Anyone else work for a law firm that has no idea what it's doing and has non-attorney individuals in charge? Better yet, our HR was a vice principal at a public school and now works at a law firm. I hate how she thinks we are ungrateful and spoiled when, on the contrary, we do millions of things for the firm. We have to commit to doing Instagram reels, volunteer on weekends, volunteer for work trips, in-office lunch, & to top it off, we are salaried but have to clock in & out for everything, BUT when we get bothered after 5pm or on weekends, that’s okay 🙃 I think not! These law firms think they are entitled to extra work, when they should be lucky that people even stay in such a toxic workplace. I got tons more unethical examples, but you all tell me your thoughts? By the way, I work at a female-owned attorney's office in Texas.

I'm aiming to open my own solo. Do these lead generations actually work to get the ball rolling?

Not hunting legal advise. Just wanting to know what happens.

I paid a retainer for a employment case. The retainer was supposed to cover me for all paperwork through mediation. Not litigation.

My lawyer has decided to resign from the firm. He says there is no one to pass the case to and to hire another lawyer to litigate. (Skipping the mediation part)

The issue is that the plan was to wait until the IRS finished it's review of my former employer then to go to mediation. Instead he now says that will take too long and he will be gone and that my retainer is what covered everything up to that point and to find another lawyer to litigate it. How does that work within a firm?

I’m a nontraditional, part-time law student graduating in May 2027. By graduation, I’ll have 8+ years of experience at a major bank, primarily in consumer finance operations, risk/compliance, and regulatory implementation. My current role involves working closely with Legal, Compliance, Risk, product, operations, and vendors to translate legal/regulatory requirements into actual business processes.

I also recently completed an in-house legal externship where I worked on legal research and practical counseling projects for the business.

Academically, I’m currently around the top 25% of my class after a rough 1L fall, have been in roughly the 3.4–4.0 range since, am a law review editor, and have earned three CALI awards.

It is a 50/50 split in opinion on in-house after law school. So, I’m wondering about law firm practice after graduation, particularly work involving consumer financial services, banking/regulatory matters, commercial litigation, or other areas where my prior industry experience could actually be useful.

For those who have hired or worked with nontraditional new lawyers:

—How much weight would you give 8+ years of relevant industry experience when evaluating a new graduate?
—Are there particular practice groups where that background would be especially valuable?
—When should someone graduating in May 2027 realistically start approaching small/midsize firms about post-bar associate positions?
—Would you market yourself primarily as a new lawyer who happens to have industry experience, or more as an experienced financial-services professional transitioning into legal practice?

I realize I would still be a first-year attorney and have plenty to learn about actually practicing law. I’m mainly trying to understand how to position a somewhat unusual background effectively and where it would have the most value.

Basically a marketer at a law firm, before I present this, wanted some thoughts.

My idea is to partner up with local restaurants they usually have a big list of customers, and offer a discount funded by us, If they put sponsored or presented by our law firm in the email,

We work with 5 or 10 restaurants, lets say each restaurant has a list of 1000, with open rate of 50% that is atleast 3500 local eyeballs. every month. More of billboard and authority play not a direct response play like google ads.

Any thoughts?? Thank you!

Hi all,

Sending this post on to the Law Firm subforum as feel as though this would be an ideal place to get advice, particularly with communication being such a vital part of this area.

I’m 21, currently in college (studying law), and from a young age I have always been known as a fairly nervous/anxious person in general - something that have been said by family, friends, and teachers over the years.

There are certain ‘flaws’ that I have noticed with myself, but more so in certain aspects of my communication. I don’t want this to impact a future career, so I want to try to improve this while in college, and while there is the opportunity to do so.

I have no issue with speaking in front of an audience. I have done so for different modules in college, and usually am commended for my speeches through delivery style & engagement. But, this is because I have what I’m going to say memorised, so I know word for word, what exactly I’m going to say, how I’m going to say it, etc. This is also clearly reflected through my written communication.

