The Glamorous Grind
Where grit meets glamour, and the law is always in style.
Hosted by attorneys Ilona Antonyan and Mila Arutunian of Antonyan Miranda LLP, The Glamorous Grind delivers bold conversations at the intersection of law, lifestyle, and mindset.
Each episode features riveting stories from inside the courtroom, celebrity interviews, and real-life legal battles that shape lives and headlines. From empowerment and entrepreneurship to manifestation and vision boards, we explore the hustle behind the glam with fearless insight.
No topic is off-limits! Expect unfiltered talk on relationships, mental health, success strategies, and building your legacy.
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The Glamorous Grind
Passion: How a Drummer Became a TBI Attorney
When passion meets purpose, extraordinary results follow. Attorney Eric Ganci embodies this principle in every aspect of his multifaceted career—from drummer to DUI defense attorney to brain injury specialist. His journey reveals a powerful truth: authenticity isn't just personally fulfilling it's professionally advantageous.
Eric's signature bow ties aren't just fashion statements but symbols of his commitment to bringing his whole self to his work. "Lean into who you are as a person, then jurors respond well," he explains, sharing how this philosophy has contributed to his impressive record of 72 trial victories. Rather than compartmentalizing his creative side, Eric draws strength from the intersection of his musical background and legal expertise, recognizing that both require mastery of technical foundations before artistic expression can flourish.
What truly sets Eric apart is his relentless pursuit of understanding. After witnessing a family member's struggle with brain injury, he channeled that personal connection into professional expertise. His commitment runs so deep that he voluntarily undergoes the same neuropsychological testing as his clients to fully comprehend their experiences. This level of dedication transforms typical attorney-client relationships into profound connections built on genuine empathy and advocacy.
For those feeling pressured to hide parts of themselves professionally, Eric offers liberating perspective. He demonstrates that our seemingly disparate passions often enhance rather than diminish our effectiveness. The art that makes him a musician strengthens his storytelling in court; the precision required in law enhances his creativity in music. This integration creates something uniquely powerful that clients recognize and respect.
Whether you're considering a career pivot or struggling to reconcile different aspects of your identity, Eric's story serves as permission to embrace your authentic complexity. Your uniqueness isn't something to suppress—it's your greatest professional asset. Ready to stop hiding your edge and start leveraging it? This conversation might just change how you define success.
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🎙️ Hosts: Ilona Antonyan & Mila Arutunian
📲 Follow us on IG: @glamorousgrindpodcast
What is the secret to success? And he said passion.
Eric:When you really love something and you want to dive into it, then you just figure everything out as soon as you can.
Mila:Today's episode is all about following your passion. If you are passionate in what you do, you will undoubtedly become successful at it.
Ilona:Welcome to the Glamorous Grind where grit meets glamour and ambition always finds a spotlight.
Mila:Seems like everything you do. You just put your heart and soul into it.
Eric:That's very important to me to be able to tell the client's story.
Ilona:We're sitting down with a brilliant and bold Eric Gonci, a drummer, a former DUI trial attorney with 72 trials under his belt and now a personal injury powerhouse focusing on brain injury cases.
Eric:I have a passion for that. I have a family member who unfortunately went through a really gnarly brain injury.
Mila:Maybe you thought of switching lanes or following multiple passions, but weren't ready to take the leap. This episode might just have some answers for you.
Ilona:All right, Eric. Well, thanks for being here and wearing a beautiful bow tie. I love your bow tie.
Eric:What's the?
Ilona:secret behind that.
Eric:Behind the bow ties. Yes, it was born out of stress. I thought this is such a stressful job as you both know as fantastic lawyers and trial lawyers and I was doing a necktie for God the first nine or ten years and I thought I want to just enjoy something that's just a little bit different. So I started doing the bow ties and then but I wasn't going to do clip-on bow ties because people ask me all the time, oh is that tied? Which I think is a ridiculous question to be asked. So I just started wearing them. It took me years before I would wear them before a jury, but I really enjoyed all the various bow ties that I have, and even my mom has made me some bow ties, which is super cool, so it's something I really enjoy.
Mila:And when I saw your bow ties, my first thought was like that is very brave, that's a brave fashion statement, right? Because, like, not everyone could pull that off and to me it immediately signaled that you came off as like so confident, so knowing what you're doing, and you wore that bow tie with such pride. It told me immediately that you are not afraid to be your authentic self, no matter what anyone thinks.
