by Mary-Kate Roan
Staff Writer
He was always an entrepreneur and had a knack for drawing. So, it makes sense that Jeff Davis combined those two talents by starting his own company where he gets to do artwork for trial lawyers to use in the courtroom to help explain the evidence. Recently, his Downtown-based Legal Art Works, Inc. celebrated its fifth anniversary.
The Jacksonville native spent his entire academic career drawing, often paying more attention to the classroom overhead projector than the actual material that he was supposed to be learning. Davis’ incessant doodling hit home.
“My parents ended up having to pay for my books because of all the drawings,” said Davis. “And instead of paying attention to what was said, I drew the overhead projector and wrote squiggly lines instead of what was actually there.”
The doodling eventually paid off. While attending Savannah College of Art and Design, Davis excelled in figure drawing.
“I had a professor tell me that I was a medical illustrator,” said Davis. “But I didn’t know what that was.”
And so Davis went on to Rochester Institute of Technology. His thesis focused on the use of medical illustrations in the legal field. But Legal Art Works, Inc. isn’t the only business that Davis has started.
In 1994 he started his own skateboard company and at 15 he developed a T-shirt company — his first big success in the business world.
“Here I was, 15 years old with shirts for sale in stores,” said Davis. “And I couldn’t even drive myself to see them.”
Davis has also developed a bit of a reputation for his once-a-month parties during which Davis fires up the grill and feeds just about anybody who stops by. When Legal Art Works was on Laura Street, the smell of grilled hot dogs and hamburgers permeated most of the block. Today, the office is on Bay Street in the building just east of Regions Bank. And, the cookouts always have themes, like the beach party during which guests enjoyed a small children’s above ground pool filled with sand.
“I never thought that grilling out and having a party during office hours was out of the ordinary,” said Davis. “I thought it was odd that people had such a fuss over it.”
Though sometimes they are for clients and friends, the parties are mostly for the staff. Keeping his staff happy is a top priority for Davis. Going out of his way to avoid anything that looks like it might be from the movie “Office Space” Davis doesn’t ever want cubicles in his company. The office includes a game room equipped with an X-Box video game system and a separate miniature basketball court outside the office suite’s door. That’s how he hopes to build the “dream exhibit team.”
“I heard a saying once that went ‘the best boss is one that had the most terrible jobs with the most terrible bosses,’” said Davis. “And I’ve had both. I’ve learned from those experiences and done the opposite of them.”
And it shows. His first employee is still at his side — James Trotier. As a matter of fact, Trotier is credited as the person who helped Davis decide the office hours.
“He asked me on the phone what time he should come to work,” said Davis. “And I was still working out of home, so I didn’t really have any set hours. So I made them up on the spot.”
And how else would Davis celebrate his company’s fifth anniversary? He threw a party. Midway through the fried chicken lunch, he talked about the humble beginnings.
“The glitz and glamour version of the story is that we started out of my studio apartment,” said Davis. “But we were actually incorporated in my parents’ garage.”
From that garage, Legal Art Works has moved from Davis’ one-bedroom apartment to an 800 square-foot space on Laura Street and finally last year moved to its much larger 3,300 square-foot location. And just like the location, the business has grown in the past five years.
“The business has expanded in spurts,” said Davis. “It started slow and accelerated quickly. But it didn’t grow too quickly because I didn’t want it to grow so much that it sacrificed the quality of work.”
In the first year of operation, the company focused solely on Jacksonville, with the focus shifting to other areas of the state the next year, he said. Now, the company is all over the United States. And Davis has several employees, including his wife Lesley, who he admits keeps his feet “almost” on the ground with some help from their 2-year-old daughter Izabella, who he admits speaks more Spanish than he does thanks to his wife, who is originally from Venezuela.
And the business shows no signs of slowing down. Next month, Davis and Legal Art Works expect to be in Fortune Small Business Magazine. And Public Broadcasting Systems has done a feature on Davis and the company to be used for a special on entrepreneurs. However, his biggest achievement in Legal Art Works is simple.
“The day that someone got their order finished and done correctly without me being involved, I was excited,” said Davis. “Because that meant that there were enough people to operate with or without me. That’s how it has to be. It has to operate in a way that if I died or anything happened to me, the company goes on.”
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