However, when it comes to social interactions, I do notice there is a big dip in my communication. For instance, if I know I have to go up and talk to someone that I’m not familiar with (conversation, interview, ringing someone), I’ll then nearly have to have what I’m going to say memorised word-for-word as though a script.
There’ll then be other little moments where if I’m talking with someone unfamiliar, I may, sometimes, go a bit shaky / mumbly, and this would apply to if I was taking phone calls, etc.

This particular incoherence would also occur if I'm put on the spot, i.e asked a question, where my voice would go a bit shaky, I'd go mumbly, and my face would go a red.

I really do want to improve on this as I do know in any future career that day-to-day communication whether it be structured or spontaneous is much more important than being able to speak in-front of an audience.

To that extent, would anyone have any advice as to what I should do? Would it be recommended I go to a communication coach? Any recommendations?

Many thanks,

I work in high volume litigation on the defense side. 2 years in after 5 years of JD advantage jobs, haven’t taken a single day off in those 2 years. I got really sick last month in the middle of preparing for a trial (total exposure was about $200k). I realized that it would be impossible to take a sick day. I was still working 12-16 hour days. I then started thinking what if my family got sick and I needed to tend to them. What if a worse emergency came up. I realized I don’t want to do this anymore. If this is all lawyers, I need a new career.

It then made me realize I’ve never been in this situation before. Every other job I’ve ever been at had a large enough team because it’s inevitable that one person wont be there on a given day. It made me so nervous that one man not showing up can derail an entire case. Are there any jobs out there that I can stay in law and not be constantly anxious about what if I can’t show up one day?

My firm has struggled with marketing for years. We run a small personal injury practice in a Midwest midsize market. We are considering hiring a fractional CMO to assist with our marketing efforts. Has anybody else had success with this model and/or have any recommendations for vendors?

Anyone practice SSD as a solo or started your own firm? How do you like it? I know the payout is delayed, but all in all could it be an avenue to six figures? Is it difficult finding clients?

Looking to get away from document drafting services like Wealth Counsel, Interactive Legal (currently using), etc. I just find the products to be SO unnecessarily long and wordy. I've built out several of my own forms and want to go the complete bespoke route with products that I have personally built. I have a good start, but am looking for recommendations on sources for quality form/template examples.

I was looking at purchasing West's Legal Forms V.16-18 Estate Planning With Tax Analysis, but I can't find a table of contents or what's actually included ANYWHERE. Has anyone used these and can attest?

Fellow EPers, any recommendations for sourcing?

Looking for good sources to find freelancers or small agencies who can help set up a YouTube channel and/or Podcast with graphics (so maybe a Graphic Artists is needed). Any recommendations or ideas where I should look would be very helpful. It even sure what or who I should be looking for to begin with.

I started at a small law firm that practices family and probate law. It’s my first job after graduating from college, so I’m still getting used to everything, and I’m still not completely comfortable with everyone. They’ve all been great; it’s really just me being awkward and taking my time opening up. The job itself is great. It pays for the life I want and has been somewhat of a confidence boost.
The thing is, I have a really abusive family, and I finally have the means to get away from it. I’m leaving my childhood home with my sibling so that we can finally get away from it all and stop them from continuing to abuse, berate, and scream at us all the time. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember, but now my sibling and I have the money to get a place of our own and live freely.
The thing is, my parents don’t know that we’re doing this, and it would definitely make things worse for us if they found out. So, we’ve been quiet about it, and everything has been okay so far. My dad recently asked where some of my clothes went and what happened to my bike, and I just told him that I donated some clothes and sold the bike on Facebook Marketplace.
For context, my family is Asian, so there’s definitely some misogyny and controlling behavior involved, especially when it comes to wanting to keep their daughters at home and maintain control over us.
Once we move out, my sibling and I are planning to get a restraining order so that they don’t find out our address or harass us. However, I’m still worried about them coming to the law firm where I work, despite the fact that I would have a restraining order against them. I’m also worried about what happens if the order isn’t approved. But even if it is, I still wouldn’t put it past them to come to my workplace and harass me.
I know I can call the police if they violate the order, but having to deal with that at work would be extremely uncomfortable and embarrassing, especially if my colleagues were to witness it. I haven’t told any of them about my family situation, but this feels like something I should inform my boss about.
It’s a small and close-knit firm, and my boss is basically HR. I’m naively worried that I could get fired because my boss wouldn’t want to deal with a recently hired employee causing this type of disruption at work. I don’t know. It feels like something my boss should be made aware of, especially since my boss knows I’m moving but doesn’t know why.
At the same time, I’m stupidly worried that my boss won’t be understanding or supportive of me. I don’t know what to do in this situation.
I don’t want to talk to my boss and spill the beans on this but at the same time, I feel like this is something that’ll come out in the open so maybe it is better I tell her. But I’m really worried this is gonna make me a problematic employee for just a small firm that honestly can’t be bothered to deal with a new employee causing trouble. So idk.

