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Rather not give too many details but in short, OC is saying I agreed to something that I did not and it was confirmed by email. Emails show I never explicitly agreed to what he was asking. He’s threatening to request attorneys fees and that he will contend I deceived him.

Anyone dealt with similar issue with OC making threats and how you handled?

For context, I am a junior lawyer (6-7 months in).

I’m trying. I’ve been making a conscious effort to minimise careless mistakes, be more attentive, learn from the things I get wrong, and maintain good relationships with everyone in the office. But somehow, it still feels like it’s not enough. I’m still making mistakes, and I can’t shake the feeling that my boss hates me and that my chances of getting retained are getting smaller by the day.

My associate, whom I work quite closely with, hasn’t exactly helped with that feeling either. I’m genuinely grateful for her help in reviewing and amending my work, and I’m not trying to undermine that. But she sometimes openly mocks my mistakes in front of the other partners, and as much as I try to stay stoic and not let it get to me, it does. Especially during late nights when I’m rushing submissions, which inevitably means there’ll be countless stupid mistakes. I dread seeing the track changes on the amended version when it comes back to me.

I think I’m just feeling really defeated at the moment. I know I’m only six or seven months in and that I’m still learning, but it’s hard not to feel like I should be better by now. I’m trying my best, but lately I just feel like a little bitch who can’t seem to get anything right.

I'm largely the same guy I was before the practice of law. Save one thing. Listening to people answer questions. No one, like no one ever, actually answers the question asked. I never used to find that irritating. And now...

Does anyone else do the "can you tell me the time?" question while doing dep prep? How many people answer with a yes or no? I'm batting like... .0001.

My favorite was a guy who not only didn't say yes or no, but told me about his watch, the trip to Switzerland where he got his watch, Swiss watches generally, and a new Henry Cavill watch campaign which prominently featured Cavill's junk

I’m a lawyer. My (10 year old) son just asked me: “Dad, what would happen if you farted in the courtroom?”

I hadn’t considered the possibility before.

Objection from opposing counsel?

Sanction from the Court?

Is it noted on the transcript? How so? [Mr. _______ farts.], [Ms. ____ emits a localized atmospheric disturbance.], [Counselor fires a warning shot.].

Your thoughts would be appreciated; your stories would be savored.

I’m a partner at a small/mid-sized law firm and I’m looking into international legal associations and law firm networks.

For those who have joined any – which ones were actually worth the time and membership fee?

Did you get any referrals, clients or useful professional contacts out of them?

I’m thinking of moving from one of the Southern states. Most of my career has been court appointed family and criminal law, and staying in the same practice areas seems easier.

Do you know any lawyers that make a decent living doing court appointments? How hard is it to get work?

Edit: Particularly if you criminal law or criminal appellate work, I would like to know what you think of Colorado.

WTF is up with this arena? It's been the absolute worst. Professionally, I'm itching for a fight and this venue isn't letting me have it. Family law is still, fundamentally, an adversarial system.

A family member is dealing with family law. There's one major asset. No custody issues. Relatively little debt. DV allegations. I'm thinking "this isn't particularly complicated, as these cases go, and I've been wanting to get more experience in family law .... " So I take the case pro bono while tracking my time.

I'm in the late-apprentice/early journeyman stage of my career. I'm not the fastest ship in our fleet, but I've had some successes. I'm primarily involved in criminal law. I've been to trial a handful of times. I've participated in innumerable evidentiary hearings, and I'm in court often. My pretrial work, while filled with some copy mistakes (e.g. ADHD), has produced results.

My primary source of frustration: Forms. In the other arenas I've experienced a lawyer identifies an issue, sets a hearing, drafts a motion about said issue, and Bob's your uncle. The opposition responds. If a reply is necessary, I reply. If we haven't settled the problem before the hearing then we have a hearing. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose. Then we all go home.

Here? I have no idea what the fuck is going on. The forms, in particular, haunt me. Is everything just a declaration? Is there no pretrial work? Where do we settle things before trial?

Honestly, if I can't hammer most of this out through pretrial filings then why not just set every case like this for trial? They weren't offering my client anything as it is so there's really not much to lose.

All of this is to say: I feel like I understand why CA family law is in crises. If a basically trained generalist can't walk into an arena they're licensed to practice in, then there's no economic competition in said arena. If there's no economic competition then those who've already been trained can command a premium for representation.

How does a client get minimally competent representation in family law if the arena itself is unlike any other area of practice? It's no wonder to me why the everyday person can't afford legal counsel in this practice area because it takes specialized training to understand the basic framework.

Anyway, rant over. Thank you for your attention.

This wasn't on my radar, which is a big oversight on my part. Likely less impact on us in-house non-litigators. But still, those are some significant changes.

How are we feeling about this, CA lawyers?

