexican mom telling me what to do. And I wasn't good at math and science. So I said, all right, I guess I'll go to law school. And from that point on, it kind of got stuck in my head. And, you know, you're kind of grateful to it because, you know, maybe, you know, no, nobody in my family had gone to law school or anything like that.

My dad was in the army. My mom was a teacher. And so, you know, for them to kind of put in the head, you know, like, hey, you know, this is something you should pursue. This is something that you can do. It was early, early in my life. She kind of told me, hey, you know, you're probably going this route. So pick it and go with it. And that's how it started.

I never thought about it again. And then all of a sudden, I was in law. school. Wow, man. That is really cool. The power of the mom's influence, right, especially the Mexican mom. Yep. Yep. And when you're young, and I mean, they come to you and say, hey, you got to pick one. I mean, they also was doing. So it made sense and I picked one. Right, right. No, that's, that's really awesome. Now, what about you, I'm sure you did some sort of inventory or something and looking at all the different pathways, right, that you could go in the legal world. What was it that kind of pushed you more of the criminal defense route. Sure. I mean, and it's it's no disrespect to the other practice fields,

but, uh, you know, a lot of them to me were just boring, um, you know, reviewing paper documents and depositions and all this stuff that I just couldn't see myself doing. And then criminal law kind of appeared on my radar and it's such an interesting, you know, criminal law is a lot of fun. I mean, you know, you get to meet all kinds of, uh, interesting individuals. Uh, the cases are never boring. You know, we'll have people come into our office with, I mean, just the most outlandous things you could think of. And, you know, when new employees start at our office, they're always, you know, engaged by the stories and how interesting they are. And then there's a lot at stake, you know, people oftentimes, especially our clients, you know, they're looking at big, you know, sentences. They could go to prison.

Their lives are online. And so it's just interesting. And, you know, it's a lot of fun. It's interesting. And it matters. And matters a lot. Yeah. And so, you know, I find.

that to be a good reason to get into that area and then stay in the area. And then at this point, like I said earlier, I don't know anything else. I just don't. You know, I've been practicing for about 16 years now and all 16 years have been devoted to criminal law. You know, I don't know how to do a will. I just don't. I don't know how to a trust. You know, divorces, I refer them out. And so at this point, it's all I know. But it's interesting. It's fun. You know, again, it's a good way to spend your life is, you know, working with people through their problems, trying to find solutions, trying to help them move on. Yeah.

From these things that have come up, you know. For sure, for sure. Yeah, you know, I have a couple of friends that are actually criminal attorneys. And one thing is for certain. If we're at a social event, these guys always have the best stories. Nobody's stories are going to compare to the stuff that these guys have to share, right? People like you. because the stuff that you're seeing on a daily basis,

it trumps, it trumps the excitement of anybody else, right? Anything else that's going on in my office or at the school or whatever, you know, other people's career is, right? The criminal defense attorney is the guy with the doggone, exciting, fun, crazy, wild stories. So that's one thing I'll say, you know,

it doesn't always pay the best. And there's other areas that you can make a bunch of load more money. Sure. But nobody gets. good stories as criminal defense. And so, yeah, I love it. I'll never do anything other than criminal law. That's awesome. Now, one thing that I have learned in having a couple of friends in that world was that I think when I, before I met them, I always kind of just assumed like, you know, I kind of had a maybe let's call it just for a lack of a better term, let's call it what it is, right? It's kind of a

cold-hearted mindset towards anybody that found themselves arrested, right? Anybody that was under arrest, I was like, well, I'm sure you, I'm sure you deserved it. I'm sure you did, you know, whatever it was that you did, you asked for it. And it's not to say that that's not the case in, in plenty of circumstances. But one thing I learned was that that's not, certainly not always the case, right? First and foremost, sometimes people, good people get accused of things that they didn't do, right? That's, that's the first thing. Sometimes people are just flat out innocent. They didn't do it and they got accused of it or the way it all lined up, it just kind of looks like, it looks like they're the ones that are the guilty party. And so our founding fathers were wise enough to, you know,

look at the way it was, you know, where they came from and realizing that people need to have a representation. They need to have a voice if they find themselves in that circumstance. So that's one of the, probably the most foundational and important things about what you're doing is you really are upholding the Constitution, right? I mean, am I right about that? Absolutely. And, you know, we have this saying that, you know, everybody's very tough on crime until it's your family or your son. And, you know, like I said, look, I grew up. My dad was a colonel in the army. We were as strict as possible. That's why after I, you know, at some point I was a prosecutor for the state, you know, very law and order. And, you know, I can't tell you now as a defense attorney how many times, you know, I talk to somebody and it's a dad or it's somebody. And he says, you know, well, look, you know, normally I would never say this, but, you know, my son's situation is a little different or my daughter's situation is a little different. And it's like, yeah, I mean, you know, that's the idea is that, you know, every case is unique and the people are individual. And

