MEET THE BUSINESS
November 2019
Adam Ballout – Partner
Adam founded ABC Law Group in 2011, a law firm that represents parents and children who have been separated by the child protective services wing of the government. They work to safely and quickly reunite families and keep children out of the foster care system whenever possible. Their work has led to systemic and legislative reforms in how child welfare operates and how families enter and are treated in the system. In July of 2019, ABC Law Group launched a medical-legal partnership with the backing of local hospitals and the American Academy of Pediatrics to form a pro-bono legal clinic housed within their local hospital to help prevent families from ever entering the child welfare system. This historic medical-legal partnership will allow cross-disciplinary interaction and learning by legal students and medical students to drastically improve health outcomes for children and families.
Below are a few questions to help facilitate this interactive connection. At the end of the page you will have an opportunity to post your own questions for Adam.
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What inspired you to start this business?
I graduated law school in 2007 and immediately went to work for a civil litigation firm in Snohomish County, Washington for attorney Richard Okrent. Following the appointment of attorney Richard Okrent to the Superior Court bench as a judge in February of 2011, two other attorneys in my office decided to form a new firm and created ABC Law Group LLP after the last names of the three founding partners. From starting out as a 3-person office in 2011 we are now at 8 attorneys and 2 legal staff assistants serving multiple counties in Washington State including tribal law. All of the attorneys at our firm are passionate about social justice, systemic reform and improving the lives of the families that we serve.
In 2011, the firm essentially began out of necessity with our office dissolving almost overnight with the appointment of our firm’s head to the bench and very major decisions needing to be made very quickly regarding everyone at the office’s future. In a series of late-night meetings we drew up our business plan, created a business and began a crash-course in creating and managing a law practice.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
My father immigrated to Seattle in 1972 and while my parents were visiting family in 1983, the Beirut airport closed. I was born there and at 6-months old my parents fled the war through Cyprus to get back to the United States. I grew up in Seattle and attended the University of Washington for undergraduate studies and then Seattle University School of Law for my J.D. During law school I clerked for a tribal judge and following graduation went to work for a civil litigation firm in Everett, Washington.
Please discuss a moment or turning point in your life that led you to your career path:
From the age of 10, I was raised by a single father following a very long and very contested divorce that ended with my mother living across the country. From a very young age, the significance of attorneys in the life of a family and the power of the law was made very clear to me. The legal world was where families were put on a conveyor belt that ended with different parts of you going to different places. This conveyor belt had very little care or value for the consequences or permanent effects on children.
Overnight the visits, friends, parties and community disappeared around me. As an only child, my role growing up had been the mediator and nothing matures children faster than trauma. In our culture family business is and will always remain private and never discussed so I internalized a lot of guilt, shame and helplessness around my parents divorce. I was fortunate to have activities and outlets (like karate) to help process those feelings into a healthy outlet. From a very young age I got a behind the scenes look at how the law can permanently scar a family if the attorneys separating the family wielded their power with the precision of a scalpel or the recklessness of a hatchet. The experience made me want to be a lawyer and to change how the families and children I would encounter deal with loss and separation.
Please discuss a role model that motivated you or mentor you had that helped guide you:
In the Alchemist, Paolo Coelho describes a boy who finds a universe that always conspires to help him achieve his personal legend. I’ve truly felt extraordinarily blessed to have many mentors, role models and loving supports in my life to encourage and shape my future at every stage. My father never missed a karate practice or tournament and made sure my education was always a top priority no matter what. From a mentor perspective, who stands out the most is my mentor and college professor Stan Chernicoff from the University of Washington. Stan’s gifts are his attentiveness and an endless passion for learning and teaching others. Stan taught me that having the curiosity to learn about your “perceived” weaknesses is a form of courage and creates a lifelong ability to constantly reform and reinvent yourself as a human being. Stan remembers the name and face of every student he’s ever taught (at a minimum) and during our first day in lecture when he said he would do the same for every member of our incoming 200+ person class by the 2nd week of school, I was hooked. It was absolutely true and from that lecture 16 years ago I’ve had the privilege of being part of Stan’s family of close students who have started undergraduate projects and initiatives which still shape the culture of the University of Washington to this day. A mentor gives you perspective, guidance, encouragement and when needed, a gentle push. Having a mentor who sees the potential in you and who is not cynical about changing the world can make all the difference.
Coincidentally enough, I was sitting with Stan at dinner when I got the email in 2011 to submit a bid for our state contracts that secured the opening of our firm. “Go! you’ve got work to do and I’ll be here if you need anything.”
Do you recall any specific challenges you encountered and overcame? How did you overcome that and what advice would you give others in your situation?
One of the most difficult cases we had a few years ago involved our office uncovering a corruption and spying scandal that involved a Court-run program which was meant to advocate for the best interest of children. The program was discovered to have been spying on defense attorneys for years and feeding the information to the program’s attorney. This program was housed under the umbrella of the Court but instead of engaging in ethical conduct, this program spied on attorneys (inside and outside the courtroom), engaged in theft, fraud, perjury, abusive use of litigation and the attempted manufacturing of evidence against parents. When our office fought to receive information through subpoenas, the materials were destroyed. This program was caught placing a listening device behind my chair and the chair of my co-counsel Flint Stebbins on the case and this was, ironically, during a hearing about the program’s spying. This program operated with impunity for years and boasted in writing that no member of their program had been removed from a case since the programs founding in 1979.
