Have You Ever Needed a Lawyer?

Serious question. 30 yrs into it I’ve heard all the jokes and seen the movies but never get any real sense of what people think about my career in reality. Only feedback is from clients.

Do you have a view of what we actually do on a typical day, etc.

So I thought I’d ask. Thanks.

 

Never once. I attribute that to luck more than anything.

 

Barely.

Used an immigration lawyer once. $1,700 and a little internet searching later, I decided I could do the rest on my own and save what would have exceeded $2,500 more to complete the process. Wound up paying $100 for a paralegal to look over everything I compiled and write a fancy cover letter.

Used one to get an apostille. Currently using one to handle probate.

 

Until a few years ago, all I knew of the law profession was from John Grisham novels and subsequent films.

However, becoming power of attorney for my now late mother and the current process of settling the estate has given me an appreciation of lawyers.

On a reporting level, I've always enjoyed talking to them. One guy, in particular, is a zero-BS cusses-some straight-shooter type of personality. To this day if I ever need counsel for a legal defense, I'm calling him.

EDIT: Also consulted an attorney for a book I researched and wrote. He was helpful, and did not charge an arm and leg.

 

Didn’t use a lawyer for my divorce. Really should have. That’s the one piece of advice I’ll give to my dying day: If you’re facing divorce, hire the damn lawyer.

 

I bought two houses and sold one. I made a will with trust provisions for my children. I have used more than one lawyer. I'm surprised others haven't, just in the course of life.

 

The billable hour certainly has its warped incentives, but so do fixed fee arrangements. When I was in-house, I hired a well known firm to do a couple of arbitrations on a fixed fee basis and felt that they were always cutting corners. Then again, I’ve had matters where firms have billed ten of thousands of dollars on takers with marginal utility.

 

Being a lawyer is sort of like being a teacher but better paid.
Everyone thinks they know how to do your job better than you until they have to try.

 

It’s very much relationship based and trust. I’ve always done my best to make client feel they are getting their money’s worth to extent possible.

First meeting, I’m not a cheerleader, drinking Kool Aid, saying everything is gonna be fine.
secondly, litigation and fighting is expensive. But I’ll spend as little as possible to get you where you want to go. You want vindication? It’s gonna cost.

 

When I litigated employment cases, except for high profile matters and class/collective actions, the amount of money it cost to litigate well almost always well exceeded what it would have cost to settle.

I had a sexual harassment/retaliation case for a large company which cost close to $1 million to defend and we won the case on summary judgment before trial. The plaintiff made $50k but it was extremely complicated and had a litany of depositions and discovery disputes. I had another ADA case which cost about the same because the former employee’s lawyer was a colossal asshole and dragged everything out. Needless to say, the clients were very unhappy despite us winning both matters.

It’s one of the reasons why I stopped litigating — I just didn’t love it and felt that I was always being unproductive.