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Yes I did. It’s only been a month and I still feel like I’m drowning but I’ve been told that is to be expected for 6 months until I get my footing. Not having the billable hour pressure is very nice though and the days go by very fast.
If you don’t have PI experience but you have Client experience, I can mold you to an attorney who might be beneficial to the system that works for us, PI experience isn’t always necessary
Yeah, though after just one year of biglaw and a clerkship. It's worked out so far, but I'm in a mass tort group where I mostly don't work on hundreds of individual cases (it's mostly for leadership in mass actions).
It's been great so far. A bit more work than biglaw, but more opportunity too.
I did. 5 years into my career I left a pretty solid ID position doing mostly legal malpractice defense to open my own PI shop, thinking I was going to be a high-flying PI trial lawyer banking tons of cash in no time. Wrong.
The biggest shock and difference you’ll feel is not getting a predictable stream of income (at least at first). That steady paycheck is worth more than many think because it regulates your personal finances and you don’t get a stress complex that otherwise sets in from burning through your savings and racking up credit card debt as you front litigation costs for often ungrateful PI clients rolling the dice on your dime and up front labor.
Unless and until you get a steady rhythm of quality cases (quality cases are hard to come by at first too) and work them up correctly to create substantial risk for the defense, and have tens of thousands of dollars (minimum) in-play to front litigation costs all the way through to verdict on your cases which can easily be defensed still at trial (meaning you lose all your money invested in the case not to mention your time), you can easily flame out on a PI practice.
I survived 8 years doing it with peaks and valleys before going back to ID, at first to a firm and then on my own. But I got paid steadily even on my own because the fee structure is hourly and you get paid after regular invoicing every 30, 60, or 90 days depending on the client.
I don’t regret the journey as a PI lawyer though. I tried to verdict several jury trials which wouldn’t have happened as an associate at an ID firm. I had a few very rewarding cases. I learned to run a small business. I also would not have developed as much perspective of tort litigation in general. Those experiences served me very well when I went back to ID both at a firm and again running my own defense practice.
It can be done successfully. I know a few lawyers that transitioned and are doing very well, but I know of some that tried and were wrecked financially inside of 3 years. Plan very carefully and understand it’s an extremely competitive marketplace in terms of landing decent PI cases, and whatever money you think a case will cost to work up and try … double it.