Building and Keeping a Great Team, with Bertrand Parnall

Ever since launching Parnall Law Firm, LLC in 2009, Bertrand Parnall has focused on trying to make lives better for people who have been injured through no fault of their own. He ultimately joined forces with attorney Alan Malott, representing victims. When Malott was named to a judgeship on the Second Judicial District Court in 2009, Parnall took over the firm. Since then, Parnall and the other lawyers in the firm have helped to recover more than $65 million for clients.

While his firm has expanded in size, it has retained its focus on providing excellent service to clients. In part, this commitment to teamwork and tenacity is a product of Parnall’s own athletic background. He was co-captain of the Albuquerque High School Bulldogs district football champions in 1988, and in subsequent years participated in competitive boxing and judo, in which he holds a second-degree black belt.

In 2018, Parnall assumed the presidency of the Rotary Club of Albuquerque after serving on the service club’s board of directors for several years. He looks forward to working with his fellow Rotarians to identify community needs in Albuquerque and to find innovative ways to address them. Parnall is also on the board of Popejoy, a local venue for plays and musicals, and is a board member of the New Mexico Law School Alumni Association. In addition, he is on the advisory board of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and is a frequent media spokesperson for the group.

His favorite activities away from the office and his other professional and community involvements are raising his kids, hiking, camping, skiing, and judo.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• How growing up in many different countries and his father’s background in law had a profound influence on Bert’s world view
• How Bert’s firm started small before experiencing dramatic growth, and what challenges Bert faced over that period of growth
• Why it is crucial for the success of your firm to surround yourself with the right people hired into in the right positions
• How Bert developed a remarkable recruiting, hiring and training process to attract the right candidates, and how Bert uses “position scorecards” as a big part of the process
• Why the best way to find great employees is to tap into your own network of contacts, and how Bert’s team processes new applicants
• How Bert uses group interviews, personality tests, key questions, employee shadowing and other methods to “weed out” the wrong applicants
• Why Bert looks for strong character, talent and mental acuity in new applicants over prior experience
• Why appreciation and recognition is the primary reason employees stay, and why the lack of those things is why employees leave
• What books Bert would recommend to lawyers to help develop their management skills and improve their hiring strategies

Additional Resources:

 

• Website: www.hurtcallbert.com