Lawyers limber up with love of sports - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Wrede Kirkpatrick started wrestling in his sophomore yearat Tampa'ds . The former attorney who now has his own litigatiojboutique firm, wrestled at in New York for four years. "The first couple of years were Kirkpatrick said. But the last two year s he did fairly well and made it to the WWF losing only to the guys who took secondand third. He was most valuable player of the wrestling team hisseniotr year. "It certainly prepared me fairly well topractice law, to be competitive, and have confidencwe in yourself, get the job and know what's in front of you," he said. Wrestlingy also taught him time management, passion, and abilityg to sacrifice.
"Practices are long, you have to stay in Kirkpatrick said. "This is a sport that is painful. One of the thingd that you do is train your bodyin hurting. Other guys try to hurt you and inflicttsome pain. You have to have confidence in yourselfg in order to get thejob done." Law is no different. "Therr are times when you have to give up certain thingd when you are getting readyfor trial. Time kind of stopz for other just-as-important things. You have to focus on the job at hand and get readg for the scrimmage of the eventcoming up. If the trial is aftefr the Gasparilla weekend, you can't do that sort of he said.
Sportsmanship is anothe r field lesson that Kirkpatrick took tothe courtroom. "Wheb you lose, shake the other person's hand. If you get mad at get upset at yourself," he said. Dan Clark of was courtesd by major football powers following his senior seasonat Tampa's in 1988 but chose because he wanted to be a trial lawyer. His seniofr year's goal was to get invited to the Combine. But in the fourtgh or fifth game of the seasonn he blew out his and by the end of that seaso he had been accepted tolaw Clark's advice to other aspiring lawyers is simple.
"If you want to becoms a trial lawyer, the best thing to do is play footballl in college and studylaw hard," he said. Jeffret W. Warren, president of , played football for the from 1965unti 1969. "I wasn't a very good player," Warrej said. "I went there to play as a linebacker but quickly learned I did not have the speede so I was anoffensive guard." Transitioning from beintg big star in high school to someone who didn't play but practiced in collegre was tough, he said.
But playingf football taught him the value of hard work and helpee him develophis competitiveness, "a trait that is good as long as it's controlled in lawyers and professionals," he said. Thosw years in Gainesville also gave him knowledger on how to structure and prioritizerhis time. "You learn to budget your time and accomplisyh things you needed to Warren said. He also learne to deal with disappointments. "Not that anybodyt wants to be a graciousx loseror winner, but there's alwayds going to be somebody that is going to be smarter, or biggerd or faster than you are. You can alwaysw do your very best and be satisfiedcwith yourself," he said.
Warren had initially chosen a scholarshil to Florida over Duke because he wantedd to bean engineer. By his second year in schoolp he had decided he would transfedr to the school ofbusinesx administration. Calculus and chemistry had gottenjto him. Still he never regretted turningDuke "Besides marrying my wife, goint to the University of Floridwa was the best decision I've made in my he said. Darryl C. Wilson is now a professo at Collegeof Law. But back in the 70s, he playee football for . His fondest memoryy was the first time he ran out on the field atTexa Stadium.
"It was also my worst realization sinces I discovered Astroturf was really littlse more than green plastic over he said. Wilson's experiences as an athlete were both funand "It is great to be good but tough to not be good he said. Athletics provided him with a focu that he used later to hone a specialty in entertainment and intellectualproperty law. Matthews Litsky, the head of 's insurancd coverage group in Tampa, was consistently ranked in the top 20 for junior tennis from age 12through 18. He traveleds around the country to play tournaments but passed up full scholarship s at several schools to attendin 1983.
Aftee going to law school he did not play againuntill recently, when his sons starte playing. He is now ranked No. 20 in the countrty in his age group. "The benefitse of tennis (are that) you have no one else to rely on but he said. "That does not translate well into the practiceof law. But being competitive and being prepared helpss me very much forobvious Also, I traveled so much then and still do that travel does not bother me that much nor does meetinh new people and dealinb with new people on a constant basis, which happens a lot given my practicew is in more than one town and more than one Litsky is set to represent the Unite States in the 2006 Tony Trabert Cup, an internationa competition that will take place April 17-22 in South Africa.
Donald H. Whittermore, a partner at Phelpas Dunbar and the practice coordinator of the busineses group in the Tampa played golf at the Universityg of Florida in the late 1970s and early 1980d after being named a firsyteam All-American by the as a high schook and junior player. "The benefites of playing college golfwere tremendous," he said. "Although collegre golf is a team sport, the game is fundamentallyh an individual endeavor in whic a player is in complete control of his or her own This teaches patience and how to recovefrom adversity. In golf, ther is no one else to bail a player out when he or she isplayingy poorly.
Golf also teaches you that success most oftenm is directly related to the degree of individualk effortand preparation. Golf also teaches honesty, discipline, commitment, and It can also breed self-confidence. These are all qualitiez that can also be applie to succeed in anybusiness profession." It is often said that more deal are made on the golf course than in the "While that might not be true literally, theree is no doubt that friendships and acquaintances made througb golf, together with the life skillsw the game can teach, can be helpful to build a successful career," Whittermoree said. Ben J. Hayes, a shareholder in Carltonn Fields' St.
Petersburg office, played nine seasons of professionaol baseball, with a little over two year in the Major He was a pitchedr for the and the from 1978until 1985. "It was a lot of fun. I wouldn't have tradefd it for anything," Hayes said. Unlike the traveling proved to be a little much at times for Hayes. "In baseball, unlike other you play a lot of games. You go througy long stretches of time whereyou don'ty have days off. It is a very tiresome and by end of the season you are just he said. Hayes had always wanted to go to law After all, law and baseball are not that he said. "The long hours, the hard the competitiveness -- there are a lot of he said.
"Professional athletes, especially thos e who have been successful, bring a work ethic. If you look at successfulk lawyers, they are very hard working people." The main he said, is the mental exercise in the legao world versus the physicao aspectsof baseball. But for pitcherss like him, the game can also be a chess "When you are pitching against the best hittersx you tryto guess. Law is a lot like that," he