There are two main areas a lawyer can work: litigation and consultation.
Litigation: traditional lawyer from the movies. It sucks. It will burn you out. You will always be shouting. In my opinion the pay is lower than consulting. Even though you have the possibility of negotiating a success fee with the client. Areas which pay more are probably criminal. Criminal law is really though. Who are the criminals can afford to pay high legal fees? drug dealers.
I don´t do litigation because I hate to be at the disposal of judges. They set your calendar. And you can´t postpone a trial just because.
Another problem with litigation is a day only has 24hours. If you bill per hour even your maximum billing will never surpass 24hours. If you charge let´s say 200€*24= 4800. In litigation even if you work 24hours, you will never win more than 4800€ in one day. Say you work 10h. 200€*10*30*60000€/month. There are other options of billing. But this is the most common. Nevertheless you can add a contingency fee.
When you start working normally your put in debt collection. It´s the lowest of the law fields.
A court ruling is not always related with merit. Other occult factors can influence. You will always be in contact with the government (through courts). Probably this was the aspect I least enjoyed with litigation. Specially the higher courts which can overturn a rigtheous decision.
Consultation: It´s where the money is. Your value will not depend so much of your merit but who you know. You will not work by hour. But in a flat rate basis. This means you can earn 5000€ by forwarding two emails. You receive an email from a client. Forward to a partner. The partner answers the question and reply with the answer. And you forward the answer to the client. Pay 1000€ to the partner and keep 4000€ with two clicks. I´m simplifying saying it´s two clicks because a lot of work must be done prior. Finding the client and the right partner is not easy. Your a Linklater. You build bridges between people. And charge for the bridge. You connect dots. And charge for connecting the dots. There´s a brokerage aspect of it.
Which areas are the best for consultation. Areas with big numbers. Corporate, oil, metals, real estate, etc.
In my opinion the easiest area to get into is real estate. The due diligence is standard. And agreements are standard also. After dealing with 10 due diligences you know the basics. The most important thing in due diligence is evaluating the people in front of you. If they look like scammers double check everything.
Real estate lawyers charge 1,2% of the house price. That´s 12k´s for due diligence in a 1M house. Plus a brokerage fee if you introduce the buyer or the seller. Which can vary from 1% to 2,5% paid by the owner or real estate agency. But legal fees and not brokerage fees should be the aim. Brokerage fees are a plus not essential. If they come better.
The biggest issue with luxury real estate is it´s associated with money laundering schemes. Refuse to deal with any live money transaction. Better passing it though banks and blame them for money laundering. Or when there´s a risk higher then normal. Let´s say a person buy a 5M building with the intent of reselling it to other buyers for 10M. But instead of buying the building he only wants to advance 1M in a promissory agreement with the real owner. The potential buyers need to be fully aware of the risks of giving a downpayment of a house which does'n´t belong to the person who is selling. It´s legal for you to promise to sell a house which doesn´t belong to you.
The same principles apply to corporate. Real estate is the template of every legal transaction. Specially with the buying and selling of companies.
Same here. One company is being sold. You present the buyer. Being paid for the selling agreement and the brokerage. Incorporation of companies are also generally easy. Unless there´s special details.
Real estate is more fun. Corporate is more rigid in terms of professional relationships. And requires bigger teams to deal with the amount of paperwork of any transaction. Also it´s a lot to do with prestige/image.
My portfolio consists of 90% of international clients. The reason is simple they pay more and are less demanding. Downside is dealing with the general lack of respect other agents have regarding your client. From the beginning they need to realize you will not allow any bullshit with your client. The con is dealing with the government in any immigration issues your client might have. And everything connected with the government, just like courts are not always straightforward. You can outsource this. But better keep control of the client. Immigration legal issues are at the same level of debt collection. Toilet paper.
The least amount of connections your work has with the government the better. You can avoid all the backstage moves surrounding it.
The most influential factor for the success of a lawyer it´s his network. Either in litigation or consultation. Your focus is network. Do favors without asking nothing back. Do it incessantly. They will be your referrals and open doors for you in the future. In every ten favors you do. One will pay you back.
I once had a trainee who told me hid dream was to live in a remote house. I´ve realized when he said this he would never be a successful lawyer. You need to be in the middle of the people. At least in the beginning.
My advice is: Network like crazy. That guy you had lunch with one day will be a member of the parliament. The other one will be a tax inspector. That girl who smiles to you one day will be a judge. The other one prosecutor. Others will work in banks. You see that black guy you play football with. He will one day work in one of the biggest law firm of an african country. And when you have a client willing to invest in said country. You will forward him an email. Pay him 1000€ and get 4000€ for his reply.
If I would go back to law school my advice to myself would be get numbers and emails. One day they will be worth a lot. Even though I did get some, since I was like a stray dog, whenever there was action I would go, in retrospective I could have done more.
