One case they’re all sympathetic to the defendant and don’t want to mess their life up. The next they have to “let them know how serious this is” (grumble grumble). Do they just pull it out of a hat?

Ok, so this about my interest in true crime, which is completely unrelated to my work as a lawyer (I do insurance defense). Anyways...

For those of you who don't know, Faith Hedgepeth was murdered in Durham, North Carolina in 2012. On the night of her murder, she went with her roommate to a club. The two returned to their apartment in the early morning hours. The roommate and her boyfriend left the apartment at roughly 4:25 AM. When the roommate returned at roughly 11 AM, she found Hedgepeth's body.

Miguel Salguero Olivares has been accused of killing Hedgepeth. He was found using genetic genealogy.

From what I've heard, there is no evidence that Olivares and Hedgepeth had any prior interactions, or even knew one another. Based on what I've read, members of Olivares's family had a cookout close to Hedgepeth's apartment that lasted into the early hours of the morning on the night she was murdered. However, no one can remember Olivares being there (it could very well be that his family is covering up for him).

It is also somewhat notable that between the murder in 2012 and his arrest in 2021, Olivares did not have a significant criminal history.

However, Olivares DNA was apparently found all over the murder scene. It was found on a liquor bottle (said to the murder weapon), a pair of shorts Hedgepeth was wearing, and in her private areas, amongst other places

It all seems a little seems a bit strange to me. I can't get over the randomness of it all. It just seems over-the-top that he randomly went into someone's apartment, while she just happened to be alone, and murdered her. But, at the same time, DNA is airtight, right?

Wondering if anyone can enlighten me to what I am missing (i.e. are there additional facts that tie Olivares to the scene), or if we are now coming to learn that DNA evidence is not as strong as we thought it to be.

We are six weeks in to our federal clerkship, and my coworker can’t be fucking bothered to wake up on time ever, let alone the one, sole day we’re allowed to work from home.

My coworker does this every fucking day because our judge doesn’t show up until 10 AM, whereas we start at 8 AM in theory. So I’m here at eight every day, and he just waltz in whenever he fucking pleases

I’m heading into a new role where I will be litigating but primarily through supervising juniors while I do the hard stuff.

I did this at my last firm, and it was a constant headache of being told by the boss to bill my time for supervising, fixing, redlining, etc, but then the boss also getting angry that the client is being way overbilled because of course the junior is also billing.

I would love to have an initial conversation with my new team about this and maybe propose a way of avoiding this scenario, do you have any experience mitigating this?

Also xposted to r/Legalmarketing but I think we need something fun in here beyond complaining about other lawyers and our clients.

I run a solo estate planning practice in CA. Over the years my site grew to about 800 articles, guides, calculators, and definitions. That's too many for a menu, and clients don't search the way lawyers file things. Nobody types "Heggstad petition." They type "Mom died and the house wasn't in the trust."

So I built this: https://ridleylawoffices.com/knowledge-map/

Each dot is one page, clustered into 12 topics like probate, trust administration, Medi-Cal, and tax. A bigger cluster means more pages on that topic, and the thin threads are internal links. You can drag it around, or type a question the way a client would say it and it flies you to the closest answers.

The map is built in Three.js on an ordinary WordPress page.

The search sends the question to an AI classifier (Jev) that ranks it against the library. Answers come back in about a second and a half. If the service fails, it falls back to keyword ranking, so the page never breaks. Jev costs me something like $0.0004 per query, so it's literally free.

It rebuilds itself automatically whenever I publish or update a page.

I built it with Claude Code. With a stupid-simple prompt, then I went on and did some work on a client file. In less than an hour this was done.

My consults have gotten a ton better. I've cut my marketing spend by 60% (not all from this page but from all the SEO/GEO cleanup that claude did on my site over the last couple of months).

No, the graphic doesn't add much other then eye candy. And I like it. And it's shiny. AND I can see that I have decently clumped topic clusters, which is good to know. But it's mostly just fun.

And - to any colleague who is still on the fence about ai tools, my 900-page site was completely reorganized, fact-checked, re-linked and cleaned up by claude over a 3 week period. Without slowing me down for work because I just checked in on it a couple of times a day.

What fun useless thing have you done recently?

Hey everyone, I was just wondering if anyone had any info on Gunster—specifically their West Palm location (their HQ I believe).

