Millbury – Paul
Tetzel understands the daunting task.
Opening a law practice in Boston will be tremendous competition for clients given the volume of such businesses in the big city, many of which have decades of history.
But Tetzel is as competitive as they come, and he believes Boston is ready for a Millbury graduate to take the law by storm.
Tetzel, a 2004 Millbury High graduate, is opening up his new law firm, Paul L. Tetzel, Esq., located on State Street in the heart of the state capital. The local has spent the last eight years as a practicing attorney in the Greater Boston area, but said his love of legal may have stemmed from a class he took at Millbury High School.
“I was in Mr. [Frank] Merrill’s class,” he said. “He had us take part in a mini trial. I was the prosecutor in the case. I thought about [being a lawyer] at that point.”
At the time, Tetzel said his future was more concerned with what happened Friday nights and Saturday afternoons as a standout for the football team. While attending college at Bentley in 2008, Tetzel was named Northeast-10 Conference Defensive Player of the Year and earned his way into the Cactus Bowl All-Star Game, which highlights the best Division II players in the country.
He was chasing a dream of playing in the NFL. Tetzel believes his high school and college football gave him intangibles for blitzing opposing sides in the courtroom.
“Being a litigator is somewhat competitive, adversarial and challenging,” he said. “Like football, in each [court] case, you are competing against the other side in order to get the better outcome. Playing baseball and football for Millbury translates to being a good litigator. A lot of it is a chess match.”
Tetzel is also a 2008 graduate of Bentley and 2011 graduate from Suffolk University. He has been involved in a number of tort, personal injury claims, and businessrelated litigation while working at his other Boston law firm.
Walking away from a quality firm was a tough decision and starting from the ground up is going to require many hours over the course of many years, Tetzel said, but opening his own has become a realized dream.
“Now it’s on me to bring in the business,” he said. “Everything has my name on it. I will be able to handle the cases I like.”
Paul L. Tetzel, Esq. began in February in Boston, a place Tetzel describes as “one of the great lawyer cities in the country.” He has one other lawyer working for him and hopes it will gradually expand to take on more and more cases with a diverse group of law professionals to “help people in a lot of areas,” he said.
Tetzel said reputation can be everything, and he is working to build one of his own by giving each client the attention he or she needs.
“That makes it a lot easier looking in the mirror,” he said. “I feel being from Millbury, growing up and playing sports here, it translates well to the drive I have each day. Nothing was ever handed to me. That comes from the teachers and coaches I had at Millbury High School.”
And as a former woolie, Tetzel said he is drawn to aiding the little guy or girl.
“I like to represent the individual rather than big insurance companies,” he said. “I like to represent the person who might not otherwise have the means to do so.”