People who don’t understand how things are done where they are, are the worst. My little area is so much different than most of Alabama. Most defense lawyers understand that, realize they’re in a for a ride, and we get along great. Ever so often, some new associate from some big firm gets sent down here and thinks they’re in a typical conservative Alabama venue and just act appalled. Miserable dealing with them.
Or people that don’t understand how the case type they’re handling works. negligent security used to be a very small group of lawyers in Georgia and everyone was on the same page. Now every idiot thinks they can do it and you end up with bad plaintiffs lawyers and bad defense lawyers just fucking everything up and making things way harder than they should be.
When I was on the defense side, it happened occasionally (rarely, actually) where we would be handling a pretty high exposure case and the carrier would bring in “national trial counsel” to take over for trial. I can’t think of a single one of them that was particularly impressive. And it always struck me as dumb that my old partner and I who had tried very high stakes cases many times with great results would suddenly be saddled with the law out of town guys who didn’t know shit about Florida law or the nuances of the venue. We never did get to actually try a case with them because they would inevitably settle, but goddamn was it a waste of time and resources.
Agree for the most part. My first boss was, and I believe still is to a lesser extent, one of the trucking defense gurus across the nation. Serves as national Counsel for Swift Transportation and does exactly what you're talking about, but I've seen it yield good results. On the other hand, one of my friends from my firm in Seattle got a similar job in Pacar. He travels like 200 days/year flying all over the country overseeing trials - second-guesses and looks over the shoulder of local counsel. He's very smart, but also in his late 30s and I imagine some of the old heads despise this young guy coming to Iowa and questioning their tactics. But he also makes over $200K/year.
Was thinking about this with respect to the FTCA claim. I hope for the widow’s sake that there is no trial, but I’m not sure the government fully understands the medicine in the case. If they’re just going by what the surgeons have told them they’d chalk it up to a “unfortunate complications from surgery” scenario, where my experts are saying it wasn’t just the surgical technique but rather the dragging of their feet in taking him back to surgery before it was too late. Maybe they’ll become more reasonable after I skewer the surgeon at depo.
Shunarah just opened a South Florida office and the lawyer he found to start it sure is an interesting choice given the nature of that firm’s practice.
We had this recommended for a summer trial. It was actually set to happen but now they have backed off. Insurer doesn’t want to pay this alleged ringer.
Saw this guy’s billboards a lot on my drive to and from Louisiana a couple to weeks ago. Probably the 2nd most frequent ad behind Morris Bart on I-10 around and west of Mobile
That part I was, let’s say, not surprising. It was the landing spot that has everyone scratching their heads.
How much does someone like that spend on advertising every year? Thomas J Henry, one of the biggest advertising guys in Texas, apparently spends about $5m a year and he’s everywhere I wonder what the multiple is on something like that.
Shunnarah said in a 2019 interview that he was spending just short of $20 million on advertising, and I saw a LinkedIn post yesterday that his firm generated $300 million for clients, so let's say $100 million in revenue. If those numbers hold true I guess it's ~5 to 1.
It's my understanding that the lawyers are largely eat-what-you-kill and pay for a lot of the overhead out of their share, so there's not a ton of salaries in the overhead. "You want two paralegals? Fine, but you're paying for them."
Eat what you kill but without them generating any of the cases? Wonder how that works with who gets what cases
He's basically running a call and advertising center that generates endless cases that he then "refers" to his own lawyers. The fee then goes in a pot and a portion goes to the lawyer, a portion goes to advertising/overhead, and a portion goes to Shunnarah. No idea how cases are assigned. Tegg probably knows more.
there’s something to be said for being #1 on the depth chart for cases from someone who is going to spend a ton on advertising
Yeah if you’re getting a % of the fee and get assigned most / all of the high dollar cases that is probably a pretty good gig Thomas j adversities for $500k base + % of fees if you have a history of high dollar plaintiff verdicts. I think a handful of people have taken him up on that
Think I just had some kind of new (to me) fraud attempt. Someone seems to have spoofed my phone number (and attached my name to the spoof, so when the call went through it listed my name) and called the guy in the firm's billing department who handles wire transfers. I had no incoming/outgoing calls at the time the call was placed. Fortunately, the guy wasn't at his desk to answer.
90% of the time it’s because it will save an exec’s job if they hire a big firm/name and get a nuclear judgment rather than if a smaller local firm does a better job but still comes back with a big number. Especially if the client is PE backed. If company gets popped and a NY PE guy asks why Dentons wasn’t involved, it’s a problem. If some big name was involved and loses a big verdict, nobody bats an eye.
Had a case where baker botts defended a party a few years ago and the only thing they did different from regular ass defense lawyers was send emails at like 1am
Like I said above, every firm has a different culture, even large advertising firms aren’t all the same politically/internally. Some people’s dispositions aren’t ideally suited to high volume work.
Just got sent to non-binding arbitration with an arbitrator who is 100 years old. Guy has been practicing law since 1950. I'm legit excited for this. https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/...y-be-oldest-practicing-attorney-in-the-state/
Yep, has some incredible litigators that do the death/trucking cases. Then you get to the people who get handed that contested liability with soft tissue injuries case, and the quality, well it drops.
I spent all day playing defense lawyer on a mock trial focus group. I’m a nerd, but it was fun as fuck.
When my wife was a 1L in law school, she did a summer clerkship for an attorney who was 96 years old. Part of the deal was she got to spend the summer living in his guest house. On her first day, he gave her his Rolex and made her sign a bailment agreement and told her if she had a good summer he may let her keep it. By the second night on the job, he was letting himself into the guest house to visit and try and convince her to stay in the main house with him. One night he walked in wearing nothing but his undershirt and a diaper. She moved out of the guest house within a week. After about two weeks on the job, he took her with him to an out-of-town trial lawyers convention. At the dinner, he was introducing her to everyone like she was his girlfriend. That night at the hotel he knocked on the door and propositioned her. She told him to fuck off. He forced his way in and insisted he wasn't leaving until he at least got a kiss. She shoved the old man to the ground and ran out. Got a hotel room at the airport and flew out on the first flight the next morning. When she didn't report to work on Monday, he terminated the clerkship, telling her it was very unprofessional to not show up for work without notice. He also demanded she return the Rolex immediately or he would sue her for breaching the bailment agreement. Good times.
I am having to track and recreate hours currently. First time in my life. I don’t know how anyone does this full time.
I don’t track my time. But if you track time as a plaintiff and if you get into a fight over a fee for whatever reason or if you are asking for sanctions, you can prove your time which can be helpful.
Far and away the worst part. Keeping time contemporaneously is exponentially less unpleasant than recreating time or waiting to do it all once a week or month
I don’t do it full time, but idk, tracking time doesn’t bother me when we’re doing a defense file. I just have a notebook on my desk and record it there.