Eric:Yeah.
Ilona:And my impression, now that you asked for it was wow, that bow tie is big, because normally big bow ties are smaller, like I've seen some judges wear them and others, but yours like stands out and it's perfectly done, so I wouldn't be surprised why people think it's pre-made. To me it's like go big or go home.
Eric:Yeah, I think that, especially having done a lot of jury trials jurors, their BS meters are like really on all the time Because they have nothing to do but just sit there and just watch the story unfold and the movie unfold before them. So they do a lot of like. I've won trials before because the jurors like my cufflinks and I was like what do you think about the facts? They're like yeah, the facts were fine, we just love your cufflinks. Okay, great, I mean, I won the trial, so that's good. The bow tie thing, it's, I just like it. Lean into who you are as a person, then jurors respond well and other people generally respond well to you. If you're just being a very true version of yourself, as soon as you're trying to like fake it in some way, shape or form, people don't like to be around that. But then once you feel comfortable with what you're doing, then it just comes off that way and it's just something that you know I enjoy.
Ilona:So how many years have you been an attorney now?
Eric:16 years I was a teacher before I became a lawyer, and so then people so many times ask, well, how did you go from teaching to being a lawyer? To which I respond that there's so much that is the law that is teaching. So you know like we're teaching our clients, we're teaching judges, we're teaching jurors, we're teaching opposing counsel, we're teaching on this podcast. You know like there's so much crossover from teaching to being a lawyer. Plus, I just wanted to learn more about the world because I was teaching and I was a music band director and I felt very confident in that. But there's just so much more with the law that you just get to learn so much about the world.
Ilona:After you finished law school, what was your first job?
Eric:So right out of law school I started my own firm. A lot of people told me that's crazy, you can't do that, you don't know enough, and that is very true. For lots of lawyers. It can be a very scary thing to do. When you really love something and you want to dive into it, then you just figure everything out as soon as you can. And so I was, you know, getting on cases and I was making money and then, instead of going out and buying, you know, fancy cars and fancy houses and that kind of stuff, I would just keep reinvesting it into myself, and then that allowed me just to keep knowing more and more and more. So I ran my own business for 12 years doing exclusively DUI cases DUI defense cases for 12 years.
Mila:One of the things that really strikes me about you and it's very rare to me is just constant growth mindset. And I heard this quote actually yesterday and someone was asked what is the secret to success and he said passion. Said anything else, nope, just passion. If you are passionate in what you do, you will undoubtedly become successful at it. And then there was another thing I was listening to today actually because I'm also like always learning and it was a podcast about neuroscience. And one of the things they touched on is like if you're lazy, maybe it's because you don't find purpose in what you do, like there is a reason behind everything. And one thing I love about you is like when you find something you love, you just go all in. Now it's time for the audience Q&A. So here's the listener question. I'm a law student who's also a painter. I'm worried I won't be taken seriously if I show that side of myself professionally. Did you ever feel pressure to hide your creative side?
Eric:I identify very much as a drummer and as a musician side. I identify very much as a drummer and as a musician, but that also comes connected with identifying as someone who just cares a lot about being good at something and that's you know being. I wanted to be a good drummer and a musician. Anything that I want to do that I really love. I want to learn everything about it and I want to learn all the foundations about it, so then I can then play with the art that comes from the foundation. So I identify very much as someone who cares a lot about foundational stuff and art.
Eric:What a lot of people don't think about, maybe because they haven't had the experience with it, is that we think lawyers and you think reading lots of books and like needed to know all this information, knowing the law. And then there is being a trial lawyer, which very much is knowing the law and all that kind of stuff. But it's also knowing how to be a storyteller, knowing how to like communicate with people, knowing how to listen a lot. It's knowing how to be like the producer and the director of like a movie or a stage play. So it's and this is all gets back to like the foundational stuff that there's. There's an art to all of this that we're doing.
Eric:But then the more that I can focus on having the foundational stuff, then when I go in and I'm doing a trial, I don't need to worry, hopefully, as much about the foundational like am I standing in the right space, am I, and talking with a like loud enough courtroom voice? And then I know that I'm going to have strong foundations because I've worked on that. So then hopefully it's secondary nature. So then that allows me to then just be more calm, connected with the jurors and then just allow more space for what the art could happen in the trial. If it's like a short trial like you know, three to four days I've done lots of those Is it a longer trial, like a few weeks, and there's like an art to the trial and how are people receiving information? There's an art to all of this stuff. So that's where foundation and being a lawyer, like left brain lawyer, right brain lawyer, like how all this stuff comes together.
