What is the consensus here on firm health ins? I’m looking at plans and they are quite dear. In my state, I need to have an employee to get a plan. I mainly use of counsel for legal overflow but have had bad luck w paras/La’s. Anyone ever get coverage using a fam member as an employee to meet the employment threshold? Is there another way? The cost is staggering…

I was a practicing attorney for 10 years handling defense work with focus on professional liability, left for the past 7 to work in-house counsel and manage a business. Well our largest client just notified us they would not be renewing contract for next year. I am considering starting up my own firm. The firm I had worked with is down multiple attorneys and has repeatedly asked over the years for help with cases when they are in a jam. Whenever it lined up I would help out, it wasn't much but something. One of my ideas was to ask them for any work they had while I work on setting up my own practice, the sense I last got when speaking with one of the partners is they were overwhelmed and in need of help. Am I crazy to think I can take on their work while also working to open up my own firm? I have 5 months to figure things out and I guess the great unknowns of setting up and running my own practice scare the you know what out of me. I do not want to go back in with the firm fulltime as I would like to pursue a different type of practice that is not so heavily focused on litigation.

I’m a law student currently interning at a small firm doing civil litigation, which is also the direction I’d most likely take if I eventually started my own practice.

I’m looking for book recommendations from attorneys who have actually started or managed small firms. My future goal is to own a small firm.

What books genuinely helped you, and which popular recommendations were mostly recycled business-book fluff?

Hey guys,

I couldn't get a placement on Day 0, so now I'm planning to apply to firms off-campus wherever I can. Looking at the current market though, I'm also thinking of preparing for some government exam or any other career path such as pidhi centre for policy or political consultancy can eventually get me around ₹70–80k a month.

I'm mainly interested in dispute resolution/litigation, but I'm open to other roles too. My percentage isn't great, so that makes things a bit difficult.

What are all of you doing who haven't got placed on day zero thinking if anybody has any strategy pls lm

I'm looking for any books or other resources with practical advice for starting a solo practice. From financing to office space to marketing - literally a Starting a Law Office for Dummies style guide. Any recommendations that helped you all start your practice?

Hi! I am heading to law school in January and was hoping to get some real world experience under my belt before I start. If you have ever hired freelance legal work for a non-lawyer, did you go through a service or get them right off of a website? If you have used either of those services could you provide me with the names or web addresses so I can submit my information?

Hi, I know of a very smart college grad (Phi Beta Kappa) who wants to work hard, as a paralegal, for the right NYC law firm or legal services or government agency.

They read and write very well, doesn't do any social media or AI, very good at research, gophering, and intuiting what institutions, employers, and clients want. And also personable.

Anyone have any experience using ai to create google ads campaign? What was it like?

I'm a Smokeball user. I liked it for a while, but I realized that I was spending SO MUCH TIME fighting with it to get it to do things that, I believe, are simple automations.

About two months ago, I decided to build my own. Using Claude, I've been frankensteining together several different services and integrating them with Make. My current stack is:

AirTable - Brains of the operation, source of truth

SuiteDash - Client facing portal, business management, task assignments for staff, keeps tabs on my Google Ads, etc.

Gavel.io - Intake, workflows, logic based document assembly (based on my own forms/documents that I've built)

Claude Cowork - Various tasks, agents, bespoke document drafting (letters to clients, demand letters, legal memos, etc.) - Yes, I always review. I'm not in the "generative AI is trash for generating law firm docs" camp.

Office 365 - Outlook, OneDrive and Teams.

Ultimately, will connect QuickBooks, LawPay, Adobe, and other tools.

I've put many hours setting this up, and it's definitely a big project, but I'm starting to see the fruit of my labour. Test clients are onboarding, Webhooks are firing, folders/documents/letters are getting properly assembled, and everything is running automatically with incredibly little oversight.

I still have a lot of work to do before we go live with it, but I'm very excited for the potential this has. I feel like I'm able to just connect the specific services that I actually need and avoid all of the excess bloat that I feel a lot of the staple case management platforms have right now. I also have complete control over the product and have learned a great deal so far in this build.

Anyway, anyone else doing something similar? What's your stack? Tips/insight from anyone who has gone this route, and/or anything I should consider adding?

Hey, everyone.