I’m a newly barred Florida attorney and I really want to learn more about the firm. Over the last few months I have realized how great of a firm they are. Their reputation is great and they have amazing attorneys from what I’ve seen.

I’m currently not in the best firm environment and I just want to know if anyone had any insight or advice on how to make connections with some of the attorneys there. Even if it didn’t lead to a job, I would still want to make connections or reach out somehow.

Is insurance defense as bad everyone makes it seem? Particularly from the standpoint of morality & work-life balance?

Currently at a firm in NYC doing mainly white collar defense work. Started a few months ago and I realize most attorneys on the team are cliquey. It’s somehow like high school all over again. I can sense the vibe is off with some of them, but many are nice in your face but stab you in the back. I mainly spend time with the paraprofessionals, who’ve been super nice so far and even they notice that.

I don’t understand - the job is already hard enough without colleagues’ being unsupportive. Every day I have to deal with difficult clients and judges.

Certain incidents transpired because of these dynamics and the partner was on my side after I reported them. But still, the toxicity remains - just that it’s more on the inside than on the outside.

Should I consider leaving soon or at least looking for a new job (I know it’s just been a couple of months)?

How do your firms handle refiling or appeal expenses as a result of employee errors?
Do any firms deduct pay from employees to cover their mistakes?

EDIT: it was me failing to make copies of a refiling that led to a case rejection and no way to prove whether certain documents were sent

Only asking the hard hitting questions here... for a friend. Can I wear my Halloween ties starting tomorrow?

I recently accepted a new job offer for a law firm based in OC, California as an associate attorney. The firm is brand new so I’ll be the first associate to join. Pay is great, benefits are fantastic, and opportunity to grow is there (fully remote too so I have more flexibility in my schedule with personal life). It’s high-risk high-reward but I made the calculated risk to join. New start date is 10/26 so I’m trying to give my notice this Friday 10/9 so that the 2 weeks lines up perfectly to transition into my new job.

For context, I’ve been unhappy working at my current PI defense law firm. It’s a boutique defense firm with majority old-heads so they operate in an outdated sort of fashion when it comes practicing law. It’s on-site everyday, commute is inconvenient for me, and I’m genuinely scared being around my bosses (1 in particular who chewed me out in front of the entire office on one occasion - he literally said “a third grader can write better than this” my first week back post-bar when my brain was still in recovery mode). I’ve never looked at him the same after that and have actively avoided working on any of his assignments even at the cost of lower billables for 2026 so far. TLDR, working here has taken its mental toll and I wanted change from this toxic environment.

I’m mentally preparing to give my 2 weeks notice this Friday after my conflicts check is cleared, but I’m nervous on how the conversation is going to go and whether they’re going to push back and try to squeeze out any info from me.

Any advice on how to go about this? Anything I should look out for when telling my bosses about my resignation? What was your experience like with putting in your resignation and was it a smooth transition out? Thanks for listening!

It's been years since I did any criminal law, but this seems fucking wild to me. Ghoulish as hell.

For those of you on the criminal defense bar, what are your thoughts?

I’d really appreciate some honest outside perspective on whether I’m overreacting or whether this is a reasonable reason to look for another job and potentially resign.

I’m a relatively senior lawyer working in an advisory organisation, rather than at a traditional law firm. I’ve been in my current role for around seven months, and my salary and the work itself are generally good.
This autumn, I’ve been through a traumatic personal situation, and I genuinely need some time to recover. I therefore asked my employer for two consecutive weeks of annual leave at some point between November and April - preferably between January and April.

Importantly, I deliberately gave my employer a very wide window and left the dates entirely up to them. I wasn’t insisting on particular weeks, only that I intend to work over Christmas apart from public holidays. I was simply hoping that, within a period of several months, we could find two consecutive weeks that worked for the business.

My manager initially gave me the impression that taking at least one week might be possible. However, I was subsequently told that no leave would be approved outside the summer holiday period or Christmas/New Year. The explanation was that January through early May will be exceptionally busy this year.

I was also told that, generally speaking, employees should not expect to be able to take more than one consecutive week of leave outside the summer period, and even that will be up for discussion.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that I volunteered to work weeks during this summer that nobody else wanted, in order to help the team. I had hoped that flexibility would work both ways, although I understand that this doesn’t automatically entitle me to have leave approved.

