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I do a lot of interviews now and every time some dumb rear end 1L says to me that they really want "client contact" I have to stop myself from leaping across the desk and slapping them in the face
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Mar 15, 2016 19:28
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Tell him you are a client contact specialist, and with enough practice, 1L will learn to service three clients at the same time! Great for the bottom line, great for client satisfaction.
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Mar 15, 2016 19:33
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Congratulations on the kid MSM. Still no luck on the job?
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Mar 15, 2016 19:35
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I'm a 3-year call in British Columbia, and after being at the same organization since 2L (summer student -> articling student -> research assistant -> research lawyer), I got my lay-off notice last week that due to a lack of funds and available work/projects, my position will be terminated at the end of the summer. It's a non-governmental legal research/policy development-type organization and, while I have certainly developed a ton of skills in terms of project management, leading/directing groups and committees, and legislative drafting, I feel like have exactly gently caress all in terms of traditional skills that make me desirable in private practice. So faced with this lay-off, I'm having a bit of a panic about where to go from here. This is a mixed blessing though, since I was getting burned out on it due to a range of reasons - most notably the fact that I never seemed to do anything, and was always just chairing endless committee meetings and writing research memoranda for projects that would take years and years to complete. I've certainly made a lot of government connections over the last few years as I've ran my own projects, and I'll be sure to explore those opportunities, but I feel like I really hosed myself over by not diversifying my career options. I've never worked anywhere with billable hours, outside of a bit of volunteer work and law school clinics I've never dealt with clients directly, I've never had to negotiate settlements or anything like that. Persuasive writing is my jam, and I've learned to command a room of people, but I am pessimistic about finding future work. For what it's worth, I have no interest in going into private practice. I am terrible at dealing with clients directly, and have no desire to buy into the BigLaw lifestyle. Mercifully, I have no student loans dragging me towards the siren-song of BigLaw salaries, nor do I have anything tying me down to a particular place. I'm DINK and even the meager salary I've had over the last few years has been more than enough for me to pay off my student loans and live a comfortable life. At this point, my primary concern is just finding a job that I'm qualified for and that won't burn me out - but I just can't seem to even fathom what that could be. V  V
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Mar 15, 2016 19:51
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I've got some leads for you but don't know how to communicate them without revealing my irl self. Godspeed good gune
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Mar 15, 2016 20:09
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Hot Dog Day #91 posted:Congratulations on the kid MSM. Still no luck on the job? I had an interview early and think I could get a bunch more if I applied to insurance defense jobs or their ilk in civil litigation. The problem is I don't really want to do that too badly and the one place I interviewed told me I wanted too much money (I asked for 75k, I have ~4 year experience plus another 3-4 years of doc review)
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Mar 15, 2016 20:46
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lol at 75k being too much for a seasoned attorney in the Chicago area. Isn't insurance defense a step up from foreclosures?
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Mar 15, 2016 21:04
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So I'm taking the MPRE this coming Saturday, anyone have any special hints or tips I won't get from a Barbri guide?
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Mar 15, 2016 21:04
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Pook Good Mook posted:So I'm taking the MPRE this coming Saturday, anyone have any special hints or tips I won't get from a Barbri guide? You're not drunk enough yet. No seriously. My one regret in lawschool was not going to UVA softball weekend and then taking the MPRE in virginia the morning of. Everyone who went passed anyways.
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Mar 15, 2016 21:08
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Pook Good Mook posted:So I'm taking the MPRE this coming Saturday, anyone have any special hints or tips I won't get from a Barbri guide? The gently caress. If you wake up and make it to that test you pass.
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Mar 15, 2016 21:23
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Look Sir Droids posted:lol at 75k being too much for a seasoned attorney in the Chicago area. "Insurance defense" is a broad range of stuff that goes from defending stupid rear-end auto accidents with minimal $15,000 policies, through trucking cases with million dollar policies, to product liability and catastrophic casualty claims, to defending Lloyds of London and a hundred other insurers when a goddamn container ship crashes into an oil pipeline causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Either way, yes it is a step up from foreclosures I think and yes LOL at $75,000 being too much to pay a fourth year attorney. Unfortunately firms with a lot of insurance defense car accident crap typically exist to serve the clients of a few partners with a ton of volume and relatively simple poo poo that can only be billed at $120-$150/hr. So these guys are highly incentivized to hire a bunch of the cheapest associates they can find, churn 180 hours/month out of them for a few years, then replace them with cheaper associates when they start bitching about being underpaid.
