Bloomington’s practicing Nunn: ‘It’s just that easy’

The coffee table in Ken Nunn’s office gives off the vibe of a lawyer obsessed with his time, eager to charge a client for every second devoted to a case.\nThe table has no place for family photos or candy jars, and certainly no sign of tolerance for putting one’s feet up to relax on the couch behind it. This table is simply an impressive collection of glass clocks.\nBut the man behind the desk opposite the table has quite a different outlook than his office furniture might suggest. Nunn, one of the most well-known injury lawyers in the state, thanks to his renowned TV and phone-book ads, is a lawyer who charges his clients on a contingency fee. He doesn’t charge until he wins the case.\n“I don’t get paid until I’m successful,” Nunn said. “If I’m not, I get nothing. ... I like (this system) because the harder I work, the more creative I am, the better I perform, the better I come out financially.”\nNunn graduated from IU with a bachelor’s degree from the Kelley School of Business in 1964 and received his degree from the School of Law in 1967. But the road to graduation was not easy, he said.\n“I always joke about getting a letter from the IU School of Law recalling my degree,” Nunn said. “I was a C student. Solid.”\nNunn decided to become a lawyer after he watched “To Kill a Mockingbird” his sophomore year at IU.\n“Atticus Finch was my hero,” Nunn said. “He was the underdog. That really influenced me at that point.”\nKnowing acceptance to IU’s law school wouldn’t be easy, Nunn made backup plans to go to Mississippi, the state with the lowest education standards at the time.\n“I figured that an average kid from Indiana could go down to Mississippi and sparkle,” Nunn said. “I was sure I wasn’t going to stop. I said, ‘If I wasn’t a lawyer, I got no place to go.’ ... So I’m very fortunate that IU took me.”\nAfter graduating from IU, Nunn started a practice handling cases across the legal spectrum, ranging from divorce and bankruptcy to crime and real estate.\nThen, according to the Cornell Law School, a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona allowed lawyers to advertise their services. The ruling revolutionized the way Nunn would practice law and be seen in the community.\n“I was the new kid on the block. I had no roots in Bloomington,” Nunn said. “It would have been years of nobody knowing about me.”\nHis decision to advertise not only opened the door for more clients, but for more criticism from the community and the legal world as well.\n“My first worry was ‘Would my Aunt Ruthie think my business wasn’t any good?’” Nunn said. “Some senior lawyers also came to me and said I didn’t need to advertise, and I was embarrassed.”\nNow, Nunn claims that out of the 16,000 lawyers in the state, he is in the top three for spending money on TV advertising every year. The criticism from the community still hasn’t stopped, he said.\n“They (the public) call it ‘ambulance-chasing.’ If you want to call me an ambulance-chaser, OK. It doesn’t bother me because I’m not,” Nunn said. “If they mean I want injured clients, they’re right.”\nInjured clients pay the bills for the Nunn family. He believes that injury law is one of the most lucrative sects for a lawyer, as most of the money won in the cases comes from large insurance companies.\n“I make money if you are seriously hurt and it’s not your fault,” Nunn said. “I take money from insurance companies and give it to my clients. I’ve never thought of myself as Robin Hood, but there are some similarities.”\nNunn is quick to point out that these battles are hard-fought and often difficult. He claims the authority of lawyers is slowly disintegrating as large companies come to the forefront. The companies, he said, often “pollute the minds” of the public, making it difficult to have a convincing reputation for new clients.\n“They (large companies) are trying to take the last frontier away from us (lawyers): the people’s mind,” Nunn said. “My power is diluted every day by Forbes. My only power is to be able to file a lawsuit and ask six jurors for justice for my client.”\nIn the end, the client remains most important to him. \n“It’s never been fair in this country for the little guy, the poor and the minorities,” Nunn said. “I fight for the little guy. I am David and I’m up against Goliath.”\nNunn firmly believes in being down-to-earth and available to his clients. The phrase “I return phone calls” is ubiquitous on his Web site, www.kennunn.com. Nunn says he has been in his office every Saturday and Sunday the past 10 years, answering phone calls and getting back to clients in need of help. He also strives to exhibit empathy.\n“The magic is that I am reachable,” Nunn said. “Walking in their (clients’) shoes is very important. All of a sudden you have a new perspective.”