Paul B. Harding

My name is Paul Harding and I’m the managing partner of Harding Mazzotti. And what that means is as a leader, I serve others. I serve the firm. You know, I do the stuff that keeps things going.

Even though I’m managing partner of the firm and we’ve got, you know, 45, 46 lawyers, we have 185 team members all together, anybody can call and say, “I’d like to speak with Paul Harding,” they say, “One moment, please.” And it rings in my office. And so that part I think is unique. But what it really is, it says, “Hey, the clients are the key.” And that really is what we’re here for. So we don’t want to create any barriers between us and our clients.

We have a little thing we say around here. “Given a choice, choose kindness.” And I think those words really do exemplify who we are, what we do. A lot of stuff we do doesn’t make business sense, meaning we’re not going to achieve the greatest economic result for us. Well, that’s okay. We’re achieving the greatest result for our client. And that comes down to a foundational piece that we are here to serve and we are here to give and to be kind to our clients and our community.

Having grown up in a blue collar background, my dad was a mailman, and it really has allowed me to, number one, appreciate everything that’s happened here at the firm. But I think mostly what it’s allowed me to do is recognize where most people are. Most people are coming from a place where they’re working and they’re in jobs. And that those jobs and those paychecks need to be had every single week. So when we get those calls from injured people, I recognize that just a short time without money coming in the house could be a tragedy. And it would have been for us growing up. And so being there for people when they’re at their toughest time, boy, that is the stuff that really does get me out of bed in the morning and keep me charged up.

Here we have an amazing culture. And I’ve got to say this without patting myself or Victor or Rosemarie on the back too hard. But it really does start from the management. Whoever’s running the place, that certain DNA is going to just filter down. And maybe that’s kind of who you hire. You hire people that you feel are like you. And from the client’s perspective, my gosh, they’re wandering into a law firm. They don’t know anything. They call us. They’re going through a tough time. Then they realize that someone on the other side of their case, whether it’s the lawyer, the case manager, the paralegal, they really care. They really care about what they do. And that stems from culture. If it was really just bottom-line driven, it would be nothing more than a transactional relationship. But we like to say that you come to the firm, you’re part of the Harding Mazzotti family, and you’re there for life. And I tell people that. You had a case 10 years ago, and your kid gets a speeding ticket. Call us. We’ll take care of it for free. You’re part of the family because that’s what you do for family. You help each other out.