Just curious. I know this economy seems to be squeezing a lot of people dry. I was talking with a dentist friend who said his practice has slowed down a ton and it’s not looking good which is crazy for dentists.

I‘ve considered making the switch to PI from family law but I just wanted to get a pulse on how everyone is doing because I’ve also heard that insurance companies seem to be settling less so you need to be okay with spending the money to go to trial, insurance defense is getting better with keeping more money in the pockets of the insurance companies, etc. it’s basically not an easy “settle” industry anymore from what I’ve heard.

I know PI is obviously different from dentistry too because it’s more of a B2B industry and people won’t necessarily stop bringing in cases because it makes them money at no cost to them unlike dentistry so I’d imagine the demand doesn’t really slow down but I just wasn’t sure if cases are still flowing strong and if cases are still settling fairly easily or if there’s a slow down like other law industries have been seeing and you have to put up more of a fight now.

PI Attorney here doing mostly pre-lit. I used to work as an attorney at a law firm, but they mostly took high-value cases.

Now that I’m running my own practice, I’m curious: how do you guys handle smaller cases? I’m talking minimal PD, state limits cases or cases that clearly aren’t going to be worth much.

I’m starting to get leads like these, and I’m not sure whether I should take them on or just pass.

I feel like those could take 2–3 months of a case manager’s time, only to end up making around $5k in profit.

Is it worth it?

Would love to hear how you all approach these.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi all -

What is the best way to find a part time or reduced hour staff attorney / counsel role? I don’t see many of these arrangements advertised.

My experience so far includes: 3 years in big law and 2.5 years at an international company as legal counsel (all financial serves reg).

Hi all. I'm looking for an Oregon attorney willing to supervise me through the Oregon SPPE

Foreign-trained lawyer, 8 years of practice (litigation and advisory experience)
California immigration consultant since 2022 (U.S. immigration experience)

Oregon State Bar confirmed my SPPE pre-eligibility and I
Passed MPRE

Any advice on how to find supervising attorney will be appreciated. Thank you

I have gone through five separate rounds of interviews, each with three different partners for 30 mins. Interview no. 5 (supposedly final) was 3, 30 minute rounds in person, the rest were online. Its been five weeks since I started this process. I would love to work here - aligned work, good culture, high pay and reasonable billables. Its a firm of some 50-75 attorneys with a great local reputation.

When I left my final interview last Wednesday, the office manager said to expect Friday afternoon or Monday. Today, she told me recruiter "nothing yet, hopefully in a few days." So it got delayed again.

My first firm was 4 attorneys, current firm is 10 attorneys. In neither case have I experienced anything so drawn out. Is this normal with bigger firms? Are they perhaps just waiting for choice #1 to accept or reject an offer? I can't keep waiting, I can't focus at work at all!

Hi All,

I've been in a bit of a bind lately and don't really know many lawyers to talk this over with. I've received 2 job offers after being abruptly terminated for "not being a good fit" in an in-house role.

The first offer is in-house counsel for a fairly large national company. They offer 170k and 12 days PTO. 4 days in office one day wfh. Not terribly interested in the work, but I'd be able to live pretty comfortably. The commute is okay, 20-40 minutes depending on traffic.

The second offer is for local government, civil division. They're offering 150k with 15 days PTO (several more days as off as well via holidays and leave). 3 days in office and 2 wfh. The work seems interesting. Although I'd have to relocate to a new city that has a higher cost of living (albeit it's not huge). I'm comfortable relocating if it's for the right job.

I prioritize work life balance and care about wfh and enjoying my days of PTO when I use them. I had an awful experience working in-house in a toxic company. Attorneys were expected to respond to emails and attend meetings during their days off and we were not treated very well either. I'd get new assignments at 4:30pm and be asked to finish them by the end of the day. It's left me pretty jaded, but I'm wondering if I just had a bad experience and should give it another shot. In all honesty, I'm leaning towards the government job, but I'm not sure whether I'd be making a mistake career-wise. It also seems high risk to relocate for a job that could or could not workout.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi all,

In November we’re launching an online gallery to sell artists’ work, and we’ve drafted a consignment agreement we’d like checked before we ask anyone to sign it.

We’d especially love to hear from solicitors who specialise in arts or commercial law. But we’re also keen to hear from artists, gallerists, or anyone who has signed or written one of these agreements.

Happy to share the full draft by DM with anyone willing to take a look. Thank you!

Lately I've been having to deal with clients who seem, at the slightest sign of distress, to deal with it by just zoning out/ignoring me. Like if I need discovery, I'll email telling them "I need your car title" but then for four days they won't respond, and then at 11 PM they'll email me a blurry selfie of them standing next to a car license plate, and I'll email back the next morning saying it doesn't count, but then they never follow up on that.

I've had to reach out to peoples' family members, roommates, etc. to ask what is going on, and they will report some variation of "Oh, X is just really overwhelmed with the divorce" or something like that. But they basically stick their head in the sand, and act like if they ignore the problem it doesn't exist. But just wait until we get to court and it explodes on them.

Has anyone else dealt with clients like this? If so, any advice on how to get them into actually doing the bare minimum for you?

I’m 45. Just got my second law degree recently. First one in Europe back in 2004. Moved to the US in 2014, drove a truck, built a trucking company with 40 trucks and returned to law school in South Florida in 2024. I just graduated and passed the BAR. I’ve decided to set up my private practice but still didn’t decide what type of law. Ideally I’d love to find an attorney who plans to retire in a couple of years, help with the practice (as an independent attorney), and eventually inherit or buy out the practice. Not sure how to find someone like that. Any advice on how to find a mentor or what branch of law would be suitable for self teaching? Any advice is welcome. Thanks

I've typically done this in the past, but most bar guidance says either don't do it, or scrub the metadata from the Word doc first.

