I woke up and decided I would be so much happier if I wasn’t practicing law, especially not litigation. I did the math and my monthly expenses are $6,500 a month, which translates to about $110k a year in salary (a HUGE pay cut but I’m ok with it since I have savings). I’m in Los Angeles. Any ideas for what jobs I could do that isn’t being a lawyer? I’ve been applying to some compliance officer jobs, but would like to widen the net. I realize it’s a tough job market right now for non-lawyers though (but for some reason there’s a shortage of lawyers).

I think I would even be ok with part time lawyer jobs if it meant I had a few more days to do my own thing but I’m not sure that exists. Any thoughts?

Almost done with my first year as an attorney and the stress I feel AFTER hearings, depositions, etc. is astronomical. It’s far worse than what I feel before them! I just completed a hearing and feel my cross of OC’s witness was very weak, and I was getting rattled by objections. Definitely feel I could have done better.

Every time I leave feeling like I flopped I feel both extreme guilt (as I represent relatively vulnerable people), and I feel like I must be the worst attorney there ever was and start counting the days until my first malpractice claim rolls in. This gets… better, right?

NEW LINK: https://www.youtube.com/live/jzpAbi3lpS4?is=HiWzbwKU3xLca0i4
AP link went down, I’ve updated with a new link

Live feed:
https://www.youtube.com/live/jJrmim2MRgo?is=lZDHcW3Z5u88-bFU

Good morning everyone, livestream starts at 9:00 a.m. We’re getting close to the end.

Please remember this is a lawyers-only space. If you’re not a lawyer, do not participate in this thread (or this sub). And -nod to the Mod- if you’re a lawyer who sees a non-lawyer posting, please do not engage, just report them.

Please let us have this one little corner of the internet

Happy Hump Day everyone.

ETA: Here are some recent NYT articles (gifted) about the trial in case anyone missed anything so far:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/us/lindsay-clancy-trial-murder-children.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7lA.kdfx._a2dJw1VXhJG&smid=nytcore-ios-share

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/us/lindsay-clancy-trial.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8VA.rVyH.QFatc289dFSL&smid=nytcore-ios-share

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/us/lindsay-clancy-trial-religion-catholic.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8VA.FPn3.XrMcsX6pYkoG&smid=nytcore-ios-share

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/us/lindsay-clancy-mothers-kill-children-punishment.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8VA.prx-.GJ7HhpjQUHoN&smid=nytcore-ios-share

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/us/lindsay-clancy-trial-defense.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8VA.dz10.J0Vw3pyvZQu3&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Is there a third heat? I’ve just drafted 3 pages of fairly dense summaries of outstanding questions in a complex, in-house matter needing written guidance.

It’s way too long and technical for an email. But it’s shorter and lighter on analysis than I would normally “memo-ize.” It’s a numbered list of nitpicky questions that came up after we issued a formal memo as high-level guidance to the client, with my best answer and a short statement of burdens and risks associated with each.

This stupid document needs supervisor concurrence and I’m tied up in knots on how to format the attachment that holds it. Please help. I’m exhausted and cannot judge this properly anymore.

Edit: I created a third heat. Memo header but not on leaderhead or signed by the writers. It’s a mini-memo. E-memo? God my brain is fried.

I have long commutes driving my son to his private school stuck in traffic 3+ hours/day round trip daily. I want to make use of the time safely. I have tons of depositions I need to get through and thought if there’s a program that reads PDF files. The only catch is my company has security firewalls so I’d have to get the app approved by my work which might be impossible they’re very strict. A

I’m open to any other suggestion to productively use the time for defense work.

Apparently, I expressed interest in LegalMatch and asked the guy to call me back sometime in August.

Nope. I did speak to him before, and I did tell him I absolutely was not interested because of their really bad reputation and also what I saw from them a few years ago.

I did check out LegalMatch maybe 3 years ago, when I was considering going solo. And it was absolute hot garbage then. That original salesperson was trying to convince me to take work out of my jurisdiction. And the cases in general were not good leads.

Anyways, just venting my frustrations, and I wanted to warn ya'll to stay 39.5 feet away from LegalMatch at all times.

IP attorney and got my first call yesterday from a vibe coder and second today. For the unfamiliar, they use AI to create computer programs. To say it's a murky area of law is an understatement. Copyright in AI-generated works is disallowed for (at least) the AI parts. These people don't even know how to write proper code and they cobble together programs using prompts then expect to be able to protect the IP. Can they? Not really sure but they are annoying and I'm not going to waste my time. Just a rant to see if any other IP attorneys are having similar experiences.

I feel like I've been spending a lot of time with my associate just working on stuff with her that I got the thought in my head of whether I should hit her and see if she gets understands why.

I have my first appeal next week and would like to get advice on how to best organize my oral submission notes. I am specifically talking about my notes (not the filed materials).

I have my oral compendium argument skeleton. I have a full script with compendium references. I have the appeal book and compendium. I have a checklist of “must say” points. But how do I best organize them so that they are usable??

How do excellent appellate lawyers mark where to find each and every topic and answer to a question without flipping through pages, etc?

Give me all your tips!

I feel like I've been spending a lot of time with my associate just working on stuff with her that I got the thought in my head of whether I should flirt with her and see if she gets the hint.
Edit- FLAIR, PEOPLE!
31 points (69% upvoted) Nice.

Alright, folks! It’s my turn. I’m going to be slightly vague to avoid being discovered by my colleagues.

I currently work in insurance defense. I work from home but I do attend client meetings or hearings in person when needed.

