His interest in personal injury litigation, in particular, was piqued. Jason then joined a major personal injury law firm in Corpus Christi before returning to San Antonio to start his own firm in 2015. He had been developing his own approach to negotiating, litigating, and moving cases forward and was eager to put it into practice.
“We just decided to go for it,” Jason says. “At least I could say I shot my shot.”
He and his first paralegal, Shelly, began building the practice from the ground up. Today, DeSouza Injury Lawyers has about 30 employees supporting a clear foundation: people injured by another party’s carelessness deserve aggressive representation.
Growth brought a different set of challenges. Personal injury practices can carry substantial case costs long before a resolution is reached, from expert witnesses to litigation expenses. At the same time, the firm must cover payroll and other operating costs. A litigation finance line gave the firm a clearer separation between operating needs and the capital required to pursue complex cases—helping create greater stability as the firm expanded.
Jessica joined the firm full-time in 2023 after more than a decade in nonprofit work. As CFO and CMO, Jessica’s responsibilities span the financial and marketing sides of the business. Her nonprofit experience has translated naturally into cultivating relationships and connecting with the right audiences.
“Plus, she knows how to handle numbers,” Jason says. He credits Jessica for bringing greater structure and oversight to the company’s financial operations, allowing Jason to spend more of his time doing what he set out to do: practice law and advocate for clients.
As the firm matured, Jason and Jessica knew they needed a CPA team that could offer more than year-end compliance. They wanted proactive, responsive guidance. After interviewing several firms, they chose Bankler Partners.
Jason was particularly impressed by the Bankler team’s ability to engage with a nuanced question about the tax treatment of personal injury law firms—an issue he had been trying to understand for years. Just as important, he saw that Bankler Partners had experience helping personal injury firms.
For Jessica, the partnership has provided reassurance as she has grown into the CFO role.
“Bankler is the real deal. I can tell them, ‘I don’t know what this means,’ and there’s no judgment; they just figure it out. It’s phenomenal. We know that Bankler Partners is going to make sure everything is lined up to a T,” Jessica says.
“Bankler seems to understand what the lifeblood is of their customers,” Jason adds. “They really get what our goals are.”
Learn more about DeSouza Injury Lawyers at jfdlawfirm.com