In this episode of the Groth Gets It! podcast, James takes us through his pre-law journey and legal curiosity, exploring his passion for constitutional law and his unique interest in artifact and dinosaur cases. Join us as Jon and James discuss the future of law, the role of AI, and the unexpected paths a legal career can take.
Transcript:
Welcome to the Groth Gets It podcast. We’re here with one of our law clerks, James. This is going to be a interesting podcast about I think the title is like, your pre-law journey and, legal curiosity, but we’ll see what, what we actually get into here. So. All right, we start every podcast, like we started deposition. Say your name and spell your name. For the record, my name is James, and that’d be j a m e s Yes. All right. Thank you.
So let’s talk about real stories from Groth Law and, specifically as it relates to our law clerks. We’ve had a couple law clerk podcasts, I don’t know, have you even seen those yet, I guess. I don’t think they’ve actually hit the airwaves. No, I haven’t seen those yet. No, I’m not sure if they even are hitting airwaves when they’re in, when they’re streaming. Are they in the airwaves? I couldn’t tell you. Probably just, like in your computer way. It’s not really your airwaves. But in the old days, we’d say they hit the airwaves, but whatever. All right. Okay, so we have a couple law clerks who are law students, and we have a couple law clerks who are undergrads. You are one of the undergrad students, correct. So, tell me about that quick. And then we’ll go into the questions, because my understanding, from the powers that be is that you’re asking me questions first. So, I’m actually breaking those rules and asking you questions first. So you went into college as what kind of major? Well, I started undergrad as a geology major, thinking that just what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I quickly discovered that is not what I want to do. Okay. And I switched to, what I am now, which is, political science and history, thinking about going into law school. Okay.
And so one of our other law clerks, wants to go to law school, like intellectual property. And she, boy, now I’m gonna. I forget what the major was. I think it’s biology. Is that right? Is it a major biochemical? Maybe bio biology? It’s something I have no knowledge of. Intellectual property? Yeah. Kind of stuff. So, do you have any thoughts as to what you might do then? Well, there’s a couple of things I’d like to do. Now, what actually might happen is a little different, I think. But if everything works out, hopefully the I’d end up somewhere, doing some kind of artifact or international, kind of like, paleontology or some kind of, like a very extinct Inked creature lore. Basically like a good example would be something along the lines of there was, a case a while ago about these Mongolian dinosaur bones that were stolen or sold improperly, to a buyer in New York. And there is a whole legal case about that. And they had to bring in a basically the equivalent of, like, a dinosaur lawyer to settle that case. Now, if I could be a dinosaur lawyer, that’d be the coolest thing ever. Yeah. So I’m gonna immediately call out Robert Painter, and I will hashtag Robert and see if he can, showed us out because he is the attorney that did that, so that’d be kind of cool. Robert, if you’re listening to this, I will force you to listen to it, because I’ll send this to you. But, yeah. No, that would be cool. And there’s a book. I know that, I’ve read the book. Are you. Have you finished that book? I’m still in the process of reading. Okay. It’s an interesting book. It’s fascinating. Yeah. Cool. So.
And then I saw a constitutional law. Yes. So initially, constitutional law, is probably going to be where I’d focus on in law school before I get into more of like the niche that is kind of artifact law. Just because the Constitution is such an interesting document in the first place. It’s I mean, every single day there’s new things are coming out, new verdicts, new decisions, new just everything pertaining to what is kind of one of the most interesting and malleable documents, kind of in the history of legal system, I think. So just to be able to interact with that and to hopefully one day have some kind of impact in that would be a dream come true. Well, and I guess I didn’t realize, how many lawyers actually do constitutional law. There’s a lot. Yeah. Right. I mean, when I went to law school, Professor Edelman was my con law professor. And I thought, okay, well, there’s that guy, you know, one person that does constitutional law and then maybe some lawyers that work for the federal government that do constitutional law. But then when you think about it, there’s the ACLU, there’s the various Liberty type, associations. There’s Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. There’s other groups all across the nation that are doing really constitutional law, or even like, improper takings or eminent domain. Those are all constitutional questions. So it’s fascinating. Yeah, there’s lots and lots of people out there who are doing well and who need a constitutional lawyer because, well, constitutions kind of an important docent, right? We don’t deal with it really. Ever. We talk about it in very broad, brush strokes, but we don’t really handle any constitutional type cases other than when we’re arguing before. Let’s say there’s a jury trial. We’ll talk to the jury initially and say that we have a constitutional right to a trial by jury. That’s why you’re here. And that’s why your job as a jury is so important. But other than that you know, one off kind of comment, there’s very little constitutional law that I’ve ever really practiced. So cool. So good for you. Good for you. That’s neat.
