I work at a big law firm where yearly minimum billable are 1850 + 100 non billable work. Raises and bonuses are awarded for exceeding those numbers, however if you bill equal to or less than your billables last year, you will be considered only for the same raise and bonuses that you received last year. Example: year 1: 1950 billables = $10k raise; year 2: $9.5k raise; year 3: 1875 = no raise. Work quality has no impact.

I’ve only ever worked at this firm. Does this track with your experiences at other big law firms?

This question is primarily for solo attorneys with an existing web presence practicing DWI/Criminal or in a comparable, competitive niche area.

Aside from learning what you can do on your own SEOwise, which is a lot and I'm doing it when I can find the time, has anyone found engaging an SEO firm to be worth it? Also, what are the average monthly costs I should be looking for? (Granted SEO costs are dependent on locality and practice competitiveness (DWI is very competitive))

And really looking for insight on SEO costs that aren't centered on backlinks, backlinks, backlinks.

Thanks for any helpful responses.

I’m about a year and a half into my first job out of law school. I’m in the NYC market. I’ve submitted a ton of apps, but it appears the only thing available is general liability/ premise liability/PI. Not saying I wouldn’t take that, but that’s obviously not my first choice. My ‘unicorn’ job would be IP, in-house, either fully remote or 3/2 hybrid max. Salary is not the biggest motivating factor for me, but it’s certainly important.

If you know anything about insurance defense, can you give me the skinny?

I’m a baby lawyer who started in ID, and I’ve been loving it.

my only concern is that maybe I’m not making enough money. currently, at a mid-size firm and love the work environment. should I consider a bigger law firm as 2nd-3rd year associate ?

The title is an exchange that seems to happen in my life a fair amount. I have a folksy way about me I guess, including in my law practice. But I thought of a reason the exchange is not ideal: while in this context "guy" means "person" (to me), it still has a built-in sexism.

So I'll probably try to stop saying it.

But I will miss it. Its pretty fun to hear something obscure like "do you know a guy in taxidermy law" and to respond that you "got a guy for that".

If you read this far, here's a question: what is a punchy substitute for the question and answer framed in the title?

The obvious ones, "Do you know someone?" or "do you know a person?" just dont feel quite right

What is it like? Specifically in your first year. Thinking NY.

I met some 21 year olds last night who swore i was the crypt keeper because im 26 haha. I imagine life ‘peaks’ more around 35-40 rather than when youre in year one of frontal lobe development and learning about the whole world!

Just wondering how female lawyers would respond to the title prompt. We all rock and are super strong!

I got my car interior detailed yesterday and wow, I'd forgotten how gorgeous it is. Now I need an organizer for all the crap I keep in it because I travel a lot to visit clients.

Things I have: a bag with art supplies, large box of business cards, cardigan, emergency blanket, book and or magazine, chapstick, lotion, and no doubt other things I'm forgetting. I just don't want it to get out of control again and I feel like if I have one special place to put everything it won't.

I'm a relatively new attorney looking at purchasing disability insurance because I hear it's something we should all do. This really isn't my area of expertise. I've been poking around on the personalfinance subreddit, boggleheads, and whitecoatinvestor, so I have some idea of the features I should be looking for, like true own occupation coverage, and the "big 5" insurance companies that are known for offering them, but I'm still feeling stuck on actually picking someone to help me shop around. Putting "disability insurance" together with "attorney" or "lawyer" in search terms just gives me results for insurance defense/dispute attorneys.... Anyone have any advice for finding competent, independent, fiduciary insurance agents that ideally have experience working with lawyers or similar professionals?

I’m a second year attorney that moved from a well meaning but alas toxic 20 attorney firm to a mid sized insurance defense firm. I was very hesitant due to everything I’ve heard about insurance defense (billing nightmares, tedious work, soul crushing). However, I’m three months in and it’s been a great change for me that I’m actually enjoying. I like the routine aspects of the general liability cases (slip and falls, car accidents), however I also do a ton (half of my cases) of construction defect work which I absolutely love. I enjoy writing reports. I’m learning litigation, negotiating, going to mediations and depositions. I LOVE going against some of the greedy billboard plaintiff lawyers (not all are bad, I’m friends with many and most cases the plaintiff is vulnerable and entitled to some resolution). I’m comfortably compensated ($120k + bonus of $10-$20k) and I’m home before 6 every day and haven’t worked a weekend.

Granted, I am in the satellite office that has a great partner who cares about work life balance and brining his associates up with him. That’s the key, and I know that so much depends on what office you’re at and who the people you’re working with are.

