We're 6 lawyers (one of whom does nothing but write though) and 3 paralegals, 5 legal assistants, and 1 receptionist. And we're still strapped.
I'd give up my left nut to get a receptionist/scheduler that wasn't just plain retarded at this point. I have the WORST fucking front office staff in the history of the practice of law. We've had a really hard time finding anyone to replace her, though, despite my contention that I'd rather have nobody at all than someone as clearly fucking stupid as the girl we have currently.
Where do yall draw the distinction between paralegals and legal assistants? I guess it is the ability to do legal writing and research. A legal assistant can't get on westlaw , pull a bunch of case law and statutes, and throw together an involved pleading, but a good paralegal should be able to. I'm not sure if any of our "paralegals" could do that.
Settled a longshore comp case at mediation yesterday for $200,000 to my client, a MSA of $5100 for his left knee that is already MMI, and fees in the amount of $7,000 for me. So a total of $212,100. Client had a busted left knee, right knee that needed a total knee, and right shoulder that needed partial rotator repair. Had a physician opinion letter giving me causation on all of it and saying he wasn't MMI on right shoulder or right knee. This dude fell on the way to turn in his paperwork to retire from the shipyard. They were arguing the voluntary retirement doctrine and saying they could zero him out. After mediation judge said he wanted to talk to me in his office, thought he was going to bitch me out. Instead he told me that instead of billing at $250 an hour for this work I should be billing at $300.
Med mal /wrongful death depos this morning. My clients are getting deposed. We're having to do it at opposing counsel's office because our office conference room is tiny. Embarrassing!
I posted a job opening on Indeed for a receptionist and got about 250 resumes within a week. I filtered all the resumes by "Spanish speaking" and the first resume I looked at was a 24-year-old girl with a four-year degree in journalism, was previously the editor-in-chief for a tiny town's weekly newspaper for a year, was fluent in Spanish, and one of her references was a Pulitzer Prize winning author. We met with her for 10 minutes and then offered her the job at a few dollars an hour more than what the job was advertised as because she was so overqualified. She's been well worth it. She wants to go to law school next year so this will probably only be an 18-month stop-gap job for her. So good people are out there, but they may come at a slightly higher cost. We have three paralegals with paralegal degrees. We have two legal assistants with legal assistant degrees. The other three assistants have just learned on the job to draft simple things like depositions notices, form discovery in a car wreck, or a simple complaint. None of them (including the paralegals) really do legal research or anything like that. We also have an in-house accountant that works 3 or 4 days a week and pays the bills. I forgot about her. The receptionist orders the supplies. We don't really have an "office manager".
I was named a super lawyers rising star despite doing almost zero litigation in the last year. I’ve always thought these lists were dumb and now even more so. About the only interesting thing that happened recently was having a judge order the defense lawyer to pay all our fees and costs for trial prep and a 6 day trial as a sanction for repeated misconduct in trial. We haven’t had the evidentiary hearing on the amount yet but it’s a very substantial number. He’s one of the old guard Florida defense lawyers, has tried hundreds of cases, and it’s satisfying to see him get his comeuppance for all the shit he’s pulled over the years.
One of my law partners thinks that doing legal research is the key distinction. Idk. Having a paralegal degree doens't mean that much imo. I've seen clueless paralegals with paralegal degrees and legal secretaries that were better. It's a plus and you'd definitely want your paralegal to have one, but I'm not sure that is the key distinction.
Got into a thing this morning at the depos. Defense lawyer asks wrongful death beneficiary/plaintiff/mother of deceased: "Why are you making this claim against the hospital?" "What are you basing it on." "What experts have you spoken to?" "What did they tell you the negligence was?" I told him it all went to legal conclusions , privileged information, expert opinions , that it wasn't time to designate experts yet, we don't have a scheduling order or a expert designation deadline, and I instructed them not to answer. He argued with me, I asked if he wanted to get the judge on the line, he declined, and we moved on. Later when I told him I was trying to get trial dates he told me he wasn't going to give me a trial date until I told him who my experts were and disclosed their opinions. I told him we'd get a trial date, craft a scheduling order, then we'd designate experts in accordance with same. From there we went round and round
Hey esquires. Worth sitting down with a family law attorney and having him/her write my prenup, or can we draft it on our own from a template?