When our office found out that this organization was not only spying on us, but on hundreds of other defense lawyers, we confronted the program and their attorney and were threatened with severe consequences if we revealed the spying and misconduct. The program took it a step further to say that we also couldn’t speak to anyone about the spying or the misconduct. The program used a prosecutor to threaten our office with legal action if we even spoke about their misconduct and improprieties with anyone.
The organization was not only backed by judges in public, but evidence came to light during our trial that the organization was having secret meetings with two superior court judges to gain their assistance in litigation on active contested cases against our office. This was all done without our knowledge. At Court, two judges, one who was the presiding judge of our county and who secretly helped the organization actually showed up to Court to support the program at the hearing.
Despite all of the personal and professional threats we received, our office ignored the letter and went forward to reveal the spy scandal. This resulted in press coverage and also in the expulsion of the spy from the Program and a firestorm of controversy engulfed the scandal-plagued Program. Our office and our clients underwent severe retaliation for exposing the scandal. I received multiple anonymous bar complaints and pressure was brought on our firm from many places. No investigation was ever done and instead the judges responsible for secretly working on cases to assist the Program brought in a “civility” expert to teach “civility” to all the attorneys in the county instead of firing individuals responsible for lying to the court and committing various major ethical breaches.
The legal community was told this issue was actually a product of defense attorney “incivility” which then allowed a very toxic organization to step up its retaliation.
Within the last two months, a unanimous decision by Division 1 of the Court of Appeals found that the judges involved in secret meetings violated the appearance of fairness and the due process rights of my client. They also found that the act of showing up to Court to support one side was an improper act of intimidation toward us as well as the letter from the prosecutor which we ignored. The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial in a different county and that no member of this Program be involved in the new trial. This decision was a vindication of our office’s efforts to bring attention to corruption and unethical practices housed within the Court.
As an entrepreneur, what is it that motivates and drives you?
There is a term called “justice by geography” and it relates to how depending on where you live, your experience of justice can be radically different. Whenever our office is able to make an impact on the system through legal or legislative victories, this notion of “justice by geography” slowly goes away. The permanent and lasting impact of systemic change is deeply meaningful to me personally and keeps me motivated to fight through any adversity from the status quo. A single call, card or a letter from a parent on a holiday thanking us for our help is enough to motivate and drive me past the days where there is more darkness than light.
What would you say are the key elements for starting and running a successful business?
Having a clearly articulated vision and surrounding yourself with the right people. The attorneys and staff who work with us are essentially family and when there are days which are difficult it’s the energy of the team you’ve created that will get your team over those times. The degree to which sacrifices people in an organization put forth relate to how valued and how taken care of they feel. When a crisis or emergency hits, everyone in our office rallies to support and provide coverage in any way possible so there is a sense when an attorney is on a matter that it is always with the backing and support of the entire firm. I would say the culture of the business you create must be uniquely nurtured and constantly tended to.
It’s also incredibly important to know the resources that are available to you. When we first started our firm the state bar association offered a sliding scale service that would come out and help you map out a new office and figure out the legal and practical logistics to getting set up. In whatever field you’re in, there is likely a similar style resource to help or even to just bounce ideas off of. Overwhelmingly whenever we reached out for help in those early days we received it immediately. Remember and honor the people who take time out of their careers and lives to help you and get you established and let them know how much it means to you when you do receive that assistance.
Our office has a steady stream of excited and idealistic prospective attorneys who extern and intern at our office and whenever possible I will always accommodate helping a young person who wants to get into the practice of law. No amount of time you spend another person struggling to get established will ever be a waste and sometimes the best way to truly understand how far you’ve come and how much you’ve learned in your journey is to sit down and help someone start theirs.
Where do you see your business in the next 10 years?
My vision of the firm is that we have a major influence and impact on how child welfare occurs across the country. With the launch of our medical-legal partnership at local hospitals, our hope is that this model is scalable and easy to replicate on a national level in a way that radically transform the trajectory of thousands of future families.
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who are starting out?
Write our your goals and put them in a place where you see them every day. Visualize your dreams already occurring and spend time living in that mental space as often as you can. Surround yourself with people who inspire and motivate you to be better. Constantly go back and reexamine your beliefs and your prejudices especially if you deal with conflict regularly. Expect and be prepared for adversity in all it’s forms. There may be times where you feel disappointed or disenchanted but ultimately it is the adversity we overcome that allows us to fully express ourselves as the people we strive to be.
From a young age until my early 20’s I would compete in Karate nationally and internationally on behalf of the United States team and one of the lessons of martial arts which applies to life is to have respect for your adversaries. Through time, I’ve learned to appreciate my adversaries and wish them a long life. Adversaries can allow you to see what you could potentially become if you lose your integrity, and they allow you a platform for which to passionately state a case for why things should be different. I follow the advice of Voltaire and constantly and consistently pray to god that my adversaries will continue to be ridiculous.
Tell us a little bit about your hobbies outside of your field:
One of the most difficult parts of practice is not knowing whether something you’ve filed or submitted is correct for several weeks, sometimes months or even years. I love the immediately feedback and gratification travel, cooking and gardening. Making food for friends and loved ones is a wonderful release for me and a reminder to savor the time we have. Outside of work, spending time in my garden and greenhouse is always a wonderful therapy especially after dealing with the trauma and secondary trauma of our work. My dog Zoey comes to work every day and being around animals brings me tremendous joy and provides a much needed calm in rooms where emotions can run high. I would urge you to find an activity or thing you love to do that makes time fly by the fastest and cultivate a way to do more of that in your everyday life. Best of luck in whatever adventure you choose and know that your strength is not and cannot be measured through this life alone.
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