When Rick Jaklitsch formed the Jaklitsch Law Group in 1999, he was determined to build the “very best” personal injury trial firm in Maryland. Now, more than 25 years later, with a great sense of pride, he points to numerous attorney excellence awards from multiple publications that suggest he accomplished that goal. Rick wants every client who walks through the door to feel that choosing the Jaklitsch Law Group was the best decision they ever made. Under Rick’s leadership, the firm delivers on its promise by constantly working to secure the best result possible, while delivering the very best client service.
In his four-decade-long, stellar career, he has handled thousands of cases and won countless legal awards, including some type of “Lawyer of the Year” award 5 separate times. Because of his spectacular wins, multiple million dollar and higher results, years of experience and professionalism, he enjoys an impeccable reputation and commands the respect and admiration of his peers, including judges he has appeared before, opposing lawyers, and insurance claim representatives.
“Be the best!” has been Rick’s goal since day one, and is now the goal of everyone at the firm. He is confident that when he finally retires years from now, his current staff of trial lawyers will remain true to what makes the Jaklitsch Law Group great. Rick is proud that each lawyer in his firm has won national recognition for their trial skills and is particularly pleased that his youngest son David Jaklitsch was named, at the age of 27, by the National Association of Trial Lawyers as one of the 40 best trial lawyers in the country under the age of 40.
The Path Leading to Establishing the Jaklitsch Law Group
A pre-teen Rick figured out that he could make money with his mouth, so he thought about becoming either a sports broadcaster or a trial lawyer. For many years he co-hosted a show on CBS Radio called ‘Terp Talk’, covering University of Maryland sports. Although he loved doing that show, Rick always found working in the legal field even more exciting and rewarding.
“It’s ‘mano a mano’ in the courtroom,” he says. “It’s about how prepared you are and how skilled you are against the opposition.” Rick absolutely loves competition. He also finds trial work on behalf of injured clients incredibly satisfying.
For over a decade, Rick was in partnership with a businessman whose views of the world differed from his. That firm only employed part-timers. Staff worked 20 hours a week and were not entitled to health insurance. To Rick, it was a shortsighted approach. He would tell his partner to look at the time and money they spent advertising for a new employee, interviewing and then hiring and training them. He believed that a different approach would allow projects to be done perfectly, and would deliver a better product to clients.
Rick decided to part ways and set up his own law firm to do things differently. When he opened his own firm, he hired 40-hour employees who had no intention of going anywhere else.
“My goal was that every employee we hired would be kept so happy that they would never look at a want ad again,” Rick says. “We work so hard to make our employees feel that way, and that helps to give clients the best service possible.”
Looking back, Rick does not view his move to start his own law firm as a risk. He had a wealth of experience, as at that point, he had already been practicing law for 16 years. He had a solid number of loyal clients who knew how good he was as a lawyer. That drive to “Be the Best!” drove him to hire superstar lawyers and the very best staff.
Dealing with Challenges Every Day
Rick faces challenges every day. He points out that finding “superstars to hire” is one of the toughest challenges. According to him, they go the extra mile to find the “superstar” who is a perfect fit for their law firm, whether it is a member of the staff or a trial attorney.
Another major challenge Rick talks about involves cases where the client is catastrophically injured, yet there is a cap on the available recovery due to limited insurance coverage. He explains that in such cases, the defendant has a low insurance policy and no personal assets to go after. “There is often a cap on what we are able to collect on behalf of a truly, catastrophically injured person,” he says. When that happens, they try to find other ways to help their clients pocket every dollar possible. According to Rick, they fight hard to reduce clients’ liens and have clients’ bills significantly lowered. But that too is a big challenge. “That is why we try to educate clients on how important underinsured motorist coverage is when they buy a policy,” Rick explains. “Many times, clients and even insurance agents just don’t understand how important underinsurance is.”
In Maryland, if the defendant does not have sufficient insurance coverage, the client has to go back to her own car insurance policy. This is why his firm regularly educates clients on the importance of this underinsurance coverage and counsels them on the amounts they should purchase, even holding open house seminars when anyone can walk in and get free insurance coverage advice.
Most Significant Cases
Rick has handled thousands of cases. However, according to him, there are three cases that have significantly influenced his legal career. One is the first case he handled as a plaintiff’s lawyer. At the time, he defended a 17-year-old girl who was hit by a Prince George’s County police officer when she was making a left-hand turn. The officer sued her. Rick successfully defended her and then took on her plaintiff’s case. He explains that they won the trial through a speed-skid analysis and the testimony of an accident reconstructionist which convinced the jury the police officer was travelling at more than twice the speed limit in a non-emergency situation.
Another case that holds great importance to him, not for the dollar amount, but for the persistence it required, involved his client who was also injured in a crash with a Prince George’s County police officer. The county repeatedly insisted that their officer had been on an emergency call which would have capped recovery at $20,000. Rick proved otherwise, and won a $320,000 trial verdict. He then won the appeal by the county to the lower appellate court on every count except a small issue that was sent back to the trial court for verification. Rick won the trial on that matter too, won the county’s next appeal to the lower appellate court, and then won again in the State’s Supreme Court. It took 8 years of litigation before Rick and his entire staff presented his client with a check for the original jury verdict amount along with 8 years of interest and the biggest bottle of champagne anyone had ever seen.
The third case that highlighted Rick’s legal ability was a pro bona matter. He often provides pro bono representation to University of Maryland students. Two women’s lacrosse players were suspended by the NCAA for two competitions due to the campus newspaper running an unauthorized caption under a picture of the players which became a use of their images for a commercial purpose- a violation of NCAA rules. The next two competitions were the collegiate national semifinal and the national championship. Rick took their case, discovered that the NCAA themselves defined a competition as either a game or a scrimmage. Maryland then scheduled two scrimmages before the Final Four games in which Rick’s clients didn’t play, and Rick convinced the NCAA to allow both clients to play the most important games of their lives. Rick has helped many student athletes since then with NCAA eligibility issues and other problems. He never charges a nickel to students for any of those representations.
