Attorney Howard Ellzey

Get to Know Me

Howard Iken:

Good morning. You’re Howard Ellzey, aren’t you?

Howard Ellzey:

Yes, I am.

Howard Iken:

And what’s your position at Ayo and Iken?

Howard Ellzey:

I’m a partner here at the firm.

Howard Iken:

And what do you do here?

Howard Ellzey:

I’m an attorney, and I practice family law here with the firm in our New Port Richey office.

Howard Iken:

Do you like it?

Howard Ellzey:

Most of the time, yes.

Howard Iken:

What do you like about it the most?

Howard Ellzey:

The main thing is that I get to help people get through the process of what’s a very difficult time in their life. Many times the most compelling reasons to help them get through is when there are children involved. Other times there are situations where there’s assets involved, and I kind of hate to see people wasting a good portion of their marital assets fighting over their marital assets, so I like to help them get through the process cleanly and efficiently, and in a way that allows them to go ahead on with their life, rather than living in despair, agony, acrimony, fighting, fussing, and all of the things that we typically associate with family law cases.

Well, one of the things that I think sets me apart from any other attorneys is, while we understand that these are emotional situations for people to go through, there are feelings that get involved, frankly, the statutes, the processes, and the procedures don’t have check boxes for feelings, whether you’re angry, whether you’re upset, or whether life is fair or not.

So what I can do with my clients most of the time is to acknowledge their feelings and tell them, “I understand. I’ve been through it myself, but we’re going to put these feelings in the container right here, acknowledging them. We’re going to put them up on a shelf, and when we need them, we’re going to use them. But in the meantime, what we’re going to do is to focus on the process, the procedures, the mechanics, the numbers, and the things that the court is actually concerned with, that allows us to get the case through so that you can move on with your life at the end.” If, at the time that we may need to get to trial, we can go back to that container of feelings and kind of sprinkle that in as you go,” so the client feels like that they are heard, but they’re also taken care of in a sense that makes the best financial sense for them.

Howard Iken:

What would you like potential clients to know about the person that you are?

Howard Ellzey:

Well, that, number one, I’m going to be ethical in my treatment of them. I know that we’re expensive enough as it is already. I’m going to be mindful of the way that we spend our time. I’m going to be mindful of what their goals are, and I’m going to be mindful of what their motivations are, and we’re going to talk with them about their case in the context of a cost benefit analysis.

Howard Iken:

A lot of people think attorneys just spit out a few words, sit behind their desk in a tie, and the money rolls in, and there’s no stress, no sweat, and it’s an easy day. Any truth to that?

Howard Ellzey:

Oh. Sometimes I don’t wear a tie, but no, it’s hard work. It can be stressful if you allow it to be, but if we allow that stress to impact us in a negative way, that’s going to impair our ability to do what we need to do.

Howard Iken:

If you had to come up with one compelling attribute, why someone should retain you, what is it?

Howard Ellzey:

I had a person one time, actually in the conference room over here, a potential client and her friend, and we had our communications with one another. We established the rapport, we talked about issues. We came up with a plan, and she looked over to her friend over there, and the friend says, “Well, what would you tell us about why we should hire you?”

I said, “I wouldn’t. We’ve already had our conversation. You got to know me. You heard me identify the issues. You see the way that I’m communicating with this individual here. So beyond that, I’m not here to sell somebody, to try to get them to be my client. Rather, if they want me to be their attorney because of who I am and the services that we offer, I’m more than happy to help if you can qualify to be my client, because I don’t always take everybody that walks in the door, just because they can throw money down. We have to make sure that there’s a good fit.”