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Mar 15, 2016 21:33
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mastershakeman posted:I had an interview early and think I could get a bunch more if I applied to insurance defense jobs or their ilk in civil litigation. The problem is I don't really want to do that too badly and the one place I interviewed told me I wanted too much money (I asked for 75k, I have ~4 year experience plus another 3-4 years of doc review) I can get you set up selling tacos. I can't help with loan forgiveness.
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Mar 15, 2016 21:36
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I got an 89 and needed an 85 so you should at least like read the book over once.
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Mar 15, 2016 22:06
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mikeraskol posted:I do a lot of interviews now and every time some dumb rear end 1L says to me that they really want "client contact" I have to stop myself from leaping across the desk and slapping them in the face Phil Moscowitz posted:Tell him you are a client contact specialist, and with enough practice, 1L will learn to service three clients at the same time! Great for the bottom line, great for client satisfaction.
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Mar 15, 2016 22:06
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Mr. Nice! posted:I can get you set up selling tacos. I can't help with loan forgiveness. There's no way I can sell better tacos than all the other people in Chicago. It's a mecca for Americanized Mexican food here. And yea the place that said 75 was too much also proudly talked about how many of their cases went to trial instead of settlement to the whole time I was thinking about how stressful that must be and the stress must result in better compensation or pto or something What I want to do is get into municipal law but gently caress it's hard to break into. I actually had an interview two years ago for a position that in hindsight was already filled, and the interview was a sham. The first question was asked while we were walking to the conference room, the second was "do you have any questions " The other field I'd like is back end stuff at big law with discovery stuff since that's where the market is going and im good with tech, but since I switched from engineering to polisci as an undergraduate (engineering was boring, oops) I don't have a 10 year old piece of paper saying I'm good with tech :I mastershakeman fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Mar 15, 2016 |
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Mar 15, 2016 22:18
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Pook Good Mook posted:So I'm taking the MPRE this coming Saturday, anyone have any special hints or tips I won't get from a Barbri guide? I bought the audio book study guide and listened on my hour commute to the test and passed with flying colors. I made it through about 2/3 of the audio guide. Basically, "don't" bang clients or judges.
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Mar 15, 2016 22:18
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Pook Good Mook posted:So I'm taking the MPRE this coming Saturday, anyone have any special hints or tips I won't get from a Barbri guide? Don't study for more than a few days at the extreme
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Mar 15, 2016 23:23
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I took it after I took the school's ethics class and watched the barbri video and got 100 something. Only law related thing I ever did really well on.
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Mar 15, 2016 23:41
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Hot Dog Day #91 posted:I took it after I took the school's ethics class and watched the barbri video and got 100 something. Only law related thing I ever did really well on. Problem is that doing well on the MPRE means getting an 86 - more than that and you failed the all important "not wasting your time on the goddamn MPRE" test. (It's easy, watch the barbri video and don't freak out about it.)
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Mar 16, 2016 01:16
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I took the MPRE hungover and finished it in ~20 minutes because I wasn't going to be late for the last home basketball game that morning. Got enough to pass for Kansas but not Colorado (where I was taking the bar), so I had to take the MPRE again the week after the bar exam. Passed it by like 40 points.
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Mar 16, 2016 02:08
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I thought about cramming for the MPRE the night before, but I ended up stopping and helping an undergrad lady parallel park after she failed at it like 5 times. Instead of studying I went to dinner with her, got maybe 3 hours sleep, and didn't even arrive at the exam until halfway through the allotted time. Passed by 2 points. 7/10 would again.
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Mar 16, 2016 02:18
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Kalman posted:Problem is that doing well on the MPRE means getting an 86 - more than that and you failed the all important "not wasting your time on the goddamn MPRE" test. I failed that test, I wasted too much time, I got a 118
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Mar 16, 2016 02:48
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I went to school with a kid that failed it twice and I'm pretty sure he works for Goldman Sachs now. You can't make this stuff up.
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Mar 16, 2016 02:52
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mikeraskol posted:lol no, it actually gets worse. 4th year and its worse than its ever been and I'm gazing longingly at my window, really upset that they can't be opened. i disagree the instant you can delegate it gets better
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Mar 16, 2016 02:57
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evilweasel posted:i disagree the instant you can delegate it gets better Isn't it more stress? I feel like worrying if you gently caress up is easier than worrying if other people gently caress up
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Mar 16, 2016 03:14
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calvus posted:Isn't it more stress? I feel like worrying if you gently caress up is easier than worrying if other people gently caress up I dont really get stressed out easily and it usually isnt hard to figure out who is competent and who to give the horrible tasks that require no thought to that they cant gently caress up.