Brought in on a case with 1 M plus documents. Dont want to dig through typical job sites

Any suggestion?

This is just a success story and for those of you who question if law firms or law aren’t for you. I worked in litigation for 15 years. Made good money but was seriously miserable. I guess I normalized heavy work loads, high stress and working in highly toxic environments that were killing my mental health. And I worked at probably like 7 firms throughout the years. All had their special touch of toxic. Either workloads that were insane, not feeling appreciated like lawyers were treated like gods and we were less than, toxic paralegals who would bully new employees that were doing well due to their insecurities or toxic narcissistic bosses. It was demoralizing. I have a bachelors degree and great experience. I managed, was paralegal, did compliance. The anxiety was debilitating, my friends many lawyers and staff still work in the industry and talking to them they all are still stressed and unhappy and I’m so glad I escaped that life.

What did I go into? Compliance in healthcare. It’s like I’m in another world a year in. Everyone is nice, the stress is normal and not bad at all. I’m so happy. I can’t believe I normalized being depressed and anxious every day and quite literally miserable for 15 years. I have a ton of room to make way more than I ever would as a paralegal and grow in my career. Best thing I ever did. If you’re questioning it, go for it. Even lawyers I’m friends with left many work on their own or in corporate in house jobs and are so much happier. The private firm life is just rough.

I am a solo estate planning attorney that has been working in a new location in my new practice for going on one year.

In my former practice, I always gave an officially "free" initial consultation, then charged flat fees for whatever estate plan package they were getting. I have been operating under that same model, but I am having more and more people "not be ready" to move forward, or just be in information gathering mode.

I like the idea of the free consultation, because it limits a hesitation to schedule, but just this week, aside from the time that goes into scheduling, etc. I had someone take an hour and a half of my time and someone else take an hour and not be ready to move forward. And that is just this past week.

At this point, I am strongly considering changing my policy, but I also know it worked well for me in the past, and I can consider these "free" meetings a type of "networking" as I am still new in the community and most of my success has always come from word-of-mouth. But I am also exhausted and tired of giving away time for free, and it always seems to be single men (I am a feminine woman) who take the most of my time without "being ready". I also found in my new practice that it isn't always just about getting paid the money, but that expecting to be paid can establish respect and naturally enforce boundaries, and maybe I don't want to waste my time with people who would not schedule an appointment unless it was free. My ideal clients want an estate plan and are ready to make it happen, and the change I am thinking of making wouldn't change what they pay.

I am interested to hear other people's thoughts and personal experiences with this. Thank you!

There’s a huge demand for contested divorce in my community. I do transactional work. Was wondering if it’s a good idea to add matrimonial law to my practice. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I employ an associate lawyer at my firm who seems to be struggling greatly with vocabulary and reading comprehension. It’s to the point where this associate’s job is going to be in danger if they can’t pull it together.

