Over 25 years ago, brothers Brett Panter and Mitch Panter made a childhood dream come true when they opened a personal injury law firm in Miami. Several years later, David Sampedro joined them as a partner when they formed Panter, Panter, & Sampedro. Throughout the years, the partners focused on making the practice a family business, not only in helping their clients but also in teaching their kids about the value of hard work and giving back to your community. As Father’s Day approaches, the partners and their children reflect on the past and future of their legal careers.
For Brett, trust is what ties a family business together and what makes working with family a rewarding experience. In the game of high stakes legal representation, there must be trust and confidence in the people you work with each day. With many years of working together and a shared family bond, the trust between the partners at Panter, Panter, and Sampedro has been earned by consistent actions and a rich history together. Brett teaches his children that your reputation takes years to establish and it’s earned every day with each and every client.
Mitch agrees with his brother that trust and respect gives a family business a certain strength. He believes that involvement and success in this type of business are personal, and the reason that their firm is so successful is that they operate the business as a family, including treating their clients as family too. Mitch and Brett always invited their children to come by the office as they were growing up, which may have contributed to several of them going into the practice of law. Between the good times and tough times, the partners have set the example for their children that a strong work ethic, sticking together, and constant communication is important no matter what.
Although he’s not a biological brother to Brett and Mitch, David has been an important extended family member for over 22 years. He quickly gelled with the Panter brothers who shared his views that family—be it clients or relatives—comes first. David genuinely looks forward to coming to work each day with his partners. He feels that there is nothing better than waking up every morning and doing work that he is passionate about with a family who shares the same values, ones that he hopes to instill in his children who are still in school. When asked about one piece of professional advice he would give to his children, David said that he would tell them to treat every client as if they were their mom or dad and be both honest and forthright.
While not all of the partners’ children have chosen law as a career, two of them are well on their way to being superstars in their chosen practices. As a young lawyer himself, Mitch’s son, Jordan, grew up watching his father and uncle work together to make an impact on other people’s lives, whether through work or community outreach. He has found it inspirational that though they are very different, each brother complements the other in the way that they work through difficult situations. As a corporate lawyer in New York, Jordan has set a goal to never stop learning and continually make time for those in need; admirable professional attributes he learned from the family’s law practice.
Similarly, Brett’s daughter, Brittany, who is also an attorney, says that she learned diligence from watching her father throughout the years. She credits him with always going the extra mile for his clients, and for maintaining strong ethics no matter what. Brittany admires the appreciation and respect that the attorneys at the Firm have for their clients. She, too, hopes that she can make an impact and that she will become an accomplished and respected advocate like her father.
All three partners at Panter, Panter, and Sampedro truly believe that being a lawyer is a great honor due to the nature of their work as client advocates. Helping others smooth the tide of troubles and find solutions to complex problems based on the rule of law is a specialty that they have mastered together as a family. For over two decades their foundation has been based on being a tightknit family with a shared dedication to serving others, a legacy they look forward to carrying on for generations to come.
The offices of Panter, Panter, & Sampedro are located at 6950 N. Kendall Drive.
For more information, call 305-662- 6718, or visit PanterLaw.com.
