Pat Eckler on Nuclear Verdicts, Building a 30-Lawyer Office from Two People in Four Years

What happens when a basketball coach and history teacher who wanted to represent the indigent gets blocked from the public defender's office by a Supreme Court rule, takes a job at Borders on Michigan Avenue, and ends up co-chairing the Chicago office of an AmLaw 200 firm — defending insurance companies, fighting reptile theory, and predicting court outcomes on a podcast with 300-plus episodes? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Pat Eckler, co-chair of the Chicago office of Freeman Mathis & Gary, about what reptile theory actually is and why it's the siren song of logic, why nuclear verdicts are showing up in small venues nobody expected, and what it means that the same clerk who once would have just handed you a pen to fix a typo can now torpedo a case through electronic filing rejection. They also discuss the amicus brief he co-filed with the plaintiff's bar to stop courts from letting clerks override judges, why failure to communicate is the number one cause of professional malpractice claims, how he grew a two-person office into nearly 30 lawyers in four years without a big marketing budget, and why the skills of a basketball coach and an office chair of a law firm are far more similar than most people think. Pat Eckler is a co-chair of the Chicago office of Freeman Mathis & Gary LLP, an AmLaw 200 firm with over 500 attorneys. He focuses on insurance defense, professional liability, and coverage work for major insurers. Connect with Pat Eckler: fmglaw.com patrick.eckler@fmglaw.com Phone: 773-389-6446 LinkedIn: Donald Patrick Eckler Chicago, Illinois Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Pat Eckler 00:54 From basketball coaching and history teaching to law school in Florida 02:30 Blocked from the public defender's office by a Supreme Court rule — and working at Borders 03:14 Representing the same insurance clients 20-plus years later on a national platform 04:41 Opening the Chicago office of Freeman Mathis and Gary with one partner, two associates, and two assistants 05:52 Growing to nearly 30 lawyers in four years — what drove it 07:39 Defending lawyers, accountants, and insurance brokers in professional liability cases 09:26 The number one cause of malpractice claims — failure to communicate 00:10 Insurance defense work and why Pat almost always represents the insurer 01:48 Filing amicus briefs on behalf of the entire defense bar — and doing it with the plaintiff's bar 03:00 The Scarbuck case — how clerks became more powerful than judges through electronic filing 05:12 How often is something obviously ridiculous and still not corrected 09:13 Reptile theory explained — and why safety is not actually anyone's number one priority 11:38 The civil justice system, fairness versus justice, and what juries are actually there to decide 13:27 Nuclear verdicts and thermonuclear verdicts — why they're showing up everywhere 16:37 What percentage of huge verdicts actually hold up on appeal 20:07 Predicting case outcomes publicly — and the running record 21:16 The biggest challenge facing defense lawyers right now 23:13 Why coaching basketball and running a law firm office are not that different 24:53 If he could change one thing about the civil justice system in Illinois 26:14 Testifying before the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee on special interrogatories 28:06 How to reach Pat Eckler #PatEckler #FreemanMathisGary #InsuranceDefense #ReptileTheory #NuclearVerdicts #ProfessionalLiability #ChicagoLawyer #TrustcastShow #CivilJustice #AmLaw200