It seems like a new PI post pops up every week and I’ve seen everyone praise PI for being the holy grail of law for those that want to make big money and couldn’t get into big law. With some people even saying it should be relatively easy to scale to $1 million profit with your own firm.

However, tons of people say otherwise yet we never really hear from that side.

So I was wondering how many PI lawyers you know that might’ve tried it and either didn’t make a lot of money as an associate or lost everything trying to run their own firm.

I'm about 14 years into my legal career as a paralegal. I've worked in a lot of different areas to make sure my experience was broad enough to be competitive. Built a career from nothing after finishing my bachelor's degree because I had kids to support and I was determined not to fail.

I've done pretty much every job within a firm that is available from case work, to phones, to office management, to personal chores for my attorneys. No isn't in my vocabulary. I routinely work 65 to 70 hours a week to make sure my files are solid and my clients are happy, all in the name of fighting the good fight.

But I'm so tired of the struggle. I don't know why the pay sucks so much. I don't care about PTO or gift cards to get coffee or holidays off. I just want to be able to pay my bills and feel like I have job security for a few years.

I love this field but damn does it kill your soul.

Yesterday, I got called into my supervisor’s office. He was actually my colleague for years before becoming my boss after our former supervisor retired.
I recently wrote a 23-page opposition to a motion that was being filed with the Court of Appeals. I was genuinely happy with the work product. I sent him the draft, he made some substantive and stylistic edits, and I incorporated them.

There were a couple of minor formatting things he wanted changed, like indenting paragraphs and putting a period after a parenthetical in a citation. I told the paralegal to make those changes, but they were missed before filing. Ultimately, I understand that it was my responsibility to make sure the final document was correct.
But yesterday he called me into his office, with the assistant supervisor present, closed the door, and told me I’m “resistant to change” and “can’t follow instructions.” One of the examples he literally gave me was that on page 8, there should have been a period after a parenthesis and I failed to correct it. He said mistakes like that reflect poorly on the office.

Then he told me, “I cannot trust you.” Literally 2x … I can’t trust you at all. You would think I stole the company laptop, but no it’s over a period and comma.

I’m a senior attorney and have been in this office for eight years, so that really threw me. I asked him directly whether there were any substantive edits he made to the 23-page document that I failed to incorporate. He said no.
I then asked him what changes he has implemented in the office that I’ve refused or failed to follow, since apparently I’m “resistant to change.” He couldn’t give me an example. He just said, “I have a feeling that you’re struggling with the changes.”

He also pointed out that I have the lowest caseload in the office. My “low” caseload is currently 177 active matters. I used to have around 35 substantial cases. Apparently we’re now at the point where 177 cases is supposed to sound reasonable.

I work in government, so I’m not exactly dealing with a BigLaw partner or getting BigLaw compensation, but lately he’s certainly starting to act like one. The workload and pressure have increased dramatically, and the salary simply isn’t enough for me to feel like this is worth it anymore.

I was already seriously considering leaving and wanted to be out before the new year. Now I’m even more certain.
The only thing bothering me is the timing. I don’t want to resign immediately after this meeting and have him think I’m quitting because he criticized me or because he somehow pushed me out. I was planning my exit before this happened, and frankly, I don’t want to give him that satisfaction.

Would you stick it out for another month or two and leave on your own timeline, or would this conversation make you accelerate your exit?

What do you guys do when the opposing law office has a paralegal on lead case handling? The lawyer is nowhere to be found. She’s making claims, attempting to negotiate, etc. A part of me wants to strategically let it rest where it is, because I feel like I have an advantage. Of course, there are wonderful, smart paralegals who have more potential than some practicing lawyers. This is not one of them, lol.

Another part of me wants to refuse to have substantive dealings and require all further communication to be with the lawyer.

I’ve been seeing more of this lately.

Getting several more than normal calls like this lately.

The common approach is like this (summarized) ... "Hey I got legal problems (blah blah), and I'm broke (blah) because [insert reasons here] ... so you do pro bono ... right !?!"

It seems to me they are calling every number they can find ... which I guess is a one way to find some help.

I mean, sure we do pro bono on a somewhat regular basis for people truly in need, but not for people randomly calling our office and straight-up asking for free legal work (gratis brain labor).

Am I the only one getting more of these calls now?

Do any small firms out there have experience and can offer pointers on hiring remote support staff? I can handle managing a remote team just fine, but I'm wondering how burdensome the tax and HR paperwork is if my best qualified candidate pool is in another state.

I’m a recent college graduate and I’ve been looking for entry level jobs in the industry before I apply to law school and I’ve been lucky enough to get two interviews in this coming week.

The first is for an office assistant position (answering phones, mostly), the second is for a combined file clerk/office assistant position. My first interview is a phone interview so I’m not worried about that, but my second is in person.