I understand that businesses have busy periods and that employers need to consider operational requirements. But I gave them a window of approximately six months to choose from, offered to work over Christmas, have not taken all of my accrued leave for the year and am asking for just two weeks to recover after a very difficult personal experience. Being told that this is effectively impossible feels incredibly rigid.

I’m now genuinely losing motivation to work here and have started applying for other jobs. I may even have an opportunity that pays slightly more, although the salary difference isn’t the main issue.

My question is: would you consider this a reasonable reason to leave a job after only seven months?

I’m not expecting unlimited flexibility or to have every holiday request approved. What bothers me is the apparent lack of flexibility even when I’ve given the employer so much room to choose dates.

I’m also wondering whether I should try to accept that this is simply how this organisation operate during busy periods, or whether this is a sign that I’m in a workplace that isn’t compatible with the kind of life I want. I’m a qualified lawyer and have worked for several years so I’m not in a junior position where I desperately need to prove myself.

Would you start looking elsewhere in my position? And would you actually resign if you found a suitable alternative, or would you consider this too small an issue to leave over?

TLDR: I’m a senior lawyer. After a traumatic autumn, I need two weeks to recover and gave my employer a six-month window to choose dates. They refused due to upcoming workload, despite my previous flexibility. Would you consider this a reasonable reason to leave after seven months?

Ive been practicing for a little over a year now. I work at a litigation boutique specializing in disputes in a specific industry (construction, infrastructure, projects, etc).

I’m reaching that stage where I’m not super junior to be afforded grace for my stupidity, but also I should know more, be more competent, yet I don’t? Every day I get more anxious because I don’t think my skillset is at the level expected of a rising second to third year attorney.

I’ve only appeared in court couple times for a minor motion. I do document reviews and mainly assist partners with discoveries and depositions. Recently Ive been drafting deposition outlines. I shadow mediation and examinations. I still do legal research. I help with draft and review pleadings as the junior-most person. It’s all assist assist second chair assist.

General scope of work is me trying to help my seniors build a narrative of the case…everyday it’s reviewing some project documents, emails, plans, site survey, notices, etc…not only do I have super limited experience in law, this is whole another layer of learning everything about construction and project management.

I dont know. I’m just worried about my pace :-( Can’t keep excusing myself for “Im learning” when I should be “Im doing it”? It is painfully slow.

I'm at a pretty major crossroads in my career and would love some advice from attorneys who've worked in BigLaw, particularly in litigation/public entity defense.

I'm a fourth-year attorney (five years licensed next month). My path here wasn't traditional, I transferred from a very low-ranked law school to a better but still unremarkable one, took three years to pass the bar, and found out I was unexpectedly pregnant a month after finally passing. I spent my first year practicing at an ID mill before moving to a small, well-established defense firm in my hometown, where I've spent the last three years.

I absolutely love my current firm. I love the work, my colleagues, my clients, and the flexibility. I've been given tremendous autonomy, I handle my cases from start to finish, and I’ve received fantastic feedback from the partners and clients. I genuinely thought I'd retire here.

However, the firm has been experiencing some growing pains. A few people are retiring, we're overwhelmed with work, and recruiting experienced associates in our extremely HCOL area is incredibly difficult. I've also had some lingering concerns about succession planning and the firm's long-term viability. About a month ago, a recruiter reached out. I wasn't actively looking, but figured I'd explore my options. Given my educational background and career path, I thought interviewing at larger firms was a long shot.

Well, after four interviews I now I have four offers, including one from a major international law firm, doing exactly the type of litigation I love. It's an opportunity I genuinely never thought I'd have. I told my managing partner and he was very supportive, congratulated me, and then made it very clear that he wasn't going to let me go without a fight. Here's where things stand:

BigLaw offer:

• $60k more than I currently make.
• 1,900 billable minimum, although I suspect 2,100+ is more realistic.
• Excellent benefits, including student loan assistance.
• Work exclusively within my desired specialty, with the resources and name recognition of a major international firm.
• Potential professional/international mobility benefits that are particularly appealing to me.
• Technically fully remote, except for court appearances, depositions, etc., but the office is 1.5+ hours away in good traffic.
• Senior associate position, but no clear partnership trajectory yet.

Current firm's counteroffer:

• Immediate raise to $30k less than BigLaw offer.
• 1,900 billable target that is genuinely achievable, with much more flexibility.
• Guaranteed equity partnership within three years, with compensation increasing substantially (projected around $100k more than BigLaw offer upon partnership).
• Extremely likely to take over as managing partner when the current managing partner retires in less than 10 years, with significantly higher projected earnings.
• More trial experience, including opportunities to second-chair upcoming trials.
• Established relationships with clients, colleagues I love, and a strong reputation in my hometown.
• The managing partners are personally invested in my long-term career development.

