Family Law Forum

[Anonymous User]

Referring to large city in flyover country.

Was referring to uncontested divorces, typical fee I saw were around $500. I am guessing you are at a pretty well regarded firm if you are getting several divorce cases at $3k+. 99% of the people I talked to were barely able to afford the $3-700 for boilerplate documents in an uncontested divorce. I agree that $1500 is basically the minimum for anything contested.

I wonder if your jurisdiction has different requirements that lower the attorney fees. For example, if you have mandatory mediation or certain procedures that encourage a policy of mediated divorces (including waiting periods, etc.), then you're going to have fewer contested proceedings and a much less adversarial process, which means less $$ for lawyers.

In my jurisdiction, everyone waives voluntary mediation and proceeds to take off their gloves. I've had a contested hearing over $300 in household items. It's interesting. I enjoy my family law practice, but I wouldn't want it to be all (or even half) of my practice.

This might sound bad but I have to ask, how much money do you make doing family law?

[vandalvideo]

The cool thing about doing family law, and what drew me to it, is that whatever you are doing is usually the most important thing in your client's life. You really are helping people. It's not like some of my corporate or government clients where whatever I work on may be important, but only within the context of a 9-5, and some of it is pretty damned uninteresting to boot.

True enough. I will say this; the first time you have a juvenile's parents give you a great big hug for saving their child from the system there is nothing like it. Family Law is a practice of emotions. You either feel like a king for helping a family out, or feel like the spawn of satan for seeing a father lose his rights over spanking the child the wrong way. Have to have the stomach for this job.

[smallfirmassociate]

Referring to large city in flyover country.

Was referring to uncontested divorces, typical fee I saw were around $500. I am guessing you are at a pretty well regarded firm if you are getting several divorce cases at $3k+. 99% of the people I talked to were barely able to afford the $3-700 for boilerplate documents in an uncontested divorce. I agree that $1500 is basically the minimum for anything contested.

I wonder if your jurisdiction has different requirements that lower the attorney fees. For example, if you have mandatory mediation or certain procedures that encourage a policy of mediated divorces (including waiting periods, etc.), then you're going to have fewer contested proceedings and a much less adversarial process, which means less $$ for lawyers.

In my jurisdiction, everyone waives voluntary mediation and proceeds to take off their gloves. I've had a contested hearing over $300 in household items. It's interesting. I enjoy my family law practice, but I wouldn't want it to be all (or even half) of my practice.

This might sound bad but I have to ask, how much money do you make doing family law?

Depends. Is it your entire practice, or is it just filling space?

A good family law practice is more profitable than a lot of other areas, including insurance defense and personal injury. The work is less predictable and flexible than other work, though, such as estate planning and certain other general practice transactional work. If you're only doing family law, you're probably going to have a hard time remaining efficient, focused, and motivated over 1500+ hours per year.

The key is to find a rhythm where you can be profitable at all times, and if you have selective family law cases that can fill in the gaps, it can make a valuable part of a strong client portfolio. The top family law cases in a given jurisdiction can be remarkably profitable.

I know attorneys who make $120k per year (low cost of living - $250+k per year in NYC) doing predominately family law. I actually know a couple making close to $1m flyover ($2.5m+ NYC) doing family law, but they are rare. I know quite a few lawyers who do maybe 25% family law, use it as a complement to a general practice, and who make $150k - $200k per year ($300k - 500k per year NYC dollars).

When you're getting paid to do discovery, write form motions, draft basic petitions, etc., a lot of it is secretary work that the attorney is just reviewing, so there's definitely some efficient billing opportunities there.

[Anonymous User]

That sounds great! I'd also like to add bankruptcy if I could but I was told to stay away from too many practice areas (I heard it was best to find 1 or 2). What would you recommend as a good complement to family law?

[kwabbs]

Can you share your family law experience? Why are you doing it? Is the pay good? How did you get the job?

I kind of just fell into Family Law. Did Child Crimes for the DOJ my 1L summer, Clerked for a JDR judge my 1L Spring, and externed for a GAL my 3L Spring. I managed to get a consulting gig for a small firm on Custody and Visitation cases, and used that to get another firm to agree to mentor me for my GAL qualifications. Then I was able to get on the court appointed list for civil commitment hearings by walking into the Clerk's Office and asking nicely.

It was just a bunch of networking really, and none of my peers in my graduating class focused on Family Law. You'd be surprised how many shitlawyers are surprised when I tell them I like the field. I'm currently specialized in UCCJEA and treaty law on cross-jurisdictional custody issues.

Cash flow is sporadic though. I can make 2K a week from just commitment hearings though.

I do it because I have a passion for child advocacy.

I know there's another thread on TLS specifically for this and I don't mean to hijack, but could you go over what your weekly schedule looks like? What do most of your cases consist of? How many actually revolve around child advocacy? I am very interested in family law..