Almost no one chooses to be sued. Most people who walk into my office arrive frightened, confused, and unsure of what comes next: a summons in the mail, a process server at the door, an accusation they never saw coming. I became an attorney to stand beside those people and steer them through one of the most stressful experiences of their lives. From the start, I wanted to help others, and the law allows me to do so precisely when my clients need help the most. I bring more than good intentions to that work: from the first meeting, Tyson & Mendes’s trial-tested defense method, The Apex, gives me a disciplined and proven way to prepare each client, tell their story, and steady them for what lies ahead.

The Reward Runs Both Ways

I have always liked to help people, and over time, I have learned that helping others helps me in return. That instinct is more than sentiment. It is well researched. Studies of altruism find that people who give to—and care for—others report greater well-being, happiness, and even better health than people who do not, provided they do not over-extend.¹ Experimental work points the same direction: When researchers gave people money and asked some to spend it on others, those who spent on someone else reported greater happiness than those who spent on themselves.² Practicing law lets me act on that instinct every day. Each time I advise a client in a way that helps resolve a problem, I feel the lift that the research describes: The work gives back to me as much as I put into it.

A Guiding Light Through a Frightening Process

The need runs deepest when a person faces a crisis or becomes the target of a lawsuit. Clients in that position rarely know what to expect, what to do, or how to react. The process feels foreign and frightening, and the stakes—money, reputation, livelihood—can feel overwhelming. In those moments, I serve as a guiding light. I explain each step, set realistic expectations, and shoulder the weight of the litigation so my clients do not carry it alone. My work at Tyson & Mendes places me squarely in that role: I defend individuals and businesses someone has brought into court, and I help turn a bewildering process into one they can navigate with confidence.

A First-Generation Work Ethic

I am not only a first-generation attorney but also a first-generation American. My parents immigrated to the United States from Poland in the 1980s, and they built their lives here through relentless effort. They instilled in me a work ethic that I consider the single strongest factor behind my success, and the very reason I chose this career. I became an attorney because I love the work, the challenge, and the competition it demands. Litigation rewards exactly that temperament. I thrive under the pressure of deadlines, the discipline of preparation, and the contest of advocacy. Tyson & Mendes gives me a steady supply of the work I find most rewarding, and it lets me put that inherited work ethic to its best use.

How My Work at Tyson & Mendes Fulfills Me

Both reasons find a home in my practice at Tyson & Mendes. The firm defends individuals and businesses that someone has hauled into court—often the very people who feel most frightened, blamed, and unsure where to turn. Standing in that gap is the work I came to do. The firm’s defense philosophy reinforces it; its Nuclear Verdicts® approach centers on showing the jury the real human being behind the defendant, demonstrating how my client acted reasonably, and restoring common sense to a case that opposing counsel has tried to enflame. That method asks me to do exactly what drew me to law in the first place: to tell an anxious person’s story honestly and to guide that person, and the jury, toward a fair result.

The environment fulfills the other half of who I am. Tyson & Mendes runs a fast-moving and sophisticated litigation practice, so I carry multiple active matters at once, each with its own deadlines, motions, depositions, and stakes. That steady demand is precisely the arena for which my parents’ work ethic prepared me, and the adversarial nature of the work feeds my appetite for competition. Just as important, the firm pairs our work with mentorship from seasoned litigators and a proven trial methodology—The Apex—so I not only work hard but also sharpen my craft and learn to win. Defending a premises liability matter one day and an employment claim the next keeps the challenge fresh and pushes me to keep growing. At Tyson & Mendes, my two reasons never compete: The same case that lets me steady a worried client also delivers the demanding contest I love, and the work satisfies both at once.

How The Apex Lights the Way for Clients

The same method that fulfills me also makes me a stronger advocate for the people I represent. Tyson & Mendes built a data-backed, trial-tested defense strategy called The Apex, where every element works toward a single goal—defusing the juror anger that drives runaway Nuclear Verdicts®—and whose engine is the Core Four: accepting responsibility, personalizing the defendant, giving a number, and arguing pain and suffering.³ Those strategies rest on three themes the firm has long championed: responsibility, reasonableness, and common sense.⁴ I do not save any of this for the courtroom; I use it from the first client meeting, because each principle helps me prepare a client, tell that client’s story, and replace fear with confidence.

1. Accept responsibility. I counsel clients that we will own what is genuinely ours instead of fighting every fact the way jurors expect the defense to. Taking reasonable responsibility disarms juror anger, and it relieves the client, who no longer has to deny the undeniable or appear evasive. Telling this truth steadies them.
2. Personalize the defendant. I help a client become a human being to the jury rather than a faceless company or an empty chair. Long before trial, I sit down with a property manager or business owner to draw out who they are and why they made the decisions they made. Rehearsing that story turns an anxious witness into a confident one who owns the narrative.
3. Give a number. Rather than cede the damages figure to the plaintiff, I prepare clients for the number conversation with a reasonable, defensible figure of our own. Walking a client through realistic exposure replaces dread of the unknown with a clear understanding of the case and confidence that we have a plan.
4. Argue pain and suffering. I address non-economic damages directly and reasonably instead of ignoring them and hoping the jury will too. Showing a client we will engage the hardest part of the case head-on, with empathy and common sense, assures them nothing about their defense is being left to chance.

Used together, these principles turn a frightening, foreign process into a clear plan. When clients understand the strategy, and trust me to tell their story, they walk into a deposition or courtroom with confidence. That is the heart of what drew me to law—helping someone in a difficult moment—and The Apex gives me a proven, repeatable way to deliver.

The Apex® of It All

I became an attorney for two reasons that reinforce each other: a lifelong drive to help people and a work ethic my immigrant parents instilled in me. The profession lets me serve as a guiding light for clients in crisis while satisfying my appetite for demanding, competitive work, and research confirms what I feel in practice: that helping others lifts the helper’s own well-being. My work at Tyson & Mendes fulfills both halves of that purpose, pairing meaningful service to people in difficult moments with the litigation environment in which I do my best work. The Apex ties the two together: It gives me a disciplined method for telling each client’s story and easing their fear, and it channels my competitive drive into work that serves people fairly. That is why I practice law, and why I intend to keep practicing it for many years to come.

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The Guiding Light: Why I Became an Attorney Anatomy of a $12 Million Verdict—Part Two: How The Apex Could Have Changed the Trajectory of a Warren County Trucking Case Anatomy of a $12 Million Verdict—Part One: How the Apex Could Have Changed the Trajectory of a Warren County Trucking Case Sweat the Small Stuff: How Early-Morning Exercise Strengthens Me Professionally

Sources

1. Stephen G. Post, Altruism, Happiness, and Health: It’s Good to Be Good, 12 Int’l J. Behav. Med. 66 (2005).
2. Elizabeth W. Dunn, Lara B. Aknin & Michael I. Norton, Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness, 319 Science 1687 (2008).
3. Robert F. Tyson, Jr. & Cayce E. Lynch, Nuclear Verdicts: The Apex – Break the Pattern (2025).
4. Robert F. Tyson, Jr., Nuclear Verdicts: Defending Justice for All (2020).