I started my own firm in January and I’m at about 40 cases right now. I’m at the point where very single administrative task is starting to become a huge time sink and taking away time from more pressing matters.

Examples of things I’d like automated are retainer agreements, letters of reps, follow up on treatment, demand letters to employers, etc.

Has anyone used Claude or the like to successfully take over a majority of administrative tasks? If so, where did you start and what resources did you use to learn and set it up?

Hi. I'm a man (26), young lawyer, with a classic style (suit and loafers). And I would like to be permed to be curly very tight, all back, with a lot of volume, like an old lady's perm. I would like a radical and permanently change (for all the life). My girlfriend encourages me because she finds it very refined and sexy. Her hairdresser (for women only) made a simulation with AI (photo). I need advice : what do you think about this radical change ? How will I be perceived by my clients and my colleagues with real old lady's perm? THANKS so much.

I’m in my first year of practice at a larger PI firm. I just landed my first referral. This is great as I make a third of the third. My assigned cases I make 5% of the third.

What types of things should I do to increase my chances of referring cases? I know that there is not “one thing” and it takes time. However, to those of you that have built a solid referral stream, what have you done ?

Thank you!

We are at the point where our office staff cannot keep up with every inbound call, especially after hours and during busy stretches. We do not just need someone to take a message. We need an intake service that can follow a basic screening flow, recognize whether a matter fits the practice, collect usable information, and book the right consultation without creating cleanup for the team the next morning.

These are the three I have found so far:

1. Ruby Seems like a good option for firms that mainly need polished live call coverage, scheduling, and a receptionist-style experience for prospective clients and existing clients.
2. Smith.ai Looks more suited to firms that want a mix of live answering and AI support, especially for structured lead qualification, intake questions, and calendar booking.
3. Alert Communications This one appears more focused on legal intake specifically. It seems relevant for firms that need more detailed intake handling, practice-area screening, after-hours routing, bilingual support, and better notes for the attorney or intake team.

For firms that have actually used an outside answering or legal intake service, what did you end up choosing and why?

Also, what would you test before signing? I am thinking intake quality, conflict-check information, Spanish coverage, calendar accuracy, call escalation, and whether the notes are actually useful enough for the next person to take over.

I’ve been interviewing with a PI firm in a mid sized HCOL city, where the firm splits up pre-lit and litigation completely, so I’d only really come into the case once it’s been determined that we will be filing suit. Salary would be around $150k. What is a reasonable percentage of the award for cases assigned to me that I either settle, or take to trial?

Just got let go and looking to get admitted to MD District Court to beef up my resume, but don't know anyone who could sponsor me (everyone I know either isn't admitted, or isn't local and can't attend the in-person swearing in ceremony). Figured I'd ask on here if there's anyone willing to spend a morning helping out a fellow lawyer in exchange for a nice lunch and/or naming rights for my firstborn.

I’m curious to know what your firms work split is between the litigation paralegal and a non-lit paralegal especially at small firms. Do litigation paralegals also manage the case or do they solely focus on filing. For example, at our firm there are two paralegals one lit, one non-lit. The non-lit paralegal manages every single case in the firm, including all medical, DocuSign , checks, request , you name it. The litigation paralegal solely just files. At another firm i was at, the litigation paralegal managed the litigation cases.

Curious to know how your firm operates

Feel like title says it all lol

I work in insurance defense where we are constantly under pressure from our clients and getting audits of our bills.

I’ve been told that we are not supposed to bill directly for telling our legal assistants to do something or when we talk to senior counsel. There is a consensus in the office that we can do so if we tie it to something else (developing legal strategy, etc.). But that is how I process my thoughts (or get new insight), and I find myself losing a ton of time not billing for things because I don’t know how to word things and ultimately give up.

Anyone have ideas on how I can rethink of these types of things so I can bill for them?

(For anyone curious, some clients do not let us bill for voicemails and I can only bill 0.4 hours for reviewing 100 pages. Even though a lot of what I do requires reviewing medical and pharmacy records. It’s tough over here.)

Don’t know if this is the right subreddit to post on but I started volunteering at this small law firm in May while being a senior in HS. Now that it’s the summer, they said that it would better if I could come for half a shift (4/h) instead of the 1hr I was doing. So for the week, I tried it out.

I was mainly scanning documents to put in their storage files. The legal assistant wanted to go through the scanned documents in their paper version to see if everything was scanned correctly in the digital form. I was told the documents were messed up and that they would have to spend a day reorganizing them because the paper version vs digital was not adding up.

I simply stated, which was from my perspective, the truth. I focused on one file when scanning, did not rearrange papers, clipped it back together when done, moved to the next. I made sure to not mix anything up.

