re: Do "Saul Goodman" style lawyers make good money?

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Do "Saul Goodman" style lawyers make good money?

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Wasn't really Saul Goodman type of practice, but I was a junior associate at one of the big ambulance chasing firms back in the day (circa 2000). Worked there are a law clerk while finishing up law school, and started at $45K/year salary upon getting admitted to the Bar.

Once I got a caseload built up, I went to straight commission (25% of generated attorney fees), and I was making $8k/month about a year out of law school (i.e., on track to crack six figures). Guys who had been there for 5+ years were regularly cracking $250k and more.

Pretty sweet gig until Plattsmier got his panties into a wad over a minor misunderstanding.

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TEXAS LAW HAWK

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I lost my shite when his talons of justice reached down and pulled that fish out of the stream.

Went to the wedding of one of Womack’s kids. He makes something like 500k a week.

Paid for half of Loyola.

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My guess is that a few do and most do not.

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There is "big city" law and "little town" law. Big City law firms have preferred law schools from which they recruit associates. In some cases, these young pups can start above $100k (probably well high of that in the very best firms in places like NYC, DC, Chicago, even Dallas and Houston, etc.), but these are the kids from the top 25 (to, maybe top 50) schools and are the Coif/Law Review types from those schools.

Now, in many cases they go into a meat grinder of 2200 or 2400 billable hour films for that starting money. Realistically, to bill 50 hours a week you're actually working 60 to 65, especially the first few years before you figure out all the ins and outs. For automobile case farms, they have a little different model, but it all works out the same - you're working a call center, but you're a lawyer - the more calls you take, the better you do.

Now - the work itself is real litigation lawyer work, whether you're representing State Farm or plaintiffs - pleadings, motion practice, deposition, trial prep and a very rare trial or two (most personal injury cases settle, but you have no way of knowing that for sure up front, so the initial phase of most look the same). If you're in a Big City firm, you grind it out for 6 or 7 years and, if everything went right, you're offered a partnership. Partners in insurance defense firms can do quite well over time, but it never really stops being a 50 to 60 (or more) hour a week commitment.

That is much more rare for a PI firm than a defense firm. The PI firms are driven, largely, on the advertising budget and who has "the name" that guy/gal makes most of the money. To varying degrees, folks he or she values will come along for the ride.

In little town firms, it is much the same, but on a smaller scale. The billable hour requirements aren't quite as high, but the starting pay isn't nearly what the big city firms pay. You have attorneys in vast swaths of, say, Louisiana who are grinding it out, year after year, even with 10 or 15 years experience and taking $75k to $85k (or even less), with far fewer getting into the six-figure range. Sure the firm's "senior" partners (i.e. the owners) are doing well, but the underlings rarely break out unless they grab some clients and go off on their own - on either side of the aisle. And even then, that's dicey.

If you leave a defense firm to set up your own shop, they claw like hell at any contacts or clients you might be taking. They'll run a whispering campaign (and your other competing defense firms will, too). If you start your own plaintiff/general practice firm and cannot afford a certain minimum level of advertising (which is, understandably, expensive), then you're at the mercy of folks referring you cases.

The law hasn't been a profession in a long time. It's, best case, a business. Worst case? A racket.

/rant

The billboard king Alexander Shunnarah is doing quite fine.

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i dont think so. boosie asked me for money on snapchat a few weeks ago

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