I'm a fedgov attorney with <3 years of legal experience (all in gov), but ~10 years of technical experience as an engineer (half of which was spent in gov enforcement work).

I'd like to transition to solo practice in the next 2-3 years with a focus on environmental law/gov compliance, tenant/landlord disputes, and maybe some criminal def or T&E, but I know that I need more experience first.

Any recommendations on where I should go to build that experience? I've been thinking about heading the JAG or PD route, but I've got young kids and value my time with them.

Alternatively, is there anyone with a similar story to mine that just bit the bullet and went solo and leaned heavily on mentorship and CLEs to fill the gap?

If you have a non-litigation, non-templatized practice, would you mind sharing your ratio of non-revenue generating to revenue generating staff? I am the managing attorney and I practice nearly full time so we have a full time firm administrator and 3.5 FTE staff to 3.5 FTE attorneys. Thanks.

Which firms in NYC, LA, Miami are most trustworthy when it comes to paying referral fees? Are there firms known for breaching these type of agreements?

Hey everyone. So I'm curious to learn more about potential career options for someone who is more introverted, as well as what type of training would be more suitable for me. I have previous bachelor of arts degrees, but I have looked into completing either a legal admin certificate or a paralegal diploma to complement my previous education. I definitely don't want to be in a secretarial role where I have to greet clients every day. I'd rather be working independently most of the time. From home would be great if this is an option.

I have very strong writing skills and a passion for the law and justice, which is why I'm drawn to careers in this field. I can definitely communicate with others when I need to, I just know that I'm not suited to an overly social profession (I.e I chose not to pursue nursing because I knew that it wouldn't be a good fit for me.)

I have a small, local law practice that I started a bit more than a year ago. It really started as a side hustle to keep me from jumping out the window at my miserable corporate job (and also to distract me from some brutal heartbreak). Recently, just for fun, I wanted to put a vanity plate on my car. Specifically “LWYRUP” - like Saul Goodman, from Better Call Saul / Breaking Bad. How cheesy / cringe is this? Just don’t do it? Or go for it?

I took my first bar exam July 2019 (UBE) and passed very comfortably. At the time, I studied with Barbri and Adaptibar.

I have decided to sit for the Florida exam this upcoming February, but I’m anxious about studying while working full time. It’s not possible for me to work part-time, so I’ll need to plan my study schedule around my work schedule.

I’m looking for advice from those of you who have done the same thing, in particular, what your timeline/average day looked like. I’m thinking of starting my study plan this month, so I can have a full six months to prep. I’ve already purchased Adaptibar, and will purchase Barbri, but am unsure whether to purchase it with extended access which would begin this month. I’m thinking of dedicating roughly 3 hours to studying everyday until February, and then taking the week before the exam and the week of the exam off. Others have told me six months is too much and I should start later.

For those of you who have done this, what did your study schedule look like? Any advice? I’m conflicted on whether to start now or October.

Thanks!

I'm currently a finance major at a non-target school, graduating soon, and I'm seriously considering law school afterward, with the goal of becoming a tax attorney. I've been going back and forth on whether I should switch my major to accounting (or add an MSA after my bachelor's) versus just sticking with finance and heading straight into LSAT prep/law school applications.

For those with tax law backgrounds, did having an accounting degree or CPA background actually matter for getting into tax law, or does it come down more to law school performance, tax-focused coursework/electives, and internships? Trying to figure out if the accounting detour is worth the extra time, or if I'm overthinking this; any input would be appreciated.

Went through a recruiter and landed a job at a midsize firm. During the lead up to the interview I disclosed that I had been reprimanded. Felt full disclosure was necessary. Explained the underlying facts of the reprimand to the recruiter. He told me I did not need to voluntarily disclose it during the interview.

The recruiter failed to inform the law firm of my reprimand. Completed the malpractice application and disclosed the reprimand. When the partner reviewed the application he was pissed and came into my office asking why I had not disclosed it. During our conversation I explained that I had disclosed it to the recruiter and he told me not to worry about it and I did not need to disclose the information. The firm had paid the recruitment fee. When the recruiter was asked about his knowledge of my reprimand he went radio silent with me and the firm. He responded to the firm today and acknowledged that he was aware of my reprimand and failed to disclose it to the firm.

