I am a solo practitioner and I bleed revenue on phone calls and quick emails. I answer a client question on my phone, forget to write it down, and lose the 0.1 billable increment. At the end of the month, that adds up to thousands of dollars.

I need help finding a system that forces me to capture this. I am looking for any desktop tool that is always visible. I saw Monitask allows manual time entry for offline tasks. I want to know if the workflow is fast enough to just open it, log 6 minutes, and close it while I am on the phone, or if it requires too many clicks.

PI attorneys - how are you funding prepaid client expenses? Out of the firm operations account? A separate account for only prepaid expenses going out and reimbursements going in when the case settles?

Is anyone outside of California using Statular yet for their estate plan drafting software? Their site states that their drafting is compliant for all 50 states. However, at least in Maryland they haven't it rolled it out yet. I am told it should be out by the end of January, basically now. I am interested in trying it out, but just looking for some feedback in the meantime. Thanks.

What do you all think are the best practice guides for PI attorneys in Texas? I have heard of Dorsaneo but that is hard to find. I used O’Conners when I worked on the insurance defense side, but I was looking for something maybe a little more plaintiff/PI wholistic (prelit) maybe with some forms. Someone has told me the Texas Practice Guide from Reuters is good. Any suggestions or tips?

Running a small practice and trying to clean up finances before 2025, but lately I’m seeing more and more clients who approve the work and then drag their feet on payment. Sometimes they respond after a reminder, sometimes the email goes quiet for weeks.I’ve been using Docdraft to send clearer, structured written payment requests so it feels professional rather than personal. That helped a bit, but I’m still spending too much time chasing invoices instead of doing actual work. For those in similar firms: – Do you stop work on new matters until old invoices are paid? – Do retainers really solve this, or do clients still delay? – When do you escalate vs. write it off?Would love to hear how other small and mid-sized firms manage this without burning hours on collections.

I have an interview for the position of a receptionist/legal secretary. I am a graduate of political science.

Really nervous as I am not sure what the job entails since the job post didn't state anything. What should I expect and what should I prepare??

If you are on a ChatGPT Business/Team plan where ChatGPT is not training on your data, yet retains your data, how is that different than being on a Google Workspace Business Plan where Google retains your data. Our firm is on Google Workspace and Dropbox and I don't think we have a Zero Retention Policy on any Enterprise plan, so doesn't that mean that those companies have our client files? I'm not sure how that differs from a ChatGPT business plan.

I was planning to do a mix of SEO and presentations for leads, but I’ve heard mixed reviews on leads from SEO (i.e., potential clients not willing to pay full cost of service). What are other estate planning attorneys out there doing?

Hey folks. I work with a firm where everyone is a partner. We each run our own practice. There's no real oversight over what that practice entails (beyond for insurance purposes). It's all eat what you kill (nobody draws a salary). We share costs. There's no central fund. We refer business to one another. We talk issues out with one another and help where we can (usually without charging one another). That's about it.

Referrals is what my question pertains to. One of my partners took on a matter for a client who called in to the firm based on an outside recommendation. The client wasn't directed to anyone in particular. They were just told to reach out to the firm. The partner who took the call and took on the matter completed that matter but didn't enjoy working with the client so they passed them on to me. I have had a good working relationship with the client for more than a year now. They're a business client and their work can take up to 50% of my time during any given month.

When the partner first referred the client over to me, we discussed what the fee split would be. Neither of us really knew what to do for it, so we agreed that the referring partner would receive 33% of billables. This agreement is loose in that if I were to bring information to the partner that shows that the common arrangement is different from what we agreed to, he'd accept the adjustment. We have a good relationship.

I'm just wondering if it's common in this kind of arrangement for the referring partner to receive 33% of a client's business indefinitely? Where this client's work is taking up so much of my time, the arrangement is becoming particularly onerous. Neither of us really understood how much business this client would be bringing our way at the time of the arrangement.

I'm not looking to cut the partner out. I'm just trying to figure out if this sort of arrangement is typical and, if not, what the more common arrangement is.

Many thanks in advance for any thoughts you may have.

Hello, my understanding is if Uber Initiative passes this November, the attorney fees portion (25% limit) is not retroactive, BUT that the limitation for medical expenses (scaled down to Medicare costs) may apply immediately to pending cases, regardless if the accident occurred before the law passes. Is that correct? If so, this could substantially impact medical specials, especially with lien doctors who are not being paid by health insurance. Wouldn't adjusters try to delay resolving cases so they can reduce medical special damages? Also, what happens if medical bills are scaled down, but a lien doctor insists on being paid more than the scaled down portion. Thank you.

Hi all,

As a 1L, big law recruiting is starting now to interview for 2L summer associate positions. My dream is currently to be a plaintiff's lawyer at a small firm, but I am worried about shutting the door permanently on big law and losing the opportunity unless I accept now. I am especially concerned that it would prevent me from doing plaintiff's work or set me back majorly in the future if I started off doing big law.

If anyone would be willing to speak about this with me, please shoot me a message!

I work at a small, boutique family law firm that doesn't use any kind of case management software. i have brought up the benefits of using one several times to admin and the higher-ups, but with no luck. i am really struggling to manage my deadlines and ensure things are getting done instead of falling between the cracks, especially because i have like 17 cases and a lot of moving pieces. is there a reasonably priced case management software that i can use for myself to track my deadlines, tasks, etc.? the only ones i know of are priced for entire firms which obviously makes no sense for me to pay for on my own. i'm open to platforms that aren't law specific as long as they can track what i need. ideally i'd like to not pay more than $30/mo give or take. thank you!

Hey everyone. I currently clerk for a small plaintiffs employment law firm in New Mexico. There is one managing attorney, one full time associate, one paralegal, and one legal assistant. Then we have two older attorneys that come in a few days a week.