Tilly could probably send you an example. some random Florida notes: PRE-MARITAL AGREEMENT: SOF APPLIES - MUST BE IN WRITING; MARRIAGE IS SUFFICIENT CONSIDERATION; COURTS WILL STRICTLY SCRUTINIZE FOR GOOD FAITH & LACK OF CONSIDERATION. FULL FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE IS NOT REQUIRED GENERALLY VALID IF 1) VOLUNTARY (APPROPRIATE TIME & PLACE TO REVIEW, OPPORTUNITY TO SEEK COUNSEL, & STATEMENTS MADE DURING PRESENTATION) & 2) FAIR & JUST OR AFTER FULL & FAIR DISCLOSURE. Contract RULES APPLY. BUT SPOUSE CLAIMING A VALID AGREEMENT MUST PROVE FAIRNESS: NO UNDUE INFLUENCE, DURESS, OVERREACHING, FRAUD, COERCION, ETC
i mean if you have two investment properties it's worth paying someone to do it professionally. they can also give you advice on how to not comingle money to fuck yourself.
a paralegal thinks like a lawyer but doesn't have a JD. If they are focused on 1 area, say family, no need for them to not be as knowledgeable as you. But a legal assistant wouldn't have time to develop those skills because they deal with too much bs.
Yes, it is worth it. I don't know the law where your at (unless it is in SC in which case both parties must have their own attorney for a prenup to be valid), but like gallant said, it shouldn't be too expensive, but we'll worth the investment. Treat it like an investment/insurance. You will not only get a good document protecting you, but you'll also get advice on what you need to do during the marriage to ensure that the prenup holds up. An agreement is great, but there are a lot of loopholes if you're commingling funds, having her work on the property, potentially any increase in value becoming marital property, etc. Side Note: a prenup isn't the time to be shy about disclosing your assets. Take the time to disclose everything whether you think it is big or small, important or unimportant. If it isn't disclosed, it may not be covered by the agreement or it may be subject to one of the loopholes. Worst case, the prenup creates leverage in the event you divorce where she has an initial hurdle to get over before she even starts to negotiate terms.
She has investments, but I have nearly triple her yearly income (and my two rental properties.) I get the impression that her investments are going to be protected, but my income is fair game 'til death do us part...
Depends. You may be able to put a waiver of alimony or a limitation on alimony in the agreement. Whether it would be enforceable or subject to certain requirements/elements/limitations is something you'd need to discuss with the attorney. Hence why you need to go see one. Tough to say without knowing more. It depends on if there is already an agreement or if the terms have to be negotiated, how complicated the finances are, what kind of disclosures have to/ought to be made. In SC it is more expensive because we have to negotiate through counsel and full financial disclosure is required (aka time to gather and analyze all that info and review the info from the opposing side). My guess would be a few grand average depending on the attorney and the amount of work required. Could get a better guess at an initial consult.
The two quotes I have received so far are from her attorney who wants $485 per hour and estimates three hours, and my attorney who wants $250 per hour (to discuss with me and review the contract her attorney drafts.)
If you have enough assets that a prenup is something that should be considered, then why on earth would you try to take a cheap way out that might end up not being effective? See that basic thing all the time and it just blows my mind. I can't tell you how many very wealthy landowners we deal with who drafted their own lease contracts or something similar and just screwed it all up.
For most people, this is true. Definitely not true for all people and situations though. Obviously I'm biased, ftr.
Last week, our firm participated in a class certification hearing with four defendants. We were local counsel for one of them. All told, around 40 layers on the defense side including Skadden, Korvath and Jones Day. Equal number of attorneys on plaintiff side. Sweet mercy at those invoices.
We had five Korvath attorneys in our office all week preparing so the cost of that hearing likey exceeded $1M if I had to guess.