Who Is Frank Darras
Interview With Frank Darras
When you meet Frank Darras, you immediately get a feeling of warmth and calm. He has a way of making you feel like you’ve known him forever. As we sat down to talk, I asked him to tell me how he became a Western State law school graduate and the nation’s leading disability and long term care lawyer.
He said, “if you told me as a graduating high school senior that one day I would champion the voice of the disabled, rebuilding their broken lives one insurance company at a time, I would have looked around to see who you were really talking to. Not me!”
Settling in for a candid discussion, it is easy to see that he is a very special person. “I came from humble beginnings. My family didn’t discuss portfolios, pensions or college accounts because we had no money to invest. Dad got his GED in the Marines and my mom was a high school graduate.”
Football was Frank Darras’ ticket to success. His blazing speed would be rewarded with a Big 10 scholarship and a chance at pro-ball. “All of that changed in a flash as my fingers slipped into a forklift chain while loading trucks the summer before my college football career was to begin. I learned the hard way to build my future on today, as tomorrow’s promises have a way of caving in on themselves.” Academics were never his priority and his scholastic skills needed rehabilitation. Without athletics, he would have to pay for his own education.
“I worked hard with my hands and back, shoveling out my fallen dreams. I went to junior college, then to a four-year college, but did not finish. Without a degree, I worked tons of jobs and finally landed a terrific medical sales opportunity in California.”
But Darras knew there was more. “With my younger sister, Helen Bather, beginning her second year at WSU, encouraging and paving the way for me, I began the application process. WSU was really my only choice. It was the largest law school in California, offered part-time class options, and was centrally located near five surrounding airports.” Airport location was key because Darras had a daunting business travel schedule, logging over a hundred thousand air miles a year.
“Convincing the WSU admissions director that I had the right stuff really took some selling.” With a sparkle in his eye, he recalls, “when you are not the smartest, you didn’t score at the top of the LSATs, when you’re short credits toward your undergraduate degree, starting law school after a seven-year break from college; all while needing to work a demanding job—I was certain I did NOT fit the WSU ideal student profile. I remember thinking, ‘if I could just get an interview, if WSU would give me a chance, I would not disappoint them’.”
Frank Darras got his interview.
“While sitting across the desk from the admissions director, I tried to convince him that I could handle the academic rigor and my job, even before there was email and cell phones. I remember telling him, ‘yes, it would be the challenge of my life, but wasn’t that what WSU really offered—a chance to rise above and better yourself’?”
At the end of that interview, I made him a promise, “if you open this door for me, one day I will make a difference in the law and you will be proud to call me a WSU graduate.”
Darras doesn’t downplay the difficulty of that challenge. “With the help of fellow students and a faculty that encouraged success, I thrived. I learned to prioritize, organize and maximize my time to meet the demands of law school and have success as a businessperson. I remember how proud my wife, Marleen was, on my graduation day. Four years of law school and a full time job left little time for us as newlyweds. Lucky for me, she saw a very rough diamond; without her encouragement, financial support and tireless love, I never would have graduated. She was the bedrock of strength that kept me upright during the emotional roller coaster of law school. Twenty-two years later, the chance WSU gave me has changed our lives and enhanced the lives of our children, Natasha, 14 and Nico, 12.”
After law school, Darras volunteered with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, where he gained much needed trial experience. In February 1988, he became an associate with Shernoff and Levine, nationally recognized pioneers in the field of insurance bad faith. Darras was allowed to cut his teeth working with the best in the business. Within two whirlwind years, he became a name partner, after mentoring by senior partner William Shernoff and HMO giant Michael Bidart. Fifteen years later, the name Shernoff, Bidart and Darras, LLP is still proudly on the door.
Despite his remarkable success, Darras has remained down to earth. “I had no business dreaming I would be at the top of the legal profession,” he says. “I just wanted to help those who were less fortunate and fight the mighty giants of the insurance world. David vs. Goliath battles, with real life consequences and financial futures hanging in the balance,” he continues. “I loved long odds! David is your friend and Goliath just cannot win. The blessing of coming from nothing is that fear is not an option. You knock down what is in front of you, whether it is a 6’5” linebacker or a 6.5 billion dollar insurance company,” says Darras.
He credits his success to doing work he believes in and the education he received at Western State. “I devoted my career to fighting for the weak and the sick. The poor and disabled came first, in great numbers. The wealthy heard about me and came too. When you are doing the right thing, for the right reason, for the right people, word really gets out. ”
Darras’ client list reads like the Who’s Who of elite athletes, television and motion picture stars, doctors, lawyers, business professionals and CEO’s. “The pride of my practice comes from representing those with backgrounds like mine, the blue collar worker.”
Today, nineteen years after graduating WSU, Darras helps those with individual disability problems; ERISA issues, credit card, auto and mortgage disability cases and long-term care policyholders.
With the largest disability practice in America, he reviews and evaluates more than 1000 new referrals every month, from his Ontario, California operation. His litigation practice alone returns nearly $40 million a year to the chronically ill and disabled. For three years in a row he has achieved “10 Million Dollar Rainmakers Circle” status for lawyers whose annual legal fees exceed 10 million dollars a year. He has been honored with “Super Lawyer” status in 2004 and 2005, listed in Outstanding Lawyers of America and in Best Lawyers in America.
“I am very fortunate to have the education I received from WSU that has allowed me to make a difference in the law and the lives of so many. This has fueled my passion to make good on my promise to WSU,” he says. “I have offered clerking opportunities to WSU students, hosted receptions for prospective entrants and showed them how WSU changed my life. I have hired those much smarter than I to work as attorneys at my firm, chaired the WSU alumni foundation, was inducted into the WSU Hall of Fame and sit as a member of the Board of Directors.”
It is with great humility that he adds, “naming the Moot Court in honor of Frank and Marleen Darras tells the world, ‘it took both of us to accomplish what we have done.’”
“I am very proud to be your fellow Western State alumni and a part of the WSU family.”
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