Willie Gary - Multi Million Dollar  Personal Injury Attorney. He was born in 1947, in South Georgia, the sixth of 11 children. Over forty-five years ago, Wille Gary and his mother pulled beans in North Carolina with a little girl from Indiantown named Gloria Royal. The kids were 6, maybe 7 years old. Wille chased Gloria around the bean fields. She thought he was smart. They met again as teenagers when Willie’s family moved from Georgia to Indiantown. On their first date, they talked about going to college, going somewhere. Little did they realize that Wille Gary was on the fast track to success.

Wille and Gloria Royal married while in college. They had their first child when Willie Gary was a junior. In need of money, Willie Gary went into the lawn business. By the time he graduated from college, he was earning $25,000 per year mainly from commercial accounts that he won. “Whatever it is I have, whatever it is I hope to be is because of Gloria. She believed in me,” he says.

The Gary’s have four sons; Kenneth, Ali, Sekou and Kobie. Willie Gary says, “What I’d like to give my kids that my daddy gave me is the will and desire to really do something with their lives. My daddy always said, ‘The only sin I cannot forgive you for is giving up.’ He’d work in the fields all day and he’d come home all tired out, but he’d get up the next day and he’d go at it again. I think that because of the principles I received from my dad that I did things I’d never dreamed I’d be able to do myself. I had this idea I could go to college.” All this in spite of those who said Willie Gary did could not go to college.

 “I think that every generation should lay the foundation to make it just a bit easier for the next generation,” he says. If they’re willing to take advantage of the work we’ve done. That’s not to say that we should hand them anything on a silver platter, to give them too much, but I’m happy to say that I can do more for my children than my father was able to do for me. And I hop it shows that we are moving forward.”

“I’ve worked hard. I really appreciate the opportunity that has been given me as the result of being an American. I’m not dumb enough to think that discrimination does not exist or that racism isn’t still a factor in doing some of the things in life that you may want to do. But life is not easy, yet I don’t know any place I’d rather be. There are very few places where I would have had the opportunity to excel or do some of the things I have been able to do here in America. I always preach to our Black kids, ‘Don’t use your color, don’t use the past, don’t use discrimination as an excuse for not making it. You have to rise above it anyway.’ I’ve busted my tail. I’ve worked hard. I’ve paid the price.”

Willie Gary’s parents, Turner and Mary Gary were sharecroppers when Willie was born. But shortly after Willie’s birth, Turner Gary lost his farm – due, somewhat, to the medical expenses incurred during the complicated delivery – and the family moved to South Florida and began the hand to mouth life of migrant farm workers. They cut sugar cane and picked beans and corn in the fields in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

“My kids go to daycare now,” says Willie Gary. “I went to fieldcare. When I was just a baby, one and two years of age, we went to the fields. The ‘babysitters’ were in the fields. We were pulled up and down bean rows in little cardboard boxes. I was picking beans when I was old enough to walk down a bean row. Maybe it was with my Dad or with my Mom, but it was all relative.” Gary continues, “we grew up in the bean and cornfields of south Florida and when the crops would move onto the Carolinas we would go to the Carolinas. We were seasonal people. We would follow the crops. We had no designated place to stay for any length of time. We had to uproot and move with the crops. We couldn’t stay in school for any length of time, wherever the White man said you had to go, that’s where we were.

On a typical day, the young Willie Gary would go to school in the morning, choke down a sandwich, take a swig of milk, jump on the back of the old pickup that took the migrant kids to the fields and spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening harvesting sugar cane, fruits and vegetables. The family lived in shacks. No shoes. No nothing. The richest thing in his life was the red Georgia clay under his nails.

In 1960 the family settled in a two room shack in the backwoods of Indiantown, Florida, where Willie Gary helped his father establish a produce business from the back of his fathers pickup. Because of his “school and work” schedule, his homework suffered, but his enthusiasm for learning never dimmed. He studied assiduously on the way to and from the fields and dreamed of going to college. Football, he hoped, would be the vehicle that carried him there.

During his high school years, at only 5 feet 7 inches tall Willie Gary brought a fierce determination to the football field where he played a variety of defensive positions. After high school graduation he left his hometown and went to Bethune-Cookman College to tryout for the team. He spent a week drilling with the team, but did not make the cut. Determined not to return home a failure, he went to Shaw University. His high school coach mistakenly thought that there was an opening on the Shaw team.

