Just a reminder, when dealing with lawyers your problem or concern becomes an issue.
The Firm has almost become the generic name for a lawyer working in an office. Even, if they are found working all by themselves in a rundown rented room, in the not so nice section of town.
First, of course are the Mega-Firms. These bad boys have an impossible number of lawyers and support staff working for them. Their clients are corporations and people with more money than God. The chances of finding help you can afford here is not very good.
Then there are the large firms. These are firms owned and operated by Partners. Partners are the lawyers ultimately in charge of the firm. There are 2 types of partners, ‘equity’ and ‘income’. The ‘equity’ partner are the ones who gets to have their name on the firm’s letter head and get a lion’s share of the firms ‘pure’ profit. The ‘income’ partners are essentially the salaried department heads of the firm. Each of these lawyers will be in charge of a particular area of law. For example, one partner would be in charge of all domestic issues. Now, these firms may have upwards of 200 additional lawyers working for them. These lawyers are referred to as associates. The associate lawyer will handle the sub-specialties. These firms will have a large support staff. Paralegals, computer engineers and investigators to name a few of the support personal types they have access too. Downside, you may meet and talk with your lawyer only once, maybe twice. Unless, you have to go to court, then you might visit with your lawyer a few more times. You see, your case may be only one many. If they do take you on, will probably have more dealings with the paralegal assigned to your issue. Don’t get me wrong, it’ll be a lot like going to your doctor’s office. You may see and talk to your doctor for a few minutes. However, the blood draws, vital checks, getting the diagnostic exams scheduled, billing your issuance are handled by the support staff but the staff will report every test result and action taken on your behalf back to your doctor. Again, these firms are rather expensive.
Next on the ladder, are the firms with only are with only 20 or 30 lawyers. They don’t have any associates but may have 2 or 3 young lawyer’s fresh out of law school. Each of the lawyers may specialize in one or two areas of law. Again, they will have a good supporting staff. Namely paralegals my favorite profession. Just not as many, which means the paralegals may be assisting two or more of the lawyers in the firm. Unlike the larger firms you will see a bit more of your lawyer.
In these last 2 types of firms, a partner or a couple of firm’s associates may become passionate about a particular issue. In this case these lawyers will help but with that issue. However, these lawyers will have set up their own rules and regulations to qualify for their help.
Next week I want to talk about the Independents and Firm specialties