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NC Workers' Compensation Lawyer - Jay Gervasi - Part 6
NC Workers' Compensation Lawyer - Jay Gervasi - Part 6
Noted Greensboro Workers' Compensation Attorney Jay Gervasi joins Law Talk with Bill Powers to discuss the practice of law.
Jay Gervasi: I think the law isn't the only area of the world where people are driven to public service. That's for sure. But there are easier ways to make more money than what we do for a living but the service aspect is something that really appeals to me.
Bill Powers: Well, you mentioned something after my own heart, was the continuing education. If I had any dream job and we'll kind of transition into that but I think teaching would be one of my top two or three alternative jobs other than practicing law. That's how I started working my way up at NCAJ, doing continuing legal educations, working with other lawyers doing it, and then... It's a tremendous responsibility, case law update is hard. I've actually attended your case law update because I used to go to quite a few of those meetings, I don't know if you still have them in Chapel Hill at that facility?
Jay Gervasi: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bill Powers: The workers' comp section is a very, very tight group, they all have done amazing work for years and years and years. The current president of NCAJ is a workers' comp person, Vernon [inaudible 00:31:57].
Jay Gervasi: Yeah, but he's too young. Way too young. And not very bright, I mean Vernon's obviously an idiot. And actually Vernon's one of the people who's been helping present the manuscripts the last couple years and then he's a huge contribution, obviously.
Bill Powers: He's amazing.
Jay Gervasi: Vernon's past the point of rising star to just star at this point, I think.
Bill Powers: And some people don't know this about Vernon but I do, because Vernon's a friend. Vernon is professional grade musician, a drummer, University of Miami, and some of his closest friends actually have won Grammy awards.
Jay Gervasi: His undergraduate major I think was music. Yeah, he gave me a ride someplace from the headquarters in Raleigh, the restaurant or something. And in the back of his truck he had these conga drums that he was taking to some gig he was doing that night. So yeah, he's a real-life musician.
Bill Powers: Right, amazing, amazing. Well, it does transition us to the next portion of this, and whether you watch James Lipton, if you know who that is, on Inside the Actor's Studio.
Jay Gervasi: Oh yeah, I know who he is.
Bill Powers: He credits with Bernard Pivot, and the questions of life about what are important to people. These are just fun, there's no right or wrong answer. I do love sometimes the answers I get. Because I think it's meant to show just that lawyers are different people, it's okay to be quirky and there's not one type of person to personality. So I'll give you an example of one of Pivot's questions, if I'm saying it incorrectly I apologize, I took Spanish not French. What sound or noise do you hate? And I'll tell you I've got... I have an ongoing relationship with leaf blowers and low flying helicopters that circle my office right now. So I don't know which one I hate more.
Bill Powers: But I'll do something more in a positive vein for you. So where would you like to live? You live in Gtown, you live in Guilford County, and you've lived up and down the east coast, I think you said your dad was in a scientific background. Would you be someone that would say I'd love to live on the coast, I'd love to live in Barcelona, I'd love to live in [Opakapaka 00:34:03]?
Jay Gervasi: North Carolina beach, would do it for me. Maybe not actually on the beach because it's too challenging to be there but I've loved Beaufort for a long time, and my parents actually retired to Morehead, from Dad's last job in New Jersey. And I've actually, after I graduated from college I worked at a bar down in Beaufort in 1980, the first year it was open. The place is like an open-air insane asylum down there, it was just great, a bunch of young people running around being silly.
Bill Powers: Which one?
Jay Gervasi: It was a dock house, it was-
Bill Powers: Oh, I know right where it is, okay.
Jay Gervasi: Yeah, when I went to the submarine lab in 1979, the waterfront of Beaufort was a dump. There were just all these old beat up fish houses, that sort of thing.
Bill Powers: Well, [crosstalk 00:34:50], right?
Jay Gervasi: During the year between the second semester of my junior year and the second semester of my senior year, somebody bought it, wiped out all that stuff, and put up the gleaming docks that now have all those boats and that sort of thing, and the dock house was a) an office for the dock, and b) had a bar, restaurant, sandwiches and beer and wine, that sort of thing, there. So I worked there when it was new and it was just a blast. That's probably not something I should be doing now, if for no other reason my wife would probably disapprove.
Jay Gervasi: But yeah, living down in that area, especially during the off season. I was there till Thanksgiving and when things cooled down from the summer, it's just a very pleasant place to be. I love walking on the beach in the autumn when the weather's a little more mild, it's still warm enough to be in shorts and no shoes, that sort of thing. Maybe late in the evening when nobody else is out there, I just find that really serene.
