SO: What is a typical day for a lawyer? I am just curious what goes on during all those work hours.

[Anonymous]

I am in IT and produce software.

I am curious what a lawyer typically does all day and during billing hours.

I am curious from government to big law etc...

[Anonymous]

Sleep with the paralegals.

[Anonymous]

That's almost like asking, what is the typical day for a professional. A bit too broad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's almost like asking, what is the typical day for a professional. A bit too broad.

I still fail to grasp what lawyers do all day. Do they just pull together paper work to setup arguments for cases?

[Anonymous]

Have you seen L.A. Law?

[Anonymous]

Well, here's a few examples:

1. (Jr. to midlevel biglaw) Get to work at 8:00 am. Read emails. Email from Partner 1 about upcoming expert report from economist in Case 1. He wants to know how our sales of X products were during 2010-2012. Pull up super-long spreadsheet because I'm the only one who knows how to do it, get information, call expert, 20 minute phone call about that and three other issues. 10:00 am team meeting on case No. 2, which is entering discovery. Spend 1 hour coming up with search terms and review sheet to sort 500K documents that are going to be reviewed. Send to lead associate to review. 12:00 pm. Call from expert about 2 other issues. Spend 45 minutes tracking them down. 15 minutes reading Above the Law. 1 hour legal research on issue brought up at the team meeting. 30 minutes writing an email about it, scrap that and give the Partner 2 a call. 8 minute conversation. 20 minutes putting in time. 1.5 more hours on the research. Review coding sheet and search terms come back from lead associate; 20 minute editing, send to team. Draft expert report comes in, 2 hours reading/editing. Finish inputting time. Go home.

Another day might look like this:

2. Senior level associate, biglaw. 5:30 am. Wake up, check emails and respond - 20 minutes. Shower, etc. Check emails and respond - 25 minutes. Breakfast. Drive to work, arrive at 7:30. Respond to emails 20 minutes. Legal research for summary judgement motion 1.5 hours. Prepare for deposition 7 hours, including 1.5 hours reading and responding to emails. Read SCOTUSblog 30 minutes. Prepare for deposition 2 hours. Go home, eat, put kids to bed. Prepare for deposition 3.5 hours.

Yet another (same guy a few days later).
3. 7:30 wake up, order room service. Review deposition outline 30 minutes. Breakfast 30 minutes. Review documents for deposition 15 minutes. Walk to local counsel law firm. Take deposition 7.5 hours. Cab to airport, flight home, cab home, go to bed.

Yet another example:
4. Senior govt attorney. Arrive at work 9:00. Work on brief 4 hours. Lunch 30 minutes. Meet with boss about legal issue, 15 minutes. Legal research 20 minutes. Weird guy from down the hall comes to talk, 15 minutes. Work on brief until 5:30. Go home.

One of the above describes one of my days this week, but I have experienced them all.

[Anonymous]

I think its fair to say (in a nutshell of course, not everything) that the job is research, writing, answering email and phone queries (including strategy meetings and client calls, etc), preparing official paperwork (or more likely reviewing and sending back and forth with other professionals such as their team of paras), reviewing the sort of grunt work/administrative reports that are due for the firm (be it little things like your team's billing reports or expense reports, etc) and then for some it includes actively pursuing new client relationships. Advocacy work is obviously going to be a different beast, but for the most part its just a lot of reading, research, writing and responding in large volume.

[Anonymous]

I've definitely had all the days described by 2:12. But, I've also had many of the following days:

Wake up in DC at 6:30. Read and answer emails for an hour. Go to airport. Work on interview questions while waiting. Fly to LA, working on a brief for another project on flight, using binder that I had prepared previously. Go straight to client's office. Interview several people and collect documents. Check into hotel. Have a teleconference with IT personnel to set up document upload system. Review documents that have been tagged by those on the east coast during the day. Talk to vendors about specifications and clients. Answer more emails. Room service. Finish working on appellate brief for the other case. Pass out at 2am LA time to be ready for 8 am interviews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think its fair to say (in a nutshell of course, not everything) that the job is research, writing, answering email and phone queries (including strategy meetings and client calls, etc), preparing official paperwork (or more likely reviewing and sending back and forth with other professionals such as their team of paras), reviewing the sort of grunt work/administrative reports that are due for the firm (be it little things like your team's billing reports or expense reports, etc) and then for some it includes actively pursuing new client relationships. Advocacy work is obviously going to be a different beast, but for the most part its just a lot of reading, research, writing and responding in large volume.

