Attorneys or Judges - things I wish I'd known

Cathy C

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Hey, guys!

I've had a NF book on the back burner for years that I'd like to try to bring to Kindle. It's pretty much complete, but I'd love to get additional info for it. What I'm looking for are things you wish you'd have known when you were opening your first law practice. Whether it's "Don't tick off the judge's clerk!" or "it really does matter that my secretary can spell." or even researching tips that you can't learn out of books. It's intended to be a gift book for new law graduates--an arm around the shoulder from those who have been there. :)

Anyone out there with something to share? It can be anonymous or I can give you credit. Either way. I'm also not opposed to paying, but probably not tons. I'm not a NYT bestseller (yet... :ROFL: )

Thanks!
 

Hendo

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Well, I don't know how helpful it will be but I know several lawyers and all of them say the exact same thing. They all wish they never went to law school. Two of the four tried to open their own practices but couldn't get off the ground. The others went corporate and are already burnt out in their mid 30s.
 

lalyil

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My dad is a successful lawyer. He says that to be successful - it is necessary to know things that have nothing to do with Law. A small thing he did, regarding to that, which I loved, was once he answered a ridiculous email he received from the Tax government department (he's a Tax Lawyer) which quotes from 'Alice in Wonderland' lol.. but yeah a more appropriate example - All the lawyers he hires for his firm have more than a Law degree (usually a degree in Accounting or an MBA).
(and accordingly, I'm soon graduating my degree in Law, but also a degree in Media)

Also of course, it's important that the Lawyers are aware they sometimes might have to stay til ridiculous hours (10pm even).
 

Cathy C

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Well, I don't know how helpful it will be but I know several lawyers and all of them say the exact same thing. They all wish they never went to law school. Two of the four tried to open their own practices but couldn't get off the ground. The others went corporate and are already burnt out in their mid 30s.

True, but I'm trying not to take the "shiny" off the degree quite that quickly. ;)

Also of course, it's important that the Lawyers are aware they sometimes might have to stay til ridiculous hours (10pm even).

Great point! Especially for new associates. Thanks!
 

alleycat

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I'm not in the legal profession, but I've worked with a number of lawyers over the years in my own work (and designed a judge's house).

I'm only half-way kidding when I say that learning the number and location of the nearest AA meeting would probably have helped many.
 
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Hendo

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haha fair enough :D
 

Liralen

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10 p.m.?

Not an attorney, but you don't even want to know how many times I've wound up working with clients until the wee hours of the morning, going home, grabbing a shower and a nap for a couple of hours, then heading back out to be at the courthouse to wrangle terrified clients and witnesses before the trial begins.

And then up until all hours that night calming them down, getting them ready to face the next day.

Or leaving my house at 4 a.m. to drive to the next state to be there when the courthouse there opens to get certified copies of exculpatory evidence that "oops, the DA forgot to mention he'd heard of until just now" and get it back before noon.

And there are lawyers out there -- a lot of them -- who don't have paralegals who would -- or can -- do that sort of thing. It's no wonder they drink.

A couple of my former bosses kept saying "we need to figure out a way to send you to law school." I'd have to laugh and tell them that this was as close to having no life as I needed to get.

There are a helluva lot more lawyers out there just scraping by, wondering how they're going to make rent, scrambling to bill the state $40 an hour for indigent cases than there are lawyers whose second wives are driving a new Lexus.

Law is a profession you need to be in because you love it.
 

Faye DC

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Hate to add to the negative comments about the profession, but it's very true. I'm a lawyer, only recently graduated, and it's a pretty extreme profession. If you're in private practice, 80 hours a week is common (to bill 40-50). I summered in a big firm and at least one of the other summer students would be reduced to tears each week. Switched to government after that. A number of my friends have or had their own practices, but most couldn't make ends meet.

My advice to new graduates would be that you have to decide which is more important to you: your career or your quality of life. You're not lazy for wanting to have some balance in your life. If you want a family or time to eat right and stay active, you just can't work those hours, so find a job in the public sector, or a smaller firm, or a nonprofit. If you're going to try to make it on your own, what's your plan for finding clients? They don't just walk in off the street, and it's hard work doing everything yourself. Make sure you really love it because there won't be much else in your life.
 
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Cathy C

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Very true, Faye DC. I'm reminded of my co-author (we met both working in a law office where she did freelance paralegal work). She had multiple attorney clients. One of them was a high-profile criminal defense attorney with a large case load of murders, drug distributions, RICO charges and such. She wound up working one weekend with a case of pneumonia (she really should have been in the hospital. :eek: Trust me.) I came down to help, risking catching the illness myself.