All right, so let’s have James ask some questions of me. I know you have handwritten questions. That’s probably unfair, because I was given some questions that I thought you were going to ask. So now you’re going to throw me for a loop here? They’re related to these. They’re based off of their follow ups, if need be. Deal. So the first question we have written down here is kind of a broader one. It would just be what do you think contributes most to the long term sustainability of a law firm? Very broad, very general. What do I think contributes to the long. So now, I thought you weren’t going to ask that question because you had your own handwritten questions. To the long term sustainability. Really? It’s, quality of work, because I think quality of work is going to get you through the good times and the bad times. If you have a law firm and lawyers that are, good at what they do. Your reputation precedes you and you’ll be able to get cases right. You know, you’ll get referrals, word of mouth, you know, those kind of things. So I think it has to start with that, and it all kind of flows from that because then you can, market that and you’re going to get with more aggressive marketing, get more clients. But if you have a law firm that markets, sorry, if you have a law firm that, has lawyers that aren’t that skilled in what they do, and they do lots of marketing, in my opinion, they’re not going to get very far. And I think there are some examples in in our state where that exact situation happened. And I can think of a number of them just off the top of my head where lawyers were ultimately some of the name partners were disbarred because they weren’t good at what they do. Or, they just had a really bad reputation and they were able to get by. But it wasn’t any kind of long term. It wasn’t sustainable in the long term. So, yeah. So what do I think contributes most is probably quality of work.
I’m kind of going off that. How do you think in the coming years, the innovations with AI and other technical advancements will contribute to or impact the quality of work? You’ve been talking you just talked about at all. Funny you should ask that, because I just spent the last. And this is why we’re recording so late. I just spent the last hour and a half, on a zoom call with an expert from Brazil about artificial intelligence. So what do I think? Or well, what role does artificial intelligence or llms have in our, our quality of work? I think it has a huge role because, it’s going to enable us to help more people, with the same kind of quality of work. I mean, it in our business, luckily, you know, knock on wood, our firm, I should say, has had the ability to grow, and have a lot of people that were helping. So because of that. And I’ll just take, for example, the past couple of months, if we have hundreds of people who call us in any given month, how do we have. Well, sorry. And the month before, we might have forty people. So if it’s forty people, it’s easier to look through those cases, get medical records and do things like that. But then if for some reason, because there’s a lot of bad drivers out there, the next month goes to ninety people. Well, forty to ninety is a big difference. How do we, change or scale that fast? One of the ways is with the help of artificial intelligence or llms or, machine learning, because it’s almost impossible to hire twice as many people to do that kind of work that fast. So that’s what you really have to be able in your technology, that you’re set up in such a way that if you have a busy month, for whatever reason, with new clients coming in, or let’s say there’s a client who came in that, suddenly you get fifteen thousand pages of medical records. Well, you need to have those medical records reviewed as soon as you can. Well, artificial intelligence can at least help us, guide us along the way. As long as it’s done properly, faster than, maybe two or three or four full time staff people looking through fifteen thousand pages of medical records. So that’s I think one of the ways is you can get to help people faster. And especially nowadays, that’s the expectation. You know, we’re in this instant society. We’re victims. And, really, anybody looking for a lawyer’s help is looking for almost instantaneous answers. So we have to, you know, go with the flow and make sure we’re on top of that, that we’re adjusting. My first my first boss. My second boss, way back twenty five plus years ago, talked about his father, who was a lawyer, and his father used to have, martini lunches. They would call them. So they would go to work in the morning, at about eleven or whenever it was, they’d they’d finish up, and then they’d go to lunch and then they’d come home. And this is, I think, some somewhat tongue in cheek sleep off their lunch, on the couch and then review the docents that they dictated. So sorry, I, I missed that they would dictate all morning so they’d have a dictation device on a on a tape or on a machine. They’d dictate to their staff. Staff would then spend all the next few hours writing what? Typing up what they heard. And then, when those docents are ready to be reviewed, then the lawyers would review the docents, give them back to edits, and then over the next few days, that docent would be created and sent to their client over mail. Before faxes, over mail, and then maybe six days later, they get a response back from their client. Or three days later, after the client got the docent, they’d make a phone call back to the client. Well, think about now. I mean, now we’re looking at texting where there’s immediate responses. You know, that’s a whole different world. So I think looking at, the robots helping us answer questions in real time is what’s, really, really a necessity these days. Hopefully that answered your question. I think I went on a couple tangents there, but that’s typical of me. All right, next question, sir. All right.
