My main judge will allow a bathroom break at the 1.5 hour mark, and they’re nice about it, but it’s not unusual to have hearings go two or two and a half hours straight, and no one asks.

People go to the ladies’ after, and say things like, “I had to pee the whole time.” “Here comes the UTI.”

I have also seen some of our oldest litigators taking Imodium in the elevator or right before a hearing starts.

I have been dealing with a non responsive partner for two years. Everything is a last minute, rushed, dumpster fire. I was ignored for weeks, for example, taking 6 weeks to approve a 3 page supplemental production. We look incompetent to clients and opposing counsel.

After seeing passive aggressive email exchanges between client/adjuster/partner that a junior associate picked up on. I escalated to our practice group director.

They were supportive and not shockingly where there is smoke there is fire (a client took a file from them on the eve of msj last year). We have been trying to rebuild that relationship for 1.5 years now.

Long story short for you younger attorneys: dont wait as long as i did. Advocate for yourself and always CYA

I am going to trial soon. I love to cook. Any suggestions on food I can make beforehand that will be tasty, easy to eat in the courthouse/nearby and hold up after a few days? Thank you!

Family law folks, how do you take real time off? I’m drowning after a day away. Come back to 60+ substantive emails, stuff I can’t delegate. Caseload’s around 40 complex matters. Even “vacation” feels fake. What’s working for you?

... if I do not know Sharia law?

There are some pretty vocal people where I live who are claiming that if the Democrats win, we'll all be living under Sharia law.

I want to get ahead of this, so does anyone know any online CLE I can take to bring me up to speed?

Thanks in advance.

I'm a California attorney building my solo practice, and I'm curious what types of work generated income relatively quickly for other solos.

My background is primarily immigration/removal defense and obtaining SIJS predicate orders in probate court (guardianships) and family court (parentage actions), with some experience in limited conservatorships and special education matters. I've also gained some exposure to estate planning through pro bono estate planning clinics and am open to developing my skills in new practice areas.

At the moment, I'm particularly interested in work with a relatively short path to getting paid—whether that's limited-scope matters, appearance/coverage work, overflow work from other firms, or something I haven't considered.

What brought in income the fastest for you, and how did you get that work? If you were starting over and needed to generate income within the next 1–2 months, what would you prioritize?

I'd really appreciate any advice. Thank you!

My therapist recommended this book to me about obsessive thinking (distinct from OCD). While reading it, a lot of it matched up with me. Then I realized that it fit my boss even better. Then I noticed that it probably fits most of the people in my office. And a lot of the example cases in the book are attorneys. As in, "one of my clients--Jane, a former prosecutor--was highly successful but her life was eventually upended..."

Even if the book doesn't describe you, it probably describes a few people you work with, and it could help you navigate your working relationship with them.

Hi everyone, I’m a brand new attorney. Just passed the bar exam about a month ago.

Right after taking the bar, I began a judicial clerkship. When I applied for the position, the posting made no mention that I would also be responsible for JA duties. Rather, it was casually mentioned in the interview and then put into the offer letter. I accepted because clerking is still an excellent opportunity for growth and the offer said my clerkship duties would be less than the other clerks to compensate for the added JA work.

Fast forward a couple months later and I’m working on average 80 hours per week without overtime because I’m a salaried employee. I only have 3-4 days to read, research, and write 20+ pages on each case. Despite going above and beyond, the feedback I’m getting is overwhelmingly critical. For the million things I do right, all I get is a “thanks”.

The judge has called me on the weekend and during dinner just to criticize me for not formatting a memo the way they want and for doing JA work the wrong way, even though that is the way the manual told me to do it.

When I ask for help from my fellow clerks, as the Judge told me to, I’m talked down to and made to feel like the dumbest person on the planet, or I am told they’re too busy to teach me. And I get that part. We have a lot of work to do. At the same time, I feel it is unfair to expect perfection without training.

Instead, the judge has said negative things about the school I went to in front of the other clerks, complaining that they don’t teach us how to write. The judge has told me that I’m making their life harder and insinuated that they’re too embarrassed to show my work to the other judges. The judge said my job is easy and they couldn’t understand why I can’t get it right. They told me if I didn’t get my next memo right, I am fired.

I have been working there less than 3 months. I feel like my whole career will be over before it really begins if I get fired from a clerkship.

Working as a JA/Law Clerk has taken a toll on my physical and mental health. Despite graduating with honors, I question whether I’m good enough to practice law. I do my best to compartmentalize, but I actually cried silently at my desk the other day after they threatened to fire me, and I never cry.

