The Ward Law Group is a personal injury firm with an emphasis on Hispanics clients involved in auto accidents in the Miami and Orlando areas.

Managing member Gregory Ward's law partner and wife, Jany Martinez-Ward, came to the United States from Cuba at 14 and "shared many of the struggles of our clients."

Ward is intent on representing an underserved community with a staff that is 95% Spanish-speaking. The law firm, which has English and Spanish-language websites, represents people in wrongful death cases and with a variety of injuries including fractures, burns, spinal cord injuries and brain injuries.

In a question-and-answer format, the firm offers insight into its operations and philosophy.

Firm: The Ward Law Group

Firm leader: Gregory Ward, managing member

Head count: 7

Locations: Miami Lakes and Kissimmee

Practice areas: Personal injury

Governance structure and compensation model: Our firm operates in a contingency fee basis, which means that our payment is a fixed percentage of cases only after recovery. If a case is not successful, our clients do not pay attorney fees.

Do you offer alternative fee arrangements? Our firm is required to charge fees consistent with the Florida Bar rules, which only allow for a predetermined contingency fee.

What do you view as the two biggest opportunities for your firm, and what are the two biggest threats? The rapidly growing Hispanic population represents our biggest opportunity. The Spanish-speaking population is one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country and is largely underrepresented in terms of receiving quality legal services — making the community vulnerable to certain unscrupulous individuals and companies.

It is rare to find a personal injury law firm where over 95% of the staff speaks Spanish, including lawyers, paralegals, investigators and case managers. Our firm has been able to fill a void, and our decision has paid off. We grew from a two-person office to a team of over 50 in less than a decade. It has truly been a blessing to be able to serve the Hispanic community and provide the legal representation that they are in such need of.

Another trend potentially leading to opportunities is the transition to ride-sharing and automated vehicles. In the long run, autonomous vehicles will likely make our roads safer, but the technology is not there yet. The auto manufacturers and ride-share companies, through marketing and lobbyists, are making lawmakers and the public believe that the technology is further along than it is in reality. This is making our roads more dangerous and has the potential for even more accidents as drivers, misled by marketing, over-rely on this nascent technology. For example, this year alone we have seen several high-profile accidents involving drivers who over-relied on autopilot technology. The auto manufacturers must be held accountable for this deceit.

As to "threats," the issue is more of challenges in the form of hiring team members with a high level of professionalism and interpersonal skills required in our environment. Beyond legal advice, our firm provides emotional support to victims and their families. We recognize the concerns of our clients as they manage the aftereffects of an accident, sometimes with very limited resources. Every member of our staff sympathizes with the circumstances and the needs of our clients, who are hurting on many levels. Doing this requires a high level of emotional intelligence from our staff members.

Another industry "threat" comprises the tort reform ideas advanced by certain people and media. People are often bombarded by stories like the McDonald's hot coffee case, which has been greatly distorted by the media. This leads the public to a general cynicism toward people who have been injured. Stories are rarely about how a careless company allowed an unqualified driver behind the wheel in an unsupervised manner.

The legal market is so competitive now — what trends do you see, and has anything, including alternative service providers, altered your approach? Is your chief competition other mid-market firms, or is your firm competing against big firms for the same work? The personal injury practice is a highly competitive market, and we have tried to set our firm apart in several ways. First, we focused on serving the Hispanic community throughout Florida and beyond, bringing much-needed quality service to a community that is often underserved. Other law firms of similar or greater size promote similar services; however, we differ from them in our approach. Our firm is focused on our own organic growth to avoid ever sacrificing the quality of the work we do and the service we offer just for the sake of competition. Moreover, one of the founding partners, Jany Martinez-Ward is a Cuban immigrant who arrived here with nothing at 14. Martinez-Ward shared many of the struggles of our clients and can relate to them authentically while coaching our staff to understand the unique challenges of immigrants.

The second way we stand out in a competitive marketplace is our approach to client service. As we represent individuals who have been victimized in an accident, we make sure that all our staff, including attorneys, are trained to put themselves in the shoes of our clients. Accidents are traumatizing experiences and the subsequent legal process can put additional emotional stress on the victims and their families. Our attorneys understand and empathize with our clients and do everything possible to help ease their burden. Then when it comes to standing up for our clients, we fight for our client's rights to obtain fair compensation. Defendants and insurance companies want to minimize their payouts and put profits over people. We stand against that.

There is much debate around how law firms can foster the next generation of legal talent. What advantages and disadvantages do midsize and small firms have in attracting and retaining young lawyers, particularly millennials? The benefit for a young attorney working at a boutique or midsize firm is the ability to receive a more hands-on experience. My advice to any young attorney is to make sure you love what you do, always do what is right over what comes easy and be sure to always work for the right reasons. The adversarial nature of this business can be stressful and wear an individual down if they don't have the passion. Once a young attorney finds their niche that they are passionate about, they should then focus on that area exclusively. However, in doing so, attorneys need to always keep focus on continually providing excellent client service. Having a vision for success is vital, but it will not come true if you lose sight of the most important responsibility in the now, serving your client.

Does your firm employ any nonlawyer professionals in high-level positions (e.g. COO, business development officer, chief strategy officer, etc.)? If so, why is it advantageous to have a nonlawyer in that role? If not, have you considered hiring any? As a personal injury law firm, we deploy many nonlawyer professionals in critical roles to help better serve our clients and ease their burden after being involved in an accident. We have a controller, business development officer and a customer service compliance manager. Each manager is trained to focus on customer service as well.

What would you say is the most innovative thing your firm has done recently, whether it be technology advancements, internal operations, how you work with clients, etc.? We are always looking for ways to improve. The biggest improvements lately have come in improving technology with new cloud-based case management programs, new phone systems and a new training room. We regularly role play situations that come up day to day.

Does your firm have a succession plan in place? If so, what challenges do you face in trying to execute that plan? If you don't currently have a plan, is it an issue your firm is thinking about? We are a family-owned firm, and we plan to carry through the core values of being family-owned as we continue to grow. The firm has grown from just my wife and law partner Jany and myself to employing more than 50 people in just six years. During that time, we have focused on maintaining the exceptional service we provide to each and every one of our clients. To help us grow, we continue to hire exceptional and talented people who care about our clients as much as we do. We want this strategy to continue in any succession plan we put together. Obviously we have other attorneys and staff who could continue to work if something happened to both of us, but we have an extreme disaster response plan for this and other possibilities.