In this episode of Off The Record, Paul Adam and Colin Gerstner sit down to share the story behind Gerstner Adam Law. From growing up in Billings and crossing paths as kids, to reuniting in law school and eventually launching a firm together in 2020, Paul and Colin break down what led them into personal injury and workers’ compensation law—and why they built a practice centered on helping people when they need it most.

They talk candidly about their early days in a cramped Montana Avenue office, the risks of running a contingency-fee practice, and what makes their firm different: handling personal injury and workers’ comp cases under one roof, no upfront fees, and an office that’s designed to feel welcoming—not intimidating.

The episode also sets the tone for what this podcast is all about: busting legal myths, answering real community questions, and pulling back the curtain on how the law actually works—plus a surprise detour into Ryder Cup strategy and a bold take on who should captain Team USA.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✅ How Paul and Colin found their way into law—and into business together

✅ The difference between personal injury and workers’ compensation cases

✅ Why contingency fees mean clients don’t pay out of pocket

✅ How one injury can involve multiple legal claims

✅ What to expect when working with a plaintiff’s law firm

✅ Why the firm chose to represent Montana’s working community

✅ What future episodes of Off The Record will cover

💡 Why It Matters

Hiring a lawyer can feel overwhelming. This episode breaks down who Paul and Colin are, how their firm works, and why understanding your rights after an injury matters—before you ever pick up the phone.

📲 Connect with Gerstner Adam Law:

Website: https://www.gerstneradamlaw.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gerstneradamlaw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gerstneradamlaw

👉 Enjoying the show? Subscribe, rate ⭐, and leave a review wherever you listen.

👉 Follow along on social for future episodes and legal insights.

Paul Adam 0:00 Hey, welcome to the Gerstner Adam law podcast. My name is Paul Adam.

Colin Gerstner 0:10 I’m Colin Gerstner.

Paul Adam 0:12 I’m a co-owner with Colin, and he’s also my co-host for the podcast. So this podcast is going to be about kind of the burning questions that folks in our community have about the law, about hiring an attorney, a lot of the misconceptions, you know, we’re going to bust a bunch of the myths about what personal injury attorneys are, what the workers compensation system is about. But before we get into all those topics, we’re going to tell you a little bit about who we are, kind of our backgrounds, what led us to become plaintiff’s attorneys. So Colin, why don’t you start? Just tell us a little bit about you know where you started, before law school?

Colin Gerstner 0:53 Sure. So I grew up here in Billings, graduate of Arrowhead, elementary world, James Middle School and a proud West High Bear. Went to Arrowhead, where I met you actually.

Paul Adam 1:05 Yep, that’s right.

Colin Gerstner 1:06 Paul Adam, I think we have a prop. You got something behind you there?

Paul Adam 1:10 Yeah.

Colin Gerstner 1:11 Can you pull it out? Let’s show it to the people at home.

Paul Adam 1:14 So, so this is really the genesis of Gerstner, Adam law, we’ve got a photo circa 1997 Boulder Arrowhead, majors team. I think we went seven and 10 that year. I’ll just point this out for everyone that can see here. So Colin right here, and then I’m up front, sitting on the wet asphalt on a rainy day back in 1997

Colin Gerstner 1:43 Correct. I mean, a lot of memories. We got a friend of the firm, Greg Thompson, right there. Oh yeah. His dad was a coach. Rick. And this picture is actually brought to us by Hal Anderson. Found out somehow we had partnered up. Pulled this from his

Paul Adam 1:59 From his attic.

Colin Gerstner 2:01 Somewhere, framed it actually swung it by the firm. That’s special. So thank you, Hal, if you’re listening.

Paul Adam 2:07 So deep roots to the Billings community and yeah, Colin and I took similar paths through our childhood, through law school, and now we’re partnered up together. So tell us a little bit, Colin, about kind of your decision to go to law school, and then maybe the first few things after law school, what you did, what you learned from it?

Colin Gerstner 2:27 Sure. So I did my undergrad at University of Wyoming down in Lara-dice. I majored in history for no reason other than I’m a history nerd. I loved studying it, learning about it, and no idea what I was going to do for a career. And I saw this. I still remember this moment. I’m in my professor’s office, Dr Budmoore, and just bouncing stuff off him, career ideas. You know, what the heck am I going to do with this? And he looks at me and goes, You know what? Colin lawyers are, just frustrated historians. It makes zero sense. I still don’t understand what he meant, but it inspired me to go to law school. Reasons still unknown to me, I decided to apply for law schools, and so I took the LSAT, which is the Law School Entrance Exam, took a year off after graduating from Wyoming, applied for various law schools, ended up going to University of Montana law school.

