Most probably do, but I know a couple of introverts who just bill bill bill. A friend claims to have billed 2,600 hours one year, and after going to both law school and LLM with the guy I believe him. I simply can't comprehend sitting behind a computer for that much time. My back hurts from this month, and doing it for 10 months straight would kill me.
Yeah I wasn’t going to go there in order to avoid sounding like I’m whining. Still a shit load of hours either way.
Yeah I litigate a ton and try usually 7-10 jury trials and (we do union work as general counsel for the FOP in Colorado) probably 20 administrative trials a year here in Colorado. I don't bill 2,600 hours, more in the 2,200 range. But that gets easy when you bill for travel time (I'm on the road for hours each week). I can't imagine billing that much if I just sat at a desk.
Yeah it can be horribly boring and mundane (IA interviews) all the way to crazy... we have an on call schedule and anytime there is an officer involved shooting, we get called out, even at 2am and at a department a few hours away from Denver. It can suck, and it's about 50% of my practice, but I enjoy it most of the time.
My second and third year out of law school I did over 2200 then over 2300 at an Am Law top 50 firm, then was on my way to more before I moved cities and switched firms. I flew almost 40,000 miles in my last 12 months there. Every partner was divorced at least once. It was an absolutely miserable existence. I started with a class of 30 first year associates in our office. By year seven, only two were left. Now only one is left.
I traveled for work my first 2 years out of LLM (at an accounting firm), and we couldn’t bill for travel time unless actually working. I spent 120 nights in a hotel in 2016, and if I could throw time spent in airports and on airplanes into my gross hours, the I’d say approximately 2,800 hours and untold beers and steaks that year. Didn’t take that into consideration because I was thinking about actual billable numbers. This is depressing
Also, fuck COVID-19. I just got off an unplanned 1.5h call about the stimulus bill at 9pm on a Sunday
Opposing counsel wanted to depose my client on Friday at my office. Called her yesterday to prep for her depo. My client told me that all last week she had a low grade fever, chest cold, and it is still down in her lungs. Also her boyfriend has the same thing and got sick after her and they live together I think. Yep that deposition ain't happening. I always offer to do it remotely but no one ever takes me up on it.
I've had one depo via Zoom already, and have another one this Friday. It's less than ideal, mainly re: exhibits, but not as difficult as I thought. Were you going to allow o/c to hold it at your office with court reporter, etc.? I'd tell him to fuck off until this is over, or we can do it online.
Welp, my secretary just sent a status update with a request for settlement authority to opposing counsel instead of the client. That's neat
Hopefully the p lawyer is cool something similar happened to us once and I called def lawyer and was like hey we got this so I know your value of the case but I’m willing to let you do the work to get it there
Our receptionist who is receiving/sorting the mail each day accidentally sent a $75,000 check to the wrong plaintiff's lawyer yesterday. Fortunately, he's cool and a friend.
Are yalls checks usually made out to the p firm and plaintiff? All of ours are so we couldn’t deposit that even if we wanted to
Oh yeah. This was actually made out to the Plaintiff, Plaintiff's firm, and the hospital holding a lien. It wasn't anything more than an inconvenience.
Our lien statute is pretty hospital favorable, and this specific hospital is difficult to negotiate with. It's either putting them on the check or having to get checks reissued multiple times to reflect their reduced lien and balance to the plaintiff.
I currently have two cases with 31 claimants and 51 claimants, respectively. First case our 18-wheeler t-boned a city bus loaded with passengers, second case was the Univ of Wash band that crashed on icy roads on the way to the Apple Cup last year. Thankfully no deaths in either, lots of relatively minor stuff, but soooo much paper work keeping shit straight. Good for billing during quarantine, though.
Yah from what I've done research wise and heard, it sounds like Zoom won't be so bad. I've yet to have one via zoom. I just told him the deal and he agreed to move it back. Yah it was supposed to be at my office. I did offer to do it via zoom with everyone in their own locations including my client from home.
disbursed two settlements today. felt real sketch having clients come in to get their money and sign releases. i guess i could just be sending them settlement statements, releases, have them go find a witness or notary, then once I get all of that back, send them their money. I've been doing them in person because it is so much quicker. That's the only way I've let someone in the office though.