I think kind of relating to that, kind of mentioned that kind of the evolution of from dictation, dictation machines and kind of typing out something and almost instant response now, with AI and other advancements kind of pivoting a little bit, do you think there is still space in a legal field to carve out a niche speciality, kind of like artefact law or other things? I mean, with these advancements, kind of how, at the very least, the legal world is becoming. I don’t know if you agree with this a little more consolidated than we now have all this technology. There’s a fear that maybe some areas of law will be overcome with robotics or some other areas. I don’t know if you’ll ever be replaced a lawyer entirely, but yeah, I so that’s a concern I have every day. Right? Because when you’re talking about the long term, long term sustainability of a practice, how do we adjust, you know, and looking at the, I’ll say, the attacks on personal injury law from other lawyers, big law, big law firms, lawyers coming in from out of state and, and practicing in Wisconsin, advertising in Wisconsin. I think that that’s a concern. I think insurance companies are, using technology, in certain ways. So they can get in front of people faster to try to give them lowball settlements, I think. So that’s a concern. And, I think in general that’s going to affect every single aspect of the law. I mean, everybody’s going to have to deal with it. If you’re drafting a contract, you’re going to have to deal with, well, how do I draft a contract compared to can somebody just go online to Legalzoom and have legal Zoom’s artificial intelligence, you know, LLM model draft a similar contract. So you’re not going to you know, teen a lawyer down the street, you’re just going to legalzoom online and a similar docent is drafted and it’s maybe just as good. Now there’s the ethics behind that. I don’t know that aspect of it. I don’t want to know that aspect of it, but I think it’s a general concern, about creating niches. I think there’s always going to be a need for lawyers because not everyone’s going to be able to is going to have the access to a lawyer. You know, you’re not all the president of Harley Davidson that can easily pay for some big law firm to come and answer your questions. So, I think there’s always going to be the need for a lawyer to explain the law to, others in society. I’ll try to make it nice. So that that’s where I think you really have to look at. How do you bridge that gap between the law and hanity? If you can find that that aspect, that answer, that’s, I think, where you’re gonna be able to make some money given the make a living, given the rise of the robots, you know, you’re not going to be able to compete with robots because they’re going to be able to review medical records. So don’t, don’t become, or or don’t set out after law school to create a, law firm that just reviews medical records or probably just creates, contracts. In my opinion, I don’t think that’s going to be fruitful. I think it’s going to be the attorney who can work with AI and then be able to explain that to the vast majority of society. That’s the person who’s going to be able to live as a lawyer in the future? And and the same thing goes with, you know, let’s say archaeology law, right? I mean, you’re dealing with, Tyrannosaurus rex. I’m trying to think of a better dinosaur than Tyrannosaurus rex. Brachiosaurus. Give me some dinosaurs. Pachycephalosaurus. Pachycephalosaurus. That’s a good one. So you’re dealing with with Pachycephalosaurus? Are they, you know, who owns the Pachycephalosaurus? Bones. Under which treaties? You know, you can use AI to help you understand that. And making that argent to a judge, and across different cultures and, across different continents, I think that’s where you’re going to be able to create that niche, but you’re going to have to have, a lot of experience in Pachycephalosaurus from Japan and Pachycephalosaurus from Canada. And explaining what Pachycephalosaurus in Canada means to Canada. I think that’s where you’re going to be able to make your living, because if you’re just looking at, does Canada have the right to Pachycephalosaurus bones, I think you can ask AI that and it’ll probably probably answer the question and that’s it. But, looking beyond that, making the argent to a judge, I think, is where you’re going to have to use your your skills and where those hans are going to be required. So hopefully that makes any sense. But that’s me as a trial lawyer also, because that’s what I want to do. And I’m hoping that as a trial lawyer, we’re going to have, we’re gonna be necessary for a long time so I can have a job for the next however many decades. So. Yeah.
