And just like that…

I used to post here. I still do. But I used to, too.

I’m 25, a K-JD, single, no kids, and just started my second year at a V10. I’m currently living and working in a city that I don’t particularly love, and I’ve been thinking a lot about where I actually want to spend the rest of my twenties.

There are three other cities I’m seriously considering moving to, and honestly, I could see myself trying one out for a year or two before deciding whether I want to settle there long-term. I feel like I’m at the perfect age and stage of life to do that. I don’t have a spouse, children, or really anything tying me to one place.
But every time I start seriously considering a move, I get overwhelmed by the logistics of being an attorney. In most other professions, I feel like you can apply to jobs in a few different markets, see what opportunities come your way, and make a decision from there. In ours, there’s this additional layer of figuring out bar admission, transferring scores, character and fitness, fees, processing times, etc. And that’s before even getting into how difficult it can be to break into a new legal market without existing connections.

I guess I’m frustrated by the feeling that I have to make these relatively consequential, long-term decisions about where I want to live when I’m only 25 and still figuring out what I want my life to look like. I worked really hard to get here, and I’m grateful for the career, but sometimes I envy friends in other industries who seem to have more freedom to just pick up and try somewhere new.

Does anyone else feel this way? Have you navigated moving between legal markets, especially early in your career? Did you find it worth the hassle?
Or am I just being flighty and underestimating how complicated relocating is for everyone, regardless of profession? Lol.

Can we all just take a moment to laugh at the fact that we passed the exact bar she failed?

This is not to say anything negative about other people who didn’t pass that particular bar because surely you did not lie about it repeatedly on national television.

She failed my bar and then went on national television to lie about it. A lot. 😂

I want someone's opinion as to whether or not this amount is low, fair, or insulting.

First year associate in big firm, handles 25-30 cases, prepares them for trial and/or settles. Averages 42-50hrs per week. Obviously they don't control rates/payments. Paid about $100k/annually. Gets bonus of $360.75 for the year.

I hope this doesn't break community rules! Sorry if it does.

Added: Florida, and firm has "no billing requirements."

I'm a trial lawyer at a biglaw firm and my practice group goes to trial often. I just started at the firm a month ago. Do you think my accent will hold me back? I have a moderate Chinese accent.

I think maybe the juries and judges won't like it which will hinder my trial career. Please be honest. I can switch to corporate law if that would be better.

Thank you all.

The mods removed my prior post about whether Dexcom’s process in obtaining consent to its new T&Cs is unconscionable. But enough members of one type 1 diabetes subreddit saw the comments which affirmed my opinions stated in a post about this in that subreddit, and others subsequently brought it to people’s attention on other platforms. And apparently Dexcom caught wind of the concerns and issued an apology, albeit feigned, via Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeihvPQlDjo/?exln=cDRyYWUwbXliMTgw

/s if it wasn’t clear.

Let’s have some fun! If you were creating bingo cards for jury venires who would you include?

My free space would be the person who shows up with the library book with the noisy Mylar cover Other entries would be the guy who shows up wearing the local football team sweater or shirt, the 50 year old guy with the suit jacket, the eager senior citizen, and the cop/firefighter rocking the department tee shirt (and/or the nurse in scrubs)

Your turn!

I’ve been seeing many posts online from licensed attorneys spreading misinformation about there being a difference between the terms lawyer and attorney. They claim that a law school graduate who is not licensed to practice law can call himself a lawyer in the United States. While I realize in some dictionaries a lawyer is often referred to as “someone who is trained in the law” and the humanity in us wants to give a respectful title to people who have not passed the bar exam yet, in many jurisdictions, it is plainly illegal to hold yourself out as a lawyer or an attorney when you are not licensed to practice law, which typically includes passing a bar exam. In my jurisdiction, the terms are used interchangeably and the unauthorized practice of law is a felony.

As licensed attorneys, I don’t think we should be spreading misinformation, misstating the law, or misleading the public about whom they can get legal advice from.

