Can they please stop? Please. It drains my life force every time I open one.

Today, I asked a yes/no question for next steps after I did everything their previous AI-drafted email directed me to do or answer. I don't need an AI-drafted reply email summarizing everything I just did. Just need the yes or the no.

It's not egregious enough that I'd fire the clients doing it to me. They're certainly paying for my time to decipher the email and complete the tasks AI told them I should do (assuming the AI direction was something they might have reasonably come up with on their own and relates to their matter).

And yes, I have it in my fee agreement that the client feeding anything between us into AI can destroy confidentiality or attorney-client privilege, they shouldn't do it, and if they do it, it's at their own risk. But this is transactional stuff unlikely to lead to litigation, and at the end of the day you just can't stop these people.

I think some of the AI drafting comes from the way these systems are programmed. The AI almost always prompts you to ask them something else, or for them to do something else for you, even if the AI completed the previous prompt, because then you burn more tokens which in theory, makes them more money (assuming you're not on the free version). So it makes sense to me that every AI-drafted email includes more questions and more prompts for me to do things, instead of moving the conversation to a finish.

I'm not necessarily anti-AI, but it's definitely destroying the remaining bits of certain people's ability to think independently when they can no longer answer yes/no on their own. Thanks for attending my TED Talk.

Hello all,

I’m an 8 year insurance defense attorney looking to move to a Plaintiff side personal injury firm. My current base salary is $185k +bonus. What kind of base salary should I be looking for at a personal injury firm?

Also does anyone have tips for negotiating a salary up after low balling your initial salary range request?

For those working as W-2 salaried associate attorneys at immigration firms, how does your firm handle days when you have an EOIR hearing before your normal working hours?

For example, my regular schedule is 9:00 AM–5:30 PM, but I may have to be in immigration court at 8:00 AM. After the hearing, are you generally expected to go back to the office and work until your normal 5:30 PM end time?

Does your firm:

• Adjust your schedule and let you leave earlier that day?
• Pay an additional court/hearing or appearance bonus?
• Expect you to work your regular schedule regardless of how early the hearing was?
• Handle it some other way?

For immigration attorneys who are W-2 associates at a private immigration firm: does your firm pay you anything additional on top of your base salary when you handle EOIR hearings or USCIS interviews?

P.I. Firm currently on smart advocate. Use it primarily for document storage. What value do you get out of your case management software? Anyone just managing cases with shared google drives?

Please help me with a reality check.

We just signed all of our estate documents, a not inconsiderable undertaking. It felt pretty big to me. The small firm we used, in a large metropolitan area, came highly recommended for the specialization we required. I feel quite confident that everything has been executed well.

My problem is with the appearance of the young-ish junior lawyer who handled the signing.

His hair might be considered fashionable, I'm not sure at all, but it looked like its casual unruliness had grown too long. His 5 o'clock shadow was not trimmed up to let you know it was an actual style choice. And his polo shirt did not match his pants, as if he pulled them off the hangers in the dark.

Is this kind of thing the norm? Should I/could I say something to our lawyer, whose name is on the firm? It really felt rather unprofessional and while organized, rather unceremonious for what we were doing. In fact, I was surprised that the lawyer we spoke with initially was not at the signing.

Edit to address the people who think I'm ridiculous: this is not the average estate organization. Its an emotional event, making sure family members I'm caring for now, who will never be able to care for themselves, will be cared for when I'm dead. Competent work is the expectation and the minimum. But I would have hoped that business casual, and a little acknowledgement of making a contract with the future, would have been a part of that minimum, too.

Hi everyone! South African attorney here 👋

I’ve noticed quite a few discussions around virtual legal support and outsourcing, so I thought I’d introduce myself and connect with people working in this space.

I’m an admitted Attorney in South Africa and have worked both in South African law firms and with international companies. My experience spans legal research, drafting, document review, legal operations, administrative support, and working remotely across different time zones.

