SoCal Insurance Defense Associate Taking Questions for the Day Forum

[Mr. Jones]

2nd year associate who works at a midish size firm (170) attorneys where I am part of the insurance defense practice group; particularly, workers' compensation and subrogation. I graduated from a local school in the top third of my class and got the job shortly after taking the Bar Exam. I'll be taking questions for the day.

[hangtime813]

Thanks for doing this.

How's the compensation? Do a lot of people lateral into bigger firms?

[Mr. Jones]

Compensation is good, not Biglaw Civil litigation good (we also don't have the hours), but still good. Most insurance defense has a fairly low base salary (90-100k) for 2nd years with bonuses based upon hours billed. Keep in mind, insurance defense work is easy billing--much easier than civil. So, a good associate who knows how to bill can make 30-50k in bonuses per year depending on the firm. So, back to my original point, not biglaw good, but still very good especially considering quality of life etc.

Some do lateral to larger firms, but we more often see people coming from Biglaw to us. We get a fair amount of biglaw refugees if you will looking for more hands on experience, better hours, more autonomy. Insurance defense gives a lot of responsibility early on because the individual cases are relatively small. So, it's easy to give first year associates depositions, court conferences, simple trials, etc.

[TheBlueWarriors]

Hi. Thanks for writing about this. When you say that you do insurance defense, you mentioned workers' comp. Do you do civil insurance defense, like auto-accidents representing the insured in Superior Court or are you doing WC before the WCAB? Or do you do both?

[Mr. Jones]

Hi. Thanks for writing about this. When you say that you do insurance defense, you mentioned workers' comp. Do you do civil insurance defense, like auto-accidents representing the insured in Superior Court or are you doing WC before the WCAB? Or do you do both?

I do WC before the WCAB and occasionally subrogation in superior court. We have a civil insurance defense department that does auto accidents, slip & falls, you name it. There is some ability to move between the two, just depending on preference.

[pianoman4]

You mentioned that the hours aren't as bad as BigLaw. Could you go into more detail? How many hours per week/per month do you typically work?

[Mr. Jones]

You mentioned that the hours aren't as bad as BigLaw. Could you go into more detail? How many hours per week/per month do you typically work?

It varies. Kind of a cop-out answer, I know. But, it varies because some months are "worth" more than others where I work due to bonuses (the same is true at many other firms with similar practice areas). For instance, a few months ago I was working 60+ hour weeks to make a bunch of extra bonus $. But, this month I am working maybe 25 hour weeks to take some time to recuperate and enjoy the end of summer.

On average, I think most of the WC attorneys are working 35-45 hours per week with some big variations depending on bonus structures etc, depending on the week. Even on a daily basis things change dramatically though because we are at the appeals boards so often, so some days you may only work 4 hours and be home by 11:30 others you may be working 14 hours and sitting in traffic. It all depends. Fridays are generally empty of attorneys in our office though. The civil litigation departments, not so.