Meet Bill Groh | Attorney

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bill Groh and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bill, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I think risk is a tricky thing because your while appetite for risk may change depending on your circumstances, your appetite for risk doesn’t make actually taking the risk a better or worse idea. When taking a risk, I think it’s very important to try to consider what you know, what you don’t know, and what you have to guess at as objectively as possible. If you aren’t willing to go through that exercise, let it go for a day if you can and revisit it once you’ve had a chance to think it through. I think it’s good to take some bigger risks, especially while you’re younger and not so far along in your career. Successfully taking a risk while you’re younger generally leads to a much bigger upside and it’s easier to recover if things don’t go well because you aren’t risking as much.

Personally, I don’t really like taking risks. That said, sometimes you have to bet on yourself. I moved to Colorado for personal reasons six years into my legal career and essentially had to start over. My wife and I chose to move out here for lifestyle reasons instead of staying in the DC area. From a personal standpoint, the move was great. Professionally, I knew I’d be in for some rough patches over the next few years, but I believed things would ultimately work out.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve always worked on my weaknesses, and I think has ultimately made me a pretty well-rounded practitioner. When I started practicing in 2005, I had been a high school debate geek, and was really in to mock trial and moot court in law school. I felt I was ready for that side of things at least, and I had some early successes there. In the end, however, there is a lot more to the profession than that. You have to know how to deal with people, how to negotiate, how to stay organized, and above all else, how to keep your ego out of it as you go. I’ve always tried to learn at least something from every case I’ve handled, every opposing counsel I’ve dealt with, and every client I’ve helped. I’ve found there’s almost always something to be learned. It’s easy to learn from people you admire and respect, and there have been many along the way. However, I’ve also managed to learn useful things even from people whom I didn’t like or I didn’t think were good lawyers or even good people. I’ll sometimes find myself borrowing a phrase or a way of explaining things from attorneys who I wasn’t too happy with when I was dealing with them. I’d still think to myself “boy did they get that one thing right and I’m going to use that in the future.”

I can’t know of course, but I feel like I’ve mostly gotten to where I am today by keeping at it and sticking to that philosophy. Focusing on improving my weaknesses has led me to find solutions I may not have found otherwise. I’m not a naturally organized person and I wanted to be more organized. I didn’t like the software on the market so I learned some coding and wrote my own software to handle all my tasks, notes, calendaring and billing for me. I now have tools that work much better (for me personally at least) than anything on the market ever could. It hasn’t been “easy” but it has been a deeply fulfilling experience to have success by improving the things that I actually have some control over.

To me, doing away with the notion of “control” is probably the biggest and most important lesson I’ve learned along the way. There are only a few things you can really “control,” and in my profession that is mostly limited to how well you provide representation. It’s important to recognize you may be able to influence outcomes, but that influence is not control. You don’t actually control what a client or an opposing counsel does, or what a judge or a jury or even a trusted colleague may do. Giving good advice or providing great advocacy may make a good outcome more likely, but sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, it’s often for reasons which have nothing to do with you. I’ve learned that ego, in the end, isn’t really about arrogance (though arrogance may be part of it). Ego is your notion of what you can and can’t control. I’ve learned I can do much better work by focusing on what I can actually control and not getting worked up over the rest. I think I’ve become a much better and more capable lawyer that I would be without that lesson. The notion of “keeping ego out of it” means having a clear understanding where your “control” over things begins and ends.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Most of my friends from out of the area live on the East Coast, so this trip would be pretty mountain-heavy. I’d take them through Georgetown and Guanella pass and possibly (if they are in good enough shape) to the top of Mt. Bierstadt. I’d take them camping in our pop-out trailer to Spruce Grove Campground, or Wellington Lake, or possibly Estes Park. If they visited during the winter I’d take them to Winter Park or Vail. I’d certainly throw in a trip to Red Rocks no matter who was playing, but I love the Mission Ballroom and the Fillmore as concert venues as well.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My wife, Monica, for always believing in me and encouraging me at the right times. I’ve had great mentors professionally. Dick Murray, Raighne Delaney, and Bill Krebs from earlier in my career when I was practicing in Northern Virginia, and then Tom Howard in Louisville when I moved out here.

Website: https://www.robinsonandhenry.com/team/bill-groh/

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