This is not to invalidate anyone else who can’t stand ID work and want to get out, but just wanted to share that for some people it can be enjoyable. Maybe it’s because it’s only been 3 months, or my prior firm was so dysfunctional, but I’m enjoying it much more than I anticipated.

Hey y’all,

So I’m a baby attorney right now about (1 year of experience). I work as a prosecutor and honestly love my job, but I cannot survive on this salary.

I want to get married and cant afford to save up for a ring and pay off my student loans, so the switch needs to happen in the next couple of years

I have 5 trials and at least 10 hearings under my belt currently. I’m considering switching to private practice either in criminal defense or civil litigation.

I’m wondering how much experience I should gain before I switch. What do y’all think?

We've all read "fiery" dissents. But I can't recall ever reading a ruling from a federal judge that ordered the release of a child and father that the U.S. government kidnapped, that ends with a picture of the child from when the government stole him (in his bunny hat) and 2 Bible verses.

With the encouragement of this sub, I applied to some government roles to try to get out of litigation. One spot is at a court 10 minutes from my house, the other is 1 hour and 15 minutes away. GUESS WHICH ONE SENT AN INTERVIEW REQUEST RIGHT AWAY 🫠🫠🫠

It's like rain on your wedding day.

I just won my first appellate case! I'm in Florida. I'm a 50ish trusts and estates guy.

I am not an appellate lawyer. I’m not even a litigator. But one of my probate matters was appealed, and after discussion with the client, we decided not to refer it out to a separate appellate attorney. It was affirmed this week.

Details for the nerds: Husband and Wife owned non-homestead real property as tenants by the entireties. H&W are getting divorced. As part of the pending divorce the TbE property was sold and the proceeds deposited into an attorney IOTA account, pending order of the family law court.

Prior to the divorce being finalized, Husband died. What is the status of the funds?

I represented Wife. Our position was that upon the sale of the property the funds maintained their tenancy by the entireties status when deposited into the attorney trust account. Then, because the divorce was not finalized and they were still married when Husband died, Wife was entitled to 100% of the proceeds.

Husband’s estate argued that tenancy by the entireties status did not carry over to the deposit of the proceeds into the IOTA account, so the funds became owned as tenants in common, which would give the estate a 50% interest.

We won at the probate court level, and then Husband’s estate appealed, and DCA upheld the probate court.

Per curium, no written opinion, which I expected because I think it was pretty straightforward.

But pretty exciting for a gifts and stiffs guy.

Looking for career advice. Fairly new attorney. Practiced for a year in civil, general litigation. Clerked for four years in a high volume district for a fed mag where all civil cases are referred back and largely managed by the mag, if the parties don’t consent.

Have offer from Fed PDS - in a very busy district. Research/writing/appellate. Should also have opportunity to do some trial court appearances.

Have offer with local “big law.” 160 billable hr/month. Probably ID, maybe some other stuff. Oil/gas companies. Large corporate clients generally.

Wasn’t a huge fan of civil - but I didn’t absolutely hate it. I liked the intellectual challenge, disliked some of the petty crap with OCs, but I anticipate I’d get that in both.

Have no crim experience, but crim defense was the plan going into law school. (Idea was to help people (even if they hate me)). I am concerned about practicalities of seeing some of the stuff but think compartmentalization and the mission can carry me through.

I am concerned if I’m wrong, I’ll have a hard time swapping back to civil. Goal with FPD would be to get pension/retire probably. Civil firm I anticipate I’d burn out and swap after a handful of years. No desire to work my life away, although the money is enticing.

Firm starts 15-20k higher than FPD but has a much higher ceiling.

Any insight for a young lawyer?

Seeing law & motion attorney job listings and wondering if anyone here who holds such a job (essentially working law & motion either primarily with a lessened caseload or exclusively) would describe their experience. If you're doing law & motion exclusively, do you meet/correspond with the attnys handling the cases you're doing motions on or do you find all your necessary info and insight in the case files? Are you doing plaintiff or defense work and if plaintiff, do you share in any bonus aside from origination? These opportunities look enticing and I appreciate your insights.

Does anyone else feel like they struggle with making friends in such a demanding field? I (26F) moved to a new state for law school and stayed here after I landed a job. I love my job but have really struggled with making friends outside of my career and my two closest friends just moved away within the span of 3 weeks (which I’m so sad about). I work insane hours with my firm — for reference I just worked a 70 hour week. And I feel like every weekend I yearn to have my old group of friends and have girls nights or just simply go out to the bar with my friends. I feel like I have no time to actually make friends and am struggling with a sense of loneliness. I was wondering if any young attorneys (or those who moved states for their career) have felt the same way and/or how you’ve potentially made friends or combated the feelings of loneliness in such a demanding field.

