(bright music) (soft playful music) - Reagan said, "Hey guys, well guess what?

We've got a trans- - He was my fraternity brother.

- Sacrifice the American people.

- Prosperous communities of healthy environments.

- Trust now, she lived in trafficking for four years.

I really felt.

For a lot of reasons I felt them, but I didn't have the guts to stand up.

- I'm seeing- - Nearly three decades ago, Troy Rafferty, fresh outta law school, landed in Pensacola to take a job as an entry level lawyer with one of the nation's foremost trial firms.

Today, his name is on the building, beside Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame members, Fred Levin and Mike Papantonio.

Rafferty has held his own against superstars of the courtroom.

His jury verdicts have reached into the hundreds of millions.

He has been honored with the prestigious Perry Nichols Award and was named 2022 Lawyer of the Year by best lawyers for his work in mass tort litigation and class actions.

His influence and success doesn't stop at the courtroom.

His philanthropic endeavors are changing lives.

In 2022, Rafferty and his wife, Ashley, committed $1 million toward helping underserved youth in the Pensacola community.

We welcome Troy Rafferty to conversations.

Thanks for being here.

- Oh, thanks for having me on, Jeff.

- So, I read somewhere, you always wanted to be an attorney, even as a kid.

Where did that come from?

- Always.

I was just one of those fortunate kids that always knew that's what I wanted to be.

- Yeah.

- There was never a lawyer show on TV that I didn't watch.

There was never anything...

I don't know where it came from, but I just always knew I wanted to do it.

And I'd see lawyers helping people all over and using their abilities to right wrongs and injustices.

And so, it was just something I always wanted to do.

And yeah.

- Did you always wanna be a trial lawyer?

Did you always wanna go to court or did... - 100%.

- 100%.

- That's, yeah.

- Yeah.

- I always say my worst day in the courtroom is better than my best day in the office.

- Oh, really?

(Troy laughing) Really?

- So, I'd rather be in the courtroom than anywhere.

And yeah, so I've never wanted to be a tax lawyer or, nothing against tax lawyers.

- Right, right, right.

(Troy laughing) No, I understand.

I understand.

- No, that's just what I've always wanted to do.

- What is it you like about going to trial?

- So, number one, I like being able to help people.

That's number one.

And I know that's an automatic reaction that people say lawyers when they're being asked questions.

But it truly is really, really something that makes you feel like you're helping someone.

And you get very close with your clients.

You feel their pain.

- Right.

- You feel their angst, - Right.

- and you can be there to help them maneuver the system, so to speak.

- Right.

Were you one of those kids growing up that, were you...

I hate to use the word argumentative, but did you like to debate and challenge people - Oh, yes.

- and challenge their thoughts?

- Oh, yes.

Absolutely.

And I was a captain of our debate team in high school, but yeah, very argumentative.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) - Probably to a fault, but yes.

- So, tell me your story.

I heard somewhere that you were working in a sausage factory before you went to law school, (Troy laughing) or is that in law school?

- Well, you did a lot of research.

(Jeff laughing) Yes.

Yeah, yeah, I worked my way through college working in a sausage factory, a meat packing plant, Eckrich meat packing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

- [Jeff] Okay.

- So, yes, reported for duty at 5:00, (Jeff laughing) ready for inspection at 5:00 AM I moved up the chain from cleaning out the casings - [Jeff] Yeah.

(both laughing) - to actually shooting the meat in the casings.

(Jeff laughing) So, I got moved up in the company.

- [Jeff] Yeah, I gotcha.

- But yeah, my grandfather had worked there for a long time.

- [Jeff] Okay.

- And so, I needed to work my way through college and I had a bunch of different jobs.

I had maybe every type of job there was, - Yeah.

- everything from selling typewriters at Sears.

(Jeff laughing) Remember when we had typewriters?

- Yeah, I do remember that.

(Troy laughing) - There is a lot.

- I do remember that.

- So, everything you can think of, - Yes.

- but yeah, the sausage plant really (Jeff laughing) made me wanna go to law school even quicker.

(Jeff laughing) - (laughs) I was gonna say, it made you wanna study hard, right?

- Exactly, exactly.

- Yeah, yeah.

So, how did you get to Pensacola and with the Levin Papantonio firm in particular?

- So, it's an interesting story.

