FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla — Terence Gross, a personal-injury and wrongful-death lawyer for Gross and Schuster, P.A., has been named one of Florida’s Super Lawyers by the Florida Super Lawyers List.
The announcement was made in a news release on DigitalJournal.com. The list chooses the top 5 percent of practicing lawyers in Florida, ones who are considered experts in their field of practice.
This was not an honor he actually sought, Gross told the Florida Record. However, being named a Super Lawyer is not his only honor. He said he has been AV-rated by Martindale Hubbell for more than two decades.
“AV is the highest rating you can get,” Gross said.
Being a Super Lawyer is yet another milestone for Gross, who has been practicing for 37 years and has been a Florida Bar member since 1993.
“If you do a good job long enough, you get recognized, you earn more, and you climb to the top of your profession,” he said. “It’s a combination of longevity and a body of hard work.”
Gross said his success can be attributed in part to taking cases other firms might turn down.
“We do a lot of cases people don’t want to do. We do a lot of whiplashes,” he said.
Settling cases for high-dollar figures does not necessarily equate with being an excellent lawyer, Gross said.
“I heard a lawyer at a seminar many years ago who said just because a lawyer settled a case for $3 million doesn’t make him a good lawyer. It could have been a $10 million case and he settled it for $3 million,” he said.
Gross said he does not like to put his high-dollar verdicts or settlements on his website.
Personal touch is part of his success, he said.
“There are a lot of billboard lawyers out there that advertise, and they’re just settlement factories. They don’t care about their clients,” Gross explained. “We’re just a mom-and-pop operation. I got my two sons with me, and my partner. We know all our clients. We return phone calls. We’re just in the trenches, working, even though we don’t have a bunch of billboards.”
His website, grossandschuster.com, is his primary form of marketing, but Gross also gets out in the community and makes contacts while pursuing his hobbies, which he finds helpful to him mentally. Cards and fishing are his hobbies of choice.
“I play a lot of poker. I get a lot of cases out of the poker world,” he said.
Gross also takes fishing seriously, doing tournaments in Biloxi, Mississippi, on occasion.
“I fish a lot. I have a group of guys I fish with, and there again I get a lot of business and enjoyment,” he said.
Gross also does radio programs and has shows on eight stations. His shows, which are listed on his website, include political and sports talk in addition to law discussion, he said.
“Even if I retired tomorrow, I would probably still do a lot of radio,” Gross said.
Gross and Schuster has offices that cover the areas of Pensacola, Milton, Fort Walton Beach, Destin, Gulfbreeze and Crestview, according to the firm's website.