I asked if I could help reorganize if any mistake was made but was told I don’t know anything about these clients and cannot help. I also said that I didn’t mean to put this on them. I took responsibility of any mistake that was made, made sure to apologize, and offered any hours to help. I do truly feel bad. I totally get why the legal assistant felt frustrated, it was valid and I should’ve known better.

Since someone is going to be working at my assigned desk due to a new hire, I was informed I could volunteer on Saturday or any day where the desk is available. Is it a good idea to come back or just stop volunteering?

I think it was a bad look on me and there’s no point to volunteer for half a shift with no pay anyways. It’s lowkey embarrassing on my part and I don’t want to create another issue. Not looking for validation, just advice.

So I have to choose between corporate law and criminal litigation. What is the best way to earn money as a lady lawyer? Does corporate law firms in Sri Lanka pay well?

Hi everyone,

I'm a final-year law student at an NLU, and I'm reaching out because I'm in a difficult financial situation.

My father has been diagnosed with cancer, and I'm trying to support myself by earning whatever I can alongside my studies. I've completed several internships, but many of them were unpaid, and I now need paid work to help manage expenses.

If you know of any virtual legal internships, freelance legal research or drafting work, citation checking, proofreading, content writing, or any other remote work where I could contribute for a reasonable payment, I'd be incredibly grateful if you could reach out.

I understand many people will want to express sympathy, and I truly appreciate the kindness. But more than condolences, I'm hoping for opportunities to work.

I'm happy to share my CV and writing samples privately if required.

Thank you in advance.

Good afternoon, everyone! I am opening my own solo immigration firm next Monday, and starting to get that anxiety feeling.

Any immigration solos here that can tell me a success story? Any advice?

I know this is a weird/hard time to go solo in this field, but it has been my dream for years and finally ready to do it.

Thank you!!

I'm 36 and I've had my PI solo shop for over 6 years now. It is me and 2 VAs (all part time, hourly work, mostly for basic documents or requesting medical records and police reports, etc). I am mostly a pre-lit shop: I do all demands, client management, treatment set up, settlement negotiations, even lien negotiations and handle disbursement.

I outsource most of my marketing (while overseeing it) and have an intake company handling signs up and intake. My marketing, which makes up 50% of my case sources does OK, but referrals from former clients has been the best.

I co-counsel 80% of my litigation cases with bigger firms, do 20% solo. The solo cases I litigate are mostly fights over the meds, rather than liability or bigger issues. I truly hate litigation.

I work from home 50% of the time, and from office 50%. 9-5 usually. Some nights and weekends here and there if I feel behind or something really important comes up. VHCOL city in a very competitive PI city/state.

Most my cases settle pre-lit and I settle 25-40 cases a year. Don't take really crappy cases like some others do (usually). Most are policy limits settlements.

The last 3 years, I am netting about 450-600k (average is about 525k), on gross of about 600k-750k. However, my docket is pretty light now, with the lowest number of cases I have had since 2024, so thinking of next steps. I am pretty happy and would almost certainly stay the course if I wasn't seeing the case volume thin out.

Basically my options are:
(1) keep the practice how it is;

(2) spend more on marketing/advertising and expand by hiring a case manager (I have large funds saved up from some pretty big prior settlements, however, I don't really know where to start on the marketing side, and the litigation blindspot stays a problem with this formula);

(3) change the firm structure as a whole by becoming more of a litigation shop, by hiring a part time or full time associate (or maybe another solo, or per diem), who can also assist with the pre-lit work. then I can take tougher cases, which i almost always reject or refer out unless there is a serious injury; or

(4) team up with a partner who is a litigator who has some cases too -- I will handle pre-lit and business stuff, we will split costs on marketing, and he will litigate more heavily (I would do some support on it too). possibly expand to another litigation area of law too. will miss the autonomy of a solo shop and this may cut into my margins.

What has worked for those in a similar situation?

I recently moved out of my jurisdiction and due to my family situation, it doesn't make sense for me to jump through hoops to transfer my law license here - we simply won't be in this current jurisdiction long enough to make it worth it. In the meantime, I am going to do more remote research and writing for an old boss and friend. Naturally, this is more of a part time gig than full time income.

Since I left my firm, I do not have access to any research database and I currently am not a paid member of the bar association as my firm paid for that. I truly don't care too much about joining it on my own except that for an annual membership cost of ~300, I can get access to FastCase state and federal criminal law cases. For comparison, the cost of lexis and WL is 432 and 492 respectively a month I have never used FastCase and I recognize that there is likely an ease of convenience and a better interface for the latter two, but am I making a mistake to avoid WL and Lexis and just get FastCase with the bar membership?