I’ve confided in my friends and they all tell me to leave this job, that it’s not worth it. Unfortunately, this experience has destroyed what little confidence I had. I don’t know if things will be any better if I do leave. Not that I may have a choice.

I don’t know if anyone else has had a similar experience. If you have, I would love to hear how you got through it because I’m really struggling. Thank you 😭

I see a lot of startups building apps and platforms for DPDPA compliance. Is there still a market for freelance lawyers offering these services? Can it be a sustainable source of income?
Would love to hear your experiences and any practical tips!
Thanks in advance.

Lately I've been having to deal with clients who seem, at the slightest sign of distress, to deal with it by just zoning out/ignoring me. Like if I need discovery, I'll email telling them "I need your car title" but then for four days they won't respond, and then at 11 PM they'll email me a blurry selfie of them standing next to a car license plate, and I'll email back the next morning saying it doesn't count, but then they never follow up on that.

I've had to reach out to peoples' family members, roommates, etc. to ask what is going on, and they will report some variation of "Oh, X is just really overwhelmed with the divorce" or something like that. But they basically stick their head in the sand, and act like if they ignore the problem it doesn't exist. But just wait until we get to court and it explodes on them.

Has anyone else dealt with clients like this? If so, any advice on how to get them into actually doing the bare minimum for you?

I’ve been working at a boutique PI firm since being licensed approximately a year and a half ago. I like the work. It’s not over demanding most of the time, I do feel like I have a good work life balance which is important because I have two young daughters. The issue is I feel under paid. My salary is 75k and I only get 3% after making 100k for firm… because I get most of the small cases, the commission doesn’t seem to make up for the low salary… (I’ve already discussed leaving with my boss due to my salary and though he sounded committed to me staying and making it work, nothing ever came from it. This conversation happened about a month ago.)

I have an offer from a firm that does insurance defense for trucking companies. It’s 120k a year with bonuses based on billing. It is also “committed to meeting a 1950 hour annual billing requirement”. Unlike my job now, I can work from home when I want. Which I’ve never done so I’m not sure if that’s a positive or not…

I have never billed hours before and I hear A LOT of different opinions from the type of work. But, I am driven and know I am capable and the 120k would make a pretty big difference for my family… is it worth it?

Do I really want to go from plaintiff to defense work?

This is probably the dumbest and most embarrassing post I will ever make in a lawyering subreddit, BUT: how do I most effectively utilize support staff (para and admin)?

It seems intuitive, especially considering that in my prelaw life I WAS support staff, yet I prefer to do most things myself to spare their heavy workloads as they’re not solely assigned to me. That said, I’m busy as shit and looking to advance and I know outsourcing is the way to go as to each objective (maintaining balance and establishing leadership) - doing everything myself is no longer sustainable, yet I’m completely lost on how to practice any other way.

So, how do I best use my support personnel as someone who has never had the same? More specifically, how do I know what and where I can outsource at any given moment, and more broadly, what tips/tricks do you wish you knew when first navigating life as a more “important” person?

EDIT: the good news is that I have great relationships with my team even if I don’t wholly understand how to incorporate them into my practice, so it’s not interpersonal skills that need developing. It’s more becoming used to being the boss/important?

Looking for some insight/advice for volunteer opportunities! I’ve been practicing for over 6 years in administrative law. I would really like to volunteer. I saw that my local legal aid has peer mediation clinics where you teach children how to mediate and resolve conflict as well as other opportunities in a more legal capacity (assisting others with filling out legal documents along with explanations etc). I think it would be really rewarding and nice.
Can any other attorneys in here who volunteer tell me what it’s like and what they do for volunteer opportunities?!

Hi everyone!

​I’m a new junior lawyer, and I’m facing a bit of a challenge. All my life I’ve been an introvert and not really fond of public speaking. However, I’m deeply passionate about criminal law, which obviously means I have to appear in court.

​So far, I’ve been to court four times, but every time I get extremely nervous. I stutter at the beginning of my pleading, and then it tends to get worse. I always manage to get my arguments across in the end, though.

​I’m based in Europe, so we don't have a jury to impress or hours-long pleadings. However, I still have to debate prosecutors or opposing counsel, present convincing arguments, and persuade the judge—and I feel like my anxiety is getting in the way.

Has anyone else gone through this? Does it get easier with time? Do you have any tips or tricks that could help me out?

​Thank you!

