First Off, Let's Kill All the Lawyers is LIVE with Host Attorney David Heffernan and Guest Attorney Suzanne Amaducci Adams

Welcome to another episode of First off, let's kill all the lawyers. I'm David Heffernan and I've been practicing personal injury law here in Miami for nearly three decades. The goal behind this show is simply to bring in other lawyers from South Florida and other areas, in different areas of practices of law, get to know them a little bit, talk to them a little bit, find out about their practice. By the end of the podcast, maybe one by one, we can sort of remove them from the kill list. This one should be relatively easy. My guest this morning is Suzanne Amaducci Adams - good friend, phenomenal lawyer, fellow Orange Bowl member, and board of directors. So, we've got a lot to talk about. This is going to be an easy show because your type of law is something I know very little about. First off, how are you? I'm doing great. Thanks, Dave. Good morning. Good morning. All right. So let's talk about let's go way back for a little bit. What is it that drove you to practice law? Well, I was torn between the business school and law school didn't know what I wanted to do. Actually, originally, I wanted to go into the hotel business. Okay. I was told as a woman at the time, I mean, I'm pretty old. I was told as a woman at the time, there really weren't many opportunities there. And the highest rank that I would achieve would be an executive housekeeper. Now, if you know me, I am not a good housekeeper and that didn't seem like the best path career path for me. So, I ended up going to law school. So how do you wind up at Vanderbilt? Fine school. You know, it was one of those things I was between going to school in Boston, a bunch of friends had gone to Vanderbilt, it was kind of an unknown school. Now. It's the greatest you know, it's probably one of the hardest schools to get into. But it was unknown and I flew down I saw the campus and I decided let's try something new. Let's try the South. I knew nothing about the south at the time. Nashville certainly was not what it was like today. Right? Well, yeah, Nashville has changed quite a bit great, great city. Great City. But let me tell you, it was nothing like that. It was nice, you know, it was a suburban campus yet right next to downtown. Incredible southern influence. And it was a good time I learned a whole bunch about a different part of the country that I didn't know about Then we drive you further south geographically. But as I like to describe Miami, I think Miami is almost a northern city that's just located southern geographically. I was slowly moving my way south to the warm weather. I hated the winters. And I was always a big boater, so I needed to be near the water. Gotcha. All right. So, we get you down here you go to the University of Miami law school. And then your career path seems to take you where you had desires before. You're still sort of in the hotel industry to some degree, but a little different in you're not a housekeeper you're doing $6 billion deals and things like that. So billion, maybe a little bit, you know, was a $6 billion deal. So, let's talk about your practice and how this sort of evolved into what you've done. My passion is really development, and the hotel and Marina business. I worked in hotels as a kid, I love the business. It was great. I'm a big boater. So that's another asset I just happen to know a lot about and the best attorneys are the attorneys that understand their client's business, right so it healthcare doctors, you need to understand insurance, all sorts of stuff with real estate, you got to understand the way the building fits together. But then with these operating businesses like hotels and marinas, you have to understand the business, you have to understand where the money comes from, you have to understand, you know, the expenses, how to mitigate expenses, like I can walk in a marina and I can understand the condition of it, I can understand pretty much the revenue from looking at the type of boats that are there, which boats are there. And all the different businesses that are Marina, you've got fuel, you've got repair facilities, you've got restaurants, you've got bars, it's a big business. So, it's a good mix between business and law. All right. We're going to delve into that a little bit. Now just as a personal question, how in South Florida Do we not have more marinas more waterfront restaurants? I mean, we have such a beautiful venue and there just seems to be a shortage of all of them. You got a Fort Lauderdale seems to be a ton more marinas. You know, you've got restaurants and down here just not many. Well, there are a lot of marinas, okay. The boating activity has exploded exponentially, especially during COVID. So, there's just a shortage. Now as far as the waterfront restaurants are concerned, what's our most expensive real estate waterfront? It's really hard to make a go of it if you're a restaurant operator, and your rent is incredibly high because you're on the water. So there are a few, ...