Cherise Challenger on Client Advocacy | The AICA Podcast Ep. 1

Jeff Shaw (00:00)

Welcome to the AICA podcast. I’m Jeff. And today we’re excited to welcome Cherise Challenger to the podcast. Cherise is the founder and managing attorney at Challenger Law Group, which focuses on personal injury and criminal defense. She’s licensed to practice law in Georgia, Texas, DC, and the US Supreme Court. Very cool. I bet you have fun stories about that.

Cherise Challenger (00:24)

Thank you. Absolutely.

Jeff Shaw (00:26)

Cherise has served as president of the DeKalb Lawyers Association and been a member of several organizations, including Lawyers Club of Atlanta, Ends of Court, and the Junior League. Outside of the office, just, you know, in all that spare time, Cherise is a wife and mother of three, a health enthusiast, and a dedicated advocate for work-life balance. Love that. Welcome to the show, Cherise.

Cherise Challenger (00:51)

Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Jeff Shaw (00:55)

Awesome, well let’s jump right in. Personal injury, it’s a unique space to practice law in. What was it about, especially with your background and transition from criminal law, what was it about the personal injury space that drew you in?

Cherise Challenger (01:12)

So actually, this started long before I went to law school. So I was actually in a car accident myself ⁓ about six months prior to me going to law school. And I was injured pretty bad. ended up having my hand. I was a passenger in a car. And my hand ended up going through the windshield because it was a car that ran a red light and T-boned us. And so I was trying to brace for impact. The car flipped over and my hand went through the windshield. And so I ended up having to have surgery on my hand.

Jeff Shaw (01:29)

my goodness.

Cherise Challenger (01:40)

And so at that time, I didn’t know any lawyers. I was like, what do I do? Who do I call? And so I did what probably a lot of people did back then, which is probably telling my age. But I looked at the yellow pages and found somebody there and just went with that person and hoped for the best. And so at that time that I went through this accident, mean, the lawyer, think he did a pretty good job. But one thing that I did not like that it was a good takeaway for me is that I never knew what was going on with my case. I really didn’t talk to the lawyer. I never saw any documents. just know like months later, I just got a call that like, hey, your check is here. And so I wanted to change that. And so for me, we’re a boutique firm where I’m very hands-on with all of my clients. I know all of my clients and names and everything. They’re not just a number. And I wanted to make sure that we share everything with our clients. Our clients know from the very beginning what’s going on with that case.

And they always have access to my staff as well as to me to be able to talk about that case. Because it’s a scary time. Most times people have never been in accident before, so they don’t know what to do. How do you handle the insurance companies? What do I do about my car? What do I do about work? So just these basic questions that as lawyers we know because we deal with it all the time that I want to make sure that my clients are also well equipped to be able to go through that process too.

Jeff Shaw (03:03)

so good and sorry that you had to go through that.

Cherise Challenger (03:07)

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Jeff Shaw (03:08)

Yeah,

I think just to underscore what you said though, I’m sure there are listeners thinking, wait, Cherise was an attorney, she was in an accident, but she still got an attorney. And I just want to underscore that because I’m an attorney as well. I was in a car accident. I tried to handle it initially and it was really difficult, really time consuming.

And, and went and found an attorney myself too, as an attorney. So yeah, I think having someone who knows how to navigate that space and gives that dedicated client care is so important.

Cherise Challenger (03:46)

Absolutely. I’ll say this. Let me just correct you here. This was before law school. So this was literally like six months before law school. And I was so nervous because it was my right hand that was injured and I’m right handed. And so I was so nervous, like, I need to delay law school and everything? But to piggyback what you just said, that is so important because just because I am an attorney doesn’t mean I know every avenue, excuse me, every area of law.

Jeff Shaw (03:51)

Okay.

Cherise Challenger (04:12)

And that’s what sometimes we get that misconception. You know how you get your friends always calling you like, hey, I need assistance. know, my dog just died. What do I do? Or, hey, can you help me with this wheel? And I’m like, that’s not my area. Just like when you go to a doctor, you won’t go see a cardiologist if you’re having issues with your feet. You go see a podiatrist, right? So it’s the same thing with lawyers. So it is very important to be able to get that lawyer who specializes in that area to be able to help you with your case.

