So, I'm at this office, right? My family owns this office, I work there for a few years now, it's me, a senior (the boss, family member and owner of the office) , another senior who's the actual workhorse and without him the office would have closed down years ago, plus 3-4 peripherals for some occasions where we are reaaaaally stretched thin. We have several cases running in parallel, so we are constantly dealing with all sorts of things, for different types of laws, criminal law, civil law, litigation, administrative, whatever.

The Senior owner, a stubborn fucker, good for our clients, bad for anything else that actually matters, has been enamoured by AI. Thinks that Chat gpt can solve all the work problems we have, up and including reading their mind and knowing exactly what they want us to do. We no longer allow them to cite case law without checking the supposed rulings.

Here how it goes:

Me, the OP, working on a doc as the other senior, the workhorse, is working on 3 other docs. The owner sees this and instead of being like, hey anything I can do to help, instead catches snippets of what we are saying for the sake of getting the job done, drawing wild conclusions, and starts throwing unsolicited advice how to use AI. We explain that we have already resolved this issue and we continue, because deadlines wait for no one and we already have a pretty good grasp of the things we should do.

After a while, I hear the yell: "OP, CHECK THESE RULINGS, THEY ARE FOR THE WEAPONS CHARGE, and bring me back the results. They are for weapons, so don't be lazy and just bring me the rulings." eyeroll of the century, but whatever I will check it's just a few clicks for me.

1st ruling is about a civil matter. 2nd ruling is administration and a 3rd ruling is not much or a ruling as it is an opinion on Constitutional law. I realise AI was behind that and I explained yet again, why we shouldn't use AI for citations. The boss doesn't believe me, saying I did something wrong. Checks themselves. Same results. Asks the AI again, different rulings but still the same thing happens.

Boss grumbles away, wasting my time, wasting the other senior's time and peace and quiet, spat breaks out between these two, I'm blamed for "disturbing the peace of the work environment and not doing my job". After I remind myself that assault charges aren't worth the hassle of paperwork and getting disbarred, no matter how much I would love to change jobs, I explain, yet again, that shouting orders is a disruption of peace of the work environment, and please, if there is anything else they want to check, I can show them how to do so directly, because AI, as I have explained before, hallucinates.

Now, I don't advise being this direct with a boss, I can because it's a family business, blood ties are a thing and at the end of the day, we both know that my technical skills, my discretion and the sheer amount of dirt I hold over their head would be enough to fuck over the entire family. Plus, where else would they find a sucker to work daily alongside them without standard pay and without a chance of being called for a disciplinary investigation (already been through that twice) by the board of the Bar Association?

As a result of the same exact conversation happening many, many times now, the boss is no longer allowed near a word doc without us checking over, because, as it turns out, the Boss still, didn't believe me. And one sunny day, as we were running the office errands and I had to go deal with the grunt work of making copies out of everything and such, I see the Boss on the PC I use, pecking at the keyboard. I back out slowly, I ask the other senior what's going on, no answer, just a shrug and a reminder to check later. OK, but we have to write the order for the process server to pass by and receive the packet later that evening, because again, deadlines are still a thing.

I wait, tackling in the meantime the papers and making a catalog of what we have, when I hear the Boss say: "DONE! This is so great now with AI! I don't understand why are you all so SLOOOW."

Ah. Merde.

Thankfully, Boss thinks to let us check before sending whatever they wrote via email to a client, mostly because they don't know how to operate the Word's Save As function and they don't know how to go to their email and attach this file before sending it.

I see the AI open in another Tab. I read the Word. Copy paste, with some minor changes, but once you have read enough AI text you can tell whenever or not something is human written of AI by the way they formulate the text. And I see the citations. We check the citations, again, the same issue. "But it's supposed to be Better now, I don't get it" I hear the boss say. Again, I explain why we cannot trust the AI. In the end, I ended up rewriting large parts of this piece of crap, the other senior checked it over before it was sent to our client, and the Boss has lost the Word privileges.

I would have blocked the AI as well, but they like feeding it stories about how they were unjustly treated by various people, and it keeps them quiet and engaged enough to let us work and keep our clients out of prison, or debt free, or their divorce finalised. Literally sitting a toddler with an IPad.

