The Practice of Law

[Ojo Rojo 1946]

I apologize if there is already a thread out there for this.  Seems like there is a shit ton of lawyers on this site.  Maybe we can trade wisdom, ask questions, tell war stories, etc.

[Wally Fairway 5539]

1 hour ago, Ojo Rojo said:

I apologize if there is already a thread out there for this.  Seems like there is a shit ton of lawyers on this site.  Maybe we can trade wisdom, ask questions, tell war stories, etc.

good try - now send us $250 for creation of a client file and your first 1/2 hour consultation; and be glad there isn't a $7,500 retainer involved here. 

[Kennythetiger 9374]

And remember everyone on here makes lawyer jokes until they need free legal advice. 

[jeevsie 3733]

[troph 24781]

Corporate deals aren’t prone to good stories, just a bunch of cocky assholes - especially in M&A work - who think they run the show. 

[Kennythetiger 9374]

10 hours ago, troph said:

Corporate deals aren’t prone to good stories, just a bunch of cocky assholes - especially in M&A work - who think they run the show. 

Gun to your head, Troph. You’re retired with your wife. Family can come see you whenever they want. But….you can only boat or only fish in your retirement. Can’t do both. You can only do one. Which one would you choose?  

[troph 24781]

1 hour ago, Kennythetiger said:

Gun to your head, Troph. You’re retired with your wife. Family can come see you whenever they want. But….you can only boat or only fish in your retirement. Can’t do both. You can only do one. Which one would you choose?  

If forced to choose I’ll put it this way… I’ll die with a fly rod in my hand if I have my way.  

[troph 24781]

But to the practice I tell ya what, winning in a business divorce/fiduciary duty case or other corporate governance type situation is the best kinda drug if you ask me.  Having been bullied on the playground as a kid, I consider winning these disputes (sometimes with and other times without litigation co-counsel) as my playground revenge.  I had one just the last week, gets me going, fuck that guy, he crossed the wrong folks on this one. 

reminds me of the time I got to write a public letter response in a corporate governance ordeal to a hack job done and publicly shared by a former Texas Supreme Court Justice. I probably had 12+ drafts as it emerged to perfection - and it was perfection. And I fucking eviscerated them. It’s rare my work gets publicized in any meaningful way and the audience included many colleagues and business folks in the community. I’ve had other really fantastic outcomes but to have one on display as a corporate lawyer was really, really satisfying. In the end we demolished the opposition, which is the only way I like to roll. 

Edited October 10 by troph

[CleverNickname 1308]

UT Class of '05. State lawyer. Eligible to retire 6/1/2032. Probably could retire then and quit the rat race, but more than likely will take the pension and find something else. Or maybe come back 20-30 hours a week without management responsibilities. 

Anyway, if you got a sharp child interested in a work/life balance job, reach out. Ten years gets your student loans forgiven. Or if you want a change of pace. I'm almost always hiring.

[Deej 76748]

On 10/9/2024 at 2:59 PM, Kennythetiger said:

And remember everyone on here makes lawyer jokes until they need free legal advice. 

They should be able to cover free legal advice with all the time they bill on surfing this site.

[TonyTexas 10504]

[That Guy 955]

On 10/10/2024 at 4:11 PM, CleverNickname said:

Ten years gets your student loans forgiven. 

Wife’s law school loans were forgiven about three years ago and it’s amazing. Probably $250k just gone. Pretty amazing. 

[RDCanecutter 26377]

Question for all lawyers: When I am in a bar in the afternoon, I occasionally see a mob of lawyers. drinking together.

OK, so far, that makes sense.

What I don't get, is why they all still have their ties on, and by "on," I mean "cinched up tighter than a noose at an Old West lynch mob where they're dragging the dude behind a horse."

Splain, Loocy.

[Kennythetiger 9374]

9 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

Question for all lawyers: When I am in a bar in the afternoon, I occasionally see a mob of lawyers. drinking together.

OK, so far, that makes sense.

What I don't get, is why they all still have their ties on, and by "on," I mean "cinched up tighter than a noose at an Old West lynch mob where they're dragging the dude behind a horse."

Splain, Loocy.

We’re inspecting real estate. 

[troph 24781]

On 10/13/2024 at 4:46 PM, That Guy said:

Wife’s law school loans were forgiven about three years ago and it’s amazing. Probably $250k just gone. Pretty amazing. 

My loans aren’t a big deal but I graduated in 2002 and I’m still paying on them.

[Dendox 102]

I graduated in 2006 and still pay for the fucking things.  If I had known better I'd have done a few things differently on the loan origination front and on the payback front.  But being a young married guy with new baby - i was taking all the money they would give to make sure I the wife kiddo had some comfort.

One day soon I'd like to slow down a bit.  50-60 hours a week isn't fun when 20-30 of it isn't billable/collectible (running the firm).

Need to get more cases where an associate can help, meaningfully.  Insurance defense cases are ripe for associate help.  Huge construction defect cases on the Plaintiff side - not so much.  

[hornian 5210]

I graduated in 2009, had 6 figures in student loans. Paid them off in 2020. But because of a real estate sale, not because of my law practice. Although, I bought the real estate with my income from practicing law, so I guess it was in part due to my law practice, and in part due to the ridiculous appreciation in Austin real estate prices from 2012 - 2020. I did pay off my wife's student loans with income from my law practice too.

On 10/13/2024 at 7:26 PM, RDCanecutter said:

Question for all lawyers: When I am in a bar in the afternoon, I occasionally see a mob of lawyers. drinking together.

OK, so far, that makes sense.

What I don't get, is why they all still have their ties on, and by "on," I mean "cinched up tighter than a noose at an Old West lynch mob where they're dragging the dude behind a horse."

Splain, Loocy.