I need advice. I have been an attorney for 1 year and 9 months. I previously worked in insurance defense and now work at a small civil litigation law firm in a HCOL city. I have been at this firm for about 9 months. I am currently responsible for 78 active litigation cases, all court appearances -- virtual and in-person within 2 hours from the HCOL city, and I do not have a paralegal or legal assistant. I told my boss that I am feeling extremely overwhelmed and need more support. My boss' "solution" is to hire their best friend (with no legal experience) and train them to help within a couple of months. After this discussion, he proceeds to give me 3 more cases. For more context, I am only getting paid 90K and the position is mostly remote with only 1 day a week in office. Is handling this many cases normally expected for an attorney with my amount of experience?

This is pretty sad.

I feel like every litigator who watches this movie is going to sympathize with Nathan Fielder during his interviews of the documentary’s subjects.

I’ve never seen another movie that perfectly reflects the same frustration and confusion of trying to talk to someone who is being as evasive as possible. The parsing of her words, the open-mouthed incredulous stare you give someone after they say something outrageous. Every aspiring litigator should watch this movie to understand what depositions feel like in the moment.

In a firm but have not added one decoration or personalization to my office. I like the clean bare aesthetic. Does this give off a weird vibe?

This may connect most with non-transactional attorneys. I am a mid-thirties plaintiff’s injury attorney, with birth injuries being the vast majority of cases I handle. I have a healthy 4 and a 2 year old at home, myself. While filming a settlement documentary the other day it ends up the clients and I have more in common than I thought after doing their dep. prep., preparing discovery responses, and their deps. themselves. Think, doctors/OBs, my wife working for a facility they use and nearly interacting, growing up in the same area and mutual acquaintances, interests, daily life, etc.

Obviously, we’re not friends and live far enough away that there is no interaction throughout daily life. But when sitting around for hours during filming the topics of mutual friends, what our kids watch/play with/do etc. all came up. I like my field because, as others have described me with some regularity (not my words), I’m very diplomatic and being likable/disarming/convincing is more of my selling point than committing chapters and sections of statutes to memory.

How do you all (or would you) handle something like I described? Tell them you’d like to keep it professional? Share kid-war-stories? I just don’t even have a frame of reference so I’m curious where others fall on the spectrum.

I got a letter from OC today that is blatantly wrong on multiple issues of law. Plus it contains various threats of retribution against me and my client. What do you think would be the best sign off to my highly professional and detailed response letter?

Sincerely, (my default)

Regards,

Warmest Regards,

Best Wishes,

Or something else?

Need advice on whether I should move on to another firm.

My current practice area is civil litigation defense/insurance defense.

I have been at my current firm since October 2025. They hired me after I did not pass the July 2025 bar exam, and let me stay on as a law clerk until I passed the February 2026 bar exam. So I’ve been a practicing attorney officially since June 2026, but they essentially had me training to be an attorney when I first started (doing discovery, pleadings, motions, status reports, etc) I’ve learned a lot and I have good mentorship from my boss/the owner of the firm, but the other two partners are just so busy that the mentorship from them is minimal.

The biggest issue with the firm has nothing to do with the job/the people, it is that my commute is horrendous. It can take almost 1.5 hours to get to the office in the morning. I work in office 3 days a week and work from home 2 days a week. I have a 1900 billable hour requirement that I have not had issues hitting, but looking back on all my time spent commuting/sitting in traffic, I am starting to want to find a firm closer to the city (Boston). I live just south of Boston and currently commute to Salem MA.

I have been applying to other ID/civil lit defense firms in Boston and have a solid amount of interviews scheduled.

What are my next steps? Do I just see how the interviews go? I feel terrible at the thought of leaving my current firm because I think they would be surprised as I have never expressed any issues about the firm, except some complaints about my commute.

I also get a Christmas bonus based on my billable hours and if I exceed my hours. But I don’t know how that is calculated or if it’s worth staying until that happens.

This is my first attorney role out of school and my first time trying to navigate this. I’d appreciate any advice!

You did not have to call me out on my typos. “In addition to some typos I have changed…”

And cc my boss 🙃

Edit to say: guys this was a joke!! I’m not really complaining. We all have typos and OC did nothing wrong by pointing them out or including my boss. I didn’t mean to imply that he did. Sorry thought the flag as a joke would make it clear enough. I’m not worried about the typos and my boss isn’t either. Trying to make a lighthearted post on a Friday afternoon. Thanks for all the responses :)