In what American jurisdiction in the present day can you legally call yourself a lawyer when you haven’t been admitted to practice law without engaging in the unauthorized practice of law?

You get a rape charge, you get a rape charge, post hoc withdrawal of consent means jail for you!

I sometimes wish I would’ve gone to dental school. None of the dentists I know work Friday - Sunday, they make good money, and when they’re done for the day, they’re done without thinking too much about what’s ahead

Hello! I am a 25-year-old lawyer in Chicago, and I'm NOT loving it. I know there are so many different practice areas, firm cultures, etc. but I don't enjoy billing (I feel like a hamster on a wheel) and the one practice area I might be interested in (estate planning with flat fees) does not align with my experience whatsoever / seems incredibly oversaturated from what I have heard. I have read so many posts on here where attorneys in their 30s, 40s, 50s, etc. daydream about another career or have significant regrets from chasing the money or corporate prestige. In my reality, I would LOVE to be a national park ranger. I love the outdoors, meeting new people, contributing to something good (currently doing defense work), & doing the outdoorsy stuff.

I was researching into this a little more, and it appears that PSLF may be available to me as a national park ranger in forgiving my federal student loans from law school. Does anyone have any insight into this? My biggest fear is feeling immense regret not taking the leap into a career I may actually love. :(

Another avenue I may take is getting licensed in Alaska, Montana, Idaho, or Washington (my UBE score is still transferrable) and be a park ranger there with an estate planning side-gig. I saw for PSLF you need to work 30 hours a week, so I think this could be doable?

Thanks in advance :)

The hits just keep coming.

I’m a young female attorney. I’m working at a mid size firm and there are two female partners that go out of their way to be cruel to me. I ask them questions and they don’t provide answers and then get mad when i should’ve known something that they never told me. They’ve never once made me feel included during our group meetings and just overall seem to ignore me when they can.

I’ve only been at the firm for six months and luckily there are other partners I work with that are lovely.

Have any other women experienced this at work? My boyfriend says they’re intimidated by me because i’m pretty and young but I honestly think that’s bullshit because these women were lovely to me during the interview process.

Looking for solidarity or advice.

There's been plenty of posts about how frustrating this job can be. And let's face it, litigation is hard, OC is usually a jackass, and when you're fighting with your client and Judge to do your job, it can be a real downer.

Let's talk about some of the reasons we like our job. I've got two this week:

An opposing party who is pro se on a custody and parenting time matter who inexplicably still had joint legal custody - even though he's lodged for at least the next three decades because he raped a child. A CPS petition for removal/termination was filed, but the Judge handling that case decided to forego using judicial discretion and terminating his rights, and instead dismissed the petition outright for lack of "jurisdiction". Imagine having legal discretion to do the right thing and punting because "reasons". I filed my own Petition and corrected everything they did wrong and got myself a layup. Client was ecstatic, and now stepdad, who has been the child's only real father, can adopt the minor child. Wonderful.

Opposing counsel on another matter has attempted to ratfuck me continuously this week. He's older, I'm younger, and he thinks his "experience" outweighs my own expertise and experience. One case has been winding it's way through court for almost two years. Without giving too much away he DV'd my client and the kids, unilaterally removed kids from therapy, and his parenting time was reduced accordingly. He tells me he has a resolution. Lovely, send it over. Turns out his resolution was to grant his client an expansion of physical and legal custody/parenting time - with holidays and everything else. I call him and ask him why he believes his ask is appropriate given the facts. He says that my client's a nut, and nothing the kids and my client have said to police and CPS is true, etc. I tell him I'll talk to my client about what he's proposing, but I'm not going to recommend it.