Willie Gary showed up unannounced in the fall of 1967 with $13 in his pocket. To his dismay, the football roster was already full. Undeterred, he stayed on campus, slept in dormitory lounges, ate food smuggled in from the cafeteria by the players for him and stayed close to the football team by cleaning up the locker rooms while the team practiced. This determination did not go un-noticed by the coach. When a defensive lineman was injured during drills, the coach called upon Willie Gary to fill the position. Gary made the team and won a scholarship and was accepted to Shaw University on a football scholarship. “It was my chance,” he says, recalling the joy he felt once he was admitted. “That’s all I was looking for was a chance. And there were people at Shaw kind enough to take a chance on me.”

None of his success would be possible, Willie Gary points out, were it not for Shaw. “Shaw waived a $10 application fee for me to get into school and now I have the opportunity to make millions of dollars,” he says. When I think of what I have because of Shaw, it’s only natural and fair that I should give back some of that.”

He labored in blistering heat and reached the pinnacle of his climb from the one room dirt floor shack to his sprawling 50-room water view mansion where the President of the United States was to be the dinner guest. In retrospect he says, “I thought of all those days working in the sugar cane fields, no money, little clothes and being turned away by colleges. And tonight I have the most powerful man in the country coming to my home. It’s a dream”.

Willie Gary graduated from Murray Junior/Senior  High School in 1967. He received a scholarship to Shaw University in Raleigh, NC and received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1971. Mr. Gary received his Juris Doctorate degree from North Carolina School of Law in 1974 and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1974. When asked about the importance of education Gary says, “I don’t think that I can really describe the importance of education. It’s a must. There’s not doubt that you cannot make it without it, forget it, you aren’t going anywhere without an education. I speak to kids everyday and tell them to stay in school, study hard and be the best that you can be, because if you want to be successful it all starts with a good foundation – get you a good education.”

Willie Gary opened the first black law firm in Martin County in 1975 in a storefront in Stuart. He opened a second office in Fort Pierce in 1976. Within 12 months of opening his first office in 1975, Willie Gary tried and won his first personal injury case with a verdict of $250,000. When asked about how it felt to win that case Gary excitedly says, “It was unbelievable because I was young and energetic. The first time I was in the courtroom I won a $250,000 verdict up in middle Florida which is an area where you know, the home of the clans. I went up there in tough country representing a Black man in a wrongful death case. I had an all White jury, and we got $250,000 verdict. It felt good. It assured me that I was in the right profession, the law was my niche and I could file good lawsuits. That’s what I do and I love it!”

Soon after, he traveled to Jacksonville to fight and win his first million-dollar case. When a Martin County family experienced the devastating tragedy of accidental electrocution stemming from a faulty utility pole, the survivor turned to Willie Gary, who received a record multi-million dollar settlement from the giant power corporation.

Willie Gary was also the lead counsel in a seven-week trial that ended in Jackson, Miss, with a jury verdict directing the second largest funeral-home operator in North America to pay the award to Biloxi businessman Jerry O’Keefe. O’Keefe, a white businessman whose family has owned funeral homes and insurance companies for more than a century in Mississippi, hired Willie Gary to represent him in his suit that accused the Canadian-based Loewen Group, Inc. of intentionally trying to run him out of business. Gary said, “It started out as a straightforward breach of contract case, but it turned into a classic [case] of broken agreements, lies, price gouging and deceptive trade practices. It was the case of the giant corporation taking advantage of the little person.” Gary said.

“To think, here I m the son of a former sharecropper and my great-great-grandfather was a slave and standing next to me in court is Jerry O’Keefe, the son of former slave owners. And of all places, who would have thought Mississippi?”, Gary remarked. In the end the jury agreed with Gary’s arguments. In his closing remarks, Gary proposed to the jury that “the workings of the jury system speak louder than any fancy words ever written by any speech or given by anybody… louder than the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his famous I Have A Dream speech. The system speaks.” The jury awarded Gary’s client $500 Million Dollars.

Well you know, I’ve worked a lot of cases where there was no reward,” Gary says. “Or sometimes they do not go to court. I’ll never forget it, my first case that I got a lot of pride out of was representing an old lady who had a problem with a light bill and I took on that case. She thought that they charged her about $15 too much, maybe not even that much. I wrote letters and I negotiated the bill, of course this was 20 plus years ago, and to this day the smile on that lady’s face when I was able to correct the bill and she stood up to the utility company and she won because they backed off and they straightened the bill out. I have quite a few stories like that where it’s not a lot of money, but you get the satisfaction out of those cases. You know you’ve helped somebody; you’ve made a difference. It’s not about the money; it’s about the results.

Willie Gary knows that the competition knows he wins in court – more than 100 victories of a million dollars or more since he hung out his shingle in 1974. Willie Gary has made his fortune taking big liability settlements from insurance companies in wrongful-death suits. His fee averages 35 percent. He says he’ll give up some or even most of that fee to help a poor client reach the right settlement.

Willie Gary’s work ethic is an intragal part of his being. He says, “I became interested in the law after seeing all the injustices while growing up. Our people have suffered in this country. It concerned me that there was one white man who owned the fields and the plantations while 150 black people were working the crops. He sits under the shady tree in his air-conditioned truck and takes all the money and we get none. There was something wrong about my daddy, who was in his 40’s, having to say, ‘Yes sir’ to a white boy who was only 15.” He continues to say, “Because of these injustices, I figured knowing the law, the constitution and being able to pursue your rights was a way that I could make a difference. I wanted to correct some of the wrongs and some of the injustices I saw our people go through. I knew that the God we served could not be that unfair.

Though Gary faced many injustices in his fight for justice for others, Gary persevered. “There’s nothing like making it up the rough side of the mountain, kicking open the doors after you have them slammed in your face. The deck was stacked against me from day one, but I had to deal with what was dealt to me. I had to work twice as hard as other lawyers especially as an African-American. So I don’t want to hear people talk about they’ve been discriminated against. Rise above it! If you want to pity yourself there are a lot of excuses out there,” Gary said.

Willie Gary takes with him in the courtroom the pains and memories of his struggles when defending clients, using it s a leverage for credibility to overwhelm and win the jury. “When I say my client is suffering or facing hardship, it radiates from me because I’ve been there. The jury knows whether or not you feel what you are saying. If you try to manufacture it you’re going to have problems. Like they say, ‘you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time,” said Gary. When Gary takes on a case, his clients know who he is fighting for. Other lawyers can’t pull me to the side and whisper in my ear and cut a deal. This is war. I play by the rules, but within the rules. I’m coming to get you. I’m not a big city boy, but I can slam you.

Willie Gary has set the tone for the firm's success and principles. He leads by example with the strength and vision to build an outstanding team with high standards, stability, training and resources. The firm is frequently called upon by other firms to assist in difficult cases. Gary, Williams, Parenti, Finney, Lewis, McManus, Watson, & Sperando is ideally suited to providing consultation and co-counsel. The firm had tried cases in most of the United States. Gary and the firm are dedicated to providing the highest quality representation to people suffering the anguish of personal and family injury

When he tries a case – about 90 percent are settled without a trial – Willie Gary will case the courtroom, the presiding judge, juror demographics, and local folklore – anything that will give him an edge. “I won’t do my country-lawyer thing in New York City, unless I think a New York jury will respond,” he says. “And I won’t quote the Bible to a jury of atheists. If I see religious jurors, I’ll reach out to them. When the case is finished, I’ll poll every juror, win or lose, to find out what I did right, what I did wrong. But lemme tell you something: You just never know how a jury is going to react. You do your best and pray.”

Prayer serves Willie Gary beyond the courtroom. He is a practicing Baptist. He has never had a sip of beer and doesn’t lose his cool. If he’s on the road, he’ll find a church to attend. Often he’ll be asked to give a sermon. He loves to preach his message.

His message, he says, is at the center of his being. It’s a simple message. He loves to impart it to his children, anytime, anywhere: “Rise above anything through work, goals, determination. Ask for nothing but a chance to prove yourself.”

“I straddle the fence on affirmative action,” he says. “I want all children to have a level playing field, but don’t come complaining to me that you’re in such-and-such a condition because you are poor, or because you are black. I don’t represent people because they are poor, black or both. I represent people who are right.”

African American children – all children – need role models from all walks of life. They have to see the value in books and learning, not just shooting a ball.”

Willie Gary delights in his success. His house on Sewall’s Point in Stuart has 50 rooms, at last count a television in 27 of them, and a bible in many of them. It has 14 bathrooms and three kitchens. His audio system pumps music through 137 speakers – and those are just the outdoor speakers.

