Tales from a Lawyer
#1 stories from when I was a young lawyer.
I changed where I was planning to take the bar exam at the last minute. I had planned to return to my home state of California, though not my hometown. A lawyer friend in San Diego promised me a job at his 20 person firm. I really love San Diego and looked to living there for the rest of my life.
Unfortunately, I was graduating in a recession and lawyer jobs were scarce. I went to an alumni dinner in Anaheim during winter break my third year and the six lawyers at my table were unemployed. And then my friend told me there was no job in San Diego for me as his firm had collapsed and was only 2 attorneys.
Plan B suddenly came about talking with some friends. They talked about where they were headed and how it was the land of opportunity. I late applied for the bar there and went onwards.
I passed on my first time but didn't have a job yet. I moved to town and one of my friends connected me to a small firm. Off I went, ignorant as could be but ready to go to war for clients.
Law school does not teach people how to be lawyers. It is a socialization process to get people to think like lawyers. You really don't learn to any extent what to do.
Here is a secret: most lawyers, even very experienced ones, are faking it to one degree or another. They fake confidence and act like they know what they are doing. Even when they do, many are scared to death.
Anyway I started at this small hole in the wall practice. We had 4 attorneys including me. The owner was in his mid 30s and a smooth talker, but admitted to me he really was a poor attorney. He was very good at self promotion and getting people to hire him though.
My first day was memorable. I was to 3rd chair a murder case. Our client, an older black woman, claimed it was all an accident. And it might have been. Except that she had a prior death case that she claimed self defense or something.
I was really looking forward to being involved in a death case my very first day. Instead, my boss suddenly told me that I needed to drive over to another courthouse and represent a new client on an in-custody initial arrangement. I was told to just show up and it would all work out.
I struggled to find the “courthouse”. It was in an annex to the building in trailers. Nothing fancy at all. I walked in and told them my client's name, well the small amount I had of his name, and made my appearance. My client showed up on video and didn't know who I was. I quickly explained and that was that. My client was arraigned. Pre-trial was set. And I had done my first solo appearance.
I went back to the office afterwards and was put right to work. I shadowed an older veteran attorney to a couple courts to see what to do and I was doing everything on my own after a day.
The firm was a typical low level consumer oriented practice, doing criminal, divorce, bankruptcy, and personal injury. If you have watched Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, you have seen a similar operation.
I very much enjoyed it. It was brash, it was wild, it was crazy. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. And I did very well.
After a month, my boss came to me and said, “I am letting [veteran attorney] go. I am giving you all his work. Can you do it?” I said yes. This other attorney has been practicing for over 25 years. He was very knowledgeable. He also had a lot of vices and was a complete mess.
I was green. He was paying me a lot less. And I was bold enough to just go with it.
I ended up having so must experience from that job. My first trial was a custody trial between two teenagers. It was really about their parents. I really was getting the father to look awful. After 2 hours, opposing asked for a break and talked with me in the hall. He was a 10 year attorney and a pretty good one. He worked at a very posh firm with serious reputation. He acknowledged that I was willing. And then said, “I am going to have to pull out some real dirt to save the case. The only likely result then would be neither gets custody, especially once I bring up drugs and neglect and possible abuse.”
We ended up settling up custody completely split. We knew our clients were not really going to watching the child, anyway. It had been the grandmothers fighting and neither wanted to lose the kid. Worked out just fine.
To be continued….