- law dawg
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With bar exam results coming out today, we though we would ask you all for your tips and advice for someone newly admitted to the bar in Nevada. What does some brand new to the practice of law need to know to succeed? What do you wish someone had told you?
Sad news: Attorney Travis Brandt died.
I’m so sorry for your loss
Even though you can, I advise that you do not hang your shingle tomorrow and work for yourself. You do not realize how much you do not know or the responsibility of it all. Take a couple of years and learn. Be humble and teachable. I wish all a great Friday and good luck with whatever path you find yourself on today.
True or false with regard to passive aggressive legal writing: [sic] > per my last email.
I saw a [sic] yesterday that repeatedly pointed out a misspelled last name, and the [sic] wasn’t even quoting anything.
Using sic doesn’t necessarily mean you’re quoting something. But if dude put it every time that name was in the document, that’s dumb and distracting. A footnote would have sufficed.
Unless the mistake has some legal significance, I generally just fix the mistake in [brackets]. We all make mistakes and it’s usually just a distraction. But when I was clerking there was a case where someone said something like “the class action lawyer’s penultimate duty is protecting the class” and my judge thought it was such a funny mistake – what’s the ultimate duty then?? – that he made me leave it in with sic.
Hah. That’s what people get for using words they don’t understand.
I love a good use of penultimate. This, however, was not one
I agree to a point. However we had a case a year ago in which Plaintiff sued a variety of defendants which included a father and son. Plaintiff would repeatedly refer to acts by father as acts by son and vice versa. We did not use [sic], but we did demonstrably point out each and every mistake of identity in their moving papers.
I can’t believe I have been doing this crap for 19 years and probably have another 19 years before I can even think about retirement, whatever that will look like in 19 years. I feel badly for the folks who just passed the bar and have chosen this profession.
Let me guess: You’re a litigator, correct?
Being a lawyer sucks but every decent paying job sucks. All told, being a lawyer is better than the alternatives and I’m grateful for the privilege.
Being a lawyer is great, still is after 40 years. Congratulations to those passing the bar.
My advice is to stay away from, and don’t listen, to the people who are deep into negativity. Going negative is really easy, but it sours your attitude and abilities.
I agree that negativity and comparison, in the law or in any part of your life, can make an otherwise happy and content person miserable. It has nothing to do with the law, have you ever met someone working the counter at the golf course who didn’t act like he wanted to jump in front of a bus? He works at a damn golf course, gets unlimited free golf and the place is only open when there is light outside!
I had a few years for self pity and negativity….get some help and you will see the law can be an amazing career. 19 years in litigation and excited for the next 19.
Here is my annual advice to newbies. Get a mentor who practices law in the way that you want to be practicing law ten years from now. Someone who matches your demeanor, ethics, style, etc. They do not have to be in your firm but must robustly guide you so much more than what the State Bar believed the TIP program provided.
I have been practicing for 5 years and this is the single biggest piece of advice I give to everyone who is newly admitted (and something I searched for right away). There is an ocean of money in this profession. Don’t chase the money right away. Work for a lawyer who you tremendously respect and be a sponge. Mentorship is the most important part when starting out.
How would a new attorney go about that? I guess I was lucky and found my mentors in my first firm. I wouldn’t even know where to begin or how to approach a lawyer from another firm to ask about mentorship. Or, are you envisioning something more informal, like the occasional lunch?
I guess that if you can afford it, don’t take the first job that comes along. Feel like you are comfortable with those people because you will be spending a whole lot of time there for the next couple months.
Just try your best to know the law. Too often I meet people who don’t really know what they’re doing. I get that more than 80% of this is business, negotiation, client interaction, and drafting orders/contracts/demand letters, whatever, but make some time to keep up with your area of law.
Its better to know procedure than the law. I have literally gained thousands of advantages over lesser OCs by knowing and sticking to procedure like a pitbull.
Like it or not, just as many cases are won on procedure as on the law or the facts.
Tips and Advice For New Admittee: It is not too late to take your uncle up on that offer for an apprenticeship in the Electrical Union. Far less stress, and the pay is good. And the Electrical Union is a hell of a lot more protective of its members than our Union (Nevada Bar) is of its members.
Protective hahaha I’m crying hahaha His Majesty Hooge protective? Tears literally on my cheeks wow
Will the uncle accept women too? more than half of attorneys are women.
What advice do you have for our law clerk who has failed the bar 3 times and is not looking forward to 3:05 p.m. today?
Find a better mentoring position than they currently have.
Advise them it’s time to pick another career path.
I have not worked at a firm that gives a third chance. Strike 2 and you are gone, but I have only seen that twice.
This was me 15 years or so ago.