Ilona:So you know, there's obviously a book Art of War. If it was the art of trial, what would be your top three tips?
Eric:I do love the art of war very, very much. Be prepared, listen. And the trial is not about you, the lawyer. So many lawyers think that the trial is about the lawyer and maybe the first 20 trials I was thinking like, wow, this is really about me and that's not the case. You're a part of it, you're producing and you're directing the movie, but you need to get out of the way. So the trial is not about you. And as soon as lawyers try to get many times try to interject themselves into the story, the jurors they don't want to hear that. They don't trust lawyers generally for many good reasons. Many times they want to hear like what's the story that's happening? Like let's have the witnesses say like what's happening? So that would be the last one.
Ilona:You now practice personal injury, and you have been doing that five years. Okay, um, what do you specialize in?
Eric:So I specialize in doing brain injury cases. I have a passion for that. I have a family member who unfortunately went through a really gnarly brain injury, and so it's also an emerging science. There's like lots of knowns, there's lots of unknowns with that, so it's a way for me just to try to understand it so I can be present with my family, understand and give honest information in a trial setting about what is like, what's happening with this brain injury and that's and there's lots.
Eric:I mean brain injury is like such a wide range and it could be like how the person is acting, like what part of their head was hit, what part of the brain is affected.
Eric:But then it's also like the neuroimaging side of it Cause, for an example, like we have MRIs, but then we also have DTIs, which is just another way to image the brain, and that is a newer or some people think that it's a newer technology that's been around for a while, but does that evidence come in as trial? So then there is the science behind what is DTI, mris, and how do we get that in front of a judge for the judge to understand? This is what the objective science is behind it and what side is like for me. I've seen so many defense lawyers or defense industry people try to skew like what the true science behind of a DTI is, and so then you have to understand what it is so that you can then express it to say like no, what they're saying is wrong, they're relying on these articles. What the true information is, this, and then be persuasive with that to a judge, to let the evidence in and to the jury.
Mila:Brain injuries are so scientific. I know when I was working on the defense side PI, we had a brain injury case and we really had to learn all of the science behind it. And I always find it astonishing because any other injury you can see and the brain injury cases are the only injuries where you cannot see them, touch them. They are all internal and you have to look at a person's behavior and use experts and doctors to assess the extent of the injuries. And the problem with that is especially in a lawsuit people can lie and so it's tough.
Ilona:I mean, if you keep going to a doctor and you have memory loss and things get worse normally and become more permanent after a year, it's easier to document. It's just that you need to have documented treatment plan to show how your symptoms develop over time, right?
Eric:It's all of these things. It could be all of this stuff. And I've had cases where my client was, where the defense was arguing like hey, this person's a liar. And I've had cases, too, where it was the plaintiff and, to be honest, like the plaintiff was trying to like distance themselves from having a brain injury, was not being really honest with themselves about what they had. And the reality with that, which is really sad, is that like this I'm thinking of one person in particular just because it's a more recent case is that this person doesn't want to have to live with a brain injury. Like he understands what he went through as a car crash case and how sad and frustrating it is for him because he was such a high performer at work, and then to know that he's having all these issues now and he doesn't want to admit that and so that becomes a piece of the case. And then the defense says he's lying. And that's not always, you know, maybe sometimes there are certainly people that lie.
Eric:You know, in our industry no shocker, there are people that lie, but sometimes it's just a sad reality of what the person like, what, what their life is right now, and it is very technical, but then it can also just be so plain, yeah, and present. And that's where, like before and after, witnesses on brain injury cases are so important, because you can have all the doctors and the doctors are going to say, you know various things, but then just having someone that knows them to be like this is what they were like before, this is what they're like now, totally different. Lots that goes into that.
Mila:There is one thing that I recall learning about, and maybe you know the exact term for it, but it's when a plaintiff and especially in a brain injury case and maybe you know the exact term for it, but it's when a plaintiff, and especially in a brain injury case is in litigation and is being seen by doctors. Right, because once you put your psychological state at issue, the defense side can come in and have their doctors, you know, interview you and do all of these awful tests and then the plaintiff starts having exacerbated symptoms. Then you have to have experts from the defense side who are coming and saying these symptoms are actually from the litigation and being a plaintiff and hearing about what a victim they are, and not from the brain injury. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Eric:Sure, it's a lot so.