and it is easy to be kind of like, hey, let's throw them all in jail and, you know, and forget the key. But it changes when it's, when it's you or it's your family or it's your son. And all of a sudden, you know, you do value that due process. And you do value, well, okay, maybe they do deserve representation. And maybe I shouldn't just throw them in front of the judge and let them get the maximum sentence. Maybe there is some sort of rehabilitation that would be helpful for them and their future and things like that. So, you know, it is. It's a little more complex than let's just throw everybody in jail.

And, you know, and again, there's a lot of people who get arrested that it's a bump in the road. You know, it's a comma, not a period. And if the situation is handled the right way, you know, it can be a jumping off point for them to, you know, really get their lives together and get back on track and fix whatever problems, you know, they may have. And so I like looking at the criminal justice system through that process, you know, how can we take somebody? And again, you're wrong, even as a defense attorney, there are certainly individuals and there are certainly situations that require nothing but punishment, right? Sure, sure. There is retribution and society it requires that and there's

nothing wrong with that. But there's certainly situations where people can be helped. And, and, you know, maybe that's a good way to go through, you know, handling people who have problems in our society. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. No, that's very well said. Now, this podcast is called business innovators. So, you know, ultimately at the end of the day, yes, you're an attorney, but you're also a business owner, right? And so in this case, can you tell me a little bit about what it was like in the earlier years of you starting your practice? one of the things that I like to ask any business owner is, how did you overcome difficulties? Were the first couple of years super easy? Did everything go perfect for you, Chris? Or did you guys have some roadblocks that you had to overcome just from the business perspective? Can you share a

little bit about maybe, you know, encountering some sort of a difficulty or a setback that you were able to overcome in the early years? Sure. Absolutely. No. You know, lawyers, kind of like a lot of professionals, doctors and accountants. They're, you know, maybe they're very good and they're specialized in their area of expertise. But that certainly doesn't make them good business owners and good business men and women. And so, you know, when we first started the law firm, you know, while I can say like, hey, I think we've always been really good lawyers, in terms of running a business, you know, in terms of marketing and keeping, you know, human resources, keeping employees, measuring things, metrics, KPIs, you know, taxes, all that kind of stuff that comes with running. a normal business, we were pretty behind on it. And I think most lawyers and most doctors are when they start up their own practices. And so for us, it was a process of learning how to run a business

and not necessarily, you know, a law firm learning how to run a business. Right. Right. And that's one of things that I learned pretty early on was that, you know, a law firm is just a business. You know, when you'll file your taxes, you know, there's no special, you know, criteria. I mean, you're, you're, you know, you're an S corp, you're an LLC. I mean, there's no law firm where it has its own special rules. So we are constantly trying to learn how to run a business. And, you know, and you get mentorships, you grow in groups, you get on message boards. And that's really where my focus is these days is running it, not necessarily as just a law firm, but running it as a good, profitable business. That's where we're at right now. Yeah, no, 100%. And I think, you know, you go through

law school, you learn all these things about the legal process, right? They're not talking to you at all about how to market, you know, said, said law firm, right? They're not talking to you about how to manage the payroll, how to deal with the employees like you were mentioning in all these HR and all these things, right? So none of that is covered. None of that is covered, right? None of it. Yeah, absolutely. And so you make mistakes. I mean, you're just constantly making mistakes, you know? And it's that make mistakes faster kind of mentality where, you know, yeah, I mean, I look back at how we used to run payroll and, you know, it was probably illegal, right? I mean, like, there's just so many things that we were like, man, like we just had no clue what we're doing. And, you know, after a number of years,

you finally get a hold on some of it. But, you know, there's always more to learn when you're trying to run a business. There's always more to do. There's always new concepts coming up, you know. And so it's fun. But man, those first couple of years, you know, we were a good law for. firm, but a really poorly run business. Sure. Yeah. As is customary for most new businesses anyways, right? So a lot of us really do learn from trial and error. And that is the best way, but it's also the most painful way to learn. Yeah. Right. Typically. You'll be the bicycle while you're on it, right? I mean, you know, it hurts. You fall.