Next question. All right. Going off that, we’ve been talking a lot about the future. I kind of want to turn quickly and go towards the past for a second. The past. So I think, you mentioned, I mean, being a trial lawyer. What are some when you were starting up this firm, what are kind of the some of the most difficult aspects of trial that you encountered as not only kind of a newer lawyer, but now as a the head of a firm that is brand new. When you were first starting out, were there any, like, obstructions that you wouldn’t think you would overcome, or there were obstacles that you didn’t think you would have to face at all? Yeah. Boy, boy… Good question. I want to tell some stories about before I started the firm. Obstacles. But that’s not the question. So the question is, after we started the firm. I think the nice thing about after starting the firm is that there was a lot of time because there weren’t a lot of cases. I luckily, I had a reputation where, people were were willing to help me and refer cases to me. And I had done my ground work, and I had reached out to other lawyers across the state, and I would go to their office and ask them, do you have any cases for me to work on and put in a suit? And I’ll do the depositions and do the trial. And there were a number of lawyers that that took me up on that. But because I didn’t have, you know, , hundreds of clients. I was able to concentrate on the clients that I had. But that didn’t last very long. I mean, that again. Luckily or unluckily, we we grew kind of exponentially, pretty quick. And then it was turning more into working on the business versus in the business. And that was the biggest issue I had was making that that mental switch from working in the business to working on the business. And once I made that mental switch to work on the business, well, then that’s where we went from three or four staff people to whatever we are now, thirty, forty. I don’t know how many people we have. If you consider all the virtual assistants, we’re probably for forty plus, I believe. But yeah. So, obstacles, I had it. Looking back, it was fun to do that because, I, I could just simply concentrate on that case. And you could take three, four days to work on one case. Because there there weren’t fifteen people calling you during the day. And then, you know, maybe there were one, two or three people calling you during the day, but it wasn’t that busy where, all I was doing was taking new client calls, for example, or all I was doing was requesting all the medical records. So, Yeah, the obstacle is time. And then how do you manage your time and, and handle those cases wisely and handle your calendar wisely? So to answer your question, I think so. Yeah, I hope so. And boils down to almost time management. It’s always time management dreams. It’s always time management. And so my other boss said, this is something that’s that’s difficult. You know, when you are your own boss, you can do whatever you want. And he would say, you know, do the worst first. So I, I know that that’s been said once or twice. Yeah. Do the worst first. And, that’s tough to have that, that self control that you come into the office and I’m in charge of the office, and I don’t want to draft that brief, but it’s eight in the morning. I probably should start and get it done, or at least start it. I’d rather just put it off because it’s not due until Friday and it’s Monday. It’s like, okay, well, I’m not going to start it, so I’ll do it tomorrow. And then tomorrow comes and it’s like, I’m going to do it tomorrow, and then Wednesday comes. It’s like, I’m going to do it on Thursday, and then Thursday comes and it’s like, okay, now you spent the entire day, and then every single time somebody would call with an emergency on Thursday and it’s like, okay, now you know, I’m working till ten, eleven twelve p m because I messed up and I took advantage of being my own boss. So I’ve luckily learned from that. That mistake, that you have to at least work on things before they become, urgent and important. That’s the whole. What’s it called? The Eisenhower matrix. The Eisenhower matrix? Yeah. Is it the Eisenhower? Eisenhower? Whichever matrix it is, it’s something work on that, that graph. So you are more productive, and that’s something that I, I think is, is time tested. It’s, you know, there are people smarter than me who came up with that, that, that matrix. And it works. You just have to have the self-control to, take advantage of other people’s brainpower and use it for, how you practice law or how you do your homework or how you, manage your lifestyle in general. Yeah. Good stuff. Next question.
