Understanding Professional License Defense with guest Tony Bertolino

Transcript

Narrator: 0:00

This podcast is for educational purposes only does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal assistance about a legal problem.

Narrator: 0:09

Contact an attorney.

Cimone Murphree: 0:15

Good afternoon, Mr. Bertolino. Thank you so much for being here with us today. How are you doing?

Tony R. Bertolino : 0:20

I’m great, I’m doing very well.

Cimone Murphree: 0:23

Good, we are very excited to have you on the show today. For our viewers who don’t know, Mr. Bertolino is our founder and managing partner of the Bertolino Law Firm, a professional licensed defense firm located in Austin, Texas. We will talk a little bit more about the firm in a moment, but before we do, Mr. Bertolino, can you give us a little background on yourself and how you got involved in the legal industry?

Tony R. Bertolino : 0:50

Yeah, of course. Well, it really started probably in high school. I was a debater and I did very, very well and I won many awards, went on to college and continued to venture into debate and actually won nationals in the mid 90s in.

Tony R. Bertolino : 1:13

Washington state, and so that’s really where I got. You know, the bug bit me, you know, and I really began to value and really love arguing. And you know, the next logical step in my life was, you know, law school and to be an attorney. So it really it really stemmed from there. You know that starting point of my life and being interested in in the in law and then, of course, back then it was the incentive was to, you know, win those trophies and those awards and those ribbons and you know, and the accolades that came with it, and you know, being able to go up to the stage and grab your trophy and be recognized by your peers how well you did in a debate tournament. And then you know, and of course you know, back then the payout was trophies and today it’s revenue. Then the payout was trophies and today it’s revenue, and so it’s. You know it was.

Tony R. Bertolino : 2:10

It was a nice next logical step in my life and and that’s really where, where it all started, and then, of course, from high school graduated from high school, attended St Mary’s university and received a my bachelor’s degree and my master’s. I also obtained a master’s degree in public administration and then there was a period of time where my ex-wife and I we owned a long-term assisted living facility in San Antonio and you know so I was really involved heavily in in medicine, even because my ex-wife at the time even still is a registered nurse, and so we were heavily involved in in that facility. But you know, there was my life was unfulfilled. I again I got bit by that bug early in my life in high school and you know, being involved in debate, I feel like I felt like throughout that period in my life I just needed to do something different and and kept pestering my ex-wife about, hey, I need to go to law school, I, I need to go, I want to practice law.

Tony R. Bertolino : 3:07

And finally, in 1999 is when I applied for law school and I attended South Texas College of Law and, you know, pursued not just my education there but got involved in mock trial in moot court and did very well in those areas as well, won second place in the intramural moot court at my in my law school Really didn’t do a whole lot of mock trial in the court outside of of law school, had the opportunity but didn’t really pursue it much. I was more concerned about, you know, learning the law and attending classes and doing what needed to do there and, you know, really learn from my professors, but but yeah, that’s sort of a sort of you know where all that stems from in my life.

Tony R. Bertolino : 3:53

That’s awesome. So it’s almost like when, when I was a kid, my parents used to tell me you love to argue so much you know, it’s almost like the boy who left to argue. He grew up to become one, yeah, exactly. Well, that’s. That’s really awesome though.

Tony R. Bertolino : 4:13

You know it’s. It’s sounds like that bug stayed with you for a long time.

Cimone Murphree: 4:15

You now are the managing partner you know of your own firm, and so Bertolino Law Firm specializes in professional licensed defense. Can you talk a little bit more about that area of law?

Tony R. Bertolino : 4:31

Yeah, administrative law is sort of a general area of law that governs the administration and regulation of government agencies, regulatory agencies, and it could be. Administrative law in those areas could be both state and federal. We handle, of course, the state level only. We don’t do any federal law cases or federal administrative law cases. And, more specifically, you know, license defense, which is sort of a subset of administrative law. It caught my attention probably back in early, early 2000s, 2005-ish 2004, 2005.

Tony R. Bertolino : 5:15

After I graduated from law school, I actually moved my family to Austin and got a first year associate’s position at a law firm called Hilgers and Watkins, which is it’s no longer around. It ended up merging with a bigger firm and that’s where I sort of got my feet wet for the first year, really learning how to practice law and to litigate. And then, after a year of working at that firm, I just felt, you know, I didn’t like it. I was the big firm. Life wasn’t for me. I was more interested in in, you know, really having more time with my family and really having my own thing, you know, and being my own boss. And so after a year I left them and hung my shingle out and started a solo practice, started off, of course, by myself.