That's right. That's right. Now, they call it also a law practice for a reason. I mean, in a sense, you're practicing and you're learning the process of how to be a great attorney, right? And so you have that angle. But for you guys, it's kind of a dual road there. You also have that secondary road of, I'm also just learning how to run this business as well. So, you know, there's a big, there's a big load on lawyers' shoulders, especially in the early years, right, when you're trying to be a fantastic lawyer and also trying to be a fantastic business owner. And so those are two things that have to be tackled. Now, do you guys have a process? for, or I should probably say, what is your process for finding clients? Are you guys mostly

referral-based? You know, how do customers seem to find you in the majority of cases? Sure. And so, you know, it's like a lot of this. It's like a restaurant, you know, a lot of it's marketing. You know, we spend a lot on Google. You know, you get on Yelp. We do, fortunately, because we've been around for a while, I think we have a pretty good reputation. We do get some of those referral businesses. But a lot of times, realistically, you know, our clients, you know, they get in trouble and then they never get in trouble again, which is good, which is what we want. But a lot of times they're not necessarily the best referral source just because, you know,

they're not looking at it. They're not repeat customers, right? Which is good. You know, we're not trying to build a repeat business. We don't want people committing crime after crime after crime. So of course. Yeah, it's like any other business. You know, we spend time marketing.

We've got marketing vendors. And again, all this is stuff that, you know, five years ago, we didn't have. But at this point, you know, we're spending money on SEO and PPC and we're doing outreach campaigns. And, you know, we're doing everything we can do to, you know, to run a marketing department of a successful business the same way, you know, a restaurant would or anybody else would. That's right. Yeah, 100%. Now, so you said you've been, you've been a lawyer for 16 years. Is that right? Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. Right around 16 years or so.

And as soon as you came out of law school, did you work for another firm or did you right away start, you know, your brick law firm? No, no, no. I went and did public defense, right? And so, you know, criminal lawyers that know what they're doing generally kind of have the same kind of background. One is that they work at a public defender's office, right? You know, working a public defender's office or doing court appointments, whatever you want to call them. it's a process of just getting a lot of cases and working with a lot of very, you know, eccentric individuals, a lot of, you know, drug dealers and a lot of, you know, people that, you know, you wouldn't want to run into in the middle of the night. But you learn, you know, and you learn a lot. And you're in court every day. And, you know, you do that when you're in your 20s. And then you, you know, at some point you switch over to something else. But by that point, you have done so much.

much you know a lot. And the same thing with being a prosecutor. I always say if you want to be a criminal defense lawyer with a firm and that's doing well later in your career in your 40s, right? Like I'm 44. I mean, whenever you're in your 40s, you know, you've got to spend some time as a prosecutor's office, right? So I tell every law student I talk to, I tell everybody they talk to, you know, going and working in a prosecutor's office is the most valuable thing you can do as a young lawyer. I like a buddy of mine who's a doctor and he talks about how when you're a, young doctor, they throw you in the emergency room and that it's it's the worst because you're there all day, all night, but you see everything. He's like, man, I would see kids with a sore throat and then I'd

see someone with a gunshot. And then I'd see somebody with, you know, a very severe illness. And I'd see somebody with the flu. And he said, you know, you do that for two or three years and then you can start your own medical practice and you can confidently say, I've seen everything, right? Because I work for four years downtown San Antonio in the emergency room. There is nothing that's going to shock me. Right. That's what you get with criminal law, working a prosecutor's office, work at a DA's office, do some public defender stuff. You're going to see everything. And then, you know, there's only so many variations of a DWI or a drug case. And eventually you're kind of going to know, hey, I've seen it all. And so that that's a really important step for anybody is to spend that time. Nobody gets to come out of law

school at 25 and just start, you know, charging a lot of money for big cases with no experience and, you know, no client. I mean, you got to put in the work, right? And so for defense lawyers, you put in the work by being a prosecutor or working at a public defender's office. That's where you get all your dirt on you. And you learn it. You know, you learn with the stuff you need to learn. Sure. Yeah.

No, that makes a lot of sense. And so then what year did you actually start the brick firm? Five years ago now. Yeah, five years ago. And to be fair, I joined up with my. So the way it worked real quick was my partner, Stephen Badetta, he had been in practice. for about 12 or 14 years as his own law firm. And I was at a DA's office.

