What is the best means to have a job?
Carefully choose your company, or have other choices in mind. We are lucky to practice law at a time when flex-time and part-time schedules are choices in several law firms. However, every firm is different, and it is important to understand what's going to work for your company. It will be challenging to set the precedent if there are not any flex-time or part-time lawyers in a firm. But if there are attorneys with flex-time or part-time schedules in a firm, you have a proven framework but potential mentors. Be aware that flex-time and part-time arrangements while working for in-house legal sections, or even might be more difficult in smaller businesses, government positions.
What do you like most about your job? Least?
As with the majority of immigration companies, we charge virtually every situation on a flat-fee basis rather than on an hourly one. And that's freed up us from the shackles of the billable hour. Efficiency judged us because they are educated and clients and results usually do not argue about their bills.
Was there anything that you wished you'd have done otherwise in law school that you didn't realize before you began to practice?
I wish I had dealt with my discomfort over talking to people around, and asking them for, cash. When I first opened my clinic to speak to customers about money and ask them write me a fairly large check, it was quite uncomfortable. I had read Jay Foonberg's book, How to begin and Build a Law Practice, which had tips. However, I wish I'd worked with a cash coach (or even done role playing with buddies) to get over my discomfort of saying, "The retainer inside this thing is X, and I can't begin work without it." Practice saying this till it feels like second nature, if you do nothing else.
Can you see a bias against individuals who attend law school later in life?
In summary, yes, later-in-life pupils can sometimes feel a little out of place with the younger crowd. However they also have a distinct advantage that most of the pupils don't--a life in the rear-view mirror. That expertise will assist from day one in law school. Professors will rely on and seek out those students to draw on that knowledge along with the established work ethic of the student. Afterward, as soon as a résumé is reviewed by a law firm in the student that is later-in-life, it will have confidence the graduate is ready beyond the world and ready to add value to its clients and the company. Go forth and conquer, no matter what period in life you made a decision to make your way to this profession.
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