Paul Adam 3:25 Yeah, which is great, great school. It’s also where I went. And so, yeah, that’s kind of where Colin and I, you know, met back up after we left billings after high school, Colin, you were a year ahead of me in law school and then. But after law school, we kind of took similar paths as well, calling you and I both. We both clerked for local district court judges, which, for me, that was a super important experience really helped kind of shape the attorney that I am, and I know it did the same for you. So tell us, I guess, kind of what you learned from clerking for Judge Waters.

Colin Gerstner 4:08 Sure. Yeah, so I’ve always been blessed by great mentors. Really, my entire career actually started with a firm I interned in law school in Missoula, then continued with Judge Waters, great mentor, and I was her law clerk in both state and federal courts for four years, and that was great. I still went to law school. I graduated, and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. And so as a law cook, you see lawyers practice in all source areas of law, family law, criminal law, civil law, and what drew me to the plaintiff’s practice is that you’re helping people. You represent somebody who’s been hurt, they’re vulnerable, and they just need somebody at their side and just me and my personality. That’s what drew me to the personal injury side of things, especially the what we do, which is you. Representing individuals have been hurt.

Paul Adam 5:02 Yeah, no, that’s, that’s exactly right. I mean, you know, I, I took similar paths. My motivations pretty similar. You know, after I clerked and I clerked right across the hall from you in state court for Judge Greg Todd, after that, I went to the Yellowstone county attorney’s office, you know, cut my teeth in the in what they call the Thunderdome, which is Justice Court. Fantastic time. Tried a bunch of cases. Worked my way up. You know, I was trying to felony, felony district court cases when I left, kind of set the background for becoming a trial attorney, though. You know having a bunch of trial experience, just being comfortable in the courtroom is a lot of fun, and so to do that on the civil side of things kind of gives me a leg up, because most people don’t have that background of of criminal prosecution before they come a plaintiff’s attorney.

Colin Gerstner 6:04 Sure. So you right now, you do a lot of workers comp. You’re the work comp guru, as I call you. How’d you end up- Yeah, it doesn’t, doesn’t flow. But how’d you end up being the comp guru?

Paul Adam 6:15 Yeah, so after so I put in a few years with the county attorney’s office. Then I went out. I worked for two different firms. First firm I worked for was was primarily just a workers comp firm. That’s really all they did. And I worked for a mentor of mine, who I had known since I was a child, and, you know, still a great friend of mine to this day. He really taught me the ropes on workers comp, and probably more importantly, just shaped the way that I treat people in the law and just kind of the important, the important things to focus on, develop my skills, honed my craft until you and I partnered up in 2020 I believe.

Colin Gerstner 7:04 Correct. Believe it or not, it was April 1. 2020 April Fool’s Day.

Paul Adam 7:09 Yep.

Colin Gerstner 7:09 And we officially joined forces.

Paul Adam 7:11 Yeah. And, you know, it was great. You and I were working on cases together at our you know, you were on your own at Gerstner law office. I was at a different firm, and you were working on same client, same set of facts. You were working on the personal injury part of the claim, I was working on the work comp part of the claim. And kind of that led us to thinking, well, Shoot, maybe we just do this under one roof.

Colin Gerstner 7:38 Yeah, I still remember the case that the client is still, they’re still friends, but this person, he was on the job operating skid steer, and, long story short, his leg, pretty gruesome injury, got got pinned by another skid steer employee of a different company and really mangled his leg badly. And so what he had, he had a or comp claim, because he was on the clock. Then he also had, you know, the parlance of the law, a third party claim, which would be a negligence claim against the other company.

Paul Adam 8:10 Right.

Colin Gerstner 8:11 And so, you know, he was my client. I knew there’s a comp side. I knew I wasn’t smart enough to, you know, pursue the comp angle. So I called, you and you took that over,

Paul Adam 8:23 Yeah, and that’s, I mean, I think that’s kind of what makes us unique now at Gerstner Adam law is that, you know, a lot of our clients have both types of claims with the same set of facts. And now, instead of, you know, having to hire two different attorneys to represent you. I mean, if you run into some of these roadblocks that people often do, we can do that under one roof. That’s one of the biggest benefits that we offer is just one central hub. We can handle lots of different types of cases, but certainly both that personal entry and the workers’ comp.

Colin Gerstner 9:00 Why’d you go to law school? What inspired you?

Paul Adam 9:03 What inspired me to go to law school?

Colin Gerstner 9:05 Yeah.