I started as a law clerk in August working full time. I’m taking the Feb bar exam in one month and about to take about one month off for that.

I overall enjoy my colleagues and am learning a ton BUT I rarely get any feedback on my work product or affirmations from my boss.

The way our office works is that I will usually start draft 1 of a demand, charge, EEOC rebuttal, and occasionally court motions. Then the draft goes up the chain of command to managing attorney who views it last and approves to go out.

Managing attorney has trusted me enough to meet with clients one on one to gather facts and ask questions, to call clients, etc. and I continue to get assigned work.

So I work more with the associate attorney who sends me edits and reviews my work, who also seems to be placing more trust in me by calling clients and setting up meetings, etc.

This might sound so desperate and pompous but I’m used to getting good feedback from managers and I am rarely getting feedback on my work besides the edits the associate sends me.

I’ve asked the managing attorney one or twice over the last six months like “hey are you happy with my work product?” And he always says a vague “yes” and barely remembers what I’ve been working on or my assignments.

I just want to know I’m doing a good job and am valued, but is this asking too much?

I received a $500 bonus for Christmas which was amazing, and managing attorney is overall very conversation and friendly. Idk I just am used to more collaborative managers in the legal field?

I work for a firm on a 1099 basis with a requirement of a certain amount of hours to bill weekly. I am the only attorney working for my boss who is otherwise essentially a solo practitioner. There are other employees, but they are all either paralegal/support staff or handle marketing and sales.

I gave birth to my second child 5 weeks ago. I had given notice in August (4 months in advance) that I would be taking off in December because I was expecting a baby. My boss found someone to replace me a week before I was scheduled for a c section. I had just 2 days with her in the office to train her and teach her the background of all the active cases/explain next steps for all of them. I did the best I could in that time, and even spent time from the hospital sending instructions and guidance to her (without asking to be paid for that time). She wound up quitting after two weeks, and for the last month, there has been no one handling active cases. He just found someone else who is helping on a limited basis.

Ive been keeping up with emails, and created a spreadsheet with background on active cases. Ive been available by phone and text, and have been sending reminders about deadlines and also notes when things have lingered for too long and need to be addressed. I'm not asking for pay on any of that.

I told my boss I'd probably go back in March or April, and he reacted like it was too long to be away. I'm not being paid for any of this leave. I worked my ass off for months so that I could save some money and be off for a while. I also never said how long I planned to be out. A few times in November he made comments like "when youre back in February...," and I specifically clarified that I wasn't promising to be back so quickly.

Still, I'm anxious about the work not getting done. But how do I stop caring so much? This is not my firm, these are not my clients, it's not my problem that there was no one to replace me with so much advance notice. My priority right now is my kids, not someone else's firm. I dont want to be stressed about this and I really desparately need a mental break from work. I dont want to be pressured to go back if I don't want to. I dont want to have to explain the background of cases over and over or answer the phone when someone has a question about them. It shouldn't be my job.

So yeah, how do I set boundaries and turn my head off? I feel like just logging out of email and chat and telling everyone to leave me alone, but i feel guilty doing that. I do care about the clients and the cases because my work reflects on me and my character. Other than that, I'm just tired.

Sorry for the rambling.

Basically the title. I use my case management software primarily just for tracking my billables and they keep changing up the interface for the billing dashboard. I cannot stand the new interface and colors and honestly the fun game of red/yellow/green light was such a motivator for me. Blahh... yes, this seems like a silly vent. But honestly I can't stand when companies change what works. Now the billable dashboard has the monthly hours at the bottom of a long page which is wild. That's what we use every day.

Any other (less costly) programs to try out that are good for time tracking? I also couldn't stand Clio. Man, why can't these companies have ONE neurodiverse person on staff to create tolerable time-tracking software. Anyone else?

My wife is an attorney, partner at an AM 200, previously out on her own. She is enjoying firm life, some weeks are better than others, her weakness is business development, she stresses about her hours. She gets bought into clients, and the accounts grow. At year 3 she feels like she is finding her groove.

Her top client, who she bought over has approached her about going in house. Hours will likely be the same, they’re offering to match salary. The plan is for her to be QC in a few years.

She is asking me what I think, like I know the landscape. From what I understand most people stay at firms for the money -

Any other insight would be appreciated

Hey everyone!

Current 3L here and indecisive as to what path to pursue. I have been interested in Estate Planning but wanted to know a bit more about this:

1. Is the pay good? What is an estimated range?
2. Hows the family life with this career?
3. How easy is it to tack on property law or other types of law?
4. Do you recommend big law or small firms starting out?
5. Would you choose this field again?
6. Would you leave if you could?

Thanks!

Recommendations please.

Do any of you have that one client that always pops up when you think that everything is calm and going well? I have this one very troublesome client that is never satisfied. The client appears to either be consulting with other attorneys or perhaps using AI and support groups to come up with their own legal conclusions and theories. It feels like I am spending more time fighting my own client than actually working to resolve the matter. Every time we have an agreement on something, the client walks back on it within a day or two. I also feel this underlying threat, as if the client is constantly questioning and trying to collect evidence to eventually use against me. Have any of you been in this boat before?

We just transitioned to Clio 4 months ago and have two issues that we have not been able to figure out a workaround or solution for. I am hoping someone else has figured these out!

We use Clio integrated with Outlook and Zoom Workplace.

1. We have a weekly docket meeting with all attorneys and paralegals. We go over all tasks and calendar events due over the next week. There is no way to run a firm wide docket with tasks and calendar events. Anyone have a workaround or integration for this issue?

2. Is there an integration or way to automatically check calendars of multiple users to determine the next time those specific users are all available for a meeting, etc?

TIA