Does all this fundamentally change Willie Gary? “No, you know, if you talk to my wife she’ll tell you, the only thing that has changed about Willie Gary are the suits that I wear. There was a time when I did not have any at all and now I can wear suits. Maybe even the shoes that I wear because there was a time when I didn’t have any shoes. I went to school without shoes on my feet. I had holes in my pants. Maybe my wardrobe has changed, but I’m focused. I know my mission. I realize better than anybody, that to whom much is given, much is required and I preach it everyday to my colleagues, don’t “make it” and catch amnesia. We all have an obligation to be about more than our own agendas. We have an obligation to be more than about just making money or seeking the limelight. We’ve got to be a voice for the voiceless. We’ve got to be there for the speechless. But for a lot of good people praying for us, and those who fought and died all over the southland to make America better, Willie Gary wouldn’t be where he is it today, so I’ll never change.”

“I do think that getting your point across in non-verbal communication is at least as important as what you say.” But talent is not the sole reason for his success. “I do also think that I’m better prepared. I work an average of 15 hours a day. I don’t mind working if I’m doing something worthwhile and that I can see that I’m getting somewhere with what I’m doing because, I hate to lose. I can’t stand it. I just believe you outwork the other guy.”

Upon meeting Gary, the first thing you notice about him is his stuff. He can afford it all. And he’s got it all. Feet and inches can’t take the measure of his stuff.  It’s easier to pace things off. The black limousine measures out at 13 paces. The third-floor reception room comes in at 27 paces. The corridor to his private office steps off at 19 paces, past the wood-paneled mock courtroom – complete with jury box, judge’s bench, lawyer’s tables and heavy chairs with thick, red-leather seats. Then, out the mock courtroom to the left 10 long strides and through the big door into Gary’s office. To the far right, his leather-top desk, hand crafted from English oak by Jacobs Ltd., London. Beyond, through massive windows, the blue river. On a side table photos of Gary with former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Bush.

Your eyes drink it all in: dark wood paneling, Kittinger desks and writing tables just like in the U.S. State Department. Old armchairs with carved ball and claw feet and upholstered in fabric that cost more per yard than New York law firms bill per hour. A granite top conference table to the left, Lenox china, beige with a thin gold stripe around the edge. A bar to the right. Cut glass decanters. Cascading floral arrangements of northern wildflowers. White marble fireplace and polished silver andirons. The furnishings are heavy, manly and impressive. Color, scale and layout are balanced impeccably.

Gary presides over his legal empire from the top floor of an old whitewashed building on Osceola Street in downtown Stuart. It was once the Pelican Hotel. He cleaned dishes at the hotel as a college student. Now he owes it.

“I’ve worked every day of my life since I was big enough to plant seedlings in groves. I tell students, I tell my own sons, work. Work with a purpose. Nothing happens by accident. It happens by purpose.” His mother, Mary, 79, who still lives in Indiantown, says he always worked with a  purpose. He could pick a hamper of beans when he was 6, she says. “He’d ask what the letters and words said on billboards,” she says. “We knew he was smart. He’d sell snacks to the older workers in the fields. Make a dollar some days.”

Gary says, “ I like nice things because when I was young, I had no things. But there’s no value in a thing. There’s only value in what it takes to earn that thing. My dad used to say, ‘Make the money, but don’t let the money make you.’ I’ve earned everything I have.” That includes his reputation and custom designed Rolex watches.

When describing the function of his private jets, Gary says, “Owning this jet allows us to handle more cases.” He emphatically states, “The days of the horse and buggy type transportation are over. If I had to sit in airports, being subjected to cancelled flights, there is no way this firm could be as efficient as it is.”

Willie Gary’s competitors recognize the meaning of Gary’s 100% attitude. “Your adversary has to see it and feel overpowered. I want an opponent to look around and know he’s going to pay,” Gary unapologetically emphasizes.

Wille Gary and his wife Gloria Gary founded the Gary Foundation. The Gary Foundation is committed to enhancing the lives of youth and steering them away from crime and drugs. Through scholarships and funding for agencies such as the Gertrude Walden Center and other educational institutions, the foundation instills the desire to learn. The mission of the foundation is to give youth the opportunity to reach their dreams by giving them alternatives to crime and drugs – such as education. Their vision is to reclaim our youth one step at a time. Goals of the foundation are to provide opportunities in the areas of education, recreation and overall wellness to at risk youth.

Willie Gary also host’s the Gary Golf Classic. The Inaugural Willie Gary Celebrity Golf Classic gathered celebrities and 125 golfers to raise more than $100,000 for youth. Gary uses the event as an annual fundraiser to provide college scholarships for children. Among other celebrities who attended the event were world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield, baseball’s Cecil Fielder, pro golfer Calvin Peete, former Dolphins receiver Nat Moore and former major-leaguers Mike Cuellar, Luis Tiant and Ivan Murrell.