A Brief Introduction to The Jaklitsch Law Group
The Jaklitsch Law Group is a team of award-winning lawyers helping clients win their personal injury or medical malpractice cases. Rick points out that they have four of the very best trial attorneys in the state, in addition to staff that truly care about clients. “I’m always amazed at how dedicated they are,” he says. “They lose sleep worrying about delivering the best outcome for clients, and truly treat our clients like family. And I’m so proud of how many employees are still with me after 25 years.”
Rick underscores that the vision of everyone in the firm is to keep being the best. Each employee knows that every contact with a client needs to deliver superior service and results. They make sure that calls are returned promptly and emails are answered as quickly as possible. According to Rick, every conversation with a client is a test and the firm’s reputation is only as good as the last trial result or the last client feeling that he got outstanding service.
“We fight for the client, no matter what,” he adds. “We tell clients, ‘We will run through a brick wall for you’.” All 4 trial lawyers at the firm are known for doing that.
Rick and his team hire superstars, train them as much as possible, and instill in them the importance of service to the client. “The push to be the very best in every case separates us from everyone else,” Rick says.
When his son, David, was 12, he told Rick, he wanted to take the firm global. Rick, however, prefers to keep the firm small, made up of four “sensational” trial lawyers. “Future goals are exactly the same as our current goals: hire the best and be the best,” he says.
Big Dogs from the Small Firm
Rick notes that the firm has not changed much since its first years. He has hired a fourth trial attorney since the beginning, and he has always wanted to keep the Jaklitsch Law Group small. “We are known as ‘the Big Dogs from the Small Firm’,” he points out. He believes that, as a small firm, they can provide a better brand of service than large firms, and have more of a family style of relationship with clients. His theory is: “We’re trial lawyers, so we’re always willing to go to trial if we don’t get a great offer to settle.”
According to Rick, insurance companies know this, so they offer higher settlements than they do to lawyers who are never willing to take cases to trial. He often hears, “Rick, I can settle this type of case at that offer with every other lawyer out there, except you,” and he takes that as a point of pride. But, as he points out, he couldn’t reject those offers unless every single lawyer in his firm was a sensational trial lawyer routinely getting remarkable results.
“I am proud of how many insurance adjusters, judges and former jurors from our trials come to us when they or their family members are injured,” Rick adds. “They know which firms are great and which aren’t. They’ve seen us in action. They know how good we are. That is very rewarding to me, and it continues to drive each of us to be even better in the next case.”
Achievements and Success
For Rick, his greatest achievement is the tone he has set for the firm and the results they have produced over more than 25 years. He watches as his employees rise quickly to the challenge of being the best in every phone call and client interaction. He says, “Each employee has to deliver their best, every single time.” Rick is proud of the job his staff does. He often says that his lawyers could never be superstars if everyone else, from the receptionist to paralegals and support staff, don’t do their jobs perfectly. Other lawyers often comment to Rick about how good his employees are.
Jaklitsch Law Group, under Rick’s leadership, has recorded a string of successes. The Daily Record, Maryland’s legal newspaper, has repeatedly named his firm as both the Maryland’s top personal injury firm and the state’s best civil litigation firm. Jaklitsch Law Group has also been voted by two other publications as the number one personal injury trial law firm in the entire country.
Rick defines success several ways. One is by the number of clients who have returned or referred others over the years. He points out that over 75% of their new business comes from past client referrals from those who know firsthand how good the firm is. Other benchmarks are the outstanding trial results obtained and the glowing client feedback, although Rick attributes both to having five great employees who have been with the firm for more than 20 years.
The firm’s motto is: “Be the best.” Everyone at the firm knows that. They also know every day is a test of being the best, and they have to go out of their way, at every opportunity, to keep clients happy no matter what. To Rick, that is the ultimate measure of success.
Responsibilities and Leadership Style
At Jaklitsch Law Group, Rick is willing to do everything except deciding on the use of the technology. He relies on his younger lawyers for that, but he believes he has to set an example every day and has to personally go above and beyond in the way he treats his clients and communicates with them. He does his best to return every call the same day. Often, he stays until 9 p.m., calling clients. “And they are always surprised,” Rick says.
Rick believes in being a leader who serves as well as leads. Each lawyer does a great deal of pro bona work, where they don’t charge a fee. “We cut our fee in so many cases because the client needs that,” he adds. “We give away 250 free turkeys to members of the community at Thanksgiving. We go to the airport to welcome home our troops that served overseas, help out at animal shelters, run a huge ‘Toys for Tots’ drive at Christmas.”
When asked what one word described him, Rick responded, “relentless.” He named his boat, Relentless, and people who knew him commented that the name fit him perfectly.
Advice for Aspiring Lawyers
Rick believes that the client is the king or queen. He advises aspiring lawyers to do everything in their power, every minute of the day, to be the very best lawyer they can be for that individual client.
The second piece of advice Rick gives is: maintain a work-life balance. “Trial attorneys must take time off or they’ll burnout,” he says. He insists that each of his attorneys take six weeks of paid vacation every year, and always shakes his head when one tries to take less time off. “I always come back from vacation super motivated to work even better and smarter than before,” he says. “I want each of my trial attorneys feeling the same. That way, the client wins and gets the very best each lawyer can offer.” With that philosophy, it is easy to see why Jaklitsch Law Group enjoys such a sterling reputation with their clients and the Maryland legal community.
