The Jacksonville-based law firm was founded in 1973 by Bruce Bullock to provide civil legal representation in the practice areas of medical malpractice, product liability and general insurance liability defense.
NAME CHANGES?
The firm was first started as Bullock & Alexander. After several name changes, it became Bullock, Childs, Pendley & Reed, but may be changing again early next year.
WHO IS THE
MANAGING PARTNER?
Doug Childs.
WHAT DOES HE DO?
He practices law, oversees the workings of the firm and gets involved in policy and management decisions.
WHAT DOES THE FIRM DO?
“We provide general civil and some criminal trial practice in almost all areas of the law,” said Childs. Since 1973, the firm has represented every hospital in Jacksonville and many in other parts of Florida. The firm also handles everything from automobile accidents to professional liability cases. It has developed additional expertise in resolution of insurance coverage issues, nursing home, automobile, construction, premises and professional liability claims with ever increasing experience in sophisticated product claims involving toxic torts, mass product failures and medical devises such as pedicle screws and other implants.
LOCATION
The firm recently left its office in the Blackstone Building, where it had been located since 1976, and moved to 1551 Atlantic Blvd. near San Marco Square. “We just had too many lawyers. We had to move because of expansion.”
WHY SAN MARCO?
“Parking. If we would have stayed downtown, we would have ended up paying $30,000 a year just for parking. Quite frankly, it’s great out here. I’ve been downtown for 26 years and I’ve had more fun in the last four weeks [than I had there]. Number one, it’s quieter over here and the food is a million times better. I can just walk to several great places to eat.”
WHO IS IN THE FIRM?
Bruce Bullock, W. Douglas Childs, Michael Pendley and Ronald Reed are the partners. Casey Gentzkow, Linda Hester, Natalie Nice, Eugene Nichols, Douglas Oberdorfer and C. Leigh Wilhite are the associates. They also have six secretaries.
AREAS THE FIRM SERVES?
Jacksonville, and from Tampa north. It also handles a few cases in Georgia.
CLIENTS?
Because of the type of work the firm does, specific client names could not be disclosed, but it represents hospitals, insurance and drug companies.
WHERE DO YOUR
CLIENTS COME FROM?
“Most of our clients are big corporations. We get calls from all over the country; most of our clients aren’t even in Jacksonville.”
WHAT DO YOU
OFFER YOUR CLIENTS?
“We offer them good service, significant knowledge base and expertise regarding the civil trial issues and the law. Along with good service, we offer them early evaluation and a positive result, although you can’t always guarantee them.”
WHAT ARE YOUR GUIDELINES FOR
HIRING AN ATTORNEY?
They generally tend to hire lawyers with some experience.
DO YOU PLAN
ON GROWING THE FIRM?
“We plan on getting no bigger than 12 lawyers. We have already experienced incredible growth over the last few years.”
PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT?
“We do not encourage professional involvement, we leave it up to the lawyers. We do encourage them to find something that they like to be involved in based on what their interests are [whether it’s civic or professional]. That is a much better way to do it than to assign people certain areas that they may have no interest in, therefore they may not be any good at it.” Childs and Bullock are members of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
WHAT ARE YOU
MOST PROUD OF
ABOUT YOUR FIRM?
“We provide competent advocacy for our clients. We are proud of our record in trial and enabling our clients to get good results, not only in trial, but in alternative dispute resolution. We are very proud that we provide competent, thorough and effective legal services.”
— by Michele Newbern Gillis