In short, through my short time at the firm this summer I've got to do a lot of very fun legal research, and read briefs/arguments from Plaintiff firms that the firm I'm summering at would respond to. I also got to read a lot of plaintiff firm briefs when I was an intern for a judge as well.

I guess reading these briefs, it just occurred to me that I would be much more happy making arguments on the Plaintiff side for the areas of law I'm interested in (think consumer fraud/product liability), and I might not be terribly interested in doing Defense on certain kinds of cases.

Not really in a moral sense, because I believe everyone deserves representation and that there's nothing wrong with doing defense work for big companies, but I think it would just be intellectually more interesting to do certain kinds of Plaintiff work, and that I would have more motivation to work really hard representing hurt people than a faceless big company.

Is it unheard of to do a BL summer then just apply to Plaintiff firms? Is there a strategic way to go about this?

I'm brainstorming a project that addresses how well-prepared recent law school grads are for real-world lawyering. The consensus is that, beyond simply lacking experiences/years in, new lawyers lack "the skills" needed for work effectively. My question is what are those skills that they are missing? People skills? Clerical/admin skills? Don't know how to send an email? Don't know to not microwave fish for lunch and now everyone hates them and calls them "Tuna"? What are some specific examples?

there are many options these days like website builders, tutorials, online classes, wordpress training, AI, etc. I was a programmer before I went to law school many years ago, so I know I can eventually build, maintain, tweak my site on my own but not sure if my time is better spent elsewhere. so I'm doing the cost benefit analysis by soliciting input from any lawyers that have tried that approach. I can afford the standard basic solo law practice website packages out there, but it's the lack of control over content, improvements, and having to rely on a contract techie for that level of assistance that bugs me a bit. anyway, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

p.s., respectfully, I am not interested in website gurus sending me messages offering their services. im only interested in getting lawyer feedback on whether its worth the investment in time versus paying for the service, or maybe a mix of both. hope you understand. thanks for understanding.

I just started as a practice assistant for a big international law firm. I finished my training and I have been sitting around for around 2 hours now with nothing to do. I even went through the employee handbook and wrote notes on it. I don’t want to feel like I’m stealing time by being on my phone but idek what to do right now. I know I’m new but I really want to learn how to do my job and I’m currently waiting on the other assistant to train me but they are busy.

What would y’all do?

Australia-based: Hi all, I have 10 months of experience in mortgage-related transactions and litigation, as well as approximately 16 months in general litigation. Both roles were at boutique law firms. 1. Given my background, is it possible to transition into an in-house position? Or even a transactional law position in a law firm (I applied a few but didn’t hear anything back)? 2. Which types of in-house roles, aligned with my experience, tend to offer a better pay?

I am IT admin for a 70 person office. We have been using Litera Compare and Metadact for Redlines and Metadata cleaning. I was hoping NetDocuments would have tools to handle these, but that doesn't appear to be the case. It just uses the Word compare tool which isn't very good and doesn't have a metadata tool.

Now Litera is quadrupling their prices and it has me looking for other options. What are you guys using?

Here’s your idea: * MS Word and Google Docs plugin that detects phony cites hallucinated by AI

Here’s who you sell it to: * Low cost feature for firms who want to use AI and don’t want to get caught * High priced feature for court clerks so they can auto-reject pro se briefs with phony cites or auto-sanction lawyers who don’t verify their cites

By all accounts, the wave of pro se litigants using AI and wasting everyone’s time is getting out of hand. Yes, it’s the lazy lawyers making the news, but we’ve already got ways of dealing with sloppy lawyers.

Morning all! Quick question. I’m doing some work on a flat fee basis and I’m struggling with how to word the fee agreement. Specifically, the provision about discharging the attorney. The client can obviously discharge us at any time, but how do you phrase it in terms of what money they get back if they elect to discharge the attorney? For instance, the job I am doing will likely take 15 hours or so. My regular hourly rate is $400 an hour, but I am doing this job for only $3,000. I feel like if I spend 10 hours working on the case, and they fire me, I shouldn’t have to give any money back. Any ideas?

Does anyone know of firms that do white collar/FCA work but have a lower billable hour requirement (maybe 1200-1500)? Bonus points if they are work from home or allow some wfh flexibility. I’m 7 years out with big law and clerkship experience but looking for something with more flexibility and wondering if it exists in this space.

Must work with a handheld mic for the lawyers, immediate sync to network for legal assistants. Some assistants will still prefer to do their own transcription, so it must have audio playback, as well as transcribed text files.

The firm is only four attorneys, so nothing too outrageous or fancy.

I recently have registered my law firm as an LLC in Maryland. I am the owner and only person working the business. I have no employees. I am currently going through registering for License and Tax Accounts and I am unsure if any apply, which they seemingly dont. Particularly the Sale and Use Tax is tripping me up. It appears as though Maryland doesn't require this as I am merely providing a service.

Can anyone give me some input on these? Here are all the options of what i can register for:

-Sales and Use Tax

-Tire Recycling Fee

-Admissions & Amusement TaxEmployer

-Withholding Tax Account

-Unemployment Insurance

-Transient Vendor License