Willie and Gloria Gary have contributed to numerous organizations such as $100,000 to Bethune-Cookman College and to Edward Waters College, and $20 million to Shaw University.

Gary refers to the gift to Shaw merely as a “small down payment on the very big debt I owe Shaw.” The thankful President of Shaw says, “This gift has placed us in a new light. He continues to say, “It has enhanced our profile with the corporate community and with our alumni. It has demonstrated that we are on a trajectory of growth.” A thoughtful Gary says, “More importantly, the gift is a way of saying to the world that Black people intend to be at the forefront of the movement to save Black colleges, many of which are perilously close to permanently shutting their doors. I hate to see us always having to beg the government and major institutions for help. “The truth is, Black folks have not been giving back to Black colleges they way we should have. And we have got to start doing that if we want to have a say in how our children are educated. “Of course everyone is not in a position to give $10 million, but I would ask people to do what you can,” Gary says.

His giving does not stop with mere contributions of truckloads of cash. His private jet, The Gold Plated Wings of Justice also doubles as an ambulance.? Gary says, “When we have cancer patients that are going in our direction and they need to get to a place for treatment we take them. As a matter of fact, the most memorable thing that I have been able to do with that plane and the most gratifying and satisfying thing was the opportunity to fly to Birmingham, Alabama to pick up Rosa Parks and take her to Detroit to get some medical treatment. That’s a highlight of my life.”

Why does he give all this time and money back to the community? He says, “I feel that it is important for you to give back, for me to give back and for ALL of us to give back, because whether you want to be or not, you are part of the struggle and until all of us are economically free really none of us, poor black people and poor white people. You have poor White people and poor Black people who want to do better and should be doing better and can do better so you should do everything you can to help somebody. I am a firm believer that the more you give, the more you receive.”

Gary’s talent and dedication has garnered him dozens of awards and eleven honorary doctorate degrees. He has gained international recognition as a leading trial advocate, public speaker and philanthropist. His accomplishments have been featured in the New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, Ebony, Jet, People, Black Enterprise, The National Law Journal, TopBlacks.com and other national media, which praise his "remarkable" rise to the top of his field and his tireless work on behalf of injured persons.

Gary has been nominated and  received the prestigious Horatio Alger Award. He was named Lawyer of the Year in 1996 by Lawyer Weekly USA, and was a recipient of the Turner Broadcasting System Golden Trumpet Award and the 26th Annual NAACP Image award "Key of Life." Gary has been featured on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and as the "Person of the Week" on ABC World News Tonight. He has also been a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and the subject of the CBS Evening News' "Eye on America."

More important than TV coverage, he says, was ABC News naming him “Person of the Week” in 1992. “It meant they recognized me as a man, not just a lawyer.” But law is the key that unlocks Gary, his philanthropy, and his sense of style.

Today the firm is a sophisticated nationally active practice with a staff of more than 130 including attorneys, doctors, nurses, paralegals, investigators, legal secretaries, an administrator, Certified Public Accountant public relations director and a jet airplane captain and co-pilot. Headquartered in the Waterside Professional Plaza, a historic art-deco landmark on the St. Lucie River in Stuart. Gary bought the building in 1988 and executed $3 million in renovations to the property. The firms Fort Pierce offices are on the Intracoastal Waterway, just south of the Fort Pierce inlet. Most of the clients are small children. Most of the opponents are big – hospitals, chemical companies, insurance companies and utilities. Gary’s associates call him the giant killer.

Of course he does have some large clients. Some have said, “Willie Gary always has said he’s in it for the little guy, but here he is, in it for the big money with the big guys”. Gary counters this criticism with, “The preamble to our Constitution says equal justice for all. If you’re in the right, I’ll represent you, big or small, white or black. If I didn’t, I’d be a hypocrite. This law firm is here to do right. And of course I get paid well. I don’t work for free.” His firm is not big by national standards, but it brings in more dollars per associate than the biggest firms in the country. The reason for that, says Willie Gary, is Willie Gary. “I’m the rainmaker. Every firm needs a rainmaker, the guy that brings in the business. The stiff-collar, old-school firms might do their marketing at country clubs and on the golf course. I do mine in court.”

TopBlacks Interview of Willie Gary: A Moment With Willie Gary

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