Episode Details

EPISODE SUMMARY

What happens when a former SEC football player, prosecutor and preacher goes into business with a Spanish-speaking former semi professional basketball player who also happens to weld and play chess?

You get Banks Weaver.

Gabe Banks and Sam Weaver join Sports ’N Torts for a wide-ranging conversation about sports, trial law, entrepreneurship, family and the unlikely partnership behind their Atlanta law firm.

Gabe takes us back to his days playing football at Vanderbilt, including dropping what should have been a touchdown against South Carolina—then coming back to score on a 65-yard reverse—and what those experiences taught him about responding when things go wrong. Sam shares his own athletic résumé, including playing basketball while living in Peru and somehow ending up on an intramural basketball team at UGA with Nick Chubb and Malcolm Parrish.

The conversation moves from sports to the courtroom, where Gabe and Sam explain their very different trial styles, why they literally play chess while preparing cases, and how those differences have become one of the strengths of their partnership.

Gabe also shares stories from his years prosecuting gangs and murders in Fulton County, the threats that came with the job, why he sometimes handed defendants Starbursts during trial, and how becoming a criminal defense lawyer later changed some of his perspective on prosecution.

We also get into Sam's unusual welding background and how it became useful in a wrongful-death case involving a defective MARTA guardrail, the influence both men's fathers had on their careers, starting a law firm while their wives were pregnant, managing employees, Gabe opening a pizza restaurant with his daughter, and some of the unexpected challenges that come with owning a business.

And somehow we finish with Gerry DiNardo eating a dog biscuit before Vanderbilt played Georgia—and a conversation about authenticity, leadership and why jurors can tell when a trial lawyer is trying to be someone they're not.

A fun conversation with two very different lawyers who genuinely enjoy working together—and have plenty of stories to tell.

SHOW NOTES

Gabe Banks and Sam Weaver — Banks Weaver

Gabe Banks and Sam Weaver join Sports ’N Torts together for a conversation about sports, law, business, family and how two lawyers with very different backgrounds and personalities built Banks Weaver.

In this episode:

• How Gabe and Sam met and decided to start Banks Weaver
• Starting a law firm while both of their wives were pregnant
• Gabe's Vanderbilt football career and playing in the SEC
• Dropping a touchdown against South Carolina—and scoring on a 65-yard reverse shortly afterward
• The lessons Gabe still takes from football into trials and conversations with clients
• Sam's time living in Peru and his brief career as a “professional” basketball player
• A point guard smoking a cigarette immediately before taking the court
• How Sam ended up playing intramural basketball at UGA with Nick Chubb and Malcolm Parrish
• Gabe's perspective on NIL and how college football has changed since his playing days
• Sam's welding background and the giant metal deer he left behind at UGA
• How welding knowledge later became relevant in a MARTA wrongful-death case involving a defective guardrail
• Gabe and Sam's very different courtroom styles
• Why the two literally play chess while preparing cases for trial
• Gabe's years prosecuting gangs and murders in Fulton County
• Receiving threats as a gang prosecutor
• The International Robbing Crew case
• Why Gabe handed defendants Starbursts during trial
• How moving from prosecution to criminal defense changed Gabe's perspective
• The pressure of representing someone you believe is innocent
• The influen