We’re looking forward to introducing you to James Grant. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning James, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Honestly, my strongman journey has been absolutely incredible lately. I just turned 40 in August and the day after my birthday, I competed in my first Masters division competition – the Immortal Strength event in Georgia. Not only did I win the whole Masters division, but I tied for first place in three out of five events, including deadlifting 605 pounds.
It’s been a crazy journey. Back in 2021, I set this ridiculous goal to compete in a strongman competition within 12 months, having never touched any of the equipment before. I put on 50 pounds of muscle, learned completely new skills, and pushed myself way outside my comfort zone.
Now here I am, a few years later, entering the Masters division and immediately proving this is where I belong – at the top. It’s this perfect example of what happens when you bet on yourself.
And the best part is that I’m just getting started in Masters. I’ve got my sights set on Nationals in 2026, and honestly, after winning my first Masters comp right out of the gate, I’m excited to see just how far this crazy journey can go.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m James Grant, co-founder and partner at Georgia Trial Attorneys. What we do is pretty unique in the legal world – we’re the only firm we know of that exclusively serves as the outsourced litigation department for other personal injury law firms.
Here’s what that means: instead of competing with other personal injury attorneys for clients, we partner with them. When they have cases that need to go to litigation, they refer them to us and we become their litigation team. It’s completely collaborative rather than competitive – we’re not out there marketing for cases because we’re focused on helping our partner firms get better results for their clients.
The numbers speak for themselves. Just through the first eight months of 2025, we’ve handled 259 settlements and verdicts. These cases came to us with pre-litigation offers totaling $1.8 million, and we turned those into $8.6 million in final results. That’s nearly a 5x increase in value for our partners and their clients.
We now partner with 68 law firms across the country to handle their Georgia cases. What’s really cool is we work with everyone – from solo practitioners who make up 36% of our partners, to big firms with 9+ lawyers. But our sweet spot is really those smaller firms – 79% of our partners are solo or small practices with 1-3 attorneys.
My business partner Mark and I started this thing back in 2015 literally working out of his basement. We’ve gone from $252,000 in our first year to now handling millions in settlements annually. Mark’s this tech genius who previously founded and sold a software company, so we’re also building our own case management software specifically designed for personal injury firms.
What really drives me is that we’re not just building a law firm – we’re revolutionizing how personal injury law gets practiced. We’re making it possible for smaller firms to take on bigger, more complex cases without the overhead of building their own litigation teams.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
Back in 2021, my business partner Mark and I had what we thought was our grand plan. We’d been doing litigation for six years and were good at it, but we wanted to pivot to pre-litigation marketing – billboards, TV, radio, all the typical personal injury marketing because that’s what everyone does and the margins were much better.
We presented this plan to our business coach, RJon Robbins, and when we finished, he looked at us with this smug grin and said, ‘So let me get this straight – you guys are great at litigation, you’ve got all your systems and processes dialed in, but you want to abandon that to do pre-litigation where you have none of those things figured out?’
I looked at him and said, ‘Well, it sounds kind of stupid when you say it that way.’ He responded, ‘It is.’
So we asked what he’d suggest instead, and he said, ‘Cut out pre-litigation entirely.’ We were horrified – nobody does that! But then it hit us: nobody does that. This could be a real business opportunity.
We completely switched our model to focus exclusively on what we were already excellent at – litigation. We went from working with 6 law firms in 2021 to 68 today, turning $1.8 million in pre-lit offers into $8.6 million in results just 8 months this year.
That moment taught me to always question the conventional path. Now, whether it’s business decisions, personal challenges, or even my strongman training, I look for where everyone else is zigging so I can zag. Sometimes the biggest opportunities are hiding in plain sight, disguised as things ‘nobody does.’
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Absolutely not. I have this core value that I teach my kids: ‘we can do hard things.’ Life isn’t easy, and when challenges arise, you can either see them as opportunities or obstacles. If you see them as obstacles, you become a victim and your own worst enemy.
When I started this entrepreneurial journey, there was never a backup plan. I didn’t think ‘if the law firm doesn’t work out, I can always go back to being someone else’s employee.’ I approached it like burning the ships – you know, like Cortés when he landed in Mexico and destroyed his fleet so his men couldn’t retreat. The only way is forward.
That mindset was crucial because we made tons of mistakes early on. Law schools and state bars give you zero business training, which is crazy because most lawyer reputation problems have nothing to do with practicing law – they stem from poor business skills. We had no clue how to hire, train, or retain staff. We kept making bad hires and losing good people, and it was frustrating.
But even when we were consistently failing at building our team, there was never a moment where I thought about giving up. I realized everything flows uphill – it wasn’t the employees’ fault, it was ours for doing things the wrong way. That led us to hire a business coach in 2018, which completely changed everything.
When you approach challenges that way – as learning opportunities rather than reasons to quit – the path becomes clearer. It may be hard, you may have to do things others won’t do, but that just makes it different, not worse.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
Absolutely. What you see is what you get. Being fake is stupid – who are you doing it for, someone else? Why does that matter?
In my law firm, I’m responsible for marketing and sales, which means I spend a lot of time networking with other personal injury lawyers – breakfasts, lunches, golf, ball games, you name it. If I had to put on some persona every time I went out, it would be exhausting. Plus, how do you maintain the same fake version of yourself with the same person every time without slipping up?
Being authentic is just easier. And guess what? If people don’t like me for who I am, then I probably don’t want to do business with them anyway, and that’s totally okay. When you try to project values you don’t actually have or make yourself seem bigger than you are, you’re setting yourself up for failure. It’s like lying – once you start, you have to keep telling more lies, and eventually you’ll forget part of the story and the whole house of cards comes crumbling down.
People can sense authenticity, and they respond to it. It builds real trust, makes relationships easier, and creates genuine connections rather than surface-level networking. My clients, my business partners, my wife, even my kids – they all get the same version of me.
At the end of the day, you have to live with yourself and your choices. You can’t outsource your integrity to other people’s expectations. The way you are in public should be the same as you are in private.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
I’m investing in my kids. They’re 5 and 7 now, so in ten years, my oldest will be heading off to college. Once they turn 18, they’re adults making adult decisions and won’t be living with mom and dad anymore.
My job as a parent is to invest in them now so that in ten years, they know what it means to be honest, trustworthy, hardworking, and faithful. That’s not something that happens overnight – it takes years of constant work.
It starts with me as the head of the household because kids act a lot like their parents. How I want my kids to be in ten years, I need to exhibit those same qualities myself, not just teach them.
The principles are the same as building a business – you’re playing the long game, not looking for quick wins. Parenting and running a business is about building character that will pay dividends for decades.
But here’s the challenge: the barrier to entry for becoming a parent is very low, but the barrier for being a good parent is very high. Each kid has their own mind and will do things their own way. You can’t use a one-size-fits-all approach. You have to provide strict guardrails for certain things we absolutely don’t do, but softer guardrails that let them grow into themselves.
That takes constant thought, effort, time, and adjustment – just like running a business. You’re building systems, but you’re customizing them for each individual.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gtakg.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accidentattorneyjg/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-grant-accidentattorneyjg/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgiatrialattorneys
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@georgiatrialattorneys
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@accidentattorneyjg