I was working at a firm up in Valparaiso, Indiana, and it got to be like 35 degrees below zero one day.

They shut the town down for cold, not for snow.

- Yeah.

- But just 'cause it was so cold.

- It was too cold, wow.

- And so, I was like, this is crazy.

And so, I was setting up an interview, actually, one of the secretaries overheard me setting up the interview, and she said, "Where are you going?"

And I said, south.

(both laughing) And she said, "I used to work at this firm in Pensacola, Florida."

And I was like, okay.

And I looked it up, went on.

Back then it was Lexis, (chuckles) LexisNexis.

- Right, right.

- And of course, Fred and Pap and all, Leo and everybody were all very, incredibly accomplished lawyers even that long ago.

And so, I sent a resume down on a, I think on a Monday.

They called me.

I flew down Sunday, that following Sunday, interviewed Monday, had never been to Pensacola.

- Okay.

- Didn't know anybody.

Interviewed that Monday.

I flew home, they offered me the job on Wednesday.

And on Friday, I loaded up my 1978 Pontiac Sunbird (Jeff laughing) and headed south.

And I said, well, I guess, I'll just go until I hit water.

(both laughing) That's right.

- [Jeff] That's right.

- So, yeah.

And unfortunately, she recently passed, but every year, she would come down to Pensacola and we'd get together and have coffee or Bushwacker or something.

- [Jeff] Right, you talking about the secretary.

- The secretary.

(Troy drowns out Jeff) The secretary, yes.

That - Wow.

- encouraged me to come down here and I'll tell you, and I just fell in love with Pensacola.

And I fell in love with the firm.

I've been so blessed to be able to work with lawyers like Fred and like Pap, Leo, Thomas, all those guys.

It's just been a real pleasure and a privilege, really.

- Yeah.

Tell me, so you first arrived at the firm and as you said, even back in those days, they had quite a name for themselves.

- Oh, yeah.

- Fred had won some huge cases and Pap was doing a lot of big stuff, I know with the environmental type thing.

What's it like?

What do they do with a young lawyer?

Young eager lawyer?

What are you doing out of the box here?

- One of the great things about the firm, and one of the things I'm most proud that we continue doing is we don't just take a young lawyer and sit 'em in an office somewhere and say, "Pump out research and briefs and that stuff."

We've throw him in.

Like, okay, you're a trial lawyer, let go try a case.

- Right, right.

- (laughs) Okay, handle the hearings.

- Right.

- Take the depositions.

And so we really try to mentor them along and we really try to give them the opportunity.

Most people flourish, some people (laughs) don't.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- But yeah, I would say that's probably the best thing that we do for young lawyers is we really spend a lot of time giving them the tools they need and giving them the opportunities, so.

- What was it like when you tried your first case when everything was on the line?

- Oh man.

(both laugh) It was surreal.

I still remember it, but it was surreal when I stood up in front of the jury 'cause we do mock stuff and in law school you're doing stuff like that.

But standing up and knowing that the client over here is depending on you to deliver and you're looking at those jurors and you're like, whoa, this is really what I came to the firm for, this is really what I went to law school for.

- Right.

- So, yeah, it was surreal.

It was (laughs).

But I'll tell you what, it was exciting.

I didn't sleep the night before, (both laughing) that's for sure.

I was like, I gotta rewrite this.

I gotta rehearse this.

And all that kind of stuff.

- I can imagine.

Did you win your first case?

- Yes.

- You did.

- I did, I did.

- (laughs) And that must have been a great feeling.

For a kid who grew up wanting to do that, and then the... - No question.

It was.

And it really, so, I always say that the most exhilarating feeling you can have as a trial lawyer is the time that you get the (knocks on the table) knock on the door and the bailiff says they've got a verdict.

And it's that time between then and when the jury actually comes in and reads the verdict.

- I love that.

- It's like, you feel alive, you feel really alive.

- I bet, I bet.

What did you... You talk about the guys like Fred and Papantonio and all.

What'd you learn early on from those guys?

I'll take Fred first.

- Fred, okay.

One of the things I learned from Fred was tremendous courage.

There was no fight he wasn't willing to take on.

And I learned from him, take these complex issues in a trial and boil it down.

You don't have to... Because a lot of these cases are very complex.

- Right.