Jeff Shaw (04:40)

So good. So not only are you in law practice, but you launched your own firm, which is incredible. So what was the moment you knew that you were ready to take the leap from being a lawyer to also managing a law firm?

Cherise Challenger (04:48)

Thank you.

So before law school, I’ve always had a vision. In fact, even as a little girl, I’ve always wanted to go to law school. My brothers, I have three older brothers, they will always say that I always want to argue my point and prove them wrong and prove me right. And so I’ve always had this dream to go to law school. But even fast forward, I knew that I wanted to be a firm owner. I just didn’t know when and what that looks like because I didn’t want to come out fresh out of law school. Like some people do, they hang up their own shingo and that’s awesome, but I didn’t want to make those mistakes without having a knowledge of how to practice law, right? Because law school doesn’t teach you how to practice law, right? And so I knew though is that I remember I was at a party and I was working for the government at that time and I met a young, well, I call him a young man, but I met someone that became my mentor.

And we were just talking about things. And I was like, yeah, I want to go on my own right now. But my youngest daughter, she’s one years old. I think I’m going to wait until she turns five. So that way she’s a little bit older. And he was like, what are you waiting for? Like, her schedule won’t get easier by you waiting. It’s actually going to get worse, because she’s going to be in more sports and activities. And you got school. And you’re trying to balance everything. So now is really the time. He was like, you’re ready. You can totally do this. And he’s also firm owner, doing really, really well.

And so once I got that kind of like a green light, like, okay, I can do this. And I said, you know what, let me step out on faith. And that’s what I did. And here we are almost four years in.

Jeff Shaw (06:26)

Incredible, congratulations.

Cherise Challenger (06:28)

Thank you. Thank you.

Jeff Shaw (06:31)

So in your representation of your clients, what are the kinds of things that just get you fired up when you’re advocating for them?

Cherise Challenger (06:38)

These adjusters, I tell you. So that gets me fired up. I mean, we all need insurance. I have insurance, right? We’re required to say to Georgia and most other States, you’re required to have car insurance, right? But what gets me fired up is when clients come into me and they just don’t know what’s going on. And they think these insurance adjusters are their friends.

Cherise Challenger (07:04)

So case in point, I had one client was in a car accident, no fault of his own. And the insurance adjuster was trying to send him a check, and did send him a check for $1,000. And so what happened in that particular case is the insurance adjuster kept talking to him and said, hey, here’s a check for $500. We’ll go ahead and settle it now. You just need to sign. You need to sign. He was like, well, wait a minute. And he was like, I’m in, you know, and he was injured. He was like, no, I’m in treatment. You know, I’m.

I’m injured.” And he’s like, well, that’s okay. We’ll take care of your medical bills after that. Just send us a bill. Go ahead and sign, sign, sign. He was like, no, something is wrong. So he said, let me pause. And so he actually spoke to one of his coworkers who was a client of mine, told him what’s going on. He was like, look, you need to reach out to her. So he contacted me. I had him come in for a consultation. We signed him up. I said, send me the check. And then he sent me the check or he provided the check to me. I called the insurance company myself and said, hey,

I signed up this client, here’s my client now. What are the policy limits? The policy limits was $100,000. And they were trying to get him to sign away his rights and any potential injuries or future injuries that we don’t even know of because he just started treatment for $1,000. So things like that really gets me fired up because at the end of the day, it’s really saving a dollar for that insurance company.

And so stuff like that is what really burns me up.

Jeff Shaw (08:29)

that’s good. I could tell in your response.

Cherise Challenger (08:32)

Yes.

Jeff Shaw (08:33)

Well, I’m excited after that to hear your answer to this next one. So if you were going to have a theme song or entry music, you know, when you come into the courtroom for your law firm, what would your song be?

Cherise Challenger (08:43)

Right. Right.

⁓ So I am a very, I’m a firm believer, you know, as far as in my faith and my belief. And so my song will be Corrine Hawthorne, Unstoppable. And she’s actually, her song is on like some of my TikTok videos and stuff. And I just, and it’s not that I’m so better than everyone that I’m unstoppable is that I don’t give up. So I am of the belief if the door closes, I am going to find a window to go through.

I don’t give up. And so that’s what makes me unstoppable is that I’m going to keep trying and keep working hard and fight for my clients because they deserve that.

