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Jamaal Stafford:
Elizabeth and Cammy thank you so much for being on the show today. Today’s podcast is a little bit different than what we usually do, and that we’re going to talk a little bit about ourselves. Today we’re going to give our listeners some insight into when they should contact the firm, what they can expect when they contact us, and how we make a difference for our clients. Before we get started, let’s let our listeners know a little bit about who we are and what we do. Elizabeth, let’s start with you.
Elizabeth Marcus-Wenger:
I am senior associate and had been with the firm for just over a year. Prior to that I practiced employment law at another employment law firm. I’ve represented clients in a variety of employment related cases from demand letters to administrative agencies, such as the EEOC and MC CR to litigation. I now work on cases including employment discrimination, professional licensure defense, and working with employers on their business practices. I’m a proud alumna of Bryn Mawr College and the University of Maryland, Franciscan Carey School of Law.
Jamaal Stafford:
Great, great Camey. What about you?
Camey Turpin:
Oh, I’m the intake specialist for our firm. And I’ve been with a law firm a JW. Stafford for about two years. I’ve worked in various fields throughout my employment history, but mostly in an administrative role. I have a bachelor’s degree in business administration. And that’s where my main focus is.
Jamaal Stafford:
That’s great. It’s great. I’m the founder of the law firm of JW. Stafford, I’ve been representing clients in complex legal matters for decades. The primary focus of the firm is in defending the profession, defending the professional licenses of healthcare professionals, and attorneys before their professional licensing body, as well as representing clients and employment law matters, such as non compete litigation, employment contracts, paycheck theft, claims and discrimination claims. But more importantly, I started this firm to be the voice for clients who are facing these challenges in their careers, whether it be a licensing issue, or discrimination and harassment on the job. When clients contact our firm and retain us, I want them to know that we’ve got their back, and we’ll make sure that their voice is heard, and that we’re going to be relentless in pursuing the client’s goals and to get justice for the client.
Camey Turpin:
So you know, you’ve been representing clients for a very long time. Can you tell us maybe about some wins something that might stick out in your mind?
Jamaal Stafford:
Thanks, Kimmy. Yeah, there are two cases that stick out my mind. One is where we represented a doctor before the Maryland Board of physicians who’s facing multiple disciplinary charges related to allegedly failing to timely produce medical record records to former patients. We were retained a few weeks before the doctor’s case resolution conference, which is essentially a settlement conference, we’ve reviewed the file prepared a written response to the charges, and reached out to the administrative prosecutor and said, Look, there’s no evidence here, that the doctor intended not to produce medical records, dismiss the charges. The administrative prosecutor, however, refused. We got this, we got to the settlement conference. And the administrative prosecutor recommended disciplinary action against our client. And I stood up and I explained to the panel, that there was no intention by the doctor here not to provide the patient’s medical records. And I outlined all the steps the doctor took and recommended that the panel dismissed the charges. After deliberating the panel sided with us, which was the right result, but huge for our client because he kept his medical license, record clean. You know, another representation that sticks out with me is when our firm represented an employment client and sexual harassment claim. We investigated the case transmitted a demand letter to this very large employer and filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. And we went into a mediation with that employer. After almost a full day of negotiations, we we were able to get that client is six figure settlement. That’s the commitment we have to our clients a commitment to results and to level the playing field for them. So while these two cases stick out in my mind, the key to our firm is that we pursue each client’s unique goals. That’s what makes us different, and we’re strategic in the guidance that we give to our clients. So, enough about me, I want to start with Camey as you are the first person that the prospective client will speak to, and tell our listeners what they can expect when they contact the firm.
Camey Turpin:
So that’s correct. I’m the first point of contact when someone calls in with a licensure or employment matter. I’m the one who’s going to answer that call. My job is to take notes about the potential clients individual matter, so that both uj and Elizabeth have a brief idea of why the prospective client is even calling to begin with, and what their worries are. Normally, a call will last 10 or 15 minutes. And within that time, I usually ask a pretty standard set of questions to begin with. But more importantly, I need to have a conversation with a potential client, I need to get a clear picture of what their concerns are. And whether that is an employment matter or contact from someone’s licensing board. During the discussion, we’ll talk about the consultation fees, which of course depends on the type of consultation that the prospective client needs. And all of this is so that I can get that perspective clients set up for a consultation. Part of that process is me sending out a consultation agreement form for signature and a questionnaire. The questionnaire is just to get a bit more detail about the prospective clients matter. And so, you know, the questionnaire is either geared towards employment, if that is their concern, or towards a licensing board issue, if, again, if that is their concern. Along with the questionnaire, I’ll ask the prospective client to attach any sort of key documents, anything that they feel might highlight their matter. That way our attorneys have everything they need to review prior to the consultation. And so currently, our consultations those are conducted either by phone or zoom, whichever the potential client prefers. And that’s pretty much what you need to expect to schedule a consultation with us.