Can't explain that one. I take my tie off in the car as soon as I'm done with Court. And get out of my suit as soon as I walk in the door at home. 

 

On 10/9/2024 at 10:49 AM, Ojo Rojo said:

I apologize if there is already a thread out there for this.  Seems like there is a shit ton of lawyers on this site.  Maybe we can trade wisdom, ask questions, tell war stories, etc.

My war stories stay in less publicly accessible places. 

 

On 10/10/2024 at 4:11 PM, CleverNickname said:

UT Class of '05. State lawyer. Eligible to retire 6/1/2032. Probably could retire then and quit the rat race, but more than likely will take the pension and find something else. Or maybe come back 20-30 hours a week without management responsibilities. 

Anyway, if you got a sharp child interested in a work/life balance job, reach out. Ten years gets your student loans forgiven. Or if you want a change of pace. I'm almost always hiring.

True story, I bought flashcards from CleverNickname before I started law school for most of the core law school topics. Worst investment ever, I don't think I ever looked at them. Maybe for my evidence class the summer after 1L?

So anyway, be wary of CleverNickname's offers. He takes advantage of the less informed. 

[msbesq 385]

Retiring at the end of this month after 40 years. My tuition was $4 a credit hour. Books and tuition were about $500 a semester.

[CleverNickname 1308]

4 hours ago, hornian said:

True story, I bought flashcards from CleverNickname before I started law school for most of the core law school topics. Worst investment ever, I don't think I ever looked at them. Maybe for my evidence class the summer after 1L?

So anyway, be wary of CleverNickname's offers. He takes advantage of the less informed. 

hey, those flashcards got me to where I am today: a middle manager at a large bureaucracy, who digs holes.

[Ojo Rojo 1946]

I didn't have any undergrad debt because I worked a lot and UT was cheap, but law school cost me about $100K and I took student loans for all of it. I graduated in '06 at age 32 (I was a "second career" lawyer or, to put it another way - I fucked around for 5-6 years before I got serious about my future.) I got lucky ten years in and I had a good personal injury case that I did for a family friend on a contingent fee (not my normal practice area).  Generated a large fee that I was able to use to pay off my student loans.

[Ojo Rojo 1946]

I'll tell a story about probably the worst client I ever had.

I was still a baby lawyer and I was getting assigned all of the shit work that came into the firm.  We had gotten a call from a guy who was evicted from his commercial space.  The case came to me.  I looked at it and discovered that the landlord had fucked up the notice.  So we went to JP court on a bench trial for the eviction and I successfully fought it off and even got my client a $5,000 judgment for lost business due to being wrongfully locked out.  Here's the thing, though - the client was a gay drug addict - meth, I think.  He was very high strung, very emotional, very flamboyant.  He was also very critical of me, despite the fact that I got his ass out of a crack and got him 5 grand he probably should not have gotten because he had very little evidence of lost business.  Anyway, after the trial I had to go to the guy's place of business, which was an antiques/used furniture store in the Heights.  It was also where he was living.  I was required by the court to take photos of all of the furniture as part of the court's final order.  So I show up over there and my client, who had not slept in days until then, answers the door with no shirt on and looking haggard as fuck.  He knew I was coming to take the photos, but he was disoriented and got all pissed off that I was there and basically threw me out, but not before I got the photos. He called my boss, the managing partner, and told him how much I sucked. So, he fired me and I never heard from him again.

In a strange twist, he had a "benefactor" who was a gay pilot.  He owned his own 747 and basically served as Air Force One for a bunch of African countries who I guess could not afford their own presidential plane.  The guy had a name that was perfect for who he was and what he did. He was straight out of central casting. Anyway, the guy had money and basically financed my client's life.  He paid his retainer too.  I guess the guy had a boy toy in every port that he kept more or less on a leash.  It was very weird.

[CleverNickname 1308]

ya know, sooner or later, it all comes down to butt stuff.

[DalTxHornFan 3097]

9 hours ago, Ojo Rojo said:

I'll tell a story about probably the worst client I ever had.

I was still a baby lawyer and I was getting assigned all of the shit work that came into the firm.  We had gotten a call from a guy who was evicted from his commercial space.  The case came to me.  I looked at it and discovered that the landlord had fucked up the notice.  So we went to JP court on a bench trial for the eviction and I successfully fought it off and even got my client a $5,000 judgment for lost business due to being wrongfully locked out.  Here's the thing, though - the client was a gay drug addict - meth, I think.  He was very high strung, very emotional, very flamboyant.  He was also very critical of me, despite the fact that I got his ass out of a crack and got him 5 grand he probably should not have gotten because he had very little evidence of lost business.  Anyway, after the trial I had to go to the guy's place of business, which was an antiques/used furniture store in the Heights.  It was also where he was living.  I was required by the court to take photos of all of the furniture as part of the court's final order.  So I show up over there and my client, who had not slept in days until then, answers the door with no shirt on and looking haggard as fuck.  He knew I was coming to take the photos, but he was disoriented and got all pissed off that I was there and basically threw me out, but not before I got the photos. He called my boss, the managing partner, and told him how much I sucked. So, he fired me and I never heard from him again.

In a strange twist, he had a "benefactor" who was a gay pilot.  He owned his own 747 and basically served as Air Force One for a bunch of African countries who I guess could not afford their own presidential plane.  The guy had a name that was perfect for who he was and what he did. He was straight out of central casting. Anyway, the guy had money and basically financed my client's life.  He paid his retainer too.  I guess the guy had a boy toy in every port that he kept more or less on a leash.  It was very weird.

What crazy stuff we all do for clients!

[Brisketexan 105039]

23 hours ago, CleverNickname said:

ya know, sooner or later, it all comes down to butt stuff.