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January 2018. I walk into our multimillion-dollar law firm, and to my shock, my partners of three years are waiting to tell me that our business together is over. I didn’t see it coming. I knew we had different ideas about running the firm, but I didn’t know they’d decided to resolve our differences by ending it.
With dissolution papers in hand, I go home from the firm, and I lay on my couch. Losing my business with them feels like a second divorce. Three months prior, my marriage ended. I’m emotionally wiped.
I rested on the couch for two weeks, not doing anything. Finally, my Dad says, “Son, you got to get yourself up. It’s going to be fine.”
My first move was counseling. My counselor poses a question he says is crucial.
I struggle with the answer. All I know is that two “divorces” in a short period have made for the most brutal year of my life.
was born in Gary, Indiana, the second of four kids. My family is Puerto Rican. My Dad, a pastor and a profoundly kind man, raised me on wisdom such as “Live a life that is pleasing to God but satisfying to you.” I learned what kindness, combined with a work ethic, looks like from my mother. She once made two hundred loaves of bread to help raise money for our neighbor.
When I was three, we moved to Puerto Rico. At thirteen, we moved into a rural white community in Georgia, where I felt out of place culturally. Was I American? Puerto Rican? I was the newcomer.
I went to Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School and earned my law degree. I began my legal career in 2001 as an intern and interpreter for the Chief Magistrate Court Judge of Clayton County. Next, I joined a firm and rose through the ranks from a part-time interpreter in 2004 to its managing partner ten years later.
And then things fell apart. Three years after becoming managing partner, I found myself divorced, without a business, and trying to piece my life back together with the help of a counselor who keeps asking me,
“Luis, who do you become when you become who God created you to be?”
“Who do I become? … A successful business owner,” I reply.
He says, “No, no. Who do you become?”
“An author,” I say.
“No.”
“A speaker?”
“Luis, who do you become when you become who God created you to be?”
The question frustrates me. Twice a week, week after week, my counselor asks me this question.
Then, about two months in, I have an epiphany. I know the answer!
“Luis, who you become when you become who God created you to be,” my counselor asks.
I declare, “I become powerful.”
After that moment, everything starts to click for me. Before, I was scared to take risks, scared of flying. I take it up I realizing if God wants me dead, he can kill me in a rocking chair. I start riding roller coasters… I take the slingshot at Panama City Beach, where they shoot you up 300 feet in the air.
I become transparent. Before, I would beat around the bush because I didn’t want to offend anybody. I begin answering questions authentically, and I create alignment in my relationships.
And I switch to things that satisfy me, not things that glorify me.
And on my birthday, March 5, 2018, I start my firm with a deep desire to lead a life of significance. I want my work to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. I keep close in mind words from the movie, Gladiator, “Make what you do echo in eternity.”
In only five months, I grew the firm to 100 clients and six employees. Then August 13, Seth Bader and I joined in a partnership.
Today, in addition to running Bader Scott Injury Lawyers, I consult through 8 figure firm to help them grow their business. I have released 2 books and an e book on law firm growth and overcoming hardship, It Has to Hurt, and I speak to audiences to help them be powerful. And I am happily remarried.
It hurt to go through two “divorces” in a matter of months. But I’ve learned that when life hurts, it’s an opportunity to become as God created us all to be: Powerful. From great pain can come great strength.
Heralded as a Super Lawyer’s “Rising Star,” The National Trial Lawyers Association “Top 40 Lawyers Under 40” and American Institute of Legal Counsels “10 Best Attorneys in 2017” for Worker’ Compensation, Luis focuses his legal practice on people who have been injured or disabled in serious accidents. As the Managing Partner at Bader Scott, Luis works on the strategic planning of the Firm and guides every aspect of the Firm to excel in the overall mission of Standing up for the the clients, Standing by our work, and Standing with Each Other.
Luis’ personal mission is to be a man who represents God through his work in the legal profession. He prides himself in mentoring his employees to activate the seed of greatness they were created with and helping people becoming all they were meant to be.
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CONTACT INFO:
3384 Peachtree Rd. NE #500
Atlanta, GA 30326
(404)-858-9169