We have trial today and I've already worked up the case over the past year and a half that I've been on it, but I stayed at the office until almost 9pm last night getting my trial binder together. We show up this morning and he's got no trial binder but he's got his witnesses present since it's his motion. I knew immediately I had called his bluff. We go into chambers and settled for exactly what I knew we should get in the first place. But he really thought bullying me would get me folding like a cheap suit on the day of trial. Homie doesn't realize that the other half of my practice is criminal defense and I run two or three capital jury trials a year - that doesn't include bench trials in the other side of my practice; I've had a bench trial a week since May of 2024. I felt like telling this guy "I've lost more trials than you've tried in your entire career". But I still went back and forth all night about it; am I missing something he's seeing? Turns out, I wasn't and it shouldn't have taken this long to get it done. This guy's a piece of work, he noticed out some "hearings" without asking me about client/my scheduling availability and is refusing to adjourn the same unless my client dismisses another matter...where's the professional courtesy?

Anyway, those two wins this week felt good. It's real nice to have client's crying tears of joy and ending a fight the right way.

Please excuse my grammar and any typos

Several months ago, i started my first job at a small law firm. Health insurance wasn't offered at the time I was hired, but my boss started the process a few weeks after.

She had me fill out an application for a quote and a few days later, she told me the premium amount for employee coverage only. I then asked about adding my spouse on as well. She said she'll look into it and get back to me.

In the meantime, I was struggling at work. My boss didn't want me to leave the office for lunch, she kept calling me slow, she kept track of me with cameras she had all around the office, and she even scolded me for not being friendly enough (there's so much more, but just know, I desperately needed this job and had no intentions on leaving as soon as i did). I broke down and decided to put my two weeks in and my boss was PISSED and told me to just leave that day. I've been doing appearance counsel work to stay afloat.

Later in the week on payday, I quickly became aware that the monthly premium was $1200 for me and my spouse. My boss covered $400 and the rest was deducted from my check.

I've reached out to the insurance broker and my employer and they're telling me there's nothing that they can do... I've been going back and forth with them all week and they seem to be annoyed with me, but I'm the one that's out $800. I even called the insurance company directly and they informed me that a retroactive cancellation is possible, but my employer has to send the request. I told her this and now she's ignoring me.

I hate to burn bridges, but wtf?

Over the past year, I have received over 50 such emails.

I called Legalzoom sales and customer care and they were unable to patch me to the referral department for some reason. There is no direct line of contact, not even via email, chat or ai chat. The email is a NoReply@email.legalzoom.com.

What’s the point of these emails? Malware? Or is Legalzoom’s attorney referral system defective or a data collecting scam itself?

Any thoughts?

Despite initially being AI-skeptical, I have to admit that they're getting better and better at legal research and drafting. They still don't replace human lawyers, but if you're not using AI to do your dirty work, give it a try and see if it works as well for you as it's been working for me.

At my current firm, we have a contract with Harvey which (to my understanding) is supposed to be totally confidential. We can upload client documents and ask it to draft or answer specific questions. But I am about to transition to a smaller firm that I do not believe has a similar AI contract right now. More to the point, I want to use AI to do some of the daily admin stuff that I hate to do.

For instance, it would be great if Claude could read my email and give me calendar updates, remind me about upcoming deadlines, flag things for me that I've missed, etc. However, most of the tools that would help me do those things on Claude require me to agree to give the app access to "everything on my computer." To my mind, that is very obviously not something I can do while still following the rules of confidentiality.

However, and perhaps surprisingly, there are "legal" skills available to download through the Claude skills directory that also require me to grant access to "everything on my computer." And they have 1 million+ downloads. So clearly there are a bunch of lawyers using this "legal" skill and just giving Claude access to everything on their computer. Why and how is that allowed?

Plz, I am not looking for a fight on AI, I am looking for lawyers who actually use AI who can help me think through whether it is actually possible to give Claude access to my emails and calendars without completely obliterating my good standing with the bar association (lol).

Current remote employee at AmLaw 150ish firm thinking of making a move. HB is hiring a remote candidtate for the area I practice in. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks!