By Richard Grimes
Charleston Daily Mail
January 8, 1996
Florida lawyer has national acclaim, successful firm.
As legal eagles go, C. Steven Yerrid comes close to owning the nest.
The Charleston native is a local boy who has made it big. As one of the nation's more successful lawyers, he has appeared on national television shows and a movie is being made about one of his cases.
Yerrid, 46, is a Georgetown University law graduate and president of the Tampa, Fla., law firm of Yerrid, Knopik and Valenzuela.
His multimillion dollar settlements put his name in newspapers throughout the country. Some of his court cases have been the subject of major network TV shows such as "20/20."
He has been selected to be in the Inner Circle of Advocates, an organization of the country's top 100 plaintiff trial lawyers.
Membership is by invitation only. Candidates must exclusively represent people who have been harmed or damaged. They must have tried at least 50 cases and obtained at least one jury verdict of $1 million or more.
Yerrid has more than qualified. He has tried more than 100 cases and has more than 20 jury awards of $1 million or more.
The lawyer's successful jury verdicts have been as high as $16 million.
Through it all, he has developed a national reputation for being able to craft effective court arguments for clients.
"My measurement of success is how much good you can do, not how much money you make," Yerrid said.
"All I ever wanted was the best I could ever be. I just wish my Mom and Dad were around to see it."
Yerrid was born in Charleston General Hospital and grew up on Watts Hill on Charleston's West Side.
His late father, Charlie Yerrid, worked in the Daily Mail composing room.
He attended Watts Elementary, but said that at a young age he started moving all around the region after his parents got a divorce.
But he moved back here and went to Chamberlain Elementary in Kanawha City and then to Horace Mann Junior High.
At age 13, he moved with part of his family to Tampa, Fla., and got a job bagging groceries. He says that since that age there has not been a day that he hasn't had a job.
His father died in 1983 and his mother died this past February. His mother is buried in Alum Creek and his father in Spring Hill Cemetery. A number of his relatives still live in this area and are Griffiths.
He also has a cousin in Charleston, Lester Yerrid, with whom he recently visited.
"Charleston is still very much home to me," the lawyer said. "In fact, I frequently use stories about my life in Charleston in the cases I represent."
He acknowledges that he got some marvelous breaks as he was growing up.
Yerrid recalls that one of those occurred when his father was working in the composing room for the Washington Post. Yerrid wanted to be a doctor, but his father encouraged him to go to law school.
"So he takes me to Katheryn Graham, who was publisher of the Post. She calls Georgetown University, which is located in that area, and asks them to interview me," Yerrid said. "The dean of the school said they would let me in during the fall semester, but if I didn't get a good grade on the exam, I was out."
"As it turned out, 630 took the exam and I got the highest grade in the class. Obviously, I got to stay at Georgetown."
He managed to earn enough money to pay his law school tuition by doing some construction work in the Virgin Islands and gambling in San Juan.
Yerrid then got a job working in the U.S. Senate in Washington, where he operated a private elevator for senators.
Next he became a congressional lobbyist for the American Hospital Association.
Yerrid got an offer to be a lobbyist for a big oil company, but decided instead to practice law in Tampa.
One of his early cases involved some Mafia people. A judge assigned him to defend one of the men. It turned out to be one of the largest racketeering cases in the nation at the time.
Yerrid apparently did his job. Most of the racketeers got extended sentences; his client only got 32 days.
Things have gone upward for him ever since.
He and his wife have an 8 year old son and he named a street after him near their estate, called San Gable Court. He then donated it to the city.
An inner circle of lawyers recently chose 24 of the best legal arguments in the nation and two of them were Yerrid's.
Yerrid says he would like to see some West Virginia lawyers get into this inner circle, adding, "Believe me, there are some very good lawyers in this state who should be recognized."
As to his own success, he said, "If you never stop trying and give your best, dreams come true. There is truth in those who seek it and justice to those who achieve it. But too often there are those who are innocent who are left without either. That's where I see my role in society."
Caseload
Here are some of the notable cases handled by lawyer C. Steven Yerrid:
In 1980, he represented a pilot whose ship crashed into a bridge in Tampa Bay, sending 35 people on a bus to their deaths. The ship's captain faced a possible murder charge and loss of his piloting license. Yerrid convinced a board of examiners that it was an act of God. The ship's pilot was pretty much cleared.
A man who worked for a major insurance agency was let go when it was discovered that he was carrying weapons at work. To keep the man from retaliating against corporate executives, the insurance company gave him a good recommendation and another insurance firm hired him. Later, the man shot and killed three employees at the new firm and injured two others, before committing suicide. Yerrid showed in court why the first insurance company was wrong for writing a false letter of recommendation. He got a million dollar-plus settlement from the first employer for the victims' widows.
He won $7.5 million for a couple whose toddler was strangled by an exercise seat.
Yerrid obtained $4 million for the family of a trucker killed at a railway crossing.
When banks first came out with automatic teller machines, people frequently were being robbed while getting money out of the outdoor machines at night. Yerrid took the case to court and sued Florida banks, showing that banks were creating an easy crime scene and demanding that they do more to protect customers. Security measures have since been taken.
A Bradenton, Fla., police officer shot and killed a young black man who was being pursued near a housing project. When the young man stopped and held up a bottle, the officer shot and killed him. A local police investigation cleared the officer, but Yerrid wasn't satisfied and has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the victim.
05/10/80
