Unfiltered Thoughts…
An unrelenting cough recently forced my grandmother to have a chest x-ray, a procedure revealed the physician’s worst fears – fully metastasized cancer. One of her first acts upon the discovery of this illness was to call her attorney grandson (that would be me) and ask for a will. After a few conversations, I drafted a living trust that should preserve both my grandmother’s assets and her post-life wishes.
Though the experience was necessarily tear-inducing, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy the work. I enjoyed my Wills and Trusts class in law school but I’ve never seriously considered doing probate work as a career. I’ve begun to toy around with the idea of opening my own probate shop once I get my commission for the big case.
A few of you have emailed in asking what happens if I get fired or quit before the conclusion of the case. Every attorney at the firm has a clause in their contract that provides for a very slightly reduced commission on any case that remains with the firm. I know of one jr. attorney that attempted to take his cases with him to another personal injury firm but the last time I spoke with him, he told me that it wasn’t worth the hassle.
Another recurring email involves whether or not I could have taken the case to another firm. Unfortunately, the answer is undoubtedly yes – and I’ve spent more than a few nights thinking about “what could have been.” In the heat of the moment I never even considered it. I have little doubt that another firm would have let me keep 10-20% of the case simply for the referral.
All of that said, things are going well at work. There was a moment last week where it seemed like the big case was going to settle ($5M+), but the insurance company backed out less than 24 hours before the scheduled paper-signing meeting. The firm is confident that the insurance company is simply posturing and the settlement is only a few months away.
The client (father + husband) in the big case has been in the office with some frequency, which is actually pretty difficult to deal with as he is still deep in his mourning. He seems to have been truly in love with his family and as terrible as it sounds, this is something I use to reassure myself anytime I start to doubt the recent breakup with Val. I’m confident that, if Val was to die tomorrow, I would be completely over it pretty quickly.
This post is pretty scattered, and for that I apologize. I have a two more topical posts planned for this week – one about the girl I went out with over the weekend, and the other about an associate at the firm. Check back soon.
Tags: Life