My 2 cents...
Litigation: traditional lawyer from the movies. It sucks. It will burn you out. You will always be shouting. In my opinion the pay is lower than consulting. Even though you have the possibility of negotiating a success fee with the client. Areas which pay more are probably criminal. Criminal law is really though. Who are the criminals can afford to pay high legal fees? drug dealers.
I don´t do litigation because I hate to be at the disposal of judges. They set your calendar. And you can´t postpone a trial just because.
Another problem with litigation is a day only has 24hours. If you bill per hour even your maximum billing will never surpass 24hours. If you charge let´s say 200€*24= 4800. In litigation even if you work 24hours, you will never win more than 4800€ in one day. Say you work 10h. 200€*10*30*60000€/month. There are other options of billing. But this is the most common. Nevertheless you can add a contingency fee.
When you start working normally your put in debt collection. It´s the lowest of the law fields.
A court ruling is not always related with merit. Other occult factors can influence. You will always be in contact with the government (through courts). Probably this was the aspect I least enjoyed with litigation. Specially the higher courts which can overturn a rigtheous decision.
Consultation: It´s where the money is. Your value will not depend so much of your merit but who you know. You will not work by hour. But in a flat rate basis. This means you can earn 5000€ by forwarding two emails. You receive an email from a client. Forward to a partner. The partner answers the question and reply with the answer. And you forward the answer to the client. Pay 1000€ to the partner and keep 4000€ with two clicks. I´m simplifying saying it´s two clicks because a lot of work must be done prior. Finding the client and the right partner is not easy. Your a Linklater. You build bridges between people. And charge for the bridge. You connect dots. And charge for connecting the dots. There´s a brokerage aspect of it.
Which areas are the best for consultation. Areas with big numbers. Corporate, oil, metals, real estate, etc.
In my opinion the easiest area to get into is real estate. The due diligence is standard. And agreements are standard also. After dealing with 10 due diligences you know the basics. The most important thing in due diligence is evaluating the people in front of you. If they look like scammers double check everything.
Real estate lawyers charge 1,2% of the house price. That´s 12k´s for due diligence in a 1M house. Plus a brokerage fee if you introduce the buyer or the seller. Which can vary from 1% to 2,5% paid by the owner or real estate agency. But legal fees and not brokerage fees should be the aim. Brokerage fees are a plus not essential. If they come better.
The biggest issue with luxury real estate is it´s associated with money laundering schemes. Refuse to deal with any live money transaction. Better passing it though banks and blame them for money laundering. Or when there´s a risk higher then normal. Let´s say a person buy a 5M building with the intent of reselling it to other buyers for 10M. But instead of buying the building he only wants to advance 1M in a promissory agreement with the real owner. The potential buyers need to be fully aware of the risks of giving a downpayment of a house which does'n´t belong to the person who is selling. It´s legal for you to promise to sell a house which doesn´t belong to you.
The same principles apply to corporate. Real estate is the template of every legal transaction. Specially with the buying and selling of companies.
Same here. One company is being sold. You present the buyer. Being paid for the selling agreement and the brokerage. Incorporation of companies are also generally easy. Unless there´s special details.
Real estate is more fun. Corporate is more rigid in terms of professional relationships. And requires bigger teams to deal with the amount of paperwork of any transaction. Also it´s a lot to do with prestige/image.
My portfolio consists of 90% of international clients. The reason is simple they pay more and are less demanding. Downside is dealing with the general lack of respect other agents have regarding your client. From the beginning they need to realize you will not allow any bullshit with your client. The con is dealing with the government in any immigration issues your client might have. And everything connected with the government, just like courts are not always straightforward. You can outsource this. But better keep control of the client. Immigration legal issues are at the same level of debt collection. Toilet paper.
The least amount of connections your work has with the government the better. You can avoid all the backstage moves surrounding it.
The most influential factor for the success of a lawyer it´s his network. Either in litigation or consultation. Your focus is network. Do favors without asking nothing back. Do it incessantly. They will be your referrals and open doors for you in the future. In every ten favors you do. One will pay you back.
I once had a trainee who told me hid dream was to live in a remote house. I´ve realized when he said this he would never be a successful lawyer. You need to be in the middle of the people. At least in the beginning.
My advice is: Network like crazy. That guy you had lunch with one day will be a member of the parliament. The other one will be a tax inspector. That girl who smiles to you one day will be a judge. The other one prosecutor. Others will work in banks. You see that black guy you play football with. He will one day work in one of the biggest law firm of an african country. And when you have a client willing to invest in said country. You will forward him an email. Pay him 1000€ and get 4000€ for his reply.
If I would go back to law school my advice to myself would be get numbers and emails. One day they will be worth a lot. Even though I did get some, since I was like a stray dog, whenever there was action I would go, in retrospective I could have done more.
My 2 cents...