C. Arthur “Brother” Rutter III

The part I love most about being an attorney is sitting across the desk from someone, learning their story, and understanding what brought them to me. I have had that drive to take care of people and bring them justice since day one.

Much of it started because early in my career, a mentor told me, “Brother, don't miss all of this by 18 inches,” the distance between the brain and the heart. What he meant by that was that if you try to figure out a case too intellectually, without bringing your heart into it, you miss what the client actually needs. That's stayed true for me through every year of practicing law.

What has changed, though, is the industry around it. It's taken an unfortunate shift and lost its focus on client experience and client outcomes. It has gotten transactional instead of relational. That's not how I, or any of the attorneys at Rutter Mills, approach law.

I think of how I practice as a kind of Hippocratic Oath, the way a doctor takes care of a patient without worrying about the bill.

“I wish there were a Hippocratic oath for lawyers. We don't have that as an industry, but we do at this firm.”

That means treating every client the same way, no matter the size of the case. If someone walks through our doors after one of the hardest moments of their life, they deserve real care, not a transaction — because that’s the right thing to do.

“We measure success by what we do for others.”