Why?

Because how do you explain to the parents who mortgaged everything they own to defend a son they believed didn't commit a murder that "I was too sick to come to work" the day before his trial?

You don't.

That's the trick with the legal field. The woman dying in the hospital that needs you to turn off the barbeque to prepare her will, the kid sitting in jail facing life in prison (or worse), the homeowner facing foreclosure at the sale tomorrow. Your life or theirs . . . your life or theirs? Attorneys in it for the love of the profession and the belief that everyone deserves the best representation possible give their all. Often to their detriment.

That's what this book is about. Law school often doesn't teach the tools how to run an office. They can write a brief and choose a jury, but buying the right office equipment? Hiring the right staff? Find the right office? Market themselves to the public? Write a simple cover letter? It's like a foreign language. Maybe if it was easier---if some of the non-legal stuff had a guide, the stress could be reduced to just the attorney dealing with their client.
 

WeaselFire

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The fact that a criminal defense attorney means long hours at low pay, and that the world really is full of scumbags. There are no innocent clients to get off, just guilty ones to process through with the least amount of fines or jail time possible. Which many times can be none at all.

You'll see most of your clients back again soon enough. If they don't get themselves killed first.

Jeff
 

Cathy C

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There are no innocent clients to get off,

Actually, that's not entirely true. The "kid" I mentioned accused of murder really didn't do it. He simply didn't have an alibi and the circumstantial evidence was against him. Right height, right build, same clothing people had seen him in before, plus a grudge against the victim and previous fistfights.

How did we figure it out? The attorney had asked a dozen times previous to that final night before trial to relate every single thing that happened that day. He suddenly remembered that he'd called for pizza delivery on his night home alone. The pizza place had a record of the order and . . . a charge slip he'd signed, proving he was twenty miles away from the crime scene when the murder occurred. Boy, was that a scramble to find the backup to show to the judge the next day. A very Perry Mason moment. :D

Every so often, the guy really didn't do it... Days like that make it all worthwhile.
 

ironmikezero

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When an attorney wins a case, to the client he/she's a hero - lose and it's all his/her fault. Someone is always disappointed, miffed, angry, etc. The attorney can become a lightning rod for such emotions, a focal point for simmering resentment. This can have consequences - real ones, as in potential physical harm.

Judges are (for the most part) lawyers held in sufficient esteem by their legal colleagues to merit election or appointment to the bench. They have the dubious and inherent honor of becoming even greater lightning rods for dissatisfaction. Every decision they render or ruling they make favors one party over another. Some duly disappointed parties may take sufficient umbrage as to threaten, or worse act overtly to harm the person of the judge - or those close to him/her.

Personal security is given little attention in any law school syllabus. It tends to be a lesson learned the old-fashioned way - at the school of hard knocks, where the tuition can be steep indeed.
 

Fenika

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As a bit of an aside, from a potential client prospective my worj participates in the CLC program, which I imagine is a way for lawyers to get clients (maybe not a great way, but I would go to a CLC lawyer first fwiw)
 

Cranky1

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In my final semester of law school, my roommate died. I began having anxiety attacks and I decided not to ever enter a courtroom, if I didn't have to. I used my law degree to launch a research career. My advice would be that your law degree isn't solely about preparing you to be a lawyer; you have been trained to think critically and creatively. Use that skill to find a path that will make you happy. Chasing money will not make everyone happy for very long.
 

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I'm not a lawyer; I'm a paralegal. But my biggest bit of advice for new lawyers would be to respect your paralegal/secretary staffers - just because we aren't lawyers, doesn't mean we're morons. There are little things that staffers know about that, in terms of individual judge's preferences (as well as other things, like quirky procedural things), that lawyers don't that can make all the difference at the end of the day.
 

Cathy C

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Kateness, several of the tips I already have in the book deal with staff respect. Too many lawyers seem to think that paralegals are wannabe attorneys who didn't make the cut, rather than professionals who chose to be a legal assistant as a separate career path. Same with law clerks, law office managers and secretaries (which isn't a demeaning word.) :)
 

Liralen

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Seriously on the new lawyers thing, Kateness!

If a new lawyer comes into an office where there's already a staff in place, especially an experienced staff, they can make your start SOOOO much smoother.

Something a fresh attorney who came in found out the hard way. She blew me off any time I'd try to help her with something . . . and embarrassed herself pretty thoroughly when she filed a case with a claim for less than $5000 in Circuit Court. I'd tried to tell her, gently, before she did it, but she got huffy and told me I hadn't been to law school and she had . . .

Maybe so, but I knew better than to file a claim for less than $12,000 in Circuit Court, lol.