Ever had a client that you had to call to go over your valuation of the case and you were all nervous because the client is a hard ass and you know that your reasonable and realistic valuation of the case was not going to go over well with them and they'd want you to ask for something completely crazy? I had that happen this afternoon. Called the guy and then after going over all the medical, facts, and valuation information and giving my recommendation he just said he would go with my recommendation and that was the end of it. Not how I expected it to go at all but I was really glad.
Got a bunch of defense lawyers and my co-counsel wanting to do a couple of client depositions in a couple of weeks. Not sure I’m on board with it: (1) still have to prep client and that’s next to impossible over phone; (2) while defense lawyers will be remote, I’ll have to be in room with client—no idea where they’ve been and what they’ve been exposed to.
In sc we still have legal issues with any remote notary stuff and court rules. Also, doing stuff via zoom will work in a pinch but I'd avoid it on any case you actually give a fuck about/are banking on. If the case is important or the witness is important, wait it out and do it proper, at least for now.
So do most firms have at least one staff person coming in on a daily basis doing mail and such tasks? Legal services is defined as an essential business under our shelter in place order. How about with yall? Even with such, we might be doing our own mail and dropping it in the electronic file. Sounds horrifying.
So am I . My question is how much staff do firms still have coming. Not lawyers. But staff. Who is scanning mail, mailing out checks, doing all the bullshit that makes the world go round.
I guess I'm just a diva . Having a hard time bringing myself to do office admin stuff. If you wanted to have staff at your office, would Texas shelter in place allow it? Is legal work considered an essential business?
I’m in office for a few hours every day. We have one support staff person coming in to answer phone, get mail, etc.
Yeah Im sure. Staff and associates working from home and being like 80% as productive as normal so it’s fine
Just settled a commercial lit dispute between competing businesses. Other side represented by a reputable semi-big law firm. Federal court, we filed some pre-answer motions to fuck with them and then did what I would classify as two rounds of discovery. No depositions. We went to an early mediation. Dueling dec actions were discussed. They had billed 450k in less than a year. Un-fucking believable. Every time my side of the fence is accused of being frauds, I reply with stories like this one. The truth is we are all frauds. I should have billed more.
I go into the office like once/week to sign some things, but have been working from home mostly. Getting more efficient. Taking a Plaintiff’s depo tomorrow on zoom from my kitchen table. Our main office admin is coming in every day for mail and stuff. A few lawyers go every day.
we had 1 person coming in every day to do mail and stuff like that. we told them yesterday that they no longer needed to come in and that the lawyers would do the mail. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do all my lawyer work and do the mail, and mail complaints, and mail checks and releases , etc etc. Gonna play it by ear. Might have my paralegal come in once a week to sort mail, get stuff out in the mail, cut various checks etc etc
Everyone from our office is working from home now. I go in between 730 and 8 three days a week to switch out the server/desktop backup drives. Our office manager goes in daily to process mail/cut checks/etc. We've had all incoming calls forwarded to our receptionist. Anyone else who needs to go in has to send an email to everyone beforehand so 2 people aren't at the office at the same time.
Update: he had the phone professionally wiped when he got the complaint and I guess thought no one would figure it out.
I advise clients to preserve evidence, but I'll never understand why the freelancers don't "accidentally drop the device in a lake/river." Best I heard was 2 days after a subpoena was served a client's assistant dropped her phone in a gas station toilet and "wasn't going in after it." It may not ultimately be believed, but no body, no crime is better than nothing.
Spoliation is a pretty big deal in Alabama. It can be a sufficient foundation for an inference of liability. So, here, it will likely result in wantonness (and punitive damages) going to the jury.
Got a police pursuit crash case going to trial in 2 months. Today was the deadline for filing motions and the other side filed 4 motions and 4 memos. It's me versus like 4 lawyers. The county I sued brought in an outside firm that claims to specialize in municipal/county tort cases.