I have an OC who is (IMO) a complete snake. The type of guy who plays nice to earn trust and asks favors before doing a 180 and doing everything he can to fuck you and drive up fees.

Sent him a boatload of discovery today. He emailed back asking for Word versions. I just wrote back "No." along with a link to the bar opinion cautioning against it. With anyone else I probably would, but the guy is completely untrustworthy and I'm not risking exposing any confidential data, no matter how inconsequential, to do him a favor.

Anyone have opinions or stories of how you've handled these situations?

Attorneys who stayed with one firm for more than five years and feel genuine sense of belonging, in addition to the salary and the perks, what specific culture of the firm made you decide to stay?

I fell into the legal field on accident. Applied to a legal assistant position for sh*ts and giggles when I was 18 and have been in it ever since. I am an estate admin paralegal w/ 6+ yrs experience.

I have NEVER wanted to be a lawyer, the liability of it is a bit nerve wracking to me. But my co-
worker put an idea in my head to work as a professional fiduciary, which I would be good at and would probably enjoy. Law school would probably open a lot of doors in that direction.

I did a few practice lsat questions and now it’s all I can think about. Former paralegals, have you done this career pivot and would you recommend?

**there’s a lot of liability in prof fiduciary for sure but I do enough of it in estate admin that it doesn’t scare me anymore, lol

Anyone going to Filevine’s LEX Conference this year in San Diego? What are you hoping to see? Features you’re looking for?

I am a solo attorney who practices criminal defense mostly. I have lots of appointed cases and some paid clients keeping me going right now. I got these just from word of mouth and some older clients I represented when I was a public defender who found me when they got in trouble again. I’ve got a pretty good reputation in the criminal courts in my area which is very fortunate.

But like many money hungry attorneys, I am trying to break into the PI world. I started an Instagram and have been starting to just create content and will start posting soon. Just general videos on like what to do if you get into a car accident, know your rights, etc.

Any time I do research on marketing stuff I get (shocker) marketed all this crap that seems like a scam. I’ve been warned about older attorneys I know who say don’t work with firms, especially if it’s just you. You’ll drain your money quick.

Let’s say I have 10,000 dollars to invest in general “marketing” what do you, good lawyers of reddit, recommend?

Hello, I’m a relatively new attorney (4 years) and I’ve realized that busting my ass billing 8 hours a day is not what I want to do. I’m not ambitious I like free time, are there specific position in the field of law for me to look out for? I don’t need crazy pay so I’m willing to sacrifice that for better work life balance. Is there a specific position or area of law I should look into?

I am a solo. My practice is about 75% transaction, 25% litigation (mostly construction/mechanics lien type stuff). I hired my first paralegal about 5 months ago. In just that short amount of time, my use of AI has really increased/improved and it’s to the point where it is way faster and more efficient for me to just use AI to create drafts and edit on the fly during review with AI than it is to delegate. In other words, it’s cheaper at this point for the client if I just do it all rather than try to delegate to a lower billing person. Things are quickly moving to a place where it is only efficient to delegate to my paralegal admin work. Which I can’t bill for!

Is anyone else experiencing this? How have you dealt with it?

Hey all,

I graduated with a bachelor’s in English Rhetoric and Composition last year. I didn’t really have any career goals, but managed to land a job at a legal support office as a proofreader for Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher attorneys. To my surprise, I’ve become fascinated with law and want to focus my career in the field. I’m aiming to become a paralegal.

I’ve applied for a lot of “Case Assistant” type positions, as they fit my qualifications and label themselves as “entry-level jobs”, but I haven’t gotten any interviews yet. I was hoping my almost year-long experience as a proofreader would help me stand out, however I’m starting to doubt if that’s the case anymore.

Should I be applying to different positions? Is there a particular field of law that’s easier to break into than others? Is my experience as a proofreader valuable? Or should I focus more on my rhetorical education? My current job takes up almost half of my resume. Finally, are there any other miscellaneous tips you have on breaking into the field?

Thanks!

Edit: I should have made it more clear, but I don’t currently work for a law firm. I work for a company that outsources help to various law firms. It doesn’t allow for any actual growth in the legal field, which is why I’m looking for an entry point.

Hey all,

I graduated with a bachelor’s in English Rhetoric and Composition last year. I didn’t really have any career goals, but managed to land a job at a legal support office as a proofreader for Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher attorneys. To my surprise, I’ve become fascinated with law and want to focus my career in the field. I’m aiming to become a paralegal.

I’ve applied for a lot of “Case Assistant” type positions, as they fit my qualifications and label themselves as “entry-level jobs”, but I haven’t gotten any interviews yet. I was hoping my almost year-long experience as a proofreader would help me stand out, however I’m starting to doubt if that’s the case anymore.

Should I be applying to different positions? Is there a particular field of law that’s easier to break into than others? Is my experience as a proofreader valuable? Or should I focus more on my rhetorical education? My current job takes up almost half of my resume. Finally, are there any other miscellaneous tips you have on breaking into the field?

Thanks!

Curious how smaller firms are handling billing these days. Hourly makes sense for unpredictable work, but flat fees seem easier for clients to understand upfront.

For those who’ve moved more toward flat fees, has it actually made revenue more predictable? Or do you end up spending more time on certain matters than you priced for?

Also wondering how solos handle monthly expenses when payments come in unevenly.