You forgot meetings. I'm in house and spend a whole lotta time counselling clients in person and on the phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, here's a few examples:

1. (Jr. to midlevel biglaw) Get to work at 8:00 am. Read emails. Email from Partner 1 about upcoming expert report from economist in Case 1. He wants to know how our sales of X products were during 2010-2012. Pull up super-long spreadsheet because I'm the only one who knows how to do it, get information, call expert, 20 minute phone call about that and three other issues. 10:00 am team meeting on case No. 2, which is entering discovery. Spend 1 hour coming up with search terms and review sheet to sort 500K documents that are going to be reviewed. Send to lead associate to review. 12:00 pm. Call from expert about 2 other issues. Spend 45 minutes tracking them down. 15 minutes reading Above the Law. 1 hour legal research on issue brought up at the team meeting. 30 minutes writing an email about it, scrap that and give the Partner 2 a call. 8 minute conversation. 20 minutes putting in time. 1.5 more hours on the research. Review coding sheet and search terms come back from lead associate; 20 minute editing, send to team. Draft expert report comes in, 2 hours reading/editing. Finish inputting time. Go home.

Another day might look like this:

2. Senior level associate, biglaw. 5:30 am. Wake up, check emails and respond - 20 minutes. Shower, etc. Check emails and respond - 25 minutes. Breakfast. Drive to work, arrive at 7:30. Respond to emails 20 minutes. Legal research for summary judgement motion 1.5 hours. Prepare for deposition 7 hours, including 1.5 hours reading and responding to emails. Read SCOTUSblog 30 minutes. Prepare for deposition 2 hours. Go home, eat, put kids to bed. Prepare for deposition 3.5 hours.

Yet another (same guy a few days later).
3. 7:30 wake up, order room service. Review deposition outline 30 minutes. Breakfast 30 minutes. Review documents for deposition 15 minutes. Walk to local counsel law firm. Take deposition 7.5 hours. Cab to airport, flight home, cab home, go to bed.

Yet another example:
4. Senior govt attorney. Arrive at work 9:00. Work on brief 4 hours. Lunch 30 minutes. Meet with boss about legal issue, 15 minutes. Legal research 20 minutes. Weird guy from down the hall comes to talk, 15 minutes. Work on brief until 5:30. Go home.

One of the above describes one of my days this week, but I have experienced them all.

I thought paralegals did the legal research??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, here's a few examples:

1. (Jr. to midlevel biglaw) Get to work at 8:00 am. Read emails. Email from Partner 1 about upcoming expert report from economist in Case 1. He wants to know how our sales of X products were during 2010-2012. Pull up super-long spreadsheet because I'm the only one who knows how to do it, get information, call expert, 20 minute phone call about that and three other issues. 10:00 am team meeting on case No. 2, which is entering discovery. Spend 1 hour coming up with search terms and review sheet to sort 500K documents that are going to be reviewed. Send to lead associate to review. 12:00 pm. Call from expert about 2 other issues. Spend 45 minutes tracking them down. 15 minutes reading Above the Law. 1 hour legal research on issue brought up at the team meeting. 30 minutes writing an email about it, scrap that and give the Partner 2 a call. 8 minute conversation. 20 minutes putting in time. 1.5 more hours on the research. Review coding sheet and search terms come back from lead associate; 20 minute editing, send to team. Draft expert report comes in, 2 hours reading/editing. Finish inputting time. Go home.

