Comfortable is the word that comes to mind when entering the quaint law office of Farrell & Gasparo. Located in Avondale, the office is a small, red brick building which was once a residence. Daily Record staff writer Michele Newbern Gillis met recently with partners Tom Farrell and Sharon Gasparo to discuss the firm.
WHAT DOES THE FIRM DO?
It handles accident and injury cases. “We represent only injured or disabled people in workers compensation, personal injury, social security disability and long term disability cases [Employee Retirement Income Security Act],” said Gasparo.
HOW DID THE OFFICE GET FORMED?
Farrell and Gasparo once went head-to-head on workers compensation cases with Farrell representing injured workers and Gasparo representing insurance companies. Both decided to go out on their own and were going rent part of their current office from another attorney. “When he decided not to buy the office, we basically just looked at each other and said, ‘Want to buy an office?’” said Gasparo. “The partnership actually grew out of owning the building because we realized that having two similar practices under the same roof wasn’t going to work because we would essentially be in competition with each other,” said Farrell. “It would have been a disaster.”
WHO HANDLES WHAT?
Farrell handles social security and long term disability cases and both handle workers compensation and personal injury cases.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
They recently celebrated the third anniversary of the firm.
ADVANTAGES OF A SMALL FIRM?
“For us, it’s a much more relaxed kind of a feel because it is just the two of us,” said Farrell. “It’s sort of a homey, laid back sort of atmosphere, not uptight whatsoever. For clients, the benefit is personal attention from an attorney, not levels and levels of staff people. That is one thing we pride ourselves on: personal attention as opposed to heavy reliance on staff people or paralegals.”
WHO WORKS THERE?
Farrell and Gasparo are the only attorneys in the firm. They have three staffers, Cami Richardson, who is Gasparo’s paralegal, and Sharon Swearingen and Tara Alcantara, who are Farrell’s paralegals.
EVER PLAN ON GROWING THE FIRM?
“No immediate plans,” said Farrell. “Somewhere way down the line, who knows what will happen?”
PRIOR TO OWNING OWN FIRM?
Farrell worked at Sims & Lopez and Gasparo worked for Schutt Humphries. They have 16 years combined experience handling accident and injury cases.
CLIENTS?
“We represent the little guy,” said Farrell. “We don’t have any corporate clients.”
WHAT DO YOU OFFER YOUR CLIENTS?
“Personalized service. I can say that almost all of our clients know us on a first name basis,” said Gasparo. “They know us personally. They can sit down with us and ask us anything.”
ADVERTISING
They have their photos in the advertisements and they appear in a television commercial for the firm. “We got a call the other day where the person asked if I was the woman in the advertisement,” said Gasparo. “They were surprised to find that I was. The people that seek us out are usually seeking us out because of our face. They say we look like someone they can trust, who won’t hurt them and who are a nice person.”
AMBULANCE CHASERS?
Lawyers who handle accident and injury cases are sometimes called ambulance chasers. Gasparo joked that they both drive BMWs so they can get to the hospital before the ambulance. Actually, many of their new clients are from referrals from existing clients.
PERSONAL
Farrell has been married to Tricia for three years and they are expecting their first child. Gasparo has been married to Scott Dockery for five years.
CIVIC INVOLVEMENT
Farrell is on the board of the Florida Workers Advocates, which is a statewide group of attorneys who lobby in Tallahassee for the rights of injured workers. Gasparo is involved in the Friends of 440, which raises scholarship money for children of injured workers, injured workers or anyone involved with workers compensation.
UNIQUE?
“I think we are unique because we are really a family, we care about each other and we care about our clients,” said Gasparo. “I think that comes across in everything that we do.”
WHY OPEN AN OFFICE IN AVONDALE?
“We really like this area,” said Farrell. “It’s just a really neat area to practice. It’s not like you get in your car, drive downtown, get into an elevator and go up to the 23rd floor. Here we pull up on the street, we come in to the office and we can crank open the windows if we want to and let fresh air in.”
“Our clients are just regular ordinary people like us,” said Gasparo. “We didn’t want them having to go downtown, park and go into some marble tiled and crystal chandelier office. We wanted them to feel as comfortable as possible.”