Sam Aguiar

A Different Kind of Lawyer

Sam was born and raised in East Providence, Rhode Island. In 1995, he moved to western Kentucky, graduating high school from Murray High and college from Murray State. After completing his 1L year at Tulane Law School, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, prompting Sam to transfer to the University of Louisville. He graduated there with his JD in 2007.

Sam is the first to admit that he wasn’t the best student in law school; his passion for the law didn’t arise until he began fighting for clients as a Plaintiff’s attorney. In his first two years working for a high volume personal injury firm, Sam personally met with over 1500 clients while litigating a caseload of over 100 cases. He attributed the time spent meeting with clients and learning their individual stories as the primary stepping stone to where he is today.

In 2010, Sam opened his law firm with a handwritten budget, two employees and barely enough capital to cover six months of expenses. Today, the firm has nine attorneys, forty employees and a firm culture which makes the firm incredibly unique.

Throughout the firm’s existence, Sam has been one of the most prolific trial lawyers in Kentucky, taking more cases to jury trial than nearly all Plaintiff’s attorneys in Kentucky. Sam loves being David vs. Goliath; his passion is taking on insurance companies and large corporations for individuals and families who have had life changing events. Over the past five years, Sam has obtained multi-milllion dollar recoveries for more than twenty clients. His most recent case against an insurance resulted in the largest bad faith class action settlement in Kentucky’s history.

Sam’s accomplishments extend well beyond financial recoveries. He now only selects cases which carry the prospect in substantial change. His work has resulted in the implementation of forward and rear facing dash cameras for one of the country’s largest trucking companies, the complete reformation of local police pursuit policies, the elimination of targeted traffic stop policies, statewide police reform and legislation, complete overhaul of claims handling processes of the country’s largest property and casualty insurer, and, most recently, the local and nationwide reforms arising out of the case of Breonna Taylor.

Seeing that many lawyers were apprehensive to take on the long and expensive challenge of the cases, Sam stepped up to the task. His passion for civil rights litigation has evolved over his career, beginning with a 2008 police chase that resulted in the death of four teenagers. He has since obtained a seven figure verdict against a local police department and recovered several multi million dollar settlements for families who suffered due to wrongful use of force. He has also represented more than a dozen police officers on cases involving discrimination, injury and wrongful termination.

In 2020, Sam had the honor of representing the family of Breonna Taylor. Less than four months after filing a lawsuit on the case, he recovered one of the largest police shooting settlements in the history of the country. While the monetary recovery was an incredible result, Sam is more proud of the reform measures negotiated out of the settlement. Amongst the many reform measures were search warrant policy overhauls, mandatory monitoring of police officer red flags, incentives for officers to live in Louisville and do community service and the requirement that internal investigations into officers continue if they officers leave the department.

Sam has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, NBC News, ABC’s 20/20, a full-length Hulu documentary, Netflix produced mock trial scheduled to air in early 2022 and dozens of other news outlets.

Sam credits his success to his wife, Janelle, and to his incredible employees. He is the proud father of two sons: one is a junior at George Mason university and the other is in the second grade.

Sam and his firm are committed to giving back. He preaches to his employees that the satisfaction of changing someone’s life for the better is as good as it gets. His firm has donated millions of dollars to charitable causes and has performed thousands of hours of pro bono legal work and volunteer work for local organizations.

The most flattering experience of Sam’s career was the request to give the commencement speech to the 2021 class of Brandeis law graduates. He is so proud of all of those graduating and cannot wait to see all of the good that each class member does for the communities they serve.

Verdicts & Settlements

Sam’s firm has obtained over $100,000,000.00 in verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients.

• $ 12.0 Million – Wrongful Death Case
• $ 6.1 Million – Truck Accident
• $ 5.2 Million – Car Accident
• $ 3.0 Million – Truck Accident
• $ 2.5 Million – Truck Accident
• $ 2.0 Million – Truck Accident
• $ 1.25 Million – Civil Rights
• $ 1.6 Million – Car Accident

Accomplishments & Recognition

Sam has been honored to obtain several accomplishments including, best-selling author status for his book, “A Cup Of Coffee With 10 of the Best Personal Injury Lawyers in the United States”. He was also named a Top 100 Trial Lawyers and Top 40 Under 40 by The National Trial Lawyers, a Super Lawyers Rising Star, and being selected to serve on the Brandeis School of Law Alumni Council. Sam is also a member of the The Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys Group.

Languages

English

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