I was a prosecutor. And, you know, we kind of decided to join forces. And at that point, we kind of renamed the firm Brick. And we went on from there. And so while Brick has been around for five years, you know, his office, which kind of morphed into our office, has been around for 15, 20 years. Got it. Got it. Yeah.

So reincarnation in a sense of something that was already there. Yeah, and I remember I was talking to my accountant about it, and they were like, yeah, doctors and lawyers, you know, you're constantly changing your names of law firms and LLCs and they're constantly becoming the, you know, the something group and then the associates and this. And so pretty common practice, but we've been brown for a while. Gotcha, got you got some cool spelling there, you know, there with your logo and your name. Is there something behind that name that, that, you know, that goes with that with those BRCK letters? Yeah, so we actually went to a branding company, right? And again, this is the process, like we were talking earlier, kind of running a good business and figuring out.

You know, I remember when we first named the law firm, the first logo, we got a guy on Fiverr to do it for like $10, right? And I mean, you know, some guy based out of India, and he sent us a few ones, and we picked it for $5. And that became our logo, right? And it was like, oh, this is great. And it was really bad in retrospect, you know, like he didn't, he didn't, not the best logo in retrospect. So a couple of years ago, we, we went to a proper branding agency.

And, you know, they do their whole thing of, you know, what do you stand for? Yeah. And the colors like. And so they put the whole presentation together. So they came up with it. They came up with the whole brick defense kind of logo and the color scheme and the branding. We try to keep that consistent, you know, just like an oral business. Try to keep it consistent across the different marketing channels.

That's right. you know, you know, do all that. But it's again, it's another example of us not knowing what we were doing and then kind of evolving into what normal businesses do, which is, yeah, go talk to a professional. Go talk to a professional marketing agency and have them tell you what they think will resonate with clients and customers. And so that's where the logo the name came from. I like it, man.

I think it's really cool. It's different. And I think that's one of the key components of business, right, is differentiation. how do I stand out, right? There's a bunch of people doing what I do. How can I be, even if it's just a little bit different, right? No, that's one of my favorite things. You know, better is not better.

Different is better, right? Right. And so, you know, yeah, we're a little different. And hopefully that comes across, you know, on our website and our social media and all the stuff that we're trying to do. And, you know, and it's also genuine in the sense that, you know, the Bulldog approach, I think for one point, you know, four or five years ago, the idea was we're going to be bulldogs. And that's just not us.

You know, the idea is that we're empathetic. We're modern. We use a lot of technology. You know, I'm big on, you know, AI and using professional and all that kind of stuff. And so the old school, you know, bulldog lawyer, that's not really our spiel. And so hopefully people see that and the colors and the branding and the logo. Like, hey, these guys are a little more modern than my, you know, my great grandfather's law firm. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And you're, you're, I think you mentioned this earlier, but your tagline is helping our clients move on with their lives. And so that really summarizes that. And we're getting close to wrapping up. So I just have a couple of final questions for you, Chris. But if I find myself in that type of a situation where maybe, you know, maybe I drank too much one night, you know, I was having a really good time and it just kind of got out of hand and I made that bad decision to get behind the wheel, right? Or, or, you know, you know,

know, maybe maybe something, another type of substance ended up in my vehicle. There's a friend with me, you know, and that particular substance is illegal. Whatever the case, right? Or maybe my emotions got the best of me one day and I just, I got too angry and I acted out on that against someone that I love. Obviously, those are really bad situations, right? But what should be my first step? I mean, if I'm, if I find myself arrested, should I, should I, should I, should I, should I try to conversate with the with the police should i try to tell my side of the story or should i just keep that brick in mind immediately you know yeah everybody kind of knows it's it's funny because i think

it's been drilled into us from tv shows and movies that you know you do you you want to remain silent uh you know and officers these days they're pretty cool about that like they kind of get like if you say like hey i'm not going to talk like i want a lawyer that they're not going to have a problem with that. And that's one of the big things is that I think people think that it's going to be perceived by the police officer is, oh, this guy's being a jerk or this guy's being rude. And the officer's going to go harder on you or something, right? And the truth is, it's not the way it works. I mean, they're professionals. Police officers are professionals. They're resting hundreds of people a year, right? And so, you know, when you say like, hey, I don't really have anything to say about this, you don't come across as a bad guy. You come across as a professional. You come across as somebody who's a little. smarter than everybody else. And they're going to respect that and they're not kind of a problem with that. So, yes, in general, you know, whenever you're dealing with the police, if you're arrested, it's over.