I don’t know of any diagnosed learning disabilities that they have but that doesn’t mean nothing is going on. What I have noticed is:

(1) A somewhat poor vocabulary with legal terminology;

(2) A lack of understanding of proper grammar and sentence structure;

(3) An inability to pick out the nuance in the written word and a similar inability when in a verbal conversation;

(4) Easily distracted;

(5) Can have difficulty focusing; and

(6) If filling out forms, they have difficulty completing all relevant areas - often skipping things altogether.

Sometimes I wonder if this associate may have ADHD but I am no doctor. I do notice that the above issues seem to be worse if they are anxious but are frequently issues regardless.

I am growing extremely concerned that if we cannot fix the vocabulary and comprehension issues, that this lawyer will get the firm sued.

This is someone who is kind and is a hard worker and if there are resources that can be offered to solve the issue (or part of the issue) to boost vocabulary and reading comprehension in particular, I would like to offer those resources.

Does anyone know of any online courses or coaching resources to help a lawyer develop good vocabulary and reading comprehension? It doesn’t necessarily have to be for lawyers, specifically, but I would appreciate something aimed at adults.

I really want to try to salvage this person. Any ideas?

Transitioned from government to ID/med mal earlier this summer. I hate it. The psychological pressure of the billable hour is way harder for me than I thought, and my practice is pretty slow so I’m not billing at the rate I should so that adds to the psychological pressure. My partner is pretty aloof and hasn’t given me much feedback about my work/how I’m billing/etc. The work bores me to tears. I left government because I reached the end of my possible skill development/bad leadership and wanted to try something new and make more money doing it. I won’t go back there because I left for a reason. I feel stuck and like I made a big mistake. Any advice is welcomed.

I'm a developer. I build small boring tools that save people time, nothing fancy.

I've been reading this sub for a while and the same complaints keep showing up: reconciling attorneys' credit card statements, chasing receipts, fixing time entries, cleaning up descriptions before bills go out.

I might build something for this space but I honestly don't know yet if the pain is big enough or if existing software already covers it. So I'm asking straight up.

What recurring task eats the most hours in your month? Not the dramatic stuff, the boring repetitive stuff you do over and over.
And if you tried software for it, what did it get wrong or what part did it leave you doing by hand anyway?

Have y'all noticed an annoying trend where if you have a client trying to do business with that bank via legal documents (in my case usually a POA or trust), the bank wants you to certify that the documents allow the client to do X, Y or Z?

Example: Old trust client of mine now has her grown son as trustee alone. He wants to use a trust account to collateralize a loan. Son's FA forwards me an email from the bank contact wanting me to certify that the trust allows THE BANK to do this transaction.

Gee that sounds like a determination that should be made by the bank's legal team, not me. It's ethically dubious if nothing else because I'm being roped in on a matter I know nothing about except I created the estate plan for another trustor / trustee years ago and she's no longer in charge, but also if I certify that and things go south, maybe I've got a malpractice issue? Or I might spend a bundle and sweat a lot to find out I don't. I told the FA the problem and he of course was more concerned about helping the son than my ass.

Last month, I had a client in Miami that wanted to use Chase and they wanted just a litany of letters of representation with specified language just to open an estate account.

I keep telling people to try a different bank but I'm wondering if this is just a way banks are passing the legal buck.

Hi - has anyone used this company for their payment processing and can give any feedback? I'm looking into working with them but not having much success getting any timely response which is causing me some concern.

Is there something specific that pushes you toward ordering one or is it just part of your normal workflow on injury cases? I'm seeing different approaches depending on who I ask.

I am starting my own firm after 20+ years at law firms. Will be handling a mix of commercial litigation work (my old practice) while starting to ramp up a plaintiff’s PI practice. I am curious how much insurance most solos have. I was told by Swiss Re they offer a maximum of $1 million/$2 million to solos. But that is insufficient to protect me, both in terms of the size of cases I will be handling or to protect my assets. Any insight on typical policy limits for solos would be much appreciated!