A CT attorney is known for very eye-catching billboards. She’s using her celebrity for more than law
Personal injury attorney Brooke Goff and her Goff Law Group aren’t just a business — they’ve become a brand.
Goff, 37, has advertised the practice so boldly throughout Connecticut that she’s a celebrity in many ways.
She has more than 100 commercials playing a week on television stations including WTNH, CBS, NBC.
The advertisements play like news clips with Goff talking about personal injury topics such as workers compensation, car accidents, dog bites, slip and falls, insurance coverage, DUIs, pedestrian accidents, and proposed bills.
“I spend my money on educating. I do very well educating the public,” Goff said.
She also educates through a show/ad called, Bake & Sip, where she bakes cookies, blueberry muffins and other treats in her kitchen while talking personal injury topics.
Her eye catching, thought-provoking billboards, designed by Goff, have such a following that she said she gets stopped at least four times a week in Costco and other public places for selfie requests.
Often when seeing her in public, fans recite their favorite billboards, such as one gem that, referring to motorcycle injury cases, reads, “Do we ride? Who cares!? We get results.”
Goff, who has short cropped blonde hair, sometimes spiked, and often wears suits, makes it known in the ads that she’s a proud mom, but doesn’t talk about a spouse or give much personal information.
As a result, Goff said she is asked about her “sexuality” several times daily through emails and phone calls.
Advertising techniques rattled colleagues
Fellow attorneys who usually rely on billboards or flat advertisements for getting their name out there, were at first “up in arms,” Goff said, about her ads, including the legal tips.
“They said, ‘Brooke, if you tell them what to do they won’t need attorneys.” she said.
But judging by her law firm’s growth, Goff won that case.
Since starting the Goff Law Group seven years ago, she has grown the firm headquartered in West Hartford from two to 13 lawyers and from one client to thousands.
Client Chris Gambardella, 49, said Goff is an “awesome” person, as well as a winning lawyer who “runs the room” in legal situations such as depositions.
“She’s a little bit of everything. She’s intelligent, funny, down to earth,” he said, noting that as busy as her life is with children and career, Goff never seems stressed.
As for her legal triumphs with his cases, he’s always done better than expected.
“I’ve never sat back and thought we could do better,” Gambardella said.
Empowering woman, especially moms
Goff said she is all about hiring and empowering woman, especially moms, employing 12 women attorneys and one man.
She can now boast of owning the largest female owned and operated personal injury firm in Connecticut.
“I’m all about being different,” Goff said. “People will say, ‘You’re more than just a talking head.’ That’s what our ads bring to the platform.”
Goff, who hails from a small town in upstate New York, daughter of a janitor and a secretary, has often been a trailblazer.
In middle school she became the first girl in her tiny town to play flag football.
She went on to be the first girl to play on her high school team, to the chagrin of the coach who tried to find ways for her not to play, Goff said.
Goff she was “a scrawny little thing,” about 5 feet four inches tall and 135 pounds and they would “put me up against a player 5 feet 11 inches and 250 pounds.”
But she refused to back down and said that trend continues.
“When women get into male dominated areas you can’t fail,” Goff said.
Goff, one of four children, knew early on, “the small town life was a waste for me.”
“No one could understand me,” Goff said.
She said there were people in the town where she grew up who were misogynistic and homophobic.
Law professor Monique Ferraro, who has known Goff for 20 years, said Goff has always done it her way – and it’s worked.
Ferraro was Goff’s freshman undergraduate professor and advisor when Goff asked to take seven courses her second semester while also being captain of the softball team.
Ferraro told her, “No way, nobody does that.” But Goff implored her, promising high grades.
Ferraro relented and Goff made good on her promise.
“There’s nothing she’s said to me that didn’t sound crazy that she didn’t follow through on and make it happen,” Ferraro said.
Billboards have a following
Goff, who exudes confidence and a soft side at the same time, said determination and adaptability are among her “superpowers.”
Her billboards throughout Connecticut get attention and often incorporate a mom/woman angle.
A recent one that shows Goff holding her baby bump reads: “Car accident? Eating for two while fighting for you,” and has sparked debate on Reddit.
Another billboard showing her baby bump reads: “Car accident? Stay Calm Leave it to Mom.”
“I get a lot of defense attorneys who say ‘my teenagers love your billboards,'” she said.
Her mindset at the firm is they “gladly” take on women lawyers with kids.
“I know firsthand that women with children do the same amount of work in eight hours that others do in 12 because they have learned excellent time management strategies and understand that every minute is an opportunity to complete a task — often with little to no sleep — now, that’s a true superpower and key element of success,” Goff said.
Helping to empower the LGBTQ community
Goff has a son, 11, and a daughter 4 months old, the latter of whom she already refers to as, “a spitfire with an attitude.”
As for being gay, Goff says, “I’ve always been gay.”
She didn’t address it publicly for years, despite the persistent inquiries because, “it shouldn’t matter,” she said.
Her thoughts once were, “I am Brooke. I am not Brooke the lesbian.”
But, now as a success story, it’s “the perfect time to talk about it openly” so she can be an example to the broader LGBTQ community, Goff said.
“It’s not just for adults but also teenagers who struggle with their identity and who they are. I’m proud of who I am,” she said. “When you belong to a protected class you have to use strategies in a market like this.”
Some people ask her, “Why so long between children?” and she has a real Brooke-like kind of answer.
“The business was my baby,” Goff said. “I’ve been nurturing something all this time.”
Expanding her West Hartford headquarters
Goff is in midst of expanding the practice and the main office in West Hartford is undergoing a major expansion to 15,000 square feet to include a studio for filming her Bake & Sip show.
“I want to be able to give the red carpet treatment to clients. I want them to stop feeling nervous,” she said. “We’ll be a household name for many years to come and continue to grow.”
Colleague Chance Wessling, a woman, called her boss’ approach “refreshing” and ” in some ways clever.”
“Usually lawyers play it straight,” Wessling said. “I think she’s just trying to liven the conversation.”
Wessling said Goff’s personality in person is just like it is on television.
“The clients recognize it and appreciate that she’s unabashedly herself,” Wessling said.
Wessling likes a Goff billboard that reads: “We fight like a girl and we win.”
During March, Women’s History Month, Goff is using her statewide celebrity status and social media influence to advocate for government-subsidized initiatives that “help all mothers obtain the necessary educational and vocational training to return to work and achieve,” she said.
Leveling the gender equality gap is her goal.
“Even though it’s 2024, society still tells women that their role is to support, yet women lead in every single aspect of their lives and the lives of their family members,” Goff said. “Essentially, they are the CEO of their households, so why can’t they be the CEO of a company?”
She believes the government should promote the advancement of women in the workplace, which includes the government providing women who choose to stay home and raise a family, both training and funding for a new business venture.
She believes working women of childbearing age who are in the workforce often lose out on job opportunities because top management automatically assumes that they’ll be out of the office for maternity leave or sick days.
“In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are 24.2 million mothers in the US labor force with children younger than 18, and 16 percent of that total say they have been passed over for a promotion as a result,” Goff said.
Goff has earned the Super Lawyer Rising Star Award for the last seven years and speaks at schools of all levels about the importance of education and pursuing dreams.
“I was just born to do great things,” Goff said. “The problem with a lot of lawyers is they’re great lawyers, but can’t run a business.”