Like, you know, it's time now to, I always tell people as respectfully, you know, as you're still a human and they're doing their job as respectfully as possible. Just let them know, like, hey, I'm done. You've arrested me. We're not talking anymore about this. And they're not going to have a problem with it. And then, you know, after that point, that's really where, you know, people, kind of go into two different buckets. One bucket is they just do nothing because they're like,

well, I got arrested, my life's over. I'm screwed. It's all bad from this point on. But the other bucket of people, and it's the one that you should be in, is the people that contact a lawyer and start getting very proactive in being, you know, active in their defense, active in setting up a defense for future use. And then also, you know, proactive in, you know, those situations, maybe you need anger management, you know, maybe, you know, maybe some AA is an order, you know, and those, you know, things when taken to a judge or a prosecutor, you know, six months down the line, they're going to be helpful. They're going to help a lot in your situation. So if you find yourself, you know, getting arrested, yeah, you know, you're going to want to clam up. You're not going to talk to the police.

And then you're going to get real proactive with your attorney about finding a way to move on. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, don't, don't just sit there and be depressed and feel like, okay, all hope is lost here, right? Do something about it. Get the help that you need. That's pretty much the only way you're going to, excuse me, be able to really move forward. Yeah, I absolutely agree with you. And that's the thing that I hate to see the most. And it does happen is people get arrested, right? And then they go online and they Google their case and they get all this bad information, right? It's essentially like having a cough or a cold and going on WebMD and convince yourself that you've got some deadly disease, right? So they convince themselves

that their life is over. Yeah. And then they get depressed. Then they quit their job. Then they start drinking more. And the whole thing, you know, falls apart over something that was probably fixable if they had been a little more proactive. So yeah, you know, after an arrest, generally your life's not over, you know. It really can be used as a stepping stone to, you know, to hopefully better and bigger things. That's right. For sure, for sure. Chris, you've got a really cool story. You've got a really amazing law firm. The last question I have for you is, what does the future look like for you in the brick law firm? Maybe let's say the next three to five years, where do you see yourself? Where do you see your law firm? Where do you hope to be? Sure. So, I mean, the idea for us is to keep growing. You know, we are not resting on our laurels. You know, we don't see ourselves as one of these old-time law firms that just is sticking around until they close the doors on us. You know, we're aggressive in marketing. We're aggressive in our approach. We want to grow. And the growth is not. just, you know, self-serving. I mean, the idea really is the bigger we get, the more people we can help, right?

And if our message is one of, hey, you know, when you get arrested, there's things that we can do to help you move on and help you get better. That's a message that I think is going to do well. And I think it's a message that can help a lot of people, right? So, you know, it's also about, you know, helping people and growing. And so that's, that's us. That's what we're trying to do specifically, you know, try to get into new markets here in Texas. there's so many big cities that are kind of untapped. And we're near Austin. And Austin is just exploding with people and cases and things like that. So the idea is to have a good, strong business that can grow into different markets and help as many people as possible. That's amazing.

I did lie. I had one final question. No problem. What does Christopher Cavassos do when he's not being a lawyer? What is your downtime? Do you have any hobbies? Who do you like to spend your free time with? Yeah, no, in general, I do two things. I work and I spend time with my family and kids. And so, you know, I do work a lot.

I enjoy work, especially, you know, when you have your own business, right? It's not like I'm punching the clock for somebody else. I enjoy sometimes working on a Sunday, right? And so I do work a lot. And then when I'm not working, I got a wife, Laura, two kids, Lucas and Olivia. And then we're constantly doing things here in Texas, you know, six flags. We're doing six flags this weekend, Thanksgiving, all that family stuff. So at this point in my life, those are the two things that I do.

I work and I spend time with my family. There you go. Not a bad little setup, my friend. Not a bad little set up. No complaints. No complaints. That's awesome. Chris, thank you again very much for being on the podcast today.

You got a really cool story, man. I'm really impressed with what you guys are doing over there at Brick. And I think your future is extremely bright. I think you guys are just barely getting started, actually. So there's a lot for the taking, as you mentioned. And I think a lot of it's going to probably land in your direction. So keep up the good work. And thank you again for being on the podcast today.

Thank you, Marco. I appreciate time. I'm grateful for you to having me on. Absolutely. We'll make sure that we put your contact information in the show notes. And that way, if anybody does listen to this, they can, you know, they'll have the information there to reach out to you and your staff, your team. Thank you again.

Awesome. That does it, guys, for another episode of Business and, We will catch you here next time. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at businessinnovators.com today.