Paul Adam 9:06 So I was working as a bartender and a roofer at the time, which was, I’ll tell you what, in terms of work schedule, this is tough to beat, and I’m also in Missoula, and so you know, my roofing schedule starts at about 5am and then it’s about too hot to work by maybe 10, so I can put in a shift, go float the river, maybe take a nap and be back to the bar by 4pm you know, close by 11 or 12, get up and do it again. That’s an optimal shift for a college kid. Realize, maybe not a long term future in that, though, maybe that’s not sustainable. Back to college for my Master’s in Public Administration, I got involved with Court Appointed Special Advocates. So I was a CASA volunteer up in Missoula, which that really fueled my interest in the law and especially. After I realized, you know, a CASA volunteer can they can do a lot, and they’re really important, but at the end of the day, it’s the attorney that is going to make the decisions that matter. And so I saw that firsthand on a number of cases. I knew how important it was to have good attorneys making important decisions for, you know, in this case, vulnerable kids. And so my motivation for law school was almost more of a family law driven. That’s not what I do now. But that was my first, that was my first passion. You know, we set up shop together in 2020, I’ll tell you our we had pretty humble beginnings.

Colin Gerstner 10:43 Yeah, I still it’s funny. We still tell stories about that. So we my first one out is completely on my own. Thank God. Is basically one big room office on Montana Avenue, and it’s great, really cool spot, just me. And then I hired my first employee, Danielle, who is still, still a dear friend. And it was kind of awkward to have Danielle in there and me, especially, I’m on the phone or whatever. And then we joined up and got really, really awkward.

Paul Adam 11:15 Yeah, then it’s three phone lines. You’re in one corner, I’m at the conference table. Danielle’s up front, we outgrew that space pretty quick. And you know, but I will say you laid the groundwork for the firm that we have today. Colin, I’m indebted to you for that, because you have some great stories that are you know most often what holds people back from becoming a plaintiff’s attorneys or or hanging your own shingle, because you got to start from nothing. And I you know, we’ll get into some of your stories in later episodes, but just the sheer terror of trying to provide for your family, and you don’t know where that you don’t know where your next paycheck is coming from.

Colin Gerstner 12:00 Oh man, yeah. So I think we’ll talk about fees in a later episode. But in a nutshell, you know, person on your case who days on contingency fees. And so I get, you know, my fee is earned when or if we resolve it sometimes can be years, right? And so you know, you’re just hanging on, operating on faith. And yeah. Now there’s some nerve wracking moments there, for sure.

Paul Adam 12:23 Yeah. So we ended up, you know, leaving that spot on Montana and moving to the South side. Now we’re at 2828 First Avenue South, which we love. It down here we’re in a building that was a former filling station, I believe.

Colin Gerstner 12:41 Yes, gas station, mechanic shop, not exactly sure.

Paul Adam 12:44 Pretty run down bars on the windows, you know, cinder blocks. I think maybe some homeless people living in here, I’m pretty sure. But boy, our landlords, you know, spruce this place up. Pretty nice.

Colin Gerstner 12:57 Paul’s underselling it. So he, he designed it. I think he was, this is his brainchild. Paul dropped a lot of his own money on an app.

Paul Adam 13:07 This is not true. None of this is continued, though.

Colin Gerstner 13:10 Yeah, you bought an app and CAD that what it’s called.

Paul Adam 13:16 So I’ve, you know, I’ve got some drafting, you know, I, I took Mr. Gray’s drafting class in high school. You know, I, I know a few things, just enough to be able to buy a $5.99, app design, some some interior walls, and the architect, the owners, made some slight variations. But, you know, now we have what we have today.

Colin Gerstner 13:42 Yeah, it’s a, I love it. It’s a very welcoming building. You know, we wanted a place where all sorts of people could feel comfortable.

Paul Adam 13:50 Right.

Colin Gerstner 13:51 I mean, our clients, you know, they span the whole range of types. So we, you know, we represent the bluest of the blue collar workers, people who are hurt, you know, on the job, manual labor, and you know, we want them not to feel, you know, uncomfortable walking in some snooty law office, taking an elevator to the 20th floor, something like that.

Paul Adam 14:11 And I think that’s one of the, one of the biggest inhibitors of people calling a lawyer or looking for representation is it’s intimidating, and you don’t want a law office that’s stuffy and where you’re expecting to have to, you know, dress up, or you’re going to meet somebody in a suit. This is a pretty welcoming spot. We’re on the south side. We’ve got a lot of clients that are in the neighborhood, which we love. That’s the type of feel that we have here, and we’re proud of it, and we’re proud that we’re we represent the South Side.

Colin Gerstner 14:46 We pride ourselves on that. When a client comes in for the first time, you know they’re anxious, right? They don’t they don’t want to feel stupid. They don’t be talked down to. And I think we relate well, I feel stupid right now dressed like this. I you know, this is not what I wear a normal basis. But I thought, you know, the first pod wanted to impressive our adience.

Paul Adam 15:08 You look nice.

Colin Gerstner 15:09 Thank you.

Paul Adam 15:09 You look nice. But no, you’re right. Usually it’s hoodies, ball caps. You know, we’re usually showing up in muck boots on snowy days, you know, putting on the slippers as soon as we walk in the door. So, no, it’s a comfortable spot, but yeah, it’s, it’s probably not your typical law office in that way.

Colin Gerstner 15:30 No, and we pride ourselves on that.

Paul Adam 15:32 We are, I would say the minority. When people think of lawyers, most of the time, it’s lawyers that are, are billing their time. You know people are thinking about paying retainers, like, what’s my upfront cost? We are not that type of law office, which I don’t think people necessarily know that that exists, like, we don’t take, we don’t take your money, and you’re never going to get an invoice from us.

Colin Gerstner 15:59 Correct, our personal injury cases, your comp cases, we handle those on what’s called a contingency fee, and so our fee comes out of the ultimate recovery winner. If we bring it in, you know, it’s happened before to us and any other plaintiff’s lawyer that you know, is worth their salt, they’ll take things to the mat and sometimes come out with nothing in that situation, you owe us nothing.

Paul Adam 16:22 Yeah.

Colin Gerstner 16:24 You know, most, the vast majority of cases, we do recover for our clients, but they’ll never actually write a check from their own pocket to us.

Paul Adam 16:32 Yeah, I can confidently say that we are over the hump. You know, I think that allows us to take allows us to take tough cases. It allows us to spend money on cases to, you know, effectively prosecute them, and we’re not worried about covering our costs or earning the fee, and we can just kind of focus on the work. And, you know, there’s a lot of offices that can’t look at it like that. We’re fortunate. We’re fortunate that we’re at a point where, you know, we can take those risks for clients that really need the extra effort on a tough case. So Colin, you know, another, another topic that we want to cover on this podcast, and I’m going to give you one opportunity at this. It’s something you’ve been talking about for maybe years, if at least, at least a year, if not more than one year. It This has nothing to do with the law. Frankly, I think it’s a it’s a half baked idea that’s never going to gain any footing, but it’s a burning topic of yours. I’m going to give you the floor. Colin, tell us what’s on your mind, however ridiculous it may be.

Colin Gerstner 17:45 Thank you all you viewers and listeners at home, you can tune off now, if this is this might get a little dumb, but I’ve wanted a platform to share my great idea. And involves the Ryder Cup, which is a golf tournament, a biannual golf tournament every two years between the United States and Europe. The Americans pick their 12 best golfers. Europeans pick their 12 best and they compete. And the first two days are team based events, and the last day it’s just singles.

Paul Adam 18:15 So team based events here. Colin, I don’t you know, let’s get this straight, because golf is an individual sport, sure. So what are you talking about?

Colin Gerstner 18:22 Yeah, yeah. So, so golf, yes, purely individual. You know, PGA Tour, it’s just guys, right? There’s no teams in on the PGA Tour, at least, and, and, and so it’s a different mindset, right? You just focus on yourself. And so I think a lot of Americans are uncomfortable going to a team event. Europeans have figured out the Europeans. They kill us past two or three writers on team events.

Paul Adam 18:46 That’s true.

Colin Gerstner 18:47 And the thing is, so my idea pertains to what we call the captain, really the coach of the team. And I think since time immemorial, as I think of all time, is always an older golfer in the twilight of his career, who is sometimes still playing but not otherwise, wouldn’t make the team.

Paul Adam 19:03 Right.

Colin Gerstner 19:03 And he but he’s just always done individual stuff. He’s maybe since in high school, we played a team sport, but definitely not as a professional. Paul Adam 19:13 Not a team guy, not a team that’s just a regular golfer on the PGA Tour.

Colin Gerstner 19:17 There’s some strategy. There’s some dynamics. You got to manage personalities.

Paul Adam 19:20 So lay it on us, man, what is it?

Colin Gerstner 19:22 The best option for the team captain of the United States would be Nick Saban, legendary college football coach, knows golf, knows the game. Great golfer talks about all the time, but he understands, like, what it takes to, you know, bring a team over the hump.

Paul Adam 19:37 Yeah.

Colin Gerstner 19:38 Yeah. He would throw himself into the game of golf, into the tactics, and I think it’d be a great you think that’s how we get past Europe? I think it’s how we get past Europe next, August, 2027

Paul Adam 19:53 All right. Nick Saban.

Colin Gerstner 19:54 In Ireland.

Paul Adam 19:55 If you’re listening, we got your back. We want you for the next US, Captain.

Paul Adam 19:59 You heard it here first.

Colin Gerstner 20:00 Credit, Gerson Adam law.

Paul Adam 20:02 Credit, Gerson Adam Law Colin, appreciate your hot take, half-baked idea on Nick Saban as the captain. Thanks everyone for listening to the first Gerstner Adam law podcast. We really enjoyed doing this. We’re super excited for the upcoming episodes where we’re really going to dive into, yeah, all those burning questions that listeners in our community and the state have about the law, some of the most common misconceptions about what the practice of law is and what it is to be represented, and we can’t wait to get into it. So I appreciate you all for listening until next time.