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Mar 16, 2016 03:52
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mikeraskol posted:lol no, it actually gets worse. 4th year and its worse than its ever been and I'm gazing longingly at my window, really upset that they can't be opened. Just don't pull a Garry Hoy!!
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Mar 16, 2016 04:25
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evilweasel posted:I dont really get stressed out easily and it usually isnt hard to figure out who is competent and who to give the horrible tasks that require no thought to that they cant gently caress up. All tasks can be hosed up.
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Mar 16, 2016 04:31
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Sab0921 posted:All tasks can be hosed up. Not in a way thats hard to spot. You give the idiots the tasks you can see if it was done right at a glance or with the minimum of effort. They gently caress it up, you notice and they do it again.
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Mar 16, 2016 04:48
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Everything it's better once you can delegate. Even better if you can then blame the gently caress up on the Secretary. But the greatest is having paralegals put together binders. Got a 1000 page tabbed binder yesterday. Rush job. Put it on the conference table for the meeting, never opened it. I just used my laptop to look up everything. It was a beautiful binder.
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Mar 16, 2016 13:31
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Hot Dog Day #91 posted:Everything it's better once you can delegate. Even better if you can then blame the gently caress up on the Secretary. But the greatest is having paralegals put together binders. Oh god, the amount of binders I've made my paralegals make, I can never nap in the office because they might kill me in my sleep. I've got so many binders that my bookcase is full of binders and there's a four-foot stack of them between the bookcase and the wall.
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Mar 16, 2016 14:04
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I tell my dogs to make binders but they just lift their head, look at me, and then lay back down
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Mar 16, 2016 14:12
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We have partners whose entire existence seems to consist of having associates write memos and other documents that they then pass on to the client as their own, somehow adding an extra 10 hours billed per day for their own personal time as well. I cannot seem to find the clients who accept this type of thing. I wish I could.
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Mar 16, 2016 14:22
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evilweasel posted:Oh god, the amount of binders I've made my paralegals make, I can never nap in the office because they might kill me in my sleep. I've got so many binders that my bookcase is full of binders and there's a four-foot stack of them between the bookcase and the wall.
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Mar 16, 2016 17:47
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Ani posted:What are these binders that all you litigators talk about? When the managing partners talk about "cutting overhead" they always seem to overlook the thousands of pounds of paper, binding, notebooks, and other bullshit that has been replaced by the expensive scanning system they put in place that puts everything on the network and available instantly. Anway, I know we have quite a few Chicago law goons, thoughts on Anita Alvarez losing her primary yesterday? Also, I just got offered a spot on my schools Jessup Moot Court Team (international law). I know it's good for a resume and all that poo poo but on the other hand I don't think I am more annoyed by anything in the world more than International Law. Thoughts? Pook Good Mook fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Mar 16, 2016 |
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Mar 16, 2016 18:20
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Pook Good Mook posted:When the managing partners talk about "cutting overhead" they always seem to overlook the thousands of pounds of paper, binding, notebooks, and other bullshit that has been replaced by the expensive scanning system they put in place that puts everything on the network and available instantly. You should 100% take the Jessup team spot. No question.
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Mar 16, 2016 18:46
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Ani posted:What are these binders that all you litigators talk about? Intimidation tactic. Seriously, it's useful to have every document you might possibly need printed out and organized in binders. If I'm taking a deposition of an expert who produced a 100 page report, the work file might be 4000 pages. I want copies so I can include them in the depo. Or, from my example of this week: my large state agency client has Mr researching a new type of lawsuit never filed before in this state, only authorized by statue in 2013. I rolled into the meeting with statutes, legislative history, defendant information, copies of prior meeting notes, and basically anything I might need to put in front of the client. I have to look more prepared than I actually am, just in case. Having a big ole binder of documents helps cause you can quickly and easily pull or whatever you need.
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Mar 16, 2016 18:54
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Phil Moscowitz posted:You should 100% take the Jessup team spot. No question. Everyone I know who did Jessup loved it, take the spot.
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Mar 16, 2016 19:07
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Hot Dog Day #91 posted:Intimidation tactic. Not only this, but for many of your typical litigation documents for pure internal use. For example, I hate reading deposition transcripts on a computer. In my cases I have a set of binders that are just the deposition transcripts, I have an initial binder prepared and then the legal assistants add to it every time a transcript comes in. We keep binders of all case correspondence. We create binders of documents for internal presentations on case facts. And so on. They are basically a daily part of life.
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Mar 16, 2016 19:26
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If you are under the age of like 35 and have all of this paper all over your office (printouts of depo transcripts!) then I don't know what to say. What's next, dictating to your secretary? Join us in modernity, gramps.
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Mar 16, 2016 20:10
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