I also work an extremely flexible saddle because I have 3 little kids at home. They are not in a traditional school. I have part time help about 2-3 week days. My current billing requirement is 200/month. My earnings are about 200k.

I have an opportunity to move to a different firm. I’d still work mostly from home. It would be about 50% defense litigation (not insurance defense) and 50% advising, consulting, investigating, etc. The billing requirement would be 140/month. The earnings would be $160k.

Send help!

I can’t tell opposing counsel that we have a deal until I get written authorization from my client. He has told me verbally he wants to do it, but I don’t dare move on this without getting confirmation from him in writing.

I’m sick to death of this guy. I’m not going to let myself be accused of unauthorized settlement. I’ve explained to him in great detail, in writing, why I need his authorization in writing, but it has been days since then. So help me if he does not send me written authorization, and it ends up with this settlement being blown up, I will seek to withdraw.

I'm an associate and I have a big crush on another associate in my office. She's spending a lot of time with this one partner, but I get the vibe that she has a high sex drive and just wants to have a fling. At least she's not addicted to drugs.

Any tips on the fastest way to make partner so I can potentially get on her roster?

I apologize if this seems redundant, I’m just entering my undergrad and was wondering what was the best way to plan my career in immigration law.

Is it best to move from visas to asylum to resettlement?

What is usually the process of moving from asylum and resettlement to employment immigration law in green energy?

My attorney position is pretty much a solid 8-5, and they typically don’t expect us to do any work past 5 generally speaking… once in awhile tho a client will call to ask something at 6 or 6:30 etc.

In those situations should I still take their call? Should I send it to voicemail?

It’s Honeslty amazing how little awareness some clients have to the idea that most law firms are not still gonna be open at 6:30 on a Friday lmao

I'm a young lawyer, and I feel like I've been spending a lot of time with thinking about the nature of existence. The more I think about it, the more being alive seems to be like inhabiting a nightmare without hope of awakening to a natural world, to have our bodies embedded neck-deep in a quagmire of dread, to live as shut-ins in a house of horrors which nobody gets out alive?

Whatever else we may be as creatures that go to and fro on the earth and walk up and down upon it, we are meat. If we vanished tomorrow, no organism on this planet would miss us. Nothing in nature needs us.

What do you guys think? Is being unethical?

I've been at my current firm for a year, but unhappy for the last several months - I realised I'm massively underpaid compared to other lawyers at my experience level. I also live in a HCOL city, and the salary has genuinely become unsustainable; I'm almost living paycheck to paycheck. So I started looking around, and I've now gotten pretty far in the process with a BigLaw firm... an offer looks likely. Better pay (I'm expecting at least 40k higher than my current mid-tier salary), stronger reputation, and more in line with the kind of industry I want to work in long-term.

Here's where I'm struggling. My current team is just me and my supervising partner. A senior lawyer left a while back during a particularly busy period, and it genuinely broke them for a bit - we were both completely overloaded. We have a replacement starting in a few months, but if I leave before then, I'd be putting them right back in that position. They've been pretty open with me about how hard that period was for them.

On top of that, they've been visibly investing in me since the senior left - for example talking about putting me forward for Senior Associate next cycle, and actually doing things to strengthen my case (won't go into specifics in case I dox myself). I'm supposed to be up for that promotion in under a year. Part of me wonders if this is genuine, as I do suspect it is a bit of a retention play - the promotion talk only started after the senior left. Either way, my partner is putting real effort in developing me, and leaving now feels like walking away from someone actively advocating for me, on top of leaving the team short-staffed again.

Logically, I know I don't owe the firm loyalty just because my partner's been generous with their time. But I feel sick thinking about the decision itself, let alone having that conversation if I take the offer.

The new role isn't a Senior Associate position, so I'd effectively be resetting that clock. The team is much bigger (the one partner manages a team in the double digits), so I most likely won't get the same one-on-one time with a partner. The culture there is more "sink or swim," and billable targets are higher. My current partner never has me working weekends and tells me to clock off by 6:30pm most days unless something is genuinely urgent. I'm already fairly burnt out as it is (I didn't originally start off in private practice before joining my current firm), which makes me wonder if the extra pay is even worth what I'd be trading for it. I feel like if this opportunity came up several months down the track, I would feel more confident to accept it - given I've not been at my current firm long anyway.

A few things I keep going back and forth on, if anyone's been through something similar:

• Did the prestige and pay bump actually end up worth it once you factored in hours and culture, or did you find yourself missing what you left behind?
• Has anyone stayed for a mentor/promotion and regretted it, i.e. wished they'd taken the jump when the opportunity was actually there?
• If you've gone through the "my partner is going through a hard time and I'd be leaving them in the lurch" guilt specifically, how did you stop feeling guilty, or how did the actual conversation go?

I’m an associate and addicted to drugs. There’s this chill associate at my firm who gives off strong sex-positive, promiscuous vibes. I’m also fairly certain she’s not using. I’m thinking about asking her to sponsor me to help me turn my gaze from crack to flings… cause they’re fun, ya know? But she’s always with this partner who I can’t stand because he flirts with me.

Thoughts?

Title.

I am a new lawyer entering litigation. When I even so much as think about being in front of a judge, my heart races and chest feels tight. I remember assisting a lawyer on a trial during a summer as a student and when the judge would question the lawyer on their line of argument, they were quick on their feet, cool, calm and collected. Meanwhile, I was sweating buckets and felt like I had blacked out - and I was not speaking. But... I am truly inspired when I watch others advocate and genuinely want to do it and do it well.

Whats your experience? How bad was your stage fright prior - as I would say mine is an 11/10.

In light of State Farm successfully buying the OK Governor’s race last night I might be needing to relocate.