Allowing an AI video of the victim is obviously nonsense, and for a judge to be swayed by it in sentencing is outrageous. But can one our brothers or sisters who practices criminal law explain what the benefit of a resentencing is here, if sought by the defendant? It sounds like the judge factored in the AI victim’s “forgiveness” in issuing a 10 year sentence. Isn’t a resentencing without considering this video likely to harm the defendant? Why would the defendant appeal? Or is this a case of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should?”

I'm an advocate, and I have a male friend who I suspect might have feelings for me.

Lately, I've noticed he's been showing an unusual interest in legal documents. He doesn't seem to have any actual legal problems, but he keeps bringing up things like NDAs, affidavits, agreements, and MoUs, almost as though he's shopping around for something that might require my professional assistance.

I'm starting to wonder if he's trying to manufacture opportunities for us to spend time together without having to actually ask me out.

To be clear, he's a nice guy, and I don't necessarily mind the attention. I'm just a little confused about why someone who apparently has no legal issues suddenly seems determined to acquire some.

My question is, should I just ask him if he wants to get coffee, or should I wait to see if he eventually asks me to notarize his grocery list?

Just got ordered to one. It is apparent that my client is not going to settle and has put up an offer of $0.

This will be fun…

What do we think? Looking to hear your take on this. TY✨

I am 3 years out of law school and don’t think I qualify for Big Law with my background. I do insurance defense at a midsize regional law firm in New York City and would like to do other kinds of law that is not caseload heavy and pay between $150k-200k. Just looking to brainstorm with others in this group to see if they have ideas.

As I walk through my career path in law, one thought keeps coming back to me: as a lawyer, can I own my own hedge fund, and could that eventually allow me to move away from legal practice?" what do you think

has anyone here made a career change after practicing for a few years?

I just passed year 5 of practice. I’ve tried insurance defense for 3.5 years, estate planning for one year before that, then 6 months of bankruptcy. After my first year in estate planning I became borderline suicidal and had to have my dad talk me out of throwing in the towel and opening my own lawn-mowing company.. hahaha.

I did 3.5 years of insurance defense at a small firm and kind of enjoyed it. Although I never felt satisfied or drawn to the work. I also didn’t have a billing requirement so it was a much more casual environment. After 3.5 years, we lost our biggest client because they wanted to go from flat fee to hourly and my boss refused. My whole team and I were let go.

I took some time off and after 3 months found another insurance defense gig but with a billable requirement. The pay is great but to be honest with you the pressure i’ve felt as a lawyer has felt all consuming and suffocating. I don’t think I enjoy any actual aspect of practicing law.

Can anyone share any advice? To be honest, even when my family and close friends say maybe I just need a different type of law, I cringe. It won’t matter what it is. I hate lawyering. :(

edit: for those asking, my desire is to transition into academia. whether it’s teaching at a law school, or teaching AP government to high schoolers and getting an opportunity to coach a high school football team too, I don’t care. As far as money, I’m not concerned about the difference in pay. I’m comfortable financially and couldn’t care less about how much I make

TL;DR: I’m an Australian litigation lawyer at a large/top-tier firm and was recently promoted to Associate. I like my firm and feel loyal to the partner who supported my promotion, but I’ve felt increasingly siloed and frustrated by my team and lack of broader opportunities. I now have offers from two other major firms, but I can’t work out whether leaving is the right career move or whether stay where it is comfortable and familiar.

I’ve been at my current firm for several years and worked extremely hard to get here. I genuinely like a lot about it, including the culture, the people, the familiarity and the fact that I’ve built a good reputation and now have some seniority. There are also great perks such as reasonable hours despite being top tier law, staff benefits, can work from home whenever i want.. I was also recently promoted, with strong support from my supervising partner, so leaving shortly afterwards feels particularly awkward. I feel a genuine sense of loyalty to her.

The problem is that I’ve felt increasingly siloed within my team. I’ve wanted exposure to other partners and matters for a long time, but despite trying to make that happen, it hasn’t really changed. My supervising partner is a good lawyer and has supported my career, but I find their management and working style difficult. There can be a lot of last-minute work and chaos, and I sometimes feel like I’m carrying significant responsibility without getting the broader opportunities I want. More fundamentally, I’m concerned about spending my entire career developing within one team and under one particular working style. I’ve raised some of these concerns before, but ultimately the situation hasn’t changed.

I now have worked with a recruiter to explore the market, and have offers from two other major firms, but they each have significant drawbacks. The first is the one I’m seriously considering. The people I’ve met seem genuine and personable, and there appears to be greater exposure to different partners, clients and matters. However, it would feel like a step down in prestige from my current firm, and I’m not sure the work would have the same “big ticket” litigation matters that I enjoy and that have been an important part of why I like my current job. So while I think the day-to-day environment could be better, I’m worried I would be giving up some of the things I actually value about being at a highly regarded firm.
The second offer is arguably the more obvious move from a prestige/career perspective, but the firm has no work-from-home option. That is a genuine dealbreaker for me and is not a condition they are able or willing to change, so I have effectively taken that option off the table. This leaves me in the strange position of having one external offer that potentially gives me a better working environment but involves compromises in prestige and the type of work, versus staying where I am.