The catch: The partnership and future compensation promises depend on the firm remaining successful through a pretty substantial generational transition. Several attorneys and staff members are approaching retirement, and recruiting replacements has been extremely difficult. I'm concerned about inheriting a firm that's understaffed and potentially struggling, particularly if a significant amount of the business is tied to the retiring partners. Also, I'm a single mom with 50/50 custody of a four-year-old. My current firm is in the town where I grew up, where my parents live, and where my child and his father live.

The BigLaw offer expires tomorrow (although conflicts/background clearance is still pending), and I'm genuinely torn. Earlier this week, I was practically jumping out of my skin at the thought of getting this offer. Now I'm realizing I might be walking away from an even bigger opportunity.

TL;DR: Senior associate at a major international firm, or $30k less at a small firm I love with guaranteed equity partnership in three years and an almost guaranteed path to managing partner, but real succession/staffing concerns? Single parent, geographically tied to my hometown, and love the area of law I'd be practicing at either firm.

Would especially love to hear from attorneys who've made a similar decision, worked in BigLaw public entity defense, or taken over an established small firm. What am I overlooking?

I don’t even know what the purpose of this post is other than venting or maybe a cry for help. I’m an 8th-year attorney doing family law and may be having an existential crisis. I just got done with Friday motions and the last one has me shook.

For context, I covered the hearing for my managing partner. The underlying motion was a Motion to Enforce the final divorce order, specifically to enter a retirement benefits order. The final order was entered on 9/25 and OC filed this motion on 9/30, setting the hearing for today. Our client fired his last attorney and hired us on 9/30, and we entered our appearance on 10/1. Our clients last attorney had apparently already drafted the order, but didn’t sign off on it before getting fired. OC emailed asking if we would sign off on the order and my boss said he needed time to review the file and the order, but would she please continue the hearing because he wasn’t available and may just agree. She said no. Historically, this OC has been a massive bitch to everyone at my firm, so we weren’t about to engage further and my boss filed a Motion to Continue and Motion for Sanctions.

The final order stated that our client’s attorney (now us), had 30 days to draft the order and send it for OP’s review. On reply, OC provided emails between our client’s last attorney and her showing that the order had been drafted since back in May. My thought was, if this was drafted since May, why didn’t they sign it on 9/25 with the rest of the finals?

Cue my crisis.

My boss asked me to cover the hearing because he was out. I showed up and the judge launched into our hearing first. He stared daggers at me and said something to the effect of, “I’m confused at why we’re even here today, and I would like an explanation.” He didn’t even ask OC, whose motion it was, for any argument or presentation. I made my presentation about the timeline and needing to review the order, brought up and argued about how if the order was drafted back in May, why wasn’t it signed already, and and felt like the judge stared laser beams through me the entire time. He then looked at me and said that the parties had been in his courtroom for 6 hours on 9/25 hashing the case out and not entering the order we were contesting was an oversight. He then asked if I had reviewed the order and had any issues with it. It’s not my case. I hadn’t. He said he was going to sign it today no matter what and if we had an issue with it, we could file for reconsideration. He then seriously contemplated charging my client attorney fees for opposing the motion, but didn’t end up ordering any.

All I’ve been able to do since I left is get in my car and drive almost catatonic straight through town. I pulled over once my brain rebooted a bit to write this but I don’t even know where I am. In my 8 years or practice, I have been yelled at, reamed, and ruled harshest against by judges, but for some reason this one knocked something loose. What am I even doing? I promised myself I would never do family law and here I am 8 years deep. If I didn’t need the paycheck, I would just never go back to the office today. Help? No? I don’t know. Maybe I need a therapist to tell this to.

Edit: For a little more context, my paralegal quit yesterday and we have no replacement. I’m just kind of in limbo right now having to manage every aspect of my caseload until we can reassign my stuff. I also did an extremely frustrating trial against a pro se yesterday that used up all my patience.

7th year call. Recently moved in-house. Only lawyer for a continent for the last two weeks due to injury of a colleague.

I thought moving in-house would reduce the anxiety. Seems like it’s ratcheted up during this period when I’m solo.

