Pensacola Personal Injury Attorney Reflects on 40 years of Practice

Pensacola, Fla. – A Pensacola personal injury attorney will be celebrating 40 years of practicing law on October 24th of this year. Terence A. Gross of Gross & Schuster Injury Attorneys celebrates this occasion by reflecting on the last 40 years of practicing law in Northwest Florida.

After graduating from Florida State’s College of Law in May of 1979 and passing the Florida Bar exam, Gross was sworn in by the Circuit Judge Clay Mitchell in Pensacola, Florida. Soon after, he began to work for John Peter Kirtz handling a variety of cases involving criminal, family, and personal injury law.

In April of 1981, at the young age of 27, Gross branched out on his own and opened his own law office known as the Law Offices of Terence A. Gross. At first, he continued to handle a variety of cases but as time progressed, he came to realize that his focus was better spent on personal injury cases as he did not enjoy family law and he could not focus on both the demands of a criminal practice and representing accident victims.

In 2002 Charles Schuster, a friend and former partner at an insurance defense firm approached Gross to offer assistance for the growing caseload. By 2010 the team moved their Pensacola law office to the corner of Palafox and Cervantes in a building constructed in 1915 that formerly housed the Board of Health. They still practice in that building today.

Over the last 5 years, both of Gross’s sons, Marcus (Rhett) Gross and Tyler Gross, who also graduated Florida State University School of Law, have joined the firm as partners and have helped it grow substantially. Today, the law firm has 5 offices across Northwest Florida with a third of their practice involving accident claims arising out of Okaloosa County.

Both Schuster and Gross are board-certified civil trial lawyers. There are over 100,000 lawyers in the state of Florida yet less than 2,000 are board-certified in civil trial law by the Florida bar. Additionally, Gross is Av-rated by Martindale Hubbell, an honor only given to less than 10% of all Florida lawyers.

When asked what the most rewarding part of his career was, Gross stated, “Building this law firm from nothing. I ventured out in 1981 and I am amazed at where the firm is today. Presently we have 4 lawyers that are all partners, including my 2 sons (Marcus) Rhett Gross and Tyler Gross. We presently represent several hundred individuals injured in accidents due to the negligence of another. We have five offices throughout the panhandle and have been able to maintain a successful practice without spending tens of thousands of dollars on billboards and TV ads.”

Over the years, Terence Gross has lectured many times at Florida State’s School of Law as well as Cumberland Law School in Birmingham. He has given over 100 seminars throughout the state of Florida for various organizations. He was also the author of Chapter 3 of Florida’s Automobile Insurance Manual and has been an adjunct professor at Pensacola State University for over 25 years.

“It is really hard to believe that I have been a lawyer now for over 40 years. I have no intentions of retiring anytime soon,” says Gross. “I really enjoy practicing with my sons. We all get a lot of pleasure out of trying to help accident victims recover compensation from the insurance companies of the at-fault tortfeasor.”

To learn more about Gross and Schuster or to retain their services, visit their website at www.grossandschuster.com.