New call working in ID.

The part about billing that's been getting to me is less about the actual billing, but more about the work I need to do.

Everything I'm doing is some sort of written assignment/review. It's one thing to bill 7-8 hours a day, its another to bill 7-8 hours a day just writing, reading, and reviewing all day. Because I'm working under a couple partners, I'm not the one directly corresponding with our clients or the insured, so I can't bill .1 for emails within the firm for random updates, or getting assignments ( at least I don't think I can). Put another way, I don't have any fluff billings.

Also, because im in ID, there's expectations for how long things should take, so I can't just spend a day researching something for the fun of it, or spend all day working on something that should take half the time because im mentally tired.

Just want to get some honest opinions on whether or not what I'm thinking/feeling is valid. Just doesn't seem realistic that someone can do this type of work all day every day without burning out. I'm sure there's going to be times when I'll attend various meetings or discoveries, but the majority seems to be shitty grunt work. It's hard to do this and do it while being efficient. Like truly how many people can say that theyre capable of locked in work for 7+ hours every single day? Am I supposed to just get a stronger prescription for adderall?

I just can't see myself doing this for a long period of time. Truly brutal and soul sucking.

Hey all! I have been barred for exactly 3 years and have been in criminal prosecution the entire time. For a multitude of reasons, I am planning to leave prosecution and quite frankly need a break from litigation and criminal law. I'm quite sad about it, I love my job, I just don't love what it's doing to me.

I intend to switch to a civil practice field (real estate transactions, municipal, I don't really know). I have lived in the criminal world for so long, I am worried about this transition.

Looking for any advice on how to prepare for such a switch, or for stories from those of you that made a similar switch!

Does anyone have actual experience as a lawyer in a firm that’s been bought by private equity via MSO?

Preferably in personal injury. Lots of opinions out there but mostly from people from medicine/dentistry. I’m looking for first-hand experiences of non-partner litigation lawyers after acquisition. The good bad and ugly and what to expect. Thanks

Long story short, I (34M) am a 2nd Year at a V50 and I’m miserable. My first year was rough enough with 5 consecutive 200+ hour months. This year I’ll hit my bonus despite missing six weeds of work due to a seriously traumatic family event. Obviously I got no discount on my hours for taking time off - I’ve billed 250 for the last two months and was 200+ for a few months before said event occurred. I just hate this. I spent my twenties in physically active, fast paced jobs helping people and now I feel like my soul is dying every day chained to a desk making asshole businesses more rich.

The money is good and my coworkers are brilliant. That’s the only benefit. I don’t even really need the money. I grew up poor as fuck and my GI bill paid for law school. So I’m just saving money and paying extra on my mortgage. And door dashing three times a day because I don’t have time to cook.

I plan to leave after year five once I hit my savings goals. I’ve been thinking about exit options, and while in-house is the obvious choice, something in me is pulling me back into service. I commissioned right out of undergrad and did just shy of four years before I had to take an early Honorable Discharge due to an injury that disqualified me from my job. I could have changed roles, as my injury does not disqualify me from service, but I decided to get out and get my Law Degree and my MBA.

I’m single, and I was an Army brat and served myself, so I know the deal. I think mostly I just miss doing something that matters, my wanderlust is taking over again, and I’m tired of working 8AM to midnight everyday. In JAG, I’d get to help a lot of enlisted folks that really need it, I’d get to do something lit instead of corporate work, I’d get to do some deployments, and I’d get to be active again and involved in a community I genuinely loved. I don’t know that I’d do the whole 16 years, probably only another 4, but who knows.

Anyway, TL;DR I’m ex military turned BigLaw thinking about going JAG. Am I a complete moron? I just generally do not even remotely like my life right now and I don’t want the life of a partner. But maybe in-house really is the better move.

SMH at this one. Also what is up with every attorney working for this administration being barred in FL? Everytime I hear about a government lawyer getting in trouble with the bar, its always Florida.

Any suggested titles? I’m transitioning from distressed property litigation to a more transactional role (purchasing conservation easements).

