No. You settled your case at mediation. You signed a release of all claims against the person who hit you. The only outcome here is either for you to take the money via us finalizing the case amicably with defense counsel or the court ordering it. Attached is the agreement you signed at mediation. I know that Ashli, the mediator, and I all expressed to you what you were signing and the amount that would go in your pocket within a couple of hundred dollars. Please let me know how you would like to proceed.
would bet a significant amount of money that within the next ten days he says that he will take the settlement if the whole $25k goes in his pocket - i.e. we wavie our fees and the medical providers who treated him don't get paid. that is always my favorite when clients do that.
We were looking into it for our company and WestLaw was around $200 more expensive per month per user and Lexis gave us a longer deal at the price point. Thankfully I never use it.
Higher hourly rate is one way to do it. But you'd be surprised at how much can go into negotiating and drafting a contract, papering a deal, revising documents, etc. I have never seen any numbers, but from what I've heard around the water cooler from other associates who likely have no idea the transactional practice of my firm is a good bit more profitable than the litigation side, which accounts for 30-50% of the lawyers if I had to guess. It also doesn't help that the litigators seem to barely be in the office to begin with and then they take the entire month of December off. Jealous of that, though.
It's also cyclical. Commercial litigation is slow and transactional work is hot right now because the economy is humming. Ten years ago, transactional was dead and BK work was red hot.
Fo sho. A few of my clients have explicitly said they're trying to do as many deals as possible before a recession occurs. Wonder what I'll do when that happens
I did some random bankruptcy and loan litigation bullshit in 2009. We will have a downturn but it won't be near that level.
I thought the price difference would be much more drastic as well. Makes it that much harder to stomach the switch. Might take tegg's approach and start an office revolution.
I’m at $650 an hour. Partners I work with are $950 to $1475. we do a bunch of shit that basically boils down to diligence, purchase agreements, related documents and addenda, dealing with post-signing and post-closing shit the client needs done
I think I heard something about our contract coming up at some point. I'll definitely do my best to get it switched.
i am not a 'lawyer's lawyer' but if an associate said they needed something that cost $2k a year more than what we were using i wouldn't blink.
I have a week-long trial set for jury selection on Monday in federal court. Today we were meeting with our corporate rep to prep him for trial. While in the meeting, we got a message from Plaintiff's counsel and took the call. Turns out that Plaintiff fired his lawyer this morning, so he was conferencing with us on his proposed motion to withdraw and MTC. Judge ordered that we had to respond with our position in a responsive motion by 3pm today. The hearing on the withdrawal and MTC is set for tomorrow at 2pm. My guess is the judge grants the withdrawal (which we do not oppose), and gives a 30 day continuance for the Plaintiff to find a new lawyer, but absolutely reams his ass out for causing a panel to come up on Monday that will have to get sent right home. P.S. Because we're lawyer's lawyers, our response to their withdrawal included the following: "Based upon the history of this case, Defendant does not believe that Plaintiff has any credible complaint with the representation provided in this matter by Plaintiff’s Counsel. Plaintiff’s Counsel has effectively and zealously represented the Plaintiff’s interests in this case since the case’s inception."
Alabama lawyers: I have a MVA that occurred on the MS Gulf Coast where the client was on the job at the time of the collision and working for a AL company. She lives in AL. Comp benefits were paid through AL. In MS the comp carrier has a statutory lien and we just pay them as a matter of course. Unless it is UM. If the auto coverage is UM then carrier doesn't have a right to subro under MS law. My question is whether Alabama comp carriers have a statutory lien/right to recovery and are generally paid by plaintiff counsel when there is a 3rd party claim? I'm guessing the answer is yes. Of course I'll try to see if they'll reduce.
My boss was notoriously difficult to work for. A couple years before my time, the firm hired a legal assistant for him when they shuffled some people around. She cleared her desk at lunch on her first day and disappeared, leaving a resignation letter typed-up on her word processor. So, at most, she worked for him for 4 hours.
I wasn't blaming you, just thought it an appropriate time to share that story. I think he had mellowed a tad by the time I came to work for him, and he also liked me, so I never really took any flak from him.
just sucks when i make a concerted effort to be a good/understanding boss to work for and shit like this happens.
started at my firm 3 months ago. In that time, they have hired 4 legal assistants for one of the partners. All of them quit with no notice after less than a week. Really nice guy too. People are just flaky imo.
$25 an hour for a legal assistant seems like a job they shouldnt just walk away from but fuck it i guess
invited them all to a suite at the race track to watch one of my horses run on friday too. made sure to stress they did not need to come but could if they wanted. she apparently was texting another of my legal assistants until like 1am friday morning. this makes no sense
well, that’s a shit ton higher than they pay in Birmingham unless you’ve been with the firm for awhile. Day one at $25.00 an hour is strong.
Slightly topic-adjacent, but I've learned in my professional career that simply by showing up on time, when you're supposed to, and doing just a halfway competent job puts you ahead of a majority of the workforce. It's amazing how many people don't do the absolute minimum that's required of them. Seriously, if you're where you need to be when you're supposed to be, it takes a lot of incompetence to lose your job. Guess the more I've been exposed to it the more I've seen first-hand "good employees are hard to come by."
definitely. have to take care of the ones who are good. also, have learned that if someone is jumping from job to job every year or 18 months it could not be a bigger red flag
I talk about this exact thing all the time. Having someone who just shows up and tries is a huge deal.
I have 100 comp and PI cases and somehow having slow December and January. Liens and medical records/bills slowing me down. Either need more contingency files or mix in some hourly work. Killed it last year so I really shouldn’t be worried about it but I stay stressed.