Sam Quattrochi simply wanted to work 8 to 5, get his hands dirty, and then go home and read philosophy. He became an attorney instead. However, as a solo practitioner, he still manages to stick fairly close to the hours he was hoping to work.
“I don’t make nearly as much money as I would at a firm, but my schedule is more flexible,” he says.
Past avenues of interest to Quattrochi include professor, university lawyer, and “shade tree mechanic.”
“I like old cars,” he says. “I thought it would be a cool job.”
Quattrochi grew up in Hixson, graduated from high school in 1994, and then left home to attend Auburn University. Practicing law wasn’t even on his radar. Instead, he majored in religious studies. “Grad school was the plan. Being a professor was the plan,” he says, “but I became disillusioned with my prospects in religious studies. The popular topics at the time – Asian religions, feminist theology – were interesting to me, but I didn’t want to teach them.”
So, Quattrochi graduated and moved home without a plan. A chance meeting with a runner at Miller & Martin gave him the direction he lacked. Soon, he was running for the firm as well, and in time, he took a job as Miller & Martin’s records manager. The experience convinced him to go to law school.
“Everybody was cool,” he says. “I saw that lawyers weren’t any different from me. They were regular people. I knew I could do what they were doing.”
Instead of attending a local school, Quattrochi chose the University of Iowa, as he liked the idea of going somewhere new. He also wanted to avoid living in a big city. “I’m not a big city type, and most of the higher-end law schools are in big cities,” he says. “I didn’t want that.”
Quattrochi was anxious to be back in the academic environment as well, so in 2002, he and his wife, Sarah, picked up and moved north. He enjoyed his time there. “Iowa City is great,” he says. “I loved it.”
Four years after leaving Chattanooga, Quattrochi returned with not only a law degree but also a master’s degree in higher education, as he had aspirations of becoming a university lawyer or administrator. He and Sarah also brought their first child back with them.
With no immediate prospects at a university available to him, Quattrochi applied for and landed a job handling domestic violence related matters for Legal Aid of Southeast Tennessee. The grant that funded his position covered 14 counties, so he wound up doing a lot of driving. Fortunately, he liked meeting new people and getting to know the various local cultures.
“I had some nasty cases. There were times when I thought I would end up a victim of violence, and one client died under suspicious circumstances,” he says. “But I had some good cases, too. I was able to get one client a divorce and a decent property settlement, and then send her a big check. I enjoyed helping people like her. She kept up with me for years after that.”
Quattrochi also liked getting to know the judges and lawyers who made up the local bars. “Some were more welcoming than others,” he says.
But the work didn’t challenge him, as he rarely had to crack a law book. So, when an opportunity arose to do insurance defense work for Fliessner, Davis and Johnson in Chattanooga, he took it. “I thought it would be an interesting career turn,” he says. “I liked the idea of doing new things.”
For the next four years, Quattrochi learned what he calls “the nuts and bolts” of being a lawyer: making motions, taking part in negotiations, and attending to discovery. He also honed his investigative skills.
“I got good at finding things online,” he says, a grin reshaping his goatee. “I found a guy playing paintball in a tournament in California two weeks after he was in [what he said was] a horrible car wreck. Another lady [said she] had suffered a debilitating injury when my client rear-ended her, except I found pictures on her friend’s Myspace page of her dancing on bar tops in Atlanta.”
If Quattrochi wanted to do something more challenging than the domestic violence work he’d done, he’d found it. For him, learning the medical terminology presented the biggest learning curve.
In 2012, Quattrochi struck out on his own. He’s currently running his practice out of Cavett & Abbott, located in the Pioneer Building downtown. His work consists of a blend of domestic work, including divorce and custody, and other civil matters. He doesn’t call his practice “general,” but “varied.”
Quattrochi also doesn’t call the law his life. While he likes his work, he’s not one to burn the candle at both ends. “I hear stories about some of the older lawyers in town, how they’re in the office by seven, and they don’t leave until seven, and they wear their suit and tie six days a week. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not for me,” he says.
Instead, Quattrochi leaves room in his schedule for the other things that interest him: his children, bicycling, going to football games, and being involved at the church he and his family attend. “I work hard,” he says, “but I’m also interested in other things.”
Family includes Sarah, the development director for the Tennessee River Gorge Trust; their son, Zeke, 8; their daughter, Della, 4; and their daughter, Ruby, 2. Quattrochi’s son is in second grade at Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts, so he and Sarah have been attending commission meetings to show their support for the construction of a new facility.
Quattrochi has also been spending as much time as he can on a bike. “A friend got me into competitive cycling. I like to do the century rides, like the 3 State 3 Mountain Challenge,” he says. “I call it a race, but the only two people I’m racing are death and last place. As long as I don’t come in last, I consider it a victory.”
Quattrochi and his family attend First Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, where he and his wife serve as the youth directors.
While life doesn’t afford Quattrochi with many opportunities to get his hands dirty or read philosophy, he is able to stick fairly close to the 8 to 5 work schedule he originally envisioned. He also makes good use of the rest of his time. The law might not be his life, but it has been an enjoyable turn down an unexpected road.