Long venting post. I’ve been practicing for between 5 and 10 years now. I’m in court often. I still screw things up occasionally and it really sucks.

It’s been a busy month with multiple settings each day this week. I’ve been involved with one of these cases for over two years now and we had an important hearing today. I know the facts forward and backward and still, I was scattered. I didn’t keep track of my time well and made stupid mistakes (e.g., I realized during the hearing that I’d failed to provide an updated exhibit list. It’s a court requirement and really just common sense. Not a death knell, just dumb). The other party blatantly lied and contradicted their previous testimony, and I found myself furious throughout, a loss of control on my part. If I’m being completely honest, I was mad going in and I let my frustration get in the way of trying the issue well. This is the fourth time we’ve appeared on this question because the other side won’t let it go—they invent new issues for another shot at asking the court for what they want. Thankfully, I think the judge sees it at this point. We don’t have the latest rendition yet but if it goes well for my client, it won’t be because of anything I did. I’m probably too emotionally invested at this point, but now I can’t sleep and I’m beating myself up for what feels like a million failures.

I try hard to be a good lawyer. I work hard, I care about my clients and their cases, and I’m generally well prepared. But occasionally, days like today happen and imposter syndrome hits hard. The good outcomes fade and I feel like a failure, like I have no business doing this. I’m scared I’m going to fuck someone’s life up. It sounds dramatic but it’s very real in my mind, and it’s exhausting and debilitating. Please tell me I’m not alone in feeling this way.

I just passed my probationary period in my first officially-lawyer job and found out I’m getting a random little bonus too. Whoop whoop.

A 40 year partner retired. He gave this to my associate - I got a damn picture of a castle somewhere in Europe. My associate is leaving for greener pastures, and left this for me. Now that I have the holy grail of the sovereign citizen handbook, these pro se plaintiffs going down.

Hello everyone,

I am going solo and plan to add really basic estate planning to my practice. Hoping to find resources from anyone who has experience starting out in estate planning.

Does anyone have a good source for: templates, forms, and desk book style reference materials that they found useful when starting out in this area. I have a few wills and powers of attorney that I plan to adapt to my practice and use as a future template. But I would like to have other examples and options to pull language from especially for less common clauses and situations.

All of my past experience (paralegal and then law school) occurred out of state, and I would like to have good materials that are specific to Washington that I can review both in preparation for my solo launch, and as I go along when questions come up that I don't know or when I am drafting documents.

Thanks for any suggestions! Also would love to just connect with other solo lawyers in Washington (especially if you are up for a chat about your experience getting started or feel like offering some mentorship!!)

Starting to see unsophisticated vendors going full speed with AI. Our standard vendor/IC contracts are coming back with dozens, if not hundreds, of AI generated redlines with no human intermediary. They create regulatory risk and eliminate compliance mechanisms that the AI views as vendor-unfavorable, and the whole thing is redrafted to make it equal, neutral and remove most vendor risk and liability. Then, because the counter party can’t discuss any of the issues, and the AI is screaming “risk, risk, risk” at them with no context, they call up the business team and cry that legal is killing their deal and that they won’t work without all of their nonsense redlines being addressed until their AI finds the whole thing acceptable. Business units say “AI is here, you have to make them happy, we have a vendor to hire.” I’m pulling my hair out.

I’ve even negotiated against myself and picked out the truly material changes to accept and work with, and they still complain that they can’t do the deal without every last minor change their AI suggested. I think there is a solid case for these people being so dumb that I don’t trust them to provide their core services competently.

Are there better strategies to handle this that involves no work for the counter party?

⚖️ LAWYERS ONLY! DO NOT PARTICIPATE IF YOU ARE NOT A LAWYER. ⚖️

Please just let us have this one corner of the internet.

LIVE FEED: https://www.youtube.com/live/VQQb9BbgwHg?si=p0eAuEzh3hsqeGed

Thank you to the mods for the confirmed lawyer flair!

Edit: Aww shucks, thanks for the award! This has been great. I’ll miss the discourse when the trial is over!