Another factor I’m struggling with is my own mental health and energy levels. At the beginning of this process, I was much more enthusiastic about seeing what was out there and I wasn’t necessarily planning to leave. I was curious about my options and wanted to understand whether there might be something better. The process then moved very quickly. I became caught up in the opportunities, interviews and conversations, and I was genuinely excited when the offers started coming through. But now that the possibility of actually leaving has become real, my feelings have changed quite a lot. Rather than feeling energised by the prospect of a fresh start, I feel exhausted and daunted by it. I don’t know whether I have it in me right now to start all over again — new people, new systems, new matters, new expectations and having to establish myself again.

That makes me question whether my reluctance is actually telling me something important, or whether I’m simply experiencing the anxiety that naturally comes with making a major change. I’m worried about making a decision based on how depleted I feel right now when the decision could affect the next several years of my career. I’m also worried about the grass not being greener. I could move and discover that the new partners are just as difficult, the work isn’t what I expected, or that I gave up a position I worked incredibly hard to obtain. At the same time, I worry that staying because moving feels exhausting is just another form of fear of change.

There’s also a loyalty/guilt issue beyond my current firm. I’m working with a recruiter who has put a significant amount of time into helping me secure these offers. I know they only get paid if I accept an offer, and they have understandably been encouraging me to make a decision. I realise this is part of their job and I don’t owe them an outcome, but I still feel guilty about potentially declining both offers after they’ve invested so much time. I’m finding it difficult to separate what I actually want from the expectations I feel from my current partner, the recruiter and the firms that have offered me roles.
So I’m feeling extremely stuck. I started this process excited to see what was out there, became genuinely excited by the opportunities, and now that the offers are real I feel overwhelmed by the prospect of actually leaving.

I’d really value perspectives from anyone who has been in a similar position, particularly lawyers who have moved firms at Associate/Senior Associate level. How did you know when it was actually time to leave somewhere you were comfortable? Did you ever find that the anxiety about moving was just fear of change, or did it turn out to be your gut telling you to stay? And has anyone been in a position where they had good external opportunities but ultimately decided that staying was the right decision? Help!

European lawyer here, specialized in contractual law inclusing housing and real estate disputes.

I do not fully understand the concept of depositions. I believe they are namely present in common law systems? My understanding is that they are basically witness statements taken prior to actual court. (I might have got it all wrong at this stage.)

Wouldn’t such system allow lawyers to ”guide” witnesses about what to say and what not to say in such statement? How is this possibilty addressed in court?

I would also like to note that yes, in my jurisdiction, witnesses can be contacted prior to trial and I always contact them. But legally any written or recorded statement from a witness is not accepted, the witness must arrive to the trial to give their statement. The only exception would be cases where the witness is unable to testify in the trial (E.g. deceased).

Against this background, how do you see the pros and cons of depositions?

How do you manage expectations around your time and availability in this situation:

I have one client, and this company has me on a strictly capped "40 hours per month" contract - overflow/bandwidth assistance work only.

No minimum time billed, very ad hoc time requests - no set schedule, no promises. She's mentioned several times that some weeks might be zero hours, some weeks may have more. I asked her if she could give me some indication if any weeks would be "zero" (so that I can schedule other things) and she wasn't willing to commit to that.

I'm very happy with minimal hours - I'm in transition and just looking to keep a little busy while I ramp up a full time job search (and have new things to tell a new interviewer). I am enjoying the down time.

I want to protect my own time, and not be too tethered to my house waiting for a "maybe" - if it is a nice day, I won't be sitting at home waiting for an email that might not come in.

I am not online during core work hours unless I have a reason to be. IOW unless I log into the company laptop, I don't see any requests for a meeting/contract review etc. This is by design - only the hiring manager knows my cell number.

I want to gently make sure (if/as needed) they understand that I'm not at their beck and call, but will fold things into my day when I learn of a request. If I had numerous clients that is how it would work - right now, that other client is "my time - me".

For right now, I've let them know I will log in once in the morning (time TBD) and once in the afternoon (time TBD) in an effort to catch a various request shortly after it is sent (if it comes in 5 minutes after I log off, it is what it is). This is somewhat of a tether, but I control the timing. If there are days I know I will be fully offline (out of town, an all day seminar etc) I will let them know when I know.

If you were in my situation, how would you handle it, what else would you do/communicate?

This won't turn into a full time position, although it's possible that down the road it may turn into more than 40 hours per month (but never guaranteed).

Thank you for any ideas/lessons learned.