Tony R. Bertolino : 6:13

It was a little sort of one room office space in a refurbished home off of Guadalupe street in downtown Austin. Um, if you can imagine one of those historic homes it was really beautiful historical homes that’s converted into offices. What I had, like a little cubicle kind of office space. It was my own, um, but it was, you know, it was mine and and I was, uh, you know, I started practicing general law like the joke about it, and call it door law.

Tony R. Bertolino : 6:45

Basically take anything that comes in the door. And I had to start somewhere and you know, I took, you know, immigration cases, personal injury cases, a lot of divorce and child support cases, which really also, you know, got my beak wet a little bit with, uh, learning, you know, the practice of law itself in trial settings, litigation settings and arguing before the court and a judge and with opposing counsel and, uh, that’s really got that. I mean, that’s, believe it or not, doing a lot of family law cases to help develop that skill uh for the most part, unless you’re a criminal defense lawyer or criminal prosecutor, you’re not in court very often.

Tony R. Bertolino : 7:26

You know, of course, depending of course what specialize or what practice area, of course personal injury lawyers are in court, but you know, for the most part, I found that that is really what helped me develop those skill sets early on and and yeah, I mean that’s that’s really you know what what caught my attention and and, of course, what happened, you know, when, around the time, early mid twenties, 2000, 2004, 2005,. After I started practicing on my own, my ex-wife had a friend of hers. Of course, at that time my ex-wife was working at a hospital facility as a nurse.

Tony R. Bertolino : 8:06

And she had a friend who was an RN, a single mom who had just received a complaint notice from the Board of Nursing, and of course I’d never done this area before, it was brand new to me and of course I was practicing door law, you know. And and of course practicing door law and this is one of the cases that you know swung the door open for me and took the case on and uh, researched it out, learned the procedures, learned, uh, you know, began talking with opposing counsel, the staff attorney for the board of nursing, and uh, ended up getting it dismissed. And uh, and this, uh, the nurse friend of my, my ex-wifewife. She was extremely grateful and tears oh, I’m sure yeah I, I mean, you can imagine if she was.

Tony R. Bertolino : 8:49

You know, this is what her livelihood is, just what she depended on to support her children and yeah and um, you know, and it and it really started from there. It was sort of it just really blossomed her. You know, she started referring work to me and I started getting some more nursing cases. It was actually, um, in in Houston is where that really originated and you know I started getting more and more cases from the medical complex and in in Houston’s got one of the biggest medical complexes in the world there and it was a really good nice pool of potential nurse clients there and started getting, you know, started building that practice and it’s, over the years, began developing that niche and and eventually the the niche became a true niche.

Tony R. Bertolino : 9:36

I was still, of course, you know, I needed to continue to grow the firm and make money and support my family at the time. So I kept taking these other cases, grow the firm and make money and support my family at the time. So I kept taking these other cases. But over time I started, you know, realizing the importance of niching the practice and really letting go those you know immigration cases, those family law cases and focus on one practice area and become an expert, so to speak, in one practice area, a go-to person, a go-to law firm. And yeah, and then you know I realized that this old adage you know that the niches lead to the riches and you know you start developing a niche, people are going to start respecting that and you’re the go-to person for that.

Tony R. Bertolino : 10:24

So yeah, that’s sort of, I guess, a long version of how this all caught my interest.

Cimone Murphree: 10:32

That’s a great start, especially knowing you won your first case.

Tony R. Bertolino : 10:35

That’s just awesome, oh yeah, it was, it was, it was, and you know it was incredibly rewarding, you know, being able to get that feedback from, from her, I mean. And and of course I realize that you know you can’t get paid with compliments, right, still need to.

Cimone Murphree: 10:52

Unfortunately, yeah exactly.

Tony R. Bertolino : 10:55

So I understood that and and of course the compliment was nice and all, but I also realized that I had work to do to build a firm and build a practice and and get out there and get some more. But it was, you know, it was really nice to have that and it’s a nice little.

Tony R. Bertolino : 11:08

I guess it’s a little spillover from what this firm does, and you know, and helping people and really really I mean impacting and making a difference in people’s. You know, and helping people and really really I mean impacting and making a difference in people’s lives. You know, and I mean people make mistakes. I mean it happens all the time and you know to really punish someone for a mistake that’s fixable. You know it’s unfortunate that many times that happens to you know these, these clients and, and you know mistakes will happen and it’s rewarding when you’re able to help and assist a client and fix those mistakes and you know, explain how you need to do better next time and, of course, coupled with them not necessarily being hit hard with a sanction by that. By that you know that particular regulatory agency.