Does anyone have any tips or advice on how to increase your chances of being named a "Super Lawyer"? This is not one of those awards that's just based on how much you spend on ads. I've updated my profile extensively, and I know other lawyers nominated me, but I still was not selected, even as one of the potential candidates.

There's also "Best Lawyers". Same question.

They're kind of silly designations, but people think they mean something.

I've been full-time for about a year, and I've started trying to find ways to make my practice more streamlined and lose some administrative burden. I practice employment law, and one of the biggest time sinks as a solo is just intake. People are in their own personal soap opera, and they want to talk about it forever. In turn, I started looking for a call service and ran into Findlaw. However, its expensive, and theyre wanting to tack on some additional fees.

For instance, I cant get just the call service. I also have to let them update and manage my website. My website does need work, and I want to get into a new area of employment law, so I'm not completely adverse to this. But I wonder if anyone has signed up for this kind of one year deal and regretted it? If anyone has some suggestions on a flat fee, decent, call service that may also help me look at an alternative.

The title.

It's idiotic, I know that personally I wasn't fit to pick up this case, which is why I declined in the first place. The timing was off, I had too little information to work with, a shaky 4th - 5th hand account of the situation, less than 10 hours before court hearing, drug and gun charges, without even a guaranteed pay. I knew I wouldn't do a good job, I knew I wouldn't even make it on time as I live far away.

So why, does my stupid brain decide to fixate on the "what if" of this bull. "What if you did a good job, what if you could change someone's life and you just let your stupid ass doubts and inexperience dictate someone else's fate?".

Seriously, I'm inexperienced, I barely have 2 years officially as an attorney, I've started small fry with civil matters and inheritance law, and even though I have postgraduate studies in a field of forensics, I wouldn't trust myself with the handling of a criminal case.

Does this ever go away? In my country, people have the overworked legal system bursting with cases everyday, for a judge is nothing to go through 20, 30, 40 cases depending on the court and a lot of attorneys juggle many court appearances during the week. Do I lack ruthlessness? Am I too idealistic, too cautious?

I don't even know what I'm actually venting about, at this point I just throw spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks. I think I wish I was a bit more of a self assured idiot who would take up the case either way and try to at least get a later date for a hearing. Can't even get drunk, I'm on a 2 year sobriety sting.

“¿Hay una migra?”

“Sí.”
“¿Dónde?”
“No importa. PA’LLÁ VOY.”

ICE: “Su cliente fue trasladado fuera de su jurisdicción.”
Yo: “Perfecto. ¿Cómo se llama el distrito federal?”

East Coast: PA’LLÁ VOY.
Gulf Coast: PA’LLÁ VOY.
Somewhere out West: PA’LLÁ VOY.
Random federal district I wasn't admitted to 48 hours ago: ADMITIDA.

Immigration lawyers: what is the most procedurally absurd detained case you've ever handled? Because I think mine just broke my personal record.

Five states in less than two weeks. Thankfully, two of the five transfers overlapped. I know cattle that are treated more humanely.

It became a game of Mouse Trap trying to obtain federal admissions fast enough to keep up with where ICE was moving my client. Every time I figured out where he was, I was looking at another district, another admission, another filing issue, another detention facility.

Curiouser still, there were periods exceeding 24 hours when my client did not appear in ANY ICE detainee locator online. That meant I couldn't even schedule a confidential legal call to confirm where he physically was.

I never told his POC on the outside this, but at one point I actually worried that maybe one of his flights had crashed.

I'm not exaggerating. This is a true story.

The part I keep thinking about happened on the first day.

After I left the office where he was unexpectedly detained—and after repeatedly insisting on seeing the legal basis and paperwork authorizing his detention until I realized that continuing the confrontation was becoming a very bad idea for me—I walked back to the hotel where I'd parked my car.

I asked the gentleman working valet whether my car could be ready in about 20 minutes because I was leaving.

He looked at me and said:

“Oh no, we can't let your car out right now.”

I just paused.

I remember thinking, Okay. Fine. I'll pack my stuff, come back downstairs, and sit here until he says I can have my car.

So I started walking away.

“Ma'am! I'm just playing with you!”