All right. I think it’s, I appreciate the answer. So kind of also looking towards kind of that same area, what kind of advice would you give to somebody, who’s thinking long term about their legal career even before starting law school, like me and some of our other clerks kind of. What were some things that you figured out that were like during your early days as not only a lawyer, but kind of, as I said before, as a burgeoning, businessman, looking towards, I mean, kind of looking back and forward. Are there any things you wish you had done, any things you did do that helped you later on, or things you did to prepare yourself for law school that ended up carrying through towards, today. Take lots of different classes that, will help you kind Hone in what you want to do. I initially thought I wanted to be a DA. That didn’t work out very well based on my criminal law class. I then wanted to do international law. I took some international law classes. Realized that wasn’t for me. . I wish I would have taken more business classes. I think someday I might go and take more business classes. But I luckily discovered that I liked the trial aspect, and I took different trial classes and trial advocacy classes. And that was really, you know, because of the experience I was given, I was able to, you know, hone in to that, that niche. So, but it took me a while to get there, right? I mean, when I went into law school, well, when I in, in undergrad, I had different thoughts of what I should do. What would I run? Campaigns? Would I run for office? Would I go into the military, you know, the the, officer school or go to law school? And, luckily I got into law school and luckily or unluckily lost, you know, the campaign I was running. So that was either good or bad or whatever. I don’t know where I’d be if if we won. But, because I tried out those different things that helped me to get to of the decision that I made in law school, that, okay, I think I like campaigning. So let’s use that aspect with, well, campaigning in law. Well, who in the law runs for office? Well, back then my thought was a district attorney because district attorneys in Wisconsin run for office. It’s like, okay, I want to be a D.A.. So then I went into criminal to criminal law classes. I was like, okay, well, I don’t like this. So okay, well, I still like the campaigning. Well, that’s kind of like marketing. And then eventually got to where I’m in now, where I like campaigning because it’s also advocating, so that’s trial work. So I enjoy that and then go all the way forward to, you know, now, I enjoy the trial work. I enjoy advocating and, marketing and, you know, selling our business. Doing this is kind of like campaigning, right? We’re campaigning for the Groth Law brand as opposed to, you know, president so and so or a governor. So and so, so, that I can use that skill hopefully that, that I’ve, , I’ve acculated over the years, , to help the business. And I think it’s kind of fun. So it’s always nice to do something that, that you enjoy and you’re kind of good at. So there we go. All right, now it’s my turn. Not because I’m getting the kind of the wave off. . . Good questions. Let’s see. Let’s turn the tables.
You’ve been around the firm all summer. Even before summer, I guess. Technically, it was May. May is technically not. Not really summer. . So is that May? June? July? That’s like almost. We’re going on three, almost four months. It’s crazy. Wow. what have you observed or learned that surprised you about a law firm? I think something I’ve kind of observed and also kind of experienced is really just how much preparation, how much kind of investigation you have to do before you even get to like the initial, like you file a notice of circumstance or even before you even begin to kind of embark on this journey before you go to trial or settlement. How much work you have to put in, like for docents, how much work you have to put in just to see where what people are doing. Like what? How much detail you need. How much I have to do in terms of discovering details has been really fascinating. It’s been really enjoyable work as well. So just being able to do that kind of stuff and it sounds mundane, but it’s I mean, just that process is really interesting and something I never thought about. I mean, I my legal experience before this has really been mostly like what you see on TV, what you see on media, you kind of see from talking to certain people. The best case you can give is like a law and order episode. It goes so fast, it’s so instant. Whereas here it’s forty two minutes, forty two minutes. And like nothing that’s done here can happen in forty two minutes. I mean, it’s it’s such an extensive process and it’s so detailed and thorough that it’s just being a part of that. It’s really interesting and something that I didn’t really think about that you wouldn’t really think about before you came. And you actually worked for a law firm. Cool. I agree. Yeah, it’s I guess that’s something that you have to explain to Explained to clients that, it’s not just a lawyer’s advice that they’re they’re paying for. They’re paying for the, medical records retrieval and the time that it takes to do that. And then the paralegal reviewing documents and, the not only the documents themselves, but the knowledge that, you know, okay, I, I need to file this document within one hundred and twenty days. So you’re paying for the experience of the lawyer and the law firm, for maybe twenty five years. And not just it it’s not just a cookie cutter, cookie cutter kind of approach. Right. All right. Cool. Constitutional law, archaeology and such. What is it about those areas that interests you? That’s a good question. Well, I’ve kind of, as I was kind of saying before, really, with constitutional, it’s just the ability to go in and kind of peruse a document that’s as old as not only the nation, but kind of has its origins even before in history. Although you can trace it all the way back to even the Magna Carta, just having that the weight of centuries in a docent is one that’s fascinating to me. Where was the Magna Carta signed? That was a great question. It wasn’t like a field. It’s a tent, right? It was in a giant tent. After King John lost a battle, he was forced to sign it by the barons of I think it was England. I don’t think he was in England. English history? Yes, it was a giant tent. Like not. Not like some room. Oh, no, it was, I mean, it it’s really important. Docent that was signed in a tent. Yeah, exactly. Anyway. All right. Sorry. So that’s constitutional law about, archaeological type property and such. Oh, well, I’ve always, I mean, not only had an interest in kind of as I kind of said, ancient docents. Allosaurus. Pachycephalosaurus. Hyphalosaurus. Tyrannosaurus. I mean, growing up. I mean, dinosaurs were saurus. Ichthyosaurus. And now I’m thinking of dinosaurs coming back to Ichthyosaurus. What’s the one from Jurassic Park with the big, , the fish dinosaur? Oh, Spinosaurus. Spinosaurus? Oh, the Spinosaurus has the has the sail. Yeah. The sail. There’s, the Mosasaurus. Recent, Jurassic Park where they had the sail. The Mosasaurus. Mosasaurus, Mosasaurus. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. So all those are just not only fascinating, but just it’s something that you really don’t ever think. Would you need a lawyer for something you would never really think about? So there’s still a lot of unbroken ground. I think that, I mean, it’d be fun to just be a pioneer in that field, because, unfortunately, I don’t believe I possess the math skills necessary to go into a full time career as an archaeologist. But the legal aspect of it being able to combine a fascination of mine with a possible career here that not only is probably a good career choice overall, but it’s also something that just it would be just amazing to work on. Yeah, like environmental classes, right.