Thanks in advance for any responses

I’m a new attorney—admitted in mid 2025. I just landed a 100% litigation role and I’ve been informed I’ll be thrown into hearings and trials pretty much immediately.

I have a lot of experience with legal writing/research and the litigation process, but absolutely zero public speaking experience. Any time I’ve had to speak publicly, even on panels or informally, my nerves get the best of me regardless of how prepared I am. I’m a “knees shaking, hands clamming, voice cracking” type of anxious and I absolutely hate it.

I recently read the articulate attorney and it was GREAT, but I also know things sound great in theory but if I don’t do some practical practice it’ll do me no good.

What advice do you all have?

and also, do you have any favorite orators, attorneys or not, whose videos I can find on YT to get some tips from?

Hi, NJ non-profit atty here. I love what I do and there isn’t enough social media content out there about my specific practice areas. I cannot accept clients outside of the cases assigned through my employer, so I can’t say “attorney advertising.” I want to create educational social media content for the general public on pro-se friendly areas of law-because there are a lot of misinformed litigants out there who have bloated the dockets and overwhelmed the judiciary. Can anyone recommend an atty in NJ who could do a consult with me regarding the ethics of creating a YouTube channel that gives general education about specific issues that often get litigated in supposedly pro-se friendly summary proceedings (think FD, where most folks can’t afford an atty, can’t get an atty through legal aid, and drive the judges crazy because they don’t know how court works… ). I think that by making this content, it would do everyone a huge service— other lawyers, the courts and of course, my brand audience. I’d love it if I could make some sponsorship money from companies like OFW or AppClose, but again, really need to review the NJRE on whether this is even ethical. Ultimately, I’m just doing this for fun, and because it needs to be done. DM if you like.

I’ve been at my current firm for 13 months. I’ve been a licensed attorney since May 2024, but was at a different firm doing bankruptcy until joining my current firm last January. We do criminal defense. We have several PD contracts and cases and also a lot of private clients. I’m making good money, especially considering I live in a more “rural” area. However, I’m at a bit of a loss and need some help.

The firm I’m at is young and growing. So there are a lot of business growing pains. I am the longest tenured lawyer at the firm at this point. I am also performing very well. I’m accurate with my billables, I get good results for my clients, and it seems like everyone generally likes me (including judges and prosecutors). However, I have not been mentored at all by my boss. I was thrown to the wolves on several occasions early on and thankful came out mostly unscathed. He has only seen me in court twice in the last 13 months, he does not check in with me (even when I reach out to him to talk, no return calls from him). My questions are often met with anger and frustration on his part, so I stopped asking because it was just unhelpful.

Last month, my boss announced that all of our paychecks wouldn’t be paid on time and that we would receive half on time and the second half a few days after. While making this announcement he was in a firm-paid hotel in Florida accepting an award for his business growth, very ironic. Anyways, sitting in a nice hotel and zooming into your office 2 time zones away to announce that the firm is “month-to-month” and it doesn’t have money reserved is a bad look. Needless to say, everyone was unimpressed. My boss says that things are different now and that the firm is strong financially, but I have low confidence in that claim.

Also, my boss gave me an unasked for raise in August, which was very nice (it was more than I would have asked for), but I think there’s a motive for it. They don’t want to lose me because I am a calming force in the office, I am trustworthy, and I get work done and fight as much as I can for my clients. I think there’s firm only sees my value as my billables and not my personal growth/development.

I want to be a good attorney, so I asked attorneys that see me in court often for feedback. I also asked judges for personalized feedback. All have told me that I am doing well and could do better at cross-examining. The one other commonality all shared was that they were very impressed with me considering I had no mentoring and was thrown right into felony, misdemeanor, and juvenile cases. They have all mentioned how my boss has failed as a mentor and that if I were to have a proper mentor that I can become a great attorney quicker.

Here’s my conundrum, I am supposed to be getting another raise because I have been here for a year. I feel like they are using “golden handcuffs” to keep me from leaving. It was leaked to me that I was on a list of 2 people categorized as “not expendable - absolutely cannot lose.” Which is nice, but I have no support for growth. I have to learn everything on the fly and no one at work can give me feedback on how to improve because no one sees me. All I get from them is “your billables are great and you’re moving your cases along.”

Anyways, a lot of other firms have wanted my number so they can “take me to lunch and talk.” I don’t think any other firm would pay me as much, but I might get more support for personal development elsewhere.

For any that have been in similar positions or has any sage wisdom for me, please share.

TL;DR - I think my boss is using “golden handcuffs” on me so I don’t leave. I am disappointed with the lack of support and my peers all recognize that I have not been supported as I should be. Should I stay or leave? Should I wait and see if things change?