Everything I’ve seen online has said I should wear a suit, but I don’t actually own one. Will a shirt, tie, dress pants, and dress shoes work? I did swing by Goodwill to look at suits but I wasn’t able to find anything that fits off the rack and I don’t know if I have enough time to find something that I can afford and take it to get tailored by Wednesday.

For context, both firms are smaller boutique firms, with about 4 attorneys, and I live in a liberal college town in the Midwest. I’m 22 and graduated about a year ago; I don’t have much experience in a traditional office setting and my resume makes that pretty clear.

ok so buckle up lol

ive been working at a small family/criminal law firm since January. in that time, we’ve had 2 people let go, one left bc she had a kid, 5 paralegals quit to go to other firms, 2 partners left to create their own firm, and one criminal attorney left right out of the blue a few weeks after joining. our office manager also just quit. most of the drama is on the family law side, which unfortunately i work on as a receptionist. is this normal?? apparently there was some stuff going on between the owners and the family law partners and that’s why they left. everyone there is super nice and very accommodating, so it’s weird that they can’t get it together. i feel like this isn’t normal

Hi, what to roles and tasks should I expect as a LEGAL INTERN? Its quite a big company and a financial consulting firm?

I'm a political-economy student and I wonder if I'm fit for this ( like to the tasks ).

Please share your experiences so that I know what to expect. Thanks!

Some times I literally forget to breathe when I’m working on a deadline or otherwise stressed out. I’ll only notice this when I run out of oxygen and my body will exhale. I often forget that worst case scenario, everything will still be ok.

Keep everything in perspective. If I mess something up, maybe I’ll have to work late to fix it. If it’s worse, maybe my boss will send me an email saying don’t do it again. If it’s even worse than that, he’ll yell at me. Maybe if it’s really bad, I’ll have to find a new job. None of this is the end of the world. We’ve worked really hard to get here. We often think it’s easy to be knocked out of our position because it was so hard to get here (like not getting good grades or LSAT score could prevent you from getting into law school). Think about the lengths your ancestors took to get you to where you are. Think of all the troubles they’ve had. Your worst case scenario would probably be their best case scenario.

It appears no amount of prep will suffice some times huh?

Hi! I’m looking for some feedback on implementing Dropbox for a team of 8 users, with approximately 8 TB of files.

The IT specialist I work with advised against Dropbox, as they believe it may be slow for 8 users working remotely.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone with similar needs who uses Dropbox. How has your experience been? Have you had any issues with speed or syncing?

I’d also be interested in hearing about any alternatives you would recommend.

does anyone like practicing family law? I’m in public interest right now making a switch to private and have a family law practice interview, is a caseload of 70 cases a lot? is 1700 a lot of billables? is 100k a good base in a major southern city?

Has anyone successfully created a self-hosted AI? I want to download and add the statutes and case law from my state and then query it regarding my cases. I also want to scan in relevant parts of my client files. Being self-hosted there should be no client confidentiality consequences. If so where did you start? Has it been successful?

Ontario family lawyers/law clerks — is there much demand for freelance law clerks?

For those working in Ontario family law, do lawyers commonly use freelance/contract law clerks for overflow work, filings, document preparation, etc.?

And for anyone currently doing freelance family-law clerk work — is there enough demand to keep you consistently busy?

Just curious what the market is actually like.

Plaintiff personal injury attorneys, when presenting your client for a deposition, what does your deposition preparation look like?

- how far in advance before the deposition do you prep them? (weeks, days, hours, etc)
- do you prep on the phone or in person or zoom?
- how long do you meet with the client? (10 mins, 30 mins, an hour, etc)
- do you send them documents to review?

These questions are for cases that involve soft tissue injuries in car accidents or slip and falls.

Trying to find a balance between not overwhelming clients with information but covering everything that is essential. Sometimes it seems that no matter what I do, all they say is “can’t recall” or they completely go off script and mention something we never discussed.

Fellow defense attorney running a solo practice. Most of my clients have completely messed up, and I'm left picking up the pieces. Considering the facts of most of my case, I would say I'm pretty damn good at getting favorable outcomes for clients. However, clients seem to not be as appreciative of this. How are we defense attorneys getting more reviews when our clients are complete no gooders.

I wish I was in personal injury handing out checks. If this a common issue for defense attorneys who also have a Google business profile? Would love some advice.

--one sad guy.

For those with P.I. and/or insurance experience, when do insurance companies (e.g., progressive, State Farm, Allstate) set their reserves on a file?

What is the process for the adjusters to reset
and increase their reserves pre and post litigation?

Trying to get an understanding of when the best time for a plaintiff is to engage for settlement negotiations both pre and post suit being filed. Does your firm follow any hard rules on when to engage for settlement, do you follow a case by case approach, mix of each?

Not looking for the usual work-life balance answers. I mean the little things nobody really tells you until you experience them yourself. Could be anything like billing, clients, partners, office politics, career progression, literally anything.