Greg and Jany Martinez Ward are the visionary founders behind the Ward Law Group, a prominent personal injury law firm based in Miami, Florida.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of: The Ward Law Group
In this engaging conversation, the dynamic duo delved into their distinctive career journey, emphasizing their exceptional achievements rooted in prioritizing client welfare, upholding unwavering integrity, and persistently challenging boundaries within the legal landscape, particularly for Hispanic women. Their narrative unfolds as they recount the establishment of a thriving law firm, now boasting a workforce exceeding 200 individuals, wholeheartedly devoted to serving the immigrant community. Their mission revolves around aiding these individuals in navigating the intricate realm of personal injury cases, safeguarding their legal rights and ensuring justice prevails. Greg and Jany’s relentless work ethic, unwavering commitment to client service, and deeply rooted faith not only have propelled their personal American dream but also stand as a source of inspiration for burgeoning entrepreneurs and minority women aspiring to excel in the legal profession.
Seth Semilof: Your accomplishments as a Hispanic female attorney, particular in breaking the glass ceiling for minority women in your field, are significant. Can you tell us why this cause is so important to you? And obviously, I mean, do you ever pinch yourself and really say like, I’m living the American dream?
Jany Ward: Yeah, I think that I still don’t believe it, that I am living the American dream because it’s not only about me at this point, it’s about leaving a legacy for other female Latinas in the country. Only 2% of the lawyers are female? Only 2%. Partner-wise, the numbers even dropped down 1% of our female Latina partners in the whole United States. I know. When I saw the statistics, I was shocked myself. I can’t believe I’m part of the 1%. So that’s where I’m like, okay, but I don’t want it to stop just with me. I want to give an opportunity for younger women, female attorneys, minorities, that they can see that there could be a balance, that it could get done. Because we’re the biggest minority in this country, but we’re the second highest dropout rate in high school, much less higher education. So for me right now, that I’ve gotten to this level of success with my husband is about empowering other female women attorneys that they could go to law school, that there is a need for women to represent their own ethnicity, Hispanics, and I think that has also been the key to our success, that they can feel understood with both of us and that they can relate to us and my story.
Seth Semilof: Your accomplishments as a Hispanic female attorney, particular in breaking the glass ceiling for minority women in your field, are significant. Can you tell us why this cause is so important to you? And obviously, I mean, do you ever pinch yourself and really say like, I’m living the American dream?
Jany Ward: Yeah, I think that I still don’t believe it, that I am living the American dream because it’s not only about me at this point, it’s about leaving a legacy for other female Latinas in the country. Only 2% of the lawyers are female? Only 2%. Partner-wise, the numbers even dropped down 1% of our female Latina partners in the whole United States. I know. When I saw the statistics, I was shocked myself. I can’t believe I’m part of the 1%. So that’s where I’m like, okay, but I don’t want it to stop just with me. I want to give an opportunity for younger women, female attorneys, minorities, that they can see that there could be a balance, that it could get done. Because we’re the biggest minority in this country, but we’re the second highest dropout rate in high school, much less higher education. So for me right now, that I’ve gotten to this level of success with my husband is about empowering other female women attorneys that they could go to law school, that there is a need for women to represent their own ethnicity, Hispanics, and I think that has also been the key to our success, that they can feel understood with both of us and that they can relate to us and my story.
Seth Semilof: Where do you see the Word Law Firm going in five to 10 years from now?
Greg Ward: There’s a lot of people who just begin to sacrifice the clients and say, okay, I want to make, you know, X amount in revenue, but they don’t really think about what that means to the client. So for me, I’m always maintaining that we’re getting the best value for each case. And then, we can grow in a reasonable way. Although 50% is aggressive growth, but the truth is we just got some software systems and things we can scale pretty rapidly now, even more so. And some of the VA virtual systems offshore that we are using. So we’ve got a lot of strategies to do that. But the limiting factor is always gonna be quality of the clients. And then what’s my growth projections? Well, I think we can continue to sustain growth at least on a market basis. So Miami, we’re up there, we’re probably going to slow down to 20 or 30% growth per year. New York is 100 or 200% year over year. We go to other jurisdictions, I think we can match that growth curve. So I think we’ll have sustainable growth for at least five to 10 years because we can always just go to a new market. There’s still a lot of big markets that haven’t opened to us yet or we haven’t gone there yet. So I’m excited about those opportunities.
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