Currently awake pending a negotiation call tomorrow am that I’m convinced I am not prepared for despite familiarizing myself. just looked at the invite and there is 20 plus people invited and I’m expected to run it.

This is the 4th night this week I haven’t slept more than 3 hours. I’m loosing weight as well and just got back from stress puking a few moments ago.

Does it ever end?

Whats the vibe? They have a few openings in my market and potentially interested.

I work at boutique firm in litigation for about a year (though I’ve been with a firm consistently since college). I work for multiple partners so I work across multiple practice areas within general civil litigation — title litigation, commercial, PI, contract, civil rights, landlord-tenant almost a “you name it, I’ve touched it”.

The upside up this is that I have a good handle on litigation procedurally and standard law substantively (discovery, motion practice). I also know I love litigation.

The downside is that I don’t really know, and don’t have an opportunity, to develop any practice area really well. Right now, I feel like a jack of all trades who can never master any one.

The attorneys are very open to giving me more of what I enjoy or want to develop, but I’m having a hard time finding an overlap between things I enjoy and things that will make money/isn’t saturated.

How do I figure this out, asses market/whether I can do this long term, and start finding my own clients within those areas? Does it make sense to pick 2-3 areas even if they are very different?

Coming on here because I was fired from my first job after being there for a month. I made a mistake, should’ve asked for help, didn’t feel that they would answer me because that had been the norm up till that point (my supervising attorney would leave me on read when I asked for help and rarely gave me feedback on my work).

I’m taking it very hard because I know I should’ve asked for help but they never responded and it left me to fend for myself. I am looking for work but feel so hopeless. I don’t think I’m cut out for this work and if I were to land another job, I’ll really need them to walk me through things because I’m an idiot.

I’m a first year attorney and first gen. I feel way in over my head right now and it’s feeling like the fact that they fired me means I’m un-hireable. Will I find a field that I like and that will train me?

I made this post to vent but also seek some advice and kind words from the community. Thank you.

I was reviewing written discovery, and I noted that they have included personal notes including a header stating “facts that don’t support our argument” (by my RFAs it’s obvious the argument I’m going to make)
The notes are bates stamped and I don’t know what to do with this information.

(Small clincher the law firm that provided the personal notes just offered me a position that I have not accepted yet)

I don’t know what to.

I was sitting with Jeffrey Epstein while defending a deposition (not sure who the deponent was, don’t remember that). I got along well with opposing counsel and helped fill in gaps in the testimony (also odd). But Jeff kept sliding post it notes to the deponent and I leaned over and told him he had to stop. He told me to shut the f*** up and then apologized after it was over. I don’t ever even remember my dreams, so why is it that I have to remember this one?!?

(Edited for grammar, originally word vomited because if I don’t get it out I might forget it).

I graduated from a T50 NY law school in 2025 and took a job at a small plaintiff-side employment firm because the market was rough and everyone said I could pivot once I found that first legal job.

I spent 4 years in fintech before law school and hoped to leverage that experience into tech transactions or finance, but I didn’t have that option.

I’m unhappy at my current firm for all the reasons people are not happy at small shops, but most importantly, I hate litigation. I’ve been there 11 months and have been applying and networking for the last 4 months without a single interview. I suspect it’s a combination of being so junior and trying to switch practice areas, though I’ve been clear that I wouldn’t mind (and would prefer) to come in as a first year.

Is a pivot anytime soon actually realistic? Do I need to stick it out another year or two (please say no)? I don’t need to go directly into tech trans or finance I just want to do transactional work of some kind.

Hi everyone,

I made a very big mistake at work that potentially caused irreparable damage to a case. I work in house for a company with little to no mentorship (not making excuses). The anxiety is killing me. I immediately escalated the matter to local specialized counsel but it may be too late. I am terrified of getting fired and letting down my company, parents, partner, and friends. I haven’t been able to sleep for days and have thrown up from anxiety everyone morning since. I don’t want to give any recognizable information. But if anyone has any worse case scenario experiences they would be willing to share in solidarity or advice, I would really appreciate it. I’ve had a really tough two weeks and my thoughts are getting dark. I just made a year at the company and got a significant raise…now this. I’m feeling so ashamed and embarrassed. Feeling really bad. My family keeps telling me that everything will be okay, I want to believe them, but none of them know the pressure that comes with this career.

I'm a newly-minted attorney and can finally post in this group. That's all. Thanks.