The ICI was conceived and engineered to take on the hardest cases in the world. Cases that are too expensive, too risky, too complex. Cases that don’t even exist–not until we expose the corporate cover-up.
Every single person on our team has sacrificed (security, salary, vacation, family-time). For the mission. To make a difference for the people who need to win bigger than anyone imagined. Even in impossible cases.
Built Different Academy is for lawyers who are willing to do what it takes to win impossible cases for the people who need them. We inspire law students to find careers that make the world better, and we teach elite lawyers how to do the impossible. Winning righteous cases that make the world better is like a superpower. Built Different develops that superpower.
Led by John Uustal and a team of leading national attorneys, with a Top Gun style training format, Built Different is designed to enlighten lawyers–to put them in a position where they suddenly understand in their bodies as much as their minds what makes the difference in a courtroom.
Dale’s life was shattered by a surgery he never needed, performed for profit and followed by a series of catastrophic failures. A misplaced breathing tube cut off his oxygen, oxygen alarms were ignored, and when a nurse tried to call 911, the doctor knocked the phone from her hands. Dale survived but was left in a near-locked-in state, unable to move, speak, or communicate. His children cried themselves to sleep, unsure if their father even knew they were there.
The impossible case we took on revealed the full extent of the wrongdoing and secured the resources Dale needed to live safely at home, not in an institution. His family has since established a scholarship in his name. For them, and for ICI, that’s what justice fulfilled looks like.
Flo Rida gave up his usual multi-million dollar endorsement fee in order to have ownership in Celsius Energy Drinks, which was at the time a tiny company near his hometown. Sometime after his work as a brand ambassador, Celsius grew into a company valued at over ten billion dollars. He was entitled to 750,000 shares of stock if certain benchmarks were met. The company refused to issue that stock.
Because of the way the contract was written, Celsius felt secure enough to offer only a few hundred thousand dollars to settle the case.
John Uustal took the case to trial, and the jury ordered Celsius to pay $83 million.
When 25-year-old Corey was permanently paralyzed Corey by a company van at an intersection, it initially appeared to be a simple accident. But we refused to accept this company’s version of events.
We uncovered a corporate culture of systematic lawbreaking in which drivers routinely crossed intersections illegally to save time. We obtained surveillance footage from a year after the crash proving the dangerous practice had continued long after Corey was devastatingly harmed. We discovered the driver was texting despite company policy, and that both he and his passenger deleted their phone records. Deleted texts, missing documents, contradictory statements became evidence of a cover-up. What the company tried to bury, we brought to light.
So many lawyers turned down this case that the family almost gave up. But little Samantha was so badly hurt that they kept at it until they found John Uustal.
It took almost two years for Uustal to expose what was going on at the manufacturing facility in China: one of the most devious corporate cover-ups in history. The factory had been using the wrong size part in the safety mechanism of a pressure cooker. Once they discovered the mistake, they fixed it on future products but did not recall the old ones or notify the authorities.
As a result, two-year-old Samantha Gonzales had disfiguring burns to her face and body and suffered the partial amputation of all four limbs.
The factory almost got away with it. After Uustal figured it out, they paid one of the largest settlements in history.
Prior to this verdict, 500-1000 Americans were burning to death every year. Not anymore.
The Defense offered not one penny, but GM ended up paying a judgment of more than $90 million. It was considered the largest wrongful death verdict in Florida in 1998, and may still be.
John Uustal was able to pry loose certain documents so secret and so shocking that the CBS News Program 60 Minutes had cameras in the courtroom during the six-month trial and ran a broadcast on it.
Gage was just 3 years old when he was struck by a car. He suffered a profound brain injury, and doctors warned he might never walk again or live beyond a few years. Seven law firms turned his mother away. Desperate for answers and searching for a miracle.
The impossible case we took on uncovered the truth. A nearby construction site had created a hidden danger and covered it up. Through relentless strategy and investigation, we built the case no one else could. Today, Gage runs. For his family, and for ICI, that’s what personal victory looks like.