- But Fred had a very big knack for being able to take very complex issues and boil 'em down to very simple issues.

So, I learned that from Fred.

- Yeah, and what about Pap.

- Pap?

I'll tell you, the biggest thing I learned from Pap, and I learned a lot from Pap over the years and as well as Fred is, I'm trying to figure out a way to say it, Jeff, courage.

When he walks into a courtroom, he owns it.

- Yeah.

- He owns it.

He is in command of everybody in that courtroom and you feel it.

- Right.

- And so, that would definitely be one of the biggest things.

- Yeah, and you mentioned earlier Leo Thomas, the late Leo Thomas passed away here a while back.

What'd you learn from him?

Because he was a different guy probably than the other two in a way.

- Oh yes, very much so.

Tenacious preparation.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- Leo was just like Fred and Pap did the same thing, but Leo, he did everything.

And he would go over everything and everything and everything.

(laughs) - Yeah.

- And so, yeah.

Intense preparation I would say.

- Yeah, yeah.

What makes a good trial lawyer?

- Heart, compassion, persistence.

Making sure that you feel what the client is going through.

- Yeah.

- It really is a big part of it.

If you don't care, then you don't need to be in this business.

- Right.

- It's really about that.

It's about caring, compassion, all those things.

- And it would seem to me, a little bit that I know about it what you go through and how you... Because you don't get paid anything obviously.

The way you do your...

Unless you win, obviously, so clearly I'm sure the money is nice, but it's an awful lot of work and an awful lot of risk.

So, you really have to genuinely be engaged in whatever it is you're fighting for, I would think.

- Absolutely.

Absolutely, and if you're not engaged in it, and if you don't feel it, like if you don't have the passion, if you're not thinking about what your client is going through, - Yeah.

- It's like, well, wait a minute, I can stay up and work until 5:00 AM because they're suffering every minute of the day.

- Right.

- And so it really... 'Cause the competition is also, if you're not competitive then you don't need to be doing trial work either.

- Right.

You started out in doing some civil rights work, is that correct?

- I did.

Yeah, I did.

I handled a number of civil rights cases early in my career.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, what was that like?

What kind of... - It was really enlightening.

It was amazing in some of the cases, most of the cases that stuff like that goes on.

- [Jeff] Right.

- That there's still atrocities and still injustices, abuse of, minorities of women, of elderly, all of those.

And so, it really opened my eyes to the fact that social justice is still very much in need.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- That you can make a change in society, not just in one person, but bringing out the issue and bringing out the problems gives awareness to the issues.

- Right, so, what kinda response do you get when you win a case like that for a client who's been treated unjustly?

That's gotta be a sense of pride and fulfillment, I would think.

- There's no question.

No question.

And one particular case, for example, like I said, you get close with your clients.

- [Jeff] Sure.

- And one particular case, I was walking outta the courtroom, I was walking into the courtroom for our last day of trial and I talked to my client and I noticed he had always been wearing a hummingbird pin on his lapel.

I said, tell me about the story of the hummingbird.

And he tells me the story about his mother, his mother having recently passed, and then having found these hummingbird earrings and out in his workshop, he said he was out in his workshop and a hummingbird flew in and just stayed there.

And so, he said, "My mom's with me."

It's very emotional.

And so, we go in, we get the verdict and yeah, we walked out and he stopped me before we went into the office and he took it off and he put it on my lapel.

- Oh, wow.

- And he said, "My mom would want you to have this."

And so yeah, so, I tell that story not to say, oh look, but it's important work, and it's meaningful and that's what I love about it.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- And I like the competition too.

(laughs) - Sure, sure, sure.

I know you do a lot of work now, what they call mass tort.

So, for people that don't understand, when I say mass torts, what do you mean by that?

- Well, so it's a bunch of different things, but primarily what it is, it's, for example, a drug Vioxx, there's millions of people who take this when it turns out that, there's a problem with it, then you aggregate, combine, they're all still individual cases.

- [Jeff] Right.

- They're just combined into one courtroom and then you litigate those cases, but they're all individual cases, so you still take 'em back.

And that's one of the things I love.

I've tried cases all over the country and you get to see different judges, you get to see different courts, meet different people.

But yeah, that's what it is.

It's when there's a mass, a number of victims.

- Right.

- then, that's a mass tort.