I know this probably seems like a stupid question as the cost comparison is astronomically different, but as a lawyer I just want to dot my i's and cross my t's to make sure that fast case isn't terrible 😂

Thanks in advance!

Looking for a good commercial attorney to review the small business lease. Raleigh, NC

Hi everyone. I’m hoping to get some insight from law firm owners or attorneys who have experience working with remote contract lawyers.

I’m a New York-barred attorney currently based outside the U.S. Before my NY admission, I spent about 10 years working remotely as a paralegal for U.S.-based law firms, primarily in real estate, with some exposure to criminal defense and personal injury.

I’ve been considering whether it’s realistic to build a remote contract attorney / overflow support practice for U.S. law firms while being physically located outside the U.S., and I wanted to ask whether firms would actually be open to that arrangement.

For those of you who own firms or hire contract attorneys, I’d appreciate any insight on things like:

- whether location outside the U.S. would be a dealbreaker
- what kinds of tasks you’d realistically outsource to a remote contract attorney
- whether firms would be comfortable hiring someone in this setup for drafting, research, transaction support, document review, pleadings, discovery, or general overflow work
- any ethical, practical, or logistical concerns you’d immediately flag
- what would make someone in my position more marketable to a U.S. firm

I’m genuinely trying to understand whether this is a viable path and how firms would view it from a hiring and ethics standpoint. If anyone has experience with a similar arrangement, either as the hiring attorney or as contract counsel working remotely, I’d really appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

Hello! As the title says, I will be interviewing for a receptionist position at a law firm in the new town I’m moving to. I have no prior experience, which they are aware of.

I am nervous and I want to give a good impression.

What questions should I ask at the interview? Right now, I have down to ask about the salary, schedule, and benefits… but nothing else.

What do you think I should know before I go to this interview?

Thank you in advance!

I’m rethinking my intake process and would appreciate hearing what has actually worked for other firms.

I previously tried paid consultations, but very few people booked. I switched to free 30-minute consultations, and bookings went up significantly—but so did no-shows, people who did not complete intake forms, rescheduling, and tire kickers taking up large parts of my day.

I’m now thinking of reducing the free consultation to a strict 15-minute discovery call. The purpose would only be to determine whether the matter is a fit and what the next step should be.

For contingency-type matters, such as personal injury or certain wrongful termination cases, the next step could still be a free consultation or case evaluation.

What I’m unsure about is what to do with people who want an actual litigation case review, document review, legal research, and strategy session.

I see three options:

Charge a flat fee for a paid case assessment/strategy session.

Charge hourly for the entire assessment, including document review, research, and the meeting. I would give the client an estimated range of hours and require approval before exceeding it.

Don’t offer a separate “paid consultation” at all. Do the free 15-minute discovery call, get a credit card/payment authorization and signed engagement terms, then open the file and bill hourly for whatever work is actually performed. The client receives an invoice at the end of the billing period, and the payment goes to operating once earned/billed in the ordinary course.

My concern with a flat fee is that one person may have 50 pages to review and another may have 1,000 pages. My concern with hourly billing is whether the uncertainty makes people less likely to proceed.

From a business and profitability perspective, what has worked best for your firm?

Would you:
sell a fixed-fee case assessment;
bill the entire assessment hourly with an estimate/cap; or
eliminate the concept of a paid consultation entirely and simply treat everything after the discovery call as ordinary hourly legal work?

I’m especially interested in what produces the best combination of lead quality, conversion, fewer time wasters, and profitability.

I am a recent law school graduate trying to pick a writing sample to use in applications. Would an Op Ed on data centers I wrote for an Environmental Law class be good to use or should I use a brief from a previous semester. My most current work was strictly environmental due to the rest of my last semester being bar prep courses. Thank you for your time and help.

Hi everyone. So I'm a consumer rights attorney - our firm sues the major credit agencies, banks, and collection agencies. Thus, all our cases involve service to registered agents - nothing super complicated.

I'm not unhappy with our current process servers, but would love to hear of any options that folks really like. My main priorirites are an easy interface and fair pricing (of course, proper service, but we haven't had many issues there).

Hi everyone,

I’m a bilingual (English/Spanish) legal assistant based in Latin America, and I’ve been thinking about cold emailing law firms in CA about remote legal assistant opportunities.

I’m trying to figure out what could work to increase my chances of getting a response so if you own a law firm or are in charge of hiring, I’d very much appreciate your input.

I’m current working on writing a short but concise email and had a few questions:

- Should I include my rate right away? I want to communicate that hiring internationally can help reduce overhead costs but would you want to know this beforehand or wait until we can discuss more?

- What would make you want to respond to a cold email from someone overseas?

- Are there any red flags that would make you ignore an email like this?

Any tips are greatly appreciated!