Eric:I'll try to keep it short, because there's a lot to get in with that. There actually is that approach that defense lawyers take. They're saying you're in this litigation and if you're experiencing these frustrations or these symptoms, it's not because of the brain injury, it's just because you're simply stressed and going through this litigation. Or aha, we caught you. You're acting this way because you're simply stressed and going through the litigation or how we caught you. You're acting this way because you're trying to lie your way through. This is what the argument is, and that's also false too. That's what they try to argue. There's also a lot of neuropsychological testing that's done, and I've been through a day of doing neuropsych testing.
Mila:On yourself On myself yes.
Eric:Wow, yeah, Because so much of what I want to do that if I'm going to try to argue something or understand the objective science, I want to go through a very true version of like what, what it. So I've been through and done the testing and it was like hours long. There's a lot of questions that they'll ask you and if you answer yes to it, then you get a point for being for lying or malingering, but being for lying or malingering. But then some of the questions that they ask you are also exactly the symptoms that you would have if you're having a brain injury, Like do you feel feelings of, like depression, you know, or do you feel?
Mila:who does?
Eric:it, yeah, or do you feel sad?
Eric:You know, if you answer yes to that, then and I don't know if this is the exact question that would give you a point for lying, but they're, they're trying to see if you're faking it, but you answer a question that would be, yes, you're faking it, but then that's also a symptom of having a brain injury, and so that's how the defense industry many times tries to set that up, to be like this plaintiff's lying and they'd be like okay, these.
Eric:I have lots of feelings about neuropsychological testing, but you know so much of the testing is set up for failure against the plaintiff, and then there's a whole nother discussion to get into which we don't probably have the time to get into it, but whether or not the questions are being asked the right way because it goes back to foundation, which we talked about you know in the beginning that if you're not doing the proper technique with how you're trying to gather evidence, it's going to totally skew the results and, like I've won a ton of trials because the other side is just trying to give improper information to the jurors.
Mila:I want to add something that I think is very important that a lot of people don't understand.
Mila:Pretty much in every PI case, when you're claiming injuries, you're going to claim emotional distress as a result of those injuries and a lot of people don't know that once you claim emotional distress, the defense is entitled to all of your medical records.
Mila:If you've ever seen a therapist or a psychiatrist or a psychologist in your life, you have to disclose that to the other side and then they get to see those records.
Mila:And what I've seen is and I've had clients like go through it because of this, is they go through like go through it because of this, is they go through you know years of medical records, therapy records. They find that there are other issues within, either childhood traumas or, you know, a sexual assault or issues with their sister, anything in their past that caused emotional distress, and these you know independent quote, unquote medical examiners will say well, this person has suffered mental health issues throughout their lives and any emotional distress they're suffering now is attributable to their past traumas and not to what happened here. And a lot of people talk about plaintiffs like, oh, they're just out to get a buck. Like it takes courage to be a plaintiff, to open up your records, to open up your life, to open up all of the claims that you're bringing publicly in a civil lawsuit Like it's extremely courageous and they go through a lot to get where they get.
Eric:Part of what we do as lawyers is try to educate the client that if they're going to be making the type of emotional injury claim that is going to allow the defense to be able to get into the medical records, to like educate the client for that.
Eric:But you're exactly right that so many times a defense perspective or argument is going to be it wasn't this crash that caused it, wasn't this incident that caused this issue. It was something that you had 20 or 30 years ago and so many times. If you had that injury before or that emotional state before, so many times it's already been corrected and then later on down the road now it's come back. So then it becomes an issue of you know what gets attached to what part of your life that you're going through. But part of what we do is like to your point is is making sure that we believe our clients, cause I can't, if I don't believe something that's happening, I wouldn't take the case, or I wouldn't want to express that part of the case, um. Cause if I don't believe something like jurors can figure that out real quick. Cause I care so much about that, um, but or if if you're going to get into something where you don't believe in it, then you need to have that conversation with the client.
