Instead of the American Dream, for these people it's stories of nasty divorces, substance abuse, health problems, general instability. They aren't many rungs on the ladder above the proles that we represent. Still, if you manage them properly, you can put them to work very profitably.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5683759&forum_id=2#48680483)

Things started to turn slowly. I got a few complaints from clients about him not responding to calls and emails. Then they got more frequent. And then more frequent.

I also noticed that little quirks of his, like an unusual way of drafting documents, blossomed into outright disabilities. For example, when we won a case, he was not able to compose a proposed order. He just wrote it as a motion. The judge would tell him to correct it, and he would still write it as a motion. He literally could not understand certain things like the difference between the two.

As the months went by, he started asking for raises. I was still making money off of him, so I increased his pay a little, but it turned into a request for money every couple of weeks. I reimburse associates for mileage when they drive to court, and this assumed a massive importance in his life. He needed the mileage reimbursement immediately after driving, and often begged me to Zelle it to him. Then he started asking if I could give him the mileage money before he even took the drive, which I declined.

He tried to hit on several of the paralegals despite having a wife and two young kids. Based on some text messages that I saw, he eventually was successful with one of the heavier girls.

The end came for him after months of steadily decreasing performance and steadily increasing client complaints. He argued something completely different at a hearing from what was written in the pleading. Then, he tried to file an appeal to the wrong court. Then, opposing counsel made a motion to dismiss the botched appeal, and he didn't show up to court. The judge called him from the courtroom and he lied and said he couldn't find it. This while story was relayed by the girls in the clerk's office to their friends on my paralegal staff.

That was it for this guy. I fired him. Over the roughly one year that he worked for me, he looked like he aged ten years. Several people then told me that he had been showing up to court drunk. Would have been nice to know.

It took a lot to fix his cases and was in court almost every day for six weeks. There were several times when he hadn't bothered to show up for court and clients had criminal charges for missing court in some instances.

Last I heard he was trying to maintain a solo practice but in serious trouble with the state bar over something. Was also getting divorced. I'll be shocked if his career has a normal, healthy ending.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5683759&forum_id=2#48680612)

Appeals courts do not hold in person hearings on motions

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5683759&forum_id=2#48683846)

He stayed with the bitch who blew the whistle and JL banned her from the premises bc she showed one one day and started hitting him. This was before I joined so I didn’t see it, just heard about it. But my office looked out into the parking lot and one day I saw her out in the lot pinning him into a parking spot with her car and she was in his face yelling at him. Hilarious. She also made a fake fb profile for him and made all these posts (as him) about how wonderful she was. They’re still together

He has a daughter who won’t speak to him.

He now makes $1 million a year and I think he has very little in savings. He’s around 70.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5683759&forum_id=2#48681166)

They fought in parking lots and school bathrooms, got strangled with controller cords, and went home to moms who didn't ask questions. NAFTA came through like a hurricane and the factories shut down. Their fathers—if they even knew them—drank themselves into early graves or found God or disappeared.

So they went to law school. Took on debt the size of a mortgage for a shot at respectability. But no matter how many motions they file, how many hours they bill, there’s still dirt under their fingernails. They aren’t many rungs above the proles they represent because they are the proles, just in dress shoes now.

They sit in strip mall offices, drafting motions between nicotine gum and Monster energy drinks. Their marriages collapse. Their livers go soft. They get calls from clients at 2 AM, screaming about their kids being taken away. They work because there’s nothing else. Because they know what happens to people who stop.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5683759&forum_id=2#48681171)

These people bring problems with them.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5683759&forum_id=2#48682799)

how much do you pay a newbie associate? and are you hiring?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5683759&forum_id=2#48682897)