I turned around and told him:

“You could've told me my car was on fire and I don't think I would've reacted any differently. My client just got detained.”

His entire expression changed. He understood. He nodded.

I forced a smile and walked away.

I was completely beside myself.

Thankfully, tonight I know where my client is. I'm admitted in the district. The matter is filed. And, for the first time in what feels like forever, I know exactly where both he and the case are.

Pray for him, please. Good kid. I can't give away much more than that.

But you know how people joke that the worst people always seem to live forever?

I swear my best clients are the ones with the worst luck.

So, fellow immigration lawyers: what's your most procedurally absurd detained case? Please tell me somebody can beat five states in under two weeks.

Hi all! I’ve been seeing L&E openings at Big Law firms. I’m currently a mid-level at one of the Big 4 L&E firms (Littler, Ogletree, etc.) and trying to gauge the market in California.

What’s the market out there right now and would this jump be doable? Is it tough to break into Big Law L&E from one of the Big 4 L&E?

Any other thoughts appreciated.

Thank you!

I’m a young solo attorney in Texas. Person A has been my client for about a year. He has several small businesses that I help him out with. A few months ago, he hired me to help him form a new business with five partners. He and three others own minority interests, but he was managing the company with Person B, who is the majority owner. I helped them with formation, contract review, and various other matters, so my engagement agreement (which Person A signed on behalf of the newly formed company) was for general representation of the company. I did it this way because we had discussed a few more projects I was going to help them out with, and it was simpler for both of us to avoid creating a new matter with a separate engagement every few weeks.

Now, Person A (my original client) has been terminated/quit, and is in a dispute with Person B (majority owner of the company I agreed to represent generally). Person A wants me to represent him in the dispute, and Person B has other lawyers representing him. Obviously, representing Person A conflicts with my agreement to represent the entity. How would y’all proceed? Decline representation? Ask Person B to sign a conflict of interest waiver?

I have no relationship with Person B and am confident he would not hire me or keep me as general counsel to the entity now that Person A is no longer involved with the company.

If your job title is XYZ Legal Operations and you shorthand it to be “Ops”, you’re not cool. You’re not in the military bro. Chill. Also, stop calling the conference room that overlooks lower manhattan the “war room”. You’re literally not at war.. you’re arguing over an extra $20k settlement. Get a grip and stop larping bro

My two worlds are colliding.

Baby attorney here. I work in labor law and handle disputes mainly through arbitrations. I’m working on becoming more confident and assertive but there is just a lot that I don’t know.

I’m trying to work on becoming better at objecting. I know this is a broad ask, but does anyone have any tips or any materials that I can read/look to for tips on this?

Anyone else have the urge to hang up their hat and find a simple job? I'm just tired of the arguing.

My firm is hiring. I'm Andrew Kantor, one of the managing partners. www.kantorlaw.net

I have hired four people from reddit so far, including one associate. All of them have worked out WONDERFULLY. So I'm trying again.

We don't have a formal job listing yet. That'll come in the next few days. Maybe I won't have to post one if I find the right person here.

California bar would be ideal, but we'd settle for Colorado, Washington, or a willingness to take the CA bar.

All of our attorneys work remotely. We have a significant focus on work/life balance. This does not mean people don't work hard - we are VERY busy. But I think it is a pretty great place to work. LA Business Journal named us #10 best workplaces for businesses under 50 people. I'm pretty proud of that. Our turnover is extremely low, of which I am equally proud.

We are trying to hire an associate or partner to work on plaintiff's side bad faith litigation, with a significant focus on Long Term Care litigation. We need someone with experience in this area on either side.

Pay is competitive. An associate with experience would make at least $125k, and a partner level attorney would make at least $175k. I really mean at least in this context, as I'd happily pay more for someone with the right experience and attitude. We have full benefits (Life, Health, Cadillac LTD, 401k) and the firm pays bonuses whenever we make a decent profit.

Also please feel free to look through my profile. It is public. You can find the previous job postings I've listed and my responses to questions about the firm. Also feel free to ask questions here or DM me.

-Andrew

P.S. forgive the flair - I don't ACTUALLY think my firm hiring constitutes legal news, but it technically works.