So, you know, and then the law of property rights in general, maybe really international property law. Now they get more specific about it. Cool. All right. What other questions? Because we are way over time already. Let’s see. Let’s just go jp right to the because I’m going to get in trouble if I talk too much because we just. This is always on me. . . If you’re going to give a Ted talk on anything other than the law, what would it be? I don’t think you want. Oh, I. I’ll be brief about my answer, because I know we’re already over time. Because I could I could give a Ted talk right now about certain subjects. But if I, if I had the choice, I’d love to give it on something relating to just nuclear energy structures and how nuclear nuclear energy structures, where does that come from? We just got done talking about Ichthyosaurus and Pachycephalosaurus. I have a bit of a Renaissance man. I think there’s many things I’m interested in. Nuclear. So nuclear energy structures. What do you mean structures as it relates to nuclear energy? Well, nuclear energy grids, how you get nuclear energy to different areas, how you can set up nuclear energy in a sustainable fashion where you put the waste, how you get your power sources, how you where you build your structures, what the reactor composition is, what reactor you use, how you provide fail safes. I mean, there’s I mean, that’s the that’s the thing is like, why I would give a Ted talk because there’s so many different facets that go into such an interesting power source. And really also because we discovered a rock that gives us energy, we just are afraid because it exploded a couple of times, which is a little interesting, to which rock gives us energy, urani, plutoni. All right. Is urani a rock? Yeah, it’s a mineral. Okay. I mean, it’s a it’s a solid object we harvest from the Earth, so I generalize it. And urani as a rock. That’s the thing you don’t. I mean, it’s it’s really interesting because after my my lack of knowledge about rocks, I guess. But, okay, after the Cold War ended, we kind of stopped thinking about nuclear energy because we were all so afraid of it. Yeah. And really, it’s the advancements we’ve made in the past thirty years in these areas. I mean, there’s I know there’s a place, there’s a project going on in France where they’re trying to create a fusion battery, which would provide it’s the same reaction that goes on in the sun if anyone’s ever seen Spider-Man two. Like power of the sun in the palm of my hand, that’s possible within the next thirty years. Which is just. I mean, I can go on and on and on about it, but it’s just it’s fascinating things, the advancements we can make. As Jack Kirby says, Jack Kirby, was he the Spider-Man guy? No. Jack Kirby and Stanley. But so who is more in charge of Spider-Man? Stanley. Stanley I think Jack Kirby is fantastic for mutants. Well, no, Stanley is mutants. So based on Stanley, well, it’s also actual science. I mean, that’s the fun thing about fiction is that it inspires scientists. Yeah. So interesting. It’s also so now I, I’m curious. I’m going to look for a Ted talk on this so I can learn more about this. Oh there’s there’s dozens. Yeah. Okay. So other than nuclear energy structures, what other things would you give a Ted talk on? Well, now, this is gonna be like a three hour long podcast because I want to know these other topics. Well, and that’s the thing is that I. If I could, I’d love to. I mean, I’m a constitution and the archeology law am I basis for my fascination and my intrigue in those fields is history. I’m a history buff since the day I was born, so if I could give any type of Ted talk on kind of. You heard of Byzantine trade routes? Those are really interesting. Byzantine. I’m assing Byzantine trade routes relate to the Byzantine era in trade routes throughout Europe into, like India and China and Asia. Yes. Asia. Yeah. So it’s interesting, like Marco Polo was he was he doing a little that’d be a little bit after. Okay. So what or actually maybe before it’s it’s, the fall of the Byzantine Empire is interesting because I say Byzantine trade routes. You can directly trace the discovery of America to the fact that Constantinople fell to the, invading. I believe it’s the Ottomans when they they invade and sack Constantinople. It cuts off all trade going east from Europe. So Europe has to find new trade routes that it embarks in this whole age of discovery. Marco Polo, Amerigo Vespucci, like all these guys, are inspired