Jamaal Stafford:
Great, great in Kimmy how soon after they, the prospective client contacts us, how soon can they expect to be scheduled for a consultation?
Camey Turpin:
Well, of course, I’ll need all those documents returned and such. But normally, I can get somebody scheduled within 24. Even for, you know, 48 hours. Once I’ve gotten everything back that we need
Jamaal Stafford:
to move forward. Perfect, perfect. And so at the consultation, you know, our listeners are going to be speaking with one of our attorneys here at the firm, either myself, Elizabeth, and I want our listeners to know what they can expect when they speak to with one of our attorneys. And Elizabeth, give the prospective clients some insight into what they can expect to earn a consultation.
Elizabeth Marcus-Wenger:
Absolutely. So during a consultation, this is our first step in forming a relationship getting to know our clients, we want to get to know our prospective client, as well as allowed the client to get to know us more, as well as our approach to working through a case. No two cases are the same. And we treat them as individual unique matters. Although we have thorough systems in place to allow us to work efficiently through cases, we also take care to review any documents a client provides, as Tammy mentioned, prior to the consultation to ensure that we maximize the information our potential clients receive during this time. Additionally, we discuss the outcome the prospective client desires, as well as potential avenues to achieve the goal. Sometimes it’s not just one, well, we can never guarantee outcomes, we do try to give a sense of what may be reasonable or what documentation we need to make that assessment, the clients can have an expectation of what the path forward could look like.
Jamaal Stafford:
That’s great, Elizabeth, and, you know, just to reiterate, our listeners, you know, look, the consultation process, you know, all the documents that can be mentioned that we like to get, you know, we actually review those documents before we show up to the consultation. And so that way, we’re prepared when we meet with the prospective prospective client, to talk to them about the legal issues, but also to put in place a roadmap to how to solve their problem. And so that’s why it’s so important that the consultation is sort of the first step for us to really be able to, to begin to put together a plan to solve the problem. And so it can be you know, another thing that we try to do with all our prospective clients is to get feedback from them. He gives us a little bit of insight into how we go about getting feedback from prospective clients.
Camey Turpin:
Yeah, of course, we send out surveys, basically, at every stage of contact, when someone calls in and I send out those first set of forms for a consult, there’s a survey that’s going to go out to them to get a better understanding of how they felt the intake process went and how I can improve on that. And then once we’ve actually retained the client, we again, send out periodic surveys, because again, we want to know not only how we’re doing for that client, but how we might improve and make that an even better job for them.
Jamaal Stafford:
Absolutely, absolutely. Thanks for that, Elizabeth. Let’s talk Talk about putting the game plan into action. Tell us tell our prospective listeners, what this looks like once we get past the consultation process.
Elizabeth Marcus-Wenger:
Sure, so clients receive contact from one of us requesting all relevant documents. And one thing to point out, I think to our listeners is we recognize that you can’t necessarily as an employee, or in whatever position you’re in, have access to all the documents that you need. And so if you know a document exists, you don’t have access to it just tell us and then we can work on that from there, but it’s good to know it exists. And we’ll need it. So once we have the documents, or a combination of the documents and a list of those that we’re going to need at some point, we schedule an initial call for an attorney to discuss a detailed timeline of what events have occurred, as well as desired outcomes. While we speak about this at a consultation, we want to make sure to delve into details right away. To ensure we maximize the results of our representation. clients will lead this call with an outline of the next steps in the case, as well as the timeline for these events. During the case, there will be periods of intense contact, and then likely laws where we are waiting for either our clients to review documents, administrative agencies to process the claims, or employers to investigate claims. When these laws occur, we remain a periodic contact and encourage our clients always to touch base as needed. Or when that client is concerned about the size of the case, we always encourage clients to reach out to us with questions or concerns is critical that clients know we are available and ready to assist. And that’s just to piggyback again on what Tammy had explained with the feedback and that it’s while this is not direct feedback, it’s that constant contact that relationship building that we find so important at our firm.
Jamaal Stafford:
Awesome. Well, look, I want to thank our listeners. And I also want to thank Elizabeth for all the hard work that they do in forgiving our listeners some insight into our firm. You know, the hard work that we do for our clients is a team effort. And you know you you both are critical to that. And so, again, thank you all. Thank you to our listeners. And folks until next time, this is the trials and tribulations at work podcast. Thank you so much for listening.