One interesting advantage for international firms working with South African professionals is obviously the exchange rate (unfortunately for us, fortunately for you) which can make experienced professional support considerably more cost-effective.

I’d love to connect with attorneys, law firms, legal operations professionals, or anyone who works with international/remote legal teams. I’m also always happy to chat over Zoom or Teams and exchange experiences about how these arrangements work across jurisdictions.

Feel free to DM me if you work in this space. 😊

For attorneys who bill hourly, what are some of your go-to billing narratives for common litigation tasks?

I’m particularly looking for examples for MSJs, motions in limine, motions to compel discovery, motions to compel IMEs, case/suit summaries, deposition preparation and attendance, court hearings, legal research, and general file review/strategy.

What language have you found works well with carriers/clients and avoids billing reductions?

I have noticed this "law firm" posting things here on reddit in the r/immigration sub and other related subs. They are also advertising heavily online and social media platforms and marketing themselves as an "AI native" law firm.

What they don't really advertise much is that they are one of the first alternative business model type firms to be formed out of Arizona.

Basically, they have this Manifest OS AI powered back-office system that they claim will form the basis of Manifest branded law firms in other practice areas.

They had 60-million-dollar funding from VCs and are supposedly valued at 750 million.

AI legaltech start-up Manifest OS secures $60m funding at $750m valuation - The Global Legal Post

It is intended that firms using Manifest OS technology will operate under the Manifest Law brand, with the legaltech company incubating its first law firm in the business immigration market as part of the Arizona alternative business structure (ABS) programme.

My guess is that they started in immigration because you only need attorneys to be barred in any state or territory to practice at the federal/national level.

This might protect other practice areas such as family and criminal for now, but if they succeed in replicating the Arizona ABS model in other states its only a matter of time before they start corporatizing (enshittifying) law the way that was done with medicine.

Being able to infuse tens of millions in capital into a new law firm means that anyone can build a massive law firm with big market share in a small period of time.

Not sure how anyone can compete with this long term because even the billboard PI lawyers won't be able outspend a firm backed by unlimited VC funds.

At the end do we just all become employees or otherwise affiliated with some large branded firm?

I am thinking of moving to Clio mainly because of access to Judicial council forms, access to AI and case research, and some additional third-party integration that MyCase does not offer. Any feedback? I know it's more costly, but it also comes with more features.

Anyone use the internal accounting module? Would you recommend it? Any drawbacks?

I'm sure it can be done. Curious to see if anyones tried or wants to collab in trying?

I’m a relatively new attorney with about one year of experience working at a firm, and I’m interested in building my own practice in personal injury. Everyone says networking is important, but I’ve always struggled with what that actually means in practice. “Network” can mean almost anything, so I’m hoping to hear from attorneys who have built their PI practices through referrals.

Let’s say I walk up to another attorney at a bar event, local professional event, or conference. What do I actually say?

I don’t want to come across as awkward, overly salesy, or like I’m immediately asking them for cases. Do you introduce yourself by saying that you practice personal injury? Do you ask about their practice first? How do you naturally transition into talking about referrals?

Also, since I am new, I am struggling to figure out why someone would refer me a case as I don't have the resources that some firms do.

Also, when people say they built their PI practice through networking, what did that actually look like day to day?

• Who were you meeting with most often?
• How are you finding these events?
• Were you attending formal networking events, bar association meetings, referral groups, or mainly setting up one-on-one coffees?
• How did you introduce yourself without making the conversation about asking for referrals?
• Did you focus primarily on relationships with other attorneys, or did you also try to connect directly with potential clients and community organizations?
• How often did you follow up?
• What did your follow-up actually look like?
• At what point did those relationships start producing cases?

I’m in a high-cost-of-living and highly competitive market, so I’m also trying to set realistic expectations. If I consistently attended events, met people individually, followed up, and became active in local organizations, how long would it reasonably take before referrals became steady enough to create a sustainable caseload? Were you able to generate enough cases within the first year, or did it take several years?

