Plantiff Law Forum
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Godfather
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Fri Jan 21, 2011 8:05 pm
Plantiff Law
What is the usual path to being a successful plantiff lawyer, possibly starting a solo practice? Can you practice Personal Injury at a biglaw firm?
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Holly Golightly
- Posts: 4602
- Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:30 am
Re: Plantiff Law
Knowing how to spell "plaintiff" is usually a good start.
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ArchRoark
- Posts: 1000
- Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2010 2:53 pm
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AtlasNYC
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2011 5:05 am
Re: Plantiff Law
Lol ok that was pretty funny, but seriously, how do you go about being a "plaintiff" attorney
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Eugenie Danglars
- Posts: 2353
- Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:04 pm
Re: Plantiff Law
John Grisham's King of Torts says you need to work for five years at the Office of Public Defenders, then get really, really lucky.
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A'nold
- Posts: 3617
- Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2008 9:07 pm
Re: Plantiff Law
Credited.Eugenie Danglars wrote:John Grisham's King of Torts says you need to work for five years at the Office of Public Defenders, then get really, really lucky.
Seriously, plaintiff's firms are abundant and you can probably land some internships before you graduate. I worked for a boutique PI/Civil Rights firm last summer and it was a blast. If I didn't need IBR so badly I'd almost certainly be working in PI out of law school.
P.S.- I've talked about this quite a bit over the past year or so on here. If you can resurrect some of my old threads you will definitely find some useful info. It's a great field that is unjustifiably crapped on for various reasons.
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SteelReserve
- Posts: 299
- Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:46 pm
Re: Plantiff Law
Do your best to secure plaintiff-firm clerkships during law school; go for a trial level civil clerkship post-grad; do all kinds of networking events; let everyone know you are a plaintiff lawyer.
The plaintiff field is overcrowded like most of law, and it's very difficult to get the good cases. The way most plaintiff attorneys generate business is through referrals from other attorneys, not through advertising or relying on your own personal network of friends/family.
So the best thing to do is to network with other attorneys, go to bar functions etc. Going solo after law school is NOT a good way to become a plaintiff attorney because you will never drum up enough business and you will end up doing the vast majority of work where the business is, which is principally family law.
Also, a lot of plaintiff attorneys start in insurance defense since the salary is often better than entry-level personal injury (think 50-70k vs. 45-60k in Plaintiff work), and then ultimately after a handful of years they flip to a good plaintiff firm if they demonstrate they can bring in business. Top level plaintiff attorneys can indeed clear 500k to millions per year, but they are literally at the top of the game and it will take at least a decade to get that level.
Finally, realize civil cases rarely go to trial, so the real way to get good is through settlement negotiation skills and intelligent motion practice.
The plaintiff field is overcrowded like most of law, and it's very difficult to get the good cases. The way most plaintiff attorneys generate business is through referrals from other attorneys, not through advertising or relying on your own personal network of friends/family.
So the best thing to do is to network with other attorneys, go to bar functions etc. Going solo after law school is NOT a good way to become a plaintiff attorney because you will never drum up enough business and you will end up doing the vast majority of work where the business is, which is principally family law.
Also, a lot of plaintiff attorneys start in insurance defense since the salary is often better than entry-level personal injury (think 50-70k vs. 45-60k in Plaintiff work), and then ultimately after a handful of years they flip to a good plaintiff firm if they demonstrate they can bring in business. Top level plaintiff attorneys can indeed clear 500k to millions per year, but they are literally at the top of the game and it will take at least a decade to get that level.
Finally, realize civil cases rarely go to trial, so the real way to get good is through settlement negotiation skills and intelligent motion practice.