Cimone Murphree: 11:58

Or or their license being revoked completely.

Tony R. Bertolino : 12:01

Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.

Cimone Murphree: 12:05

So you mentioned that it’s a niche area of law, so it sounds like you know.

Tony R. Bertolino : 12:34

Public. You know, license holders may main reasons that I’m finding, when I speak to a potential new client, you know, a lead, a qualified lead or whatever you want to call it, and when speaking to them about the need to hire counsel, I would be able to possibly put them into two categories. The first category are these license holders, these potential new clients that are under the impression that they can handle it on their own and they don’t need a lawyer, and they, you know they’ll be able to save some money and, and you know, handle it that they look at it as a minor thing and they could just resolve it with a phone call. Big mistake. I mean, it’s one of those deals where and of course I’ve mentioned to them in many occasions where I’ve had potential new clients that have told me that they have represented themselves and at the end of the call I thought in my mind well, they just put their foot in their mouth, they just admitted to things they didn’t have to admit and really hurt themselves themselves. And you know, and that, and that’s one of the, that’s one category that I’m seeing. You know, these potential clients who think they can handle their matters per se.

Tony R. Bertolino : 13:43

That other category are those that are under the impression that if they hire a lawyer, they’re going to be look like they’re evading or trying to hide something from the agency. So they’re under the impression that by hiring a lawyer, I’m guilty, I’m going to look guilty because I hired a lawyer to help me with this and I’m going to have to explain to them. No, no, no, that’s not the case. In fact, in many situations there’s encouragement to hire a lawyer because you know a lawyer won’t necessarily muck it up. These agencies, they have a process that they follow. They don’t really like to detour from those processes. And, of course, these license holders that think they can handle on their own and they represent themselves. It just causes more headache for these agencies and there’s no flow and continuity in their processes any further, because they’re not dealing with a lawyer that knows their processes and their procedural rules.

Tony R. Bertolino : 14:45

So those are sort of the two categories that I’m finding of potential new clients that are reluctant to hire counsel. But at the end of the day it’s going to be so important and necessary to hire good counsel that’s well experienced and, and you know, have good contacts and good relationships with these, with these agencies and boards.

Cimone Murphree: 15:06

Would you have any any advice or any particular questions to ask or things to look for when license holders are seeking counsel?

Tony R. Bertolino : 15:20

I think the number one thing that you know, of course, above, you know the qualities of a lawyer and a law firm of good reputation and you know trustworthiness and you know good ethics and you know all those really standard kind of things that people should always look for in a law firm. Aside from that, probably the biggest one is probably just straight up experience in this area. You know there’s a lot of attorneys out there that still practice door law and I don’t recommend, you know, that you hire a lawyer that you know sort of that has a practice, that of them. You know they don’t really have a focused practice. They they handle multiple areas of law and represent a variety of different types of clients. And you know, I think it really comes down to you know, looking for a highly experienced, knowledgeable attorney who knows what they’re doing and is not just familiar with the substantive laws and the procedural rules but is also familiar with these staff attorneys and these investigators.

Tony R. Bertolino : 16:34

And, and you know, believe or not, as a firm like ours, we build really good relationships with opposing counsels and board investigators. And and I’m not saying that to say that you know our firm’s above the law or that we’re not you know that that we’re. You know that we’re getting special treatment from these licensing agencies. I’m not saying that at all, but it’s always good to have a good rapport, a good relationship, you know, good mutual kind of respect between these agencies, because we’ve been practicing against them and with them for for many, many years. So so, yeah, I think I think the the most important thing to look for is is is you know good, solid experience and knowledge in the area.

Cimone Murphree: 17:19

It makes sense. You want someone who’s familiar with you, know the the staff and staff’s familiar with them and, like you said, can avoid some of those things getting kind of mucky and kind of muddied waters. So definitely you know a great tip, great tip and something to look for, I would say, in any lawyer.

Tony R. Bertolino : 17:43

Yeah, oh, yeah, oh, for sure.

Cimone Murphree: 17:46

Well, Mr. Bertolino, we thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us this afternoon. You you are a delight to have on the show. You’ve given our viewers a lot of really good information and great knowledge to take home with them. We’d love to have you back for a future episode.

Tony R. Bertolino : 18:05

Definitely I’d love to be back.

Cimone Murphree: 18:07

If you’re willing.

Tony R. Bertolino : 18:08

Love to be back.

Narrator : 18:10

Empower your professional journey. Know your regulator. The podcast that inspires you to engage.