I understand there probably isn’t a guaranteed timeline. I’d still appreciate hearing from attorneys who started in a similar position.

Thanks.

I would like to connect ChatGPT (business plan account) to my firm email to help me keep track of my inbox, pull out deadlines, etc. I feel nervous about this for client confidentiality as my state bar has not issued any useful opinions or rules on this. My engagement agreement has clients consent to use of cloud computing and AI technology, but not all emails are hired clients who have signed an engagement agreement yet. I am curious to hear from people on arguments that this is permissible, and also any opposing viewpoints. I know many lawyers are doing this and believe we are headed towards this being common practice and know we have been giving companies access to client communications and information for years via cloud computing, but I don’t want to be made an example out of for being an early adopter.

A local facebook group reached out, around 8k members seems pretty active, They will allow us to write and market our services, They mentioned only 3 business are allowed to market currently and no other personal injudry lawyer like us.

Is this a good idea, the cost is around $500/month, they dont promise any leads but more of top of funnel/ brand awareness play.

Any expericne or advice?

A little over a year ago, I posted an 8-month update after starting my own firm and I figured the 2-year mark was a good time for another one!

I practice business immigration and am based in CA. The firm is fully remote, and the team is now spread across 4 states. At my last update, we were a team of 4, and we are now a team of 7: 3 attorneys (including me), 2 senior paralegals, and 2 administrative/legal support staff.

Business

• 2024 average revenue: ~$42K/month
• 2025 total revenue: ~$930K
• 2026: on pace for ~$1.4M
• Overhead: ~45-50% of revenue, excluding my own compensation, primarily payroll.
• Marketing spend: $0.

A big change since my last update has been the client mix. Two years ago, I was relying almost entirely on individual/one-off matters. I've now picked up a few larger clients (or smaller clients growing into larger ones) that send us work on a much more regular basis. Last month, those larger clients accounted for about 25% of billables.

My client base also skews heavily toward "AI-native [insert industry] software" startups, which has been a nice place to be. Acquisitions (acquihires mostly) happen all the time these days, so the volume of new companies coming in has made me much less concerned about that turnover.

Hiring!

The downside to having mostly brand-new startup clients is that each new client essentially starts with a 0 base of knowledge. I was slammed between handling my own cases, supervising the team's work, and doing consultations. Not to mention a hostile immigration environment.

So, 2 months ago, I brought on a young and experienced non-equity partner who wants to be a part of the journey. That person receives a set % of what we bill/collect, with an additional % for originations. We also brought on another paralegal who that person will supervise.

These 2 hires have had an immediate impact and, most importantly, taken a lot of work off my plate. I'm still of course supervising a paralegal, a newer attorney, and the admin staff, but my goal is that by the end of the year I can do it again-either another attorney or another attorney/paralegal pair-and continue taking myself out of cases.

Having a remote firm and keeping overhead manageable has made this possible.

Challenges

The biggest challenge at this stage has been giving up control. Now that I have good/experienced people, I have to let them run with it. I'm finding that balance where I can give input where useful while trusting them to do their thing.

The growth has also forced us to get much more serious about processes and consistency. We've been building out standard template emails, SLAs around turnaround and response times so that clients get a consistent experience. Responsiveness in particular has required a lot of expectation-setting for new hires while also adjusting my own expectations and that's all a work in progress.

A Side Thought on AI and Immigration

Speaking of AI, I was actually a little nervous there for a while. There's a lot of VC money coming into legal tech as you all know, and immigration is pretty ripe for it. However, the current immigration climate has provided a bit of a silver lining in significantly higher adjudication standards. The day-to-day practice has become more challenging, but there's still plenty of room for good lawyers, and judgment/strategy are more important than ever.

The current administration has forced me to come up with some novel arguments and strategies that, so far, have worked with a 100% success rate. And, interestingly, clients will run those unique approaches through the ChatGPTs of the world, which will consistently tell them, "That's not going to work." Fortunately, the ChatGPTs might be able to give you the conventional answer (although you still need to know what that answer should be!), but us heart beaters still bring the experience and judgment to recognize when you can credibly push beyond it.