to go. They gotta go somewhere, they gotta go somewhere, and they can’t go through Constantinople anymore. The King and Queen of Spain say, hey, start going this way, sir. You can’t go that way and or try to find a different route or on the Horn of Africa, or we have to find some other way to go around. So I think Marco Vespucci and then, the other guys, Christopher Columbus, all these guys get the idea. Well, let’s just go the other way, see if we can’t go around the other side of the world. It’s like, oh, and there’s a whole other place over there. Yeah. So it’s it’s interesting to see the kind of the chain of events that kind of how things are caused. You wouldn’t really think about it. I mean, it’s it’s really interesting to think that, oh, a city falling, a city as old as kind of one of the oldest cities in the world falling to in kind of a inconsequential at that point. It’s just kind of it’s around. It’s been weakened by centuries of decay and corruption at this point. Was it Istanbul or Constantinople? Oh, it’s Constantinople until it becomes Istanbul. So the Ottomans name in Istanbul. We didn’t get that joke. They might be giants, song. Istanbul, not Constantinople. It’s a it’s a song. We should. It’s probably a trademark issue. If we put that music over the top of this part of the. I don’t know if we’ll get it, but it’s it’s an awesome song. It’s a great it is but so that’s, that’s where it comes from is that Constantinople becomes Istanbul because the Ottomans come in and it’s now they make it as their capital. Yeah. Interesting. So this personal injury podcast has now turned into let’s talk about the Byzantine Empire. Tyree’s falling asleep over there. But it is fascinating. Yeah. Cool. All right. what are you most excited or nervous about, in your last two years of college. And then the next question I have is about the potential of law school. So I think the two the next two years of college, really assing it’s two years, maybe it will be more, maybe more. Hopefully you’re a rising junior. Yes. You’re a junior and senior year. Yeah. So for the next couple of years. So if everything goes according to plan, two years, that’d be great. Yep. I think the really, the big thing is how unlike a lot of people who are in my position, I’m looking towards additional years of school. And just how does that look going forwards? I think really the thing is kind of repeating the process of looking for schools is kind of the most stressful, nerve wracking thing I have to do. And it’s just interesting because when I, I mean, it’s it’s it’s the same thing. It’s different. It’s instead of being a high school kid looking at, oh my gosh, college is the next big thing. Now it’s oh, I’m a I’m a undergrad looking towards an advanced degree. I have to look on similar criteria, but also the entire. It’s an entirely different criteria because not only because I’ve gone through undergrad, undergrad, I’m assing undergrad is significantly different from law school or any type of grad school. So really just that preparation, like taking the Lsat, taking a lot of classes, just trying to focus more and see how I can make my make myself stand out to a law school. How I can do that is the stressful part kind of going forward, up on top of the fact that I have to finish the next two years of college. So really, that is probably the biggest kind of stressor I have, or nerve wracking issue I’d have going forward. It’s also exciting. I would say just that next step in my career, in my career as a student, it’s a lot of stuff. But I guess the saying is when you’re dealing with lots of stuff, what’s the saying? Was it the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. There we go. The best way to eat an elephant. I guess the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, right? That take those chunks, and then we’ll, eventually the elephant will be gone. So. And that that major stressor will be behind you. Cool. All right. That’s all the questions I have, because now we’re way over time. Let’s see. Thank you very much. Thoughtful questions. It’s been a pleasure having you here. Thank you for having me. Pleasure having you here all summer. I know you’re going to go off and do great things. Let’s see. Thanks, everyone for listening to the Groth Gets It podcast. Thanks for, the stories that you’ve given us and the good questions and the great insight. Don’t forget, Groth Gets It and Groth Gets You.
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