Ilona:Well, I think the key to this is it has to be substantial cause. The accident, the event that the plaintiff is claiming resulted in those injuries. That must be substantial cause for those injuries. So if you had mental health issues 20 years ago that are documented and then the accident makes things worse, I think it helps your case. It doesn't hurt it. However, if around the same time when the incident happened you had sexual assault or something else and that's in your medical records, then it's going to be harder to prove what substantial cause of that injury mental condition or emotional stress that you are claiming damages for, then the lawyers may have to agree and stipulate to possibly only pursue you know, garden variety damages and not everything that you eventually initially thought you could. And often that doesn't come up until after you get all the medical records and exchange them and see them.
Mila:There's a growing trend of professionals, especially in the law, using their creative backgrounds in unexpected ways Podcasting social media, even music.
Eric:Music has worked very well. There's a song that I'm thinking of that really connects, and here are the lyrics for the jurors just to kind of like sit and the lawyer stops talking, let's just listen to the music. So music just has a way to like set the tone, set a space. If you let that happen, I don't want to give the song that I did, because I may use it again, but it's like lyrically, like this song just really lined up with what the story of the case was. But then also the music is just very expressive, very beautiful. Yeah, and some people, like you, sang at trial. The answer was, yeah, this is the creativity part. Like do I sing it and trust that the jurors know what I'm doing?
Mila:So that has worked very well. I think one of the things that article touched on is like how lawyers are using their creativity and expressing it through podcasts and social media and all of these things social media and all of these things and this is really important, I think, because you know people as they grow and develop their careers, they build their brands and their brand inevitably will be, you know, a result of their innate talents and their creativity. Like for you, your brand is, you know, partly a drummer, a musician. I mean, you have so many different, complex parts to your character, all of which are beautiful. They're like I want that drummer attorney, like I want that person standing behind me and fighting for my rights. You chase your fire.
Eric:You truly embody that. We're in the business of communication and you know we've been talking a lot about trials today, but so much of what we do is just educating, just getting information out, just getting information out. And something, mila, that you do fantastic is and you do this too, alona that is creating information for just the general public to be able to view. And this is a creative part and this ties in with that article that lawyers can do it through like a podcast or through like shorts. Or look at where us as a society are right now, where so many people get their information, whether it's right or wrong, on social media and then and the content keeps getting shorter and shorter of what are we expressing. So then, how do you give people a concept in a way that has some entertainment value, that's fun to watch, that's going to get shared, but is also quality information and that comes part of like well, how do you be creative with what you're doing but then still give you know legit, credible information as a lawyer?
Mila:So it seems like everything you do you just put your heart and soul into it. You're very passionate. I mean you learn the mechanics of every aspect of the case before going into it so that when you're talking to a jury there is no BS, because you know exactly what happened and every detail of it. And I'm sure your clients feel that that not only do they have an attorney fighting for them, but someone who truly cares about their case. Talk to us a little bit about that. I'm sure you've gotten a lot of feedback in that regard.
Eric:The answer is yes. I do care a lot about this. I care about getting accurate, objective information. So, for example, like trucking, like I'm signing up to do, like the trucking training to get like the class A, class B certification, and so I want to be able to say I've been through these classes, I know what they're supposed to be teaching at these courses.
Eric:And if the defendant driver truck driver, or if the defendant truck driving company, if they're not training their employees the right way, I want to know what? What should they have known that they're not doing? That then caused this wreck that you know killed a family of four, you know, and if it's a, and if it's someone that really needs a lawyer that's going to be able to express that, to have been in that seat, either in the driver's seat, literally, of a truck or in the seat, the driver's seat of, like the classroom setting, to know what it takes to be able to go through the weeks, months or whatever of training, to understand that. That means that's very important to me so that I can then truly express all sides of the story and to be able to tell the client's story. Part of the client's story is what should the defendant's company have known to do to stop this crash from happening. It's important to be able to hold someone accountable so that hopefully, we're stopping that from happening again. Well, this has been a pleasure.
Eric:Thank you both for letting me I feel so good that I got to sit next to I wanted the pink pillow. I was forced to have the red pillow, but this has been great. I love what you're doing here and this is really fun to be a part of this.
Mila:Today's Glam Tip Don't hide your edge, redefine it. Your uniqueness is your power.
Ilona:And don't be afraid to make noise in unexpected places. Whether you are in a courtroom or a club, you belong there. Eric, you're proof that being brilliant and being yourself aren't mutually exclusive.
Mila:If you've been waiting for permission to pivot this is it. This is a glamorous grind, where ambition plays loud and reinvention is always in style. We'll see you next week.