I’d tell myself- if you don’t pass: It’s not an indication of anything other than whether you are a good test taker/good student (which is important, but it is definitely not everything)- and you can still be a great attorney once you do pass.
If you fail and want to try it again, take a solid month off before the next test. Immerse yourself studying, don’t go out, don’t drink at all for that month, eat well balanced meals, sleep well, don’t watch TV, just solidly commit yourself to it and you’ll pass. That is what worked for me.
Did your law clerk pass this time?
No.
I would tell them the bar exam is about to become super easy and to try, try again.
Super easy. That’s what I hear. 100 question on line pass/fail. The real estate sales exam is 120 questions.
Tell them to change their studying habits. Definition of insanity, doing the same thing (studying in the same manner) and expecting different results. focus on the practice essays and then have someone analyze the essays.
Bingo
It has been awhile for me, but the written exam only looks for basic law, but wants you to demonstrate that you can see issues from a fact pattern. If you try to impress the reader with scholarly writing you will fail. Said another way, your clerk is probably bright but is trying too hard.
This. I only passed when I dumbed down my essays. The multiple-choice section was a breeze. After not-passing, I learned I just needed to outline dump. The graders aren’t looking for accuracy; they just want to see that you can memorize an outline. If the multiple-choice section is a problem, buy Adaptibar and drill 50-questions a day, making sure you go over the ones that you missed carefully and you understand why you missed them. Drill baby drill.
In other words, put your outline in the essay and place the facts under each of the outline topics.
If they want to take it again, have them ask someone else for their bar study notes/outline. Obviously, what they are doing isn’t working. Have they taken BarBri? Have they actually been diligently studying? You’re very gracious to have kept them on. If they’re doing a good job as a law clerk, I hope you keep them. But, try to actively help them pass, if you’re not already helping out.
It’s just a test and almost no indication of aptitude in the profession. . . but I can’t imagine how demoralizing that would be.
I’d move to another state, honestly. Find work outside of the profession until you do pass the bar. It’s probably only adding pressure to know a bunch of attorneys and law firm staff are going to know immediately if you pass/fail.
You’ll pass eventually. And you’ll find a job. And by year two in the profession the only thing that’s going to matter is how you do your job.
Realizing that I’m almost to the point where new attorneys now were born when I was in law school. . . Time is so strange.
141 Nev. Adv. Op. 46 dropped, In the matter of parental rights as to a minor child. The fact pattern alone confirmed my decision never to wade into the gutwrenching mire of family law.
@331 you’re a horrible person. At least drop the details. Jeez.
Divorce, 2 kids. Mental illness with Dad. Altercation between Dad and Mom’s wife. TRO barring contact between Dad and kids. Mental Hospitalization. Poverty leading to difficulty getting counsel to challenge TRO. Mom’s claim of child abandonment because Dad hasn’t contacted kids and violated the TRO. Emancipation of child and subsequent suicide. It’s just… damn.
I wish we could do TPRs after 18 – I would file one re: both my parents in a heartbeat. I would be less bothered by the court pretending not all sections of the statute are equal as written if kids could make it right after 18. Think of all the filing fees it would generate to be able to term toxic and abusive parents as an adult…
I’m a but confused why you think you can’t. Want to eliminate their inheritance rights? Do some estate planning. Want to eliminate their interest in your medical decisions? Get a Health Care POA. Hell, the form is in the statute. Do you want to cut them out of your life, or do you just want to shame them?
Many states have filial responsibility laws as well as including grandparents in a hierarchy for guardianship. Your argument is like when people were told they could construct a same sex marriage via contracts. I don’t want them to be the grandparents of my kids and there’s no way to deal with that except a TPR.
I would argue that a parent that wants to act like a parent in the face of being terminated can still do that. Why should the victim of abuse have to carry the association with them?
New lawyers should always keep the following in mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPA3GItTdWs
If you’re a lawyer and you’re not buried in student debt, now is the time to step away from the practice of law—for a year, two years—and fight for democracy.
The rule of law is under threat, and the next election could shape the future of American democracy. If you have the freedom to act, use it. Join the legal teams protecting voting rights. Help challenge authoritarian overreach in the courts. Work for nonprofits, watchdog groups, or government agencies that are holding the line.
Not everyone has the privilege to take a financial hit—but if you do, this is what that privilege is for. The stakes are too high for business as usual.
Got news for you bud, it’s been business as usual for as long as you’ve lived. And long before. None of your elected officials care about you, R or D. Wake up.
Delicious cope
Litigation will always be there. Our country may not be.
Slightly off topic: Does anyone know the salary for a 1-3 year associate at Pisanelli or Campbell & Williams?
I’d be curious about this too.
Time for another salary survey, Law Dawg?
Your paralegal is your right hand. Don’t mistreat a paralegal whose been a paralegal longer than you have been barred.