Another day might look like this:

2. Senior level associate, biglaw. 5:30 am. Wake up, check emails and respond - 20 minutes. Shower, etc. Check emails and respond - 25 minutes. Breakfast. Drive to work, arrive at 7:30. Respond to emails 20 minutes. Legal research for summary judgement motion 1.5 hours. Prepare for deposition 7 hours, including 1.5 hours reading and responding to emails. Read SCOTUSblog 30 minutes. Prepare for deposition 2 hours. Go home, eat, put kids to bed. Prepare for deposition 3.5 hours.

Yet another (same guy a few days later).
3. 7:30 wake up, order room service. Review deposition outline 30 minutes. Breakfast 30 minutes. Review documents for deposition 15 minutes. Walk to local counsel law firm. Take deposition 7.5 hours. Cab to airport, flight home, cab home, go to bed.

Yet another example:
4. Senior govt attorney. Arrive at work 9:00. Work on brief 4 hours. Lunch 30 minutes. Meet with boss about legal issue, 15 minutes. Legal research 20 minutes. Weird guy from down the hall comes to talk, 15 minutes. Work on brief until 5:30. Go home.

One of the above describes one of my days this week, but I have experienced them all.

I thought paralegals did the legal research??

Um, no. Maybe at some small firm with some really good paralegal, but generally, no, not at all.

[Anonymous]

I think an enormous amount of time is spent arranging when, how and where to drain the most blood from opponents bodies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, here's a few examples:

1. (Jr. to midlevel biglaw) Get to work at 8:00 am. Read emails. Email from Partner 1 about upcoming expert report from economist in Case 1. He wants to know how our sales of X products were during 2010-2012. Pull up super-long spreadsheet because I'm the only one who knows how to do it, get information, call expert, 20 minute phone call about that and three other issues. 10:00 am team meeting on case No. 2, which is entering discovery. Spend 1 hour coming up with search terms and review sheet to sort 500K documents that are going to be reviewed. Send to lead associate to review. 12:00 pm. Call from expert about 2 other issues. Spend 45 minutes tracking them down. 15 minutes reading Above the Law. 1 hour legal research on issue brought up at the team meeting. 30 minutes writing an email about it, scrap that and give the Partner 2 a call. 8 minute conversation. 20 minutes putting in time. 1.5 more hours on the research. Review coding sheet and search terms come back from lead associate; 20 minute editing, send to team. Draft expert report comes in, 2 hours reading/editing. Finish inputting time. Go home.

Another day might look like this:

2. Senior level associate, biglaw. 5:30 am. Wake up, check emails and respond - 20 minutes. Shower, etc. Check emails and respond - 25 minutes. Breakfast. Drive to work, arrive at 7:30. Respond to emails 20 minutes. Legal research for summary judgement motion 1.5 hours. Prepare for deposition 7 hours, including 1.5 hours reading and responding to emails. Read SCOTUSblog 30 minutes. Prepare for deposition 2 hours. Go home, eat, put kids to bed. Prepare for deposition 3.5 hours.

Yet another (same guy a few days later).
3. 7:30 wake up, order room service. Review deposition outline 30 minutes. Breakfast 30 minutes. Review documents for deposition 15 minutes. Walk to local counsel law firm. Take deposition 7.5 hours. Cab to airport, flight home, cab home, go to bed.

Yet another example:
4. Senior govt attorney. Arrive at work 9:00. Work on brief 4 hours. Lunch 30 minutes. Meet with boss about legal issue, 15 minutes. Legal research 20 minutes. Weird guy from down the hall comes to talk, 15 minutes. Work on brief until 5:30. Go home.

One of the above describes one of my days this week, but I have experienced them all.

I thought paralegals did the legal research??

We call them "first year associates." In the old days a paralegal might pull a bunch of cases for you, but it's so simple now why bother. Paralegals mostly make binders.

[Anonymous]

In complex practice areas sometimes you need a fifth year associate or so to do the research because you need to understand and have somewhat of a mastery of the legal issues, which could make your head spin.