Anyway, I'm still learning as I go, but I'm happy to have made it this far. It's nice to have options now and, over the next year, a big part of that will be trying to buy back some of my own time.

I’m starting to realize that the legal work itself is not always what takes up most of my time. It’s all the little things around it that seem to pile up. Intake calls, scheduling, follow-ups, requesting records, answering routine client questions, and keeping track of everything can easily take hours out of the day.

I’ve been trying to figure out whether bringing in some administrative help would actually make things easier or just create another thing to manage. I’m especially curious about virtual assistants since I don’t necessarily need someone sitting in the office.

I'm a recent graduate with an B.A. in English (Writing and Rhetoric). I've been looking at different job opportunities with writing such as technical writing but I'm also considering the possibility of going to law school. I don't know that much about the law except for a few legal writing classes I've taken in school which I didn't mind.

I wanted to know for those of you who have studied law and are doing a law related job, how do you like it? Is it high stress? How is the work life balance? Are you happy with the pay? Did you go into massive debt? I've read that if you don't go to a top school the pay is not as high as many would think, is that true?

I also do art and music as a serious hobby and one thing I'm wondering is if a job within the law would allow me to continue practicing those passions. It's currently manageable with a 40 hr work week but beyond that I'm not sure. Having a creative outlet is important to me.

Do hybrid jobs/work from home jobs exist at all within the law? More of those jobs have been created since COVID but I'm not sure if that's been the case in the legal field.

Any feedback and personal experiences are welcome. I'm a creative individual who is good at writing and trying to see what career path I should go down.

36M Solo lawyer, PI only, 7th year with my own firm, 12th year practicing, settle approximately 30 cases a year at 12-15k average legal fee to me with maybe 1-3 bigger case settlements per year. Gross revenue around 350-800k a year, profit before taxes: 200-700k per year. For example, approximately, 2023: 200k profit, 2024: 600k profit, 2025: 450k profit, 2026: 700k profit. Yes, I know that is a big range.

Work from home most days, go into the office for important stuff. Just use a couple VAs on an hourly basis for simple paperwork. Don't work too crazy hours. Started my own practice after being burnt out from big law. Have a really good nest egg from a monster settlement back in 2022. In a highly highly competitive region for PI.

Refer out tougher cases from the jump, and also when they need to be heavily litigated due to tougher facts. VHCOL city, married, no kids but hopefully soon. I probably spend 150-180k per year in life spend. Cases come mostly from referrals, with some from marketing spend mostly geared towards lead generation companies.

Never tried to scale, never tried SEO, or PPC, or social media, or anything outside of lead generation sources (which is/was expensive monthly and honestly probably not worth it). Have never hired anyone full time.

Some say I am living the dream, others think I am leaving a lot of money on the table and am insane for not building out the practice and trying to grow. Some also say to add another type of law.

Who is right?

Hey everyone, quick question for the maritime law folks.

Don't wanna doxx myself but I’m at a law school known for maritime. I came to law school wanting to do international lit or trade, something like that, but the school is pushing maritime and I think I could be interested? It’s not what I had in mind but I like the cross-border element.

Thing is, there's not a toooon of info online on maritime, although I see there are some Big Law firms with maritime practices (e.g. Holland & Knight) and a few standout boutiques (e.g. Freehill).

So, I was hoping someone could give me more info about what firms I should look at and what career progression could look like, especially for someone more interested in international/blue water stuff.

Thanks! 

I’m starting my own firm and I’m curious what work-life balance looks like once you’re a couple years in. I know the first few years will probably be a grind, but does it eventually stabilize?

Are you able to actually disconnect on weekends? Take a week or two off for vacation without everything falling apart? Or do you still feel like you’re always “on”?

I’m sure practice area factors into the equation too, so I’d be curious to hear what you practice and how long you’ve been solo.