I would advise that you send me the money via Western Union so that I can clear things up and get it back to you tax-free. If it helps you make your decision, I am the former Prince of Nigeria, and my family was overthrown by a fascist dictator and killed my family.
For the states I cover, I get 50%, which I share 33% of with another associate. He in turn gives me 33% of his fees.
I do family law so we go to trial fairly regularly. Have contested hearings (for temporary relief) all the fucking time. I get nothing on origination because my boss wants me working his big dick cases full boar as opposed to being distracted by some small time bullshit case that I'd be able to get. Still brought in a couple agreements if for no other reason than to build an avvo, etc rating for when people will start researching me. Of course I'm only a year and a half in, so maybe that situation improves once I develop more of a reputation and get get better clients.
We have about 10 trials coming up in the next four months (small firm, 3 partners and me). However many of those actually go to trial, who knows, my guess is at least half.
Bar exam study is pretty shitty. Feeling very insecure. Hopefully my after July 4th cram will put me over the top, but I doubt I can really rely on that.
I also do insurance defense. Some trucking, but mostly general liability and auto. I've tried three jury trials this year and will probably finish with six or seven, based on my current calendar. I tried four last year.
depends really. Average is 3-4. However I've had an 8 day slip and fall within the past month and a 10-12 day negligent security case coming up in the fall.
Merits, anywhere from 3 to 10. Contempt actions vary from a few hours to a few days. Lot of variation. In most cases equitable division should settle. You know about where the judge will come down and it's not worth it financially to litigate. Custody tends to be similar. The main topics of litigation are visitation, child/spousal support, and Attorney fees.
On average, 10 trial days. Even our "short" trials are usually 6-7 days. But I do mostly medical malpractice defense work, so the dynamics are a little different in terms of the numbers of parties involved and the witnesses that get called. I'll be starting up my third trial in the last 6 months on Monday, and this one will probably last 6-7 trial days. My "holiday" weekend is fucked.
I'll have met every requirement for board certification by the end of this year other than the years in practice requirement. I did six last year, probably six more this year. We have a guy at our firm that averages about 12 a year but all he does is try cases. Six is about as many as I could do and still manage to handle everything else in my practice.
3-4 usually here. Have a 10 day at the end of this month. I do Plaintiff's work and usually try 2-4 a year.
We had a worker's comp. case a couple months ago where the defense lawyer was trying it like a fucking negligence case. It lasted 3 days, AND we didn't even finish it. We decided to put it off until the third-party claim gets resolved since the employer would have a subrogation interest. The defense lawyer was doing his client a disfavor by going into everything, and we were just like dude, shut the fuck up.
time to start a NC/SC TMB divorce firm and take over the SEC. Lot of potential starter clients in the "stupid shit your wife/gf does" thread
I feel like workers' comp is such a special little beast that it should be reserved for people that only do comp. It's like the area of law that sits in the corner wearing a helmet and playing with it's dick while getting yelled at by the teacher.
I was hired recently to do WC by a pretty well respected defense firm in SC. I've been involved in litigation/employment law in one way or another since I graduated from law school. I had 0 comp experience before joining this firm. You are correct about WC being a special little beast. I was really worried about losing all of my employment litigation practice, but have been able to transition pretty well, and am a part of the employment practice group and WC practice group. I am hoping that once I'm settled in, my practice will breakdown to about 60/40 WC/Employment litigation but most likely it will be 70/30. I don't really mind the comp world. But it is certainly a totally different beast.
Does anyone else have a really hard time finding quality associates and paralegals to hire? I'm at the point where my expectations are so low that the only criteria I'm looking for is that the applicant be "not retarded." It's fucking crazy. And don't even get me started on work ethic issues.
Paralegals, yes, but I'm not in any position to make hiring decisions. If there is a worse staff than what we have here, I'll have to see it to believe it. I am, literally, amazed that my paralegal still has a job.
We have no problem finding very smart folks who can sit at a desk and provide sound answers to legal questions. Finding someone who can do that and also has great social skills is difficult. Our best paralegals are young chicks straight out of college who we encourage to become paralegals after we have determined that they are smart and have a good work ethic.
We have been (knock on wood) blessed to have a lot of work. There's only two of us in the firm, so we don't have a billable requirement per se. But honestly we're so damn busy that the billing takes care of itself.
I'm at a two attorney firm, just my boss and I. And we have two paralegals. It can be a nightmare. Last year we went through about 9 people before we found two good ones. Good legal staff is worth their weight in gold.
Jesus christ yes. We have literally resorted to a couple of kids on summer break from college to do odds and ends, scanning work, etc. All of our 2L and 3L hires have been disasters. Work ethic has been shit and they largely don't know what to do and don't want to know how to do it.
We interviewed a potential associate who was leaving a big insurance defense firm a couple of months ago. The guy had been out about 7 years, though the first 5 were as a prosecutor. He literally asked us during the interview what our policy was about leaving early to go to happy hour. How the fuck does a 7 year lawyer not know better than to ask something like that?
There's no policy as such, other than don't drink at work and get your shit done. If you've busted your ass and gotten your work done, you can go home at noon for all I care. And yes, I'm in South Florida.
Where the hell were all you fuckers when I was applying for jobs from August-February? I'm decently intelligent and work my ass off... Though seriously, what's the happy hour policy?
Where do you work in NC? And my work happy hour policy is back porch with firm bought beer a couple times a week if there is nothing pressing going on.
Evaluation of CoastalOrange: "Not detail-oriented. Did not notice the answer to his question two posts above his own."
I worked at a firm that literally went out to lunch every day, paid for by the firm. There were about 15 attorneys, and you could count on about 5-10 people going every day. It was really weird/awesome.
Haha, I saw it above with the "get your shit done and peace out whenever." Just trying to crack wise.
Nice. Met a couple people in Chicago from NC last weekend. My boss is friends with Mark Sullivan up in Raleigh. We use him every time there's a complicated qdro or military issue.
I hated doing QDRO's when I was practicing family law. I also hated that one time a pedophile came in, retained us, and then I had to try to get him unsupervised visitation with his two 5 year old sons. NOPE - I resigned about two weeks after that.
Yeah qdro's are pretty shitty. Have to get the parties to agree on language, get approval from the plan administrator, get the court to sign off, then hope like hell there isn't some trap in erisa that'll fuck you over. Re pedos, never had a client that I truly thought was one. Had several cases where it's been alleged though. Maybe it'd be different if I thought someone was a true predator, but I've never lost a minute of sleep getting bad parents custody. The kids are names on a sheet of paper to me. Refuse to let it be anything more (I also don't have kids so that helps too).
Yea, this guy pled guilty to diddling his 5-y/o step daughter and did 4 years in the pen. Soooooo....
shit; i've only been to one happy hour in a year because i'm at work so fucking much. not a good question, but i get where he was coming from.
If he was playing mom less child support, she wouldn't have been able to buy her that sexy dora the Explorer shirt.
We used to go to lunch like every day in the summer and end up just staying and getting tanked at whatever bar we were at. Those were the days.