- And to clarify, it's different than class action.

- Very different from a class action.

So, class action, yeah.

Then, a lot of times in class actions, class actions are a vehicle so that, if you've got, turns out the phone company is improperly charging everybody a $250 charge, and all of a sudden you find out, you can sue at the phone company.

But most lawyers aren't gonna be able to take a case against a big corporate defendant for $250.

So, the class action is a vehicle to allow those types of claims to still be adjudicated.

- Right, but the mass torts would fall into something like a, I know just recently in the news, like the opioids - Correct.

- settlements and things of that nature.

- Absolutely.

- And then you hear the word multi-district litigation thrown out there.

Now, what exactly does that mean when people hear that?

- So, a multi-district litigation is the court.

So, what happens is if we got 10,000 injured victims against the same defendant or defendants, then there's a panel of federal judges that will decide which court to consolidate all of those into, and that is the multi-district litigation.

- Yes, sir.

What advice would you give a young Troy Rafferty right now that's sitting out there in high school or college who wants to be an attorney, a trial lawyer in particular?

- I would say work hard.

You can make up for a lot of stuff by simply working hard and having heart and having compassion.

And so, that would be one of the biggest things.

I've got a sign in my office to never give up.

And that's what I would probably tell a young lawyer.

- Yeah, yeah.

How would you tell 'em to prepare themselves as far as just, what to do in life to lead up to it in either education or just in involvement in the community, et cetera.

- Yeah, yeah.

I think, the more time you spend in courtrooms, even going and simply watching before you become a lawyer is very helpful.

I think, that's important.

Education wise, I think a young lawyer should take as many courses as they can in psychiatry, psychology, sociology, a lot of those things before you get to the law part, so.

- To understand the human mind and the human reaction and everything.

- Yes.

- Let's talk a little bit about your philanthropic work.

You recently, along with your wife, Ashley committed $1 million to the Pensacola community.

What's that all about?

- So, Commissioner Lumon May runs the organization called, him and his wife Tammie, run the organization called Southern Youth Sports Association.

And they take care of 1300 inner-city kids.

And he and I are friends.

And we were talking one day at lunch and I was like, what can we do to help?

What can we do to help?

And he said the biggest thing...

I said, what do they need?

What do these kids need?

- Right, right.

- And he said, it stuck with me to this moment.

And that is he said, "Hope, they need hope."

And so I said, "Well, let's go about trying to figure out a way that we can do some good and give them hope."

And so, we started with doing two scholarships for young young kids, $50,000.

And then, I said, we can do better, we can do bigger.

So, we are taking that million dollars and a lot of other really philanthropic leaders in the community are helping and contributing as well.

So, I wanna thank them for sure.

- [Jeff] Sure.

- But we're building another gymnasium at SYSA because athletics is very important for our youth.

It teaches 'em teamwork and persistence and how to win with dignity, how to lose with dignity.

It teaches them a lot of really valuable life lessons.

- [Jeff] Right.

- And so, they've got so many kids.

So, what we decided we would do is we would build another gymnasium, another basketball court in addition to some other equipment and things like that, but then also have classrooms around the gym - Okay.

- where we can have tutors - Okay.

- standardized testing, after school tutoring and have the kids be able to have a place to go where they can get help, standardized tests.

They play a very important role in the kids' future.

- [Jeff] Sure, sure.

- And so we're gonna do that and hopefully, try to give them some hope.

- What's the timeframe on this all coming together?

- So, we're in the planning stages right now.

In fact, just yesterday Commissioner May and I were looking over the plans.

So, that's where we're at right now.

- How many kids do you think it will affect in the community that'll have access to it?

Just ballpark, roughly.

- I would say a couple thousand.

- [Jeff] Okay.

- I mean, at least.

- Okay.

- We're gonna make it really as open as we can for all of the kids, especially the SYSA kids.

- Okay, and that gives them an opportunity not to have to be at home by themselves in the afternoon or be on the street or whatever.

- Absolutely.

That's another important aspect of athletics for the kids.

It gives them a mission.

It gives 'em something to do.

It gives them excitement, it keeps them off of the streets and out of trouble.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And talk to me a little bit about what you've done some other stuff in the past I know with the what?

The Soul Bowl.

I hear about that.

Tell me about that.