Jeff Shaw (09:24)

Okay, Corinne, was she American Idol or The Voice? Do you know? I just…

Cherise Challenger (09:29)

I don’t know,

because I don’t watch either, so I don’t even know. ⁓

Jeff Shaw (09:33)

I remember

whatever it was, I remember watching her season, cheering her on to win. She’s very talented and I love that song choice for you. It definitely, definitely seems like it fits.

Cherise Challenger (09:41)

Okay. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely. So yeah, that’s my phone choice. That’s my thing.

Jeff Shaw (09:50)

Very good. So as you kind of think about your practice up to this point, I know lawyers always have wild stories and you have to be careful to protect attorney client, but is there a kind of a craziest or most memorable story that you could share with our listeners?

Cherise Challenger (10:07)

So I’ll give you one on the criminal side. I know I talk about personal injury, because personal injury, so let me just let our listeners know, is that when I first started out on my own, almost four years ago, I used to be a prosecutor. So I went into criminal defense. And so now my practice has transitioned, whereas now we’re probably about 85 % personal injury and about 15 % criminal. And so.

I would say a wow story for me is something that I was able to really touch, was very touching for me. And this was on the criminal side. So I had a client who’s ⁓ a young client. He was under 21 and he was hanging out with the wrong crowd and really just doing things that he shouldn’t have done. And so he got in trouble. He got caught up and he ended up, he was actually facing a felony and he was facing jail time.

So by the time that we get to this case, we work it out and everything goes, he had changed his life around. was working, he was back in school, he was back home with his mom, he was just doing really, really well. And just realized that the company that he was keeping did not serve him and did not serve him well. Well, unfortunately though,

The courts don’t care. I mean, that’s great that you’re doing well, right? But you still committed this crime. You still have to be responsible for these actions. So he was still facing this felony. He was looking at some jail time. And this was probably about three years later since the crime actually took place. And so I was able to work with that prosecutor. And we went back and forth. And that prosecutor, she was very sincere. And she was very understanding. And I appreciate that with her.

And I was able to work with him like, look, this kid, yeah, he did some things. And we understand that this was a crime he committed, but this is not him now. He didn’t have any other history. He deserved a second chance. So we presented all the things that we’ve done as far as his schooling, as far as him working and different classes I had him take. And the prosecutor allowed him to allow that case actually was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor.

and he did not have any jail time. So he was able to walk home that he was able to walk away from that court date and go home as opposed to go to jail, which would have been prison because it would have been a felony conviction.

Jeff Shaw (12:29)

That’s incredible. Good work. Yeah. Yeah.

Cherise Challenger (12:31)

Thank you, thank you. That was that’s

probably most memorable, being able to help someone and give them a second chance. So yeah.

Jeff Shaw (12:38)

Love it. All right, well to close out our time together, if we have any either young attorneys, I know you talked about your mentor and you’ve got that heart for mentoring. Not that we’re not young, but for any younger attorneys or aspiring attorneys, what’s a word of advice or a word of wisdom you would have for

Cherise Challenger (12:51)

Yeah. ⁓

So this is what I, and this is what I live by. For one, believe in yourself. If you are a believer of faith, believe in your power and the power that has presented to you and know that you can do it. There are lawyers that, there are people who go to law school and become lawyers every day. Maybe not become an actual lawyer, because you gotta take the bar exam and that’s twice a year, but it happens every year. So you can do it. So believe in yourself and also whatever.

type of lawyer that you want to be, find a mentor that is doing exactly what you want to do, and then team up with that mentor. And I do it all the time, too. I have people that come to me and say, hey, can you help me? I see what you’re doing. Can you help me find my way? And I’m happy to help. We have interns in our office. We believe in that. But that’s what you need to do for yourself. Literally team up with somebody else that’s doing what you’re doing so that way you can get to where you need to get. And then when you get there,

Pay it forward for the next person.

Jeff Shaw (13:58)

So good. All right, you heard it here, everyone. Don’t wait for a mentor to find you. Take the initiative, go out, be brave, ask someone to take you under their wing. There’s lots of wonderful people like Cherise out there that are looking to pay it forward. So, well, this has been wonderful, Cherise. Thank you so much for your time and your insights and thank you to all of our listeners. Until next time.

Cherise Challenger (14:00)

Thank you.

Thank you.

Absolutely.