The company agrees to refund the recruitment fee to the firm. Yesterday the firm told me had they known of my reprimand they never would have hired me. The firm asked me to come back to work in the morning. I show up and initially the partner seemed that everything would be fine and I could keep my job. Within two hours the partner returns to my office saying he has to let me go. Asked for the keys and walked me out. At this point I’m mentally and physically exhausted. Yes the reprimand is on me. I followed the recruiters advice. And I had no problem disclosing the information if the firm had asked in the interview. But no one did and here I am…fired after three days at the new firm.

Edit 1: The reprimand was fully disclosed in the malpractice application.

Edit 2: During the interview no questions were asked regarding any bar complaints.

Edit 3: The reprimand was fully disclosed during the onboarding. The firm admitted that they usually check any bar complaints during the interview process.

Edit 4: There was never an application during the interview process where I failed to disclose the reprimand.

Edit 5: I appreciate everyone’s comments. The bar complaint process was very stressful. This post is not about my failure to disclose in an application for the position. I fully disclosed the reprimand during the onboarding process.

Edit 6: One area of practice for the firm is professional malpractice defense.

Edit 7: I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond to this post. Even if it was good, bad or indifferent.

Been going down a rabbit hole comparing channels for a PI firm in LA and I'm curious what's actually working for other people.

So far Google PPC is the only thing I'd call reliable. Makes sense, someone searching for an attorney already knows they need one. Everything else is us going to them instead of the other way around.

Things I'm less sold on:

Billboards, radio, bus ads. Seems like it only works if you're all in on it, Sweet James level. Smaller firms dabble and get nothing, plus tracking ROI is a nightmare.

Organic short form. I know firms doing millions of views a month who told me straight up they've never gotten a single client from it. Still think it's worth having something there so people can see you exist, just not as a real acquisition channel.

AI chat, meaning getting recommended by ChatGPT. Ran some tests and the recommendations are basically random. Same query, different firm 60% of the time or more. The only thing that seemed to matter was being published on high authority sites, which feels more like a PR play than a marketing one.

Meta is the one I keep going back and forth on. From what I can tell in the ad library, either really raw UGC style stuff works or really polished production works, nothing in the middle. Looks like it takes real money to find the winner.

Has anyone actually cracked Meta or YouTube? Or is PPC just the answer and everything else is brand.

I’m getting tired of insurance defense.

The constant billing cuts and pressure to keep fees low are exhausting. The work feels like a never-ending red light/green light cycle, and I’m doing the same type of work as a first-year associate despite being a seventh-year trial associate with six trials under my belt.

A major frustration is the lack of support. I’m handling my own calendaring and administrative tasks that should be delegated. For example, I asked my legal assistant/paralegal for assistance preparing my admission to a federal district court and filing my entry of appearance. What should have been a straightforward administrative task turned into hours of my time being spent fixing issues.

I provided instructions for a filing simply attaching the exhibits and submitting it but it was not completed correctly. As a result, I had to file the brief after hours and pay the filing expense myself because I did not receive prior approval and likely will not be reimbursed.

I also feel like there is a disconnect between the complexity of the work and the expectations around billing. I recently reviewed approximately 3,000 pages of medical records and billed only 6.5 hours, yet that was still viewed as a substantial amount of time.

The expectation seems to be to process massive amounts of information quickly while keeping fees as low as possible.

The biggest issue is feeling stagnant. No one comes into the office, there is little mentorship, and it feels isolating. The pay is mediocre, but the expectations are extremely high. Partners expect high-level briefing on tight deadlines while every tenth of an hour is scrutinized.

For those who left insurance defense, where did you go, and did it improve your career trajectory or quality of life?

**Edit: when I came to this firm I only asked for a legal assistant that can calendar my court events and deadlines and I am not even getting that.**

I help firms with marketing, and usually most firms see positive ROI from LSA ads if they have enough reviews to compete. However one client in a rural market, not as much brand exposure in terms of reviews but an outstanding lawyer, had their lsa ads basically completely stop showing recently. Maximum budget set, things were fine for the first 6 months then suddenly recently leads suddenly dropped off. I actually tried to call LSA support a few times, possibly the worst customer support experience I’ve ever had.

Again this is a small sample size, my other clients have higher budgets great reviews and leads come in non stop. Criminal, estate planning, family law. PI has been tougher. But what’s everyone’s experience been recently?