- Yeah, the Soul Bowl is just, I say this all the time.

Soul Bowl's my favorite day of the year.

(laughs) It's just so fun.

And it's been around for 30 years and it's a big day of football for the kids.

And now, it's over the last several years 'cause we have Wahoo Stadium now, and Quint and Rishy Studer let the kids use the Wahoo stadium.

- [Jeff] Okay.

- And so, it's really exciting for the kids.

We start all the way going through from the little ones, helmets and feet, (laughs) that's all you see all the way throughout the day.

All the way up to the older kids.

And, it's so exciting.

It's a great community event packed with parents and coaches and volunteers and the kids get to run out of that tunnel and they've got the smoke and the fireworks going off (Jeff laughs) and the fans are all...

The stands are full.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- And it's just a fun, fun day.

But we use it...

It's a fundraiser for SYSA.

- Okay.

And you mentioned hope a few minutes ago and it is a very powerful thing and I'm sure you've experienced this, but just for you to be able to talk to someone who may not have the opportunity to, on a regular basis, interact with someone who's "made it" or even interact with someone that they really feel like cares about them.

- Yeah, so... - [Jeff] Talk a little bit about that.

'Cause I know you've been involved in that kind of stuff.

- Yeah, and I've mentored a lot of kids.

You kind of forget that people think, oh, well, Jeff Weeks is on TV all the time.

Jeff Weeks is very successful, so I don't have access to him as a young child.

- Right.

- And so, when they get that opportunity, there's such great programs like "Big Brothers and Big Sisters".

So, those types of programs are incredibly, incredibly important.

- What advice would you give to people out there in the community who have been successful, who want to try to make a difference.

And it's not always about money, right?

- No, no.

People give their time.

- Yeah.

- Their talent.

- Yeah.

- And their treasure.

And so, yeah, I think, it's not just that.

You can find out what's passionate for you.

Okay, the kids are passionate for me.

I have a passion for that.

I wanna provide hope.

That's our theme.

And so, find what makes you like just excited.

- [Jeff] Right.

- Find what you think is a great charity or a great effort, whatever it is, find that.

And yeah, it doesn't have to be money.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- That's just what it is.

- And quite honestly, sometimes your time and just the engagement might be more valuable than the money.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- No question.

- Yeah, as you interact with these young kids who are looking for leaders and looking for mentors, we know what it does for them.

We know it's positive, but what does it do for you?

What do you take away from it?

- Joy.

- Yeah.

- Joy, happiness.

It's something that fills you up.

And it livens you.

It feeds you.

And it also makes you realize, we have work to do.

We have work to do.

So, if you can help one child in some way or shape or form, then you can make a difference.

- I wanna close out here.

I know you, you're not just doing this by yourself, that your wife's involved in it though, and she's quite an accomplished artist.

Tell me real quick in about a minute, tell me about her.

- Oh man, she is an incredible artist.

An incredible artist.

She's got a piece up at the Pensacola Museum of Art right now.

She is in shows all over the country.

She just came back from Michigan in a show with a Frederick Douglass painting that she did.

- Okay.

- But she's incredible and she's got a huge, huge, huge heart.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- And she's on board 100% with all of the charity work that she and I do.

She's very encouraging of it to me.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- And she stays in the background.

(both laughing) - [Jeff] Okay.

- She's not gonna show up at a press conference to announce a donation.

That's not her style.

- [Jeff] That's not her style.

- But, yeah.

- Yeah, well, that's great.

Well, thank you for all the great stuff you do in our community and congratulations on all of your success and appreciate you stopping by and we'll look forward to getting the big...

It's gonna be called the Rafferty Center?

- Correct.

- The Rafferty Center.

Okay, to help underserved young people in our community.

Troy, thanks a lot.

- Thank you, Jeff.

I appreciate it.

You thanks for having me on.

- My pleasure.

You bet, my pleasure.

Troy Rafferty, he is with the 11 Papantonio Rafferty Law Firm.

And again, we're talking about that he and his wife Ashley, committed $1 million to help the underserved youth in our community.

By the way, you can see this and many more of our conversations on the PBS video app and also at wsre.org/conversations.

I'm Jeff Weeks, thank you so very much for watching.

I hope you enjoyed our program.

Take wonderful care of yourself and we'll see you soon.

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