Family Lawyer

☛ Did you bring a sample of your work product?

☛ Can you provide a writing sample?

☛ Have you had a legal research assignment?

☛ Do you know how to use LEXIS-NEXIS or Westlaw?

☛ Are you familiar with federal and state laws?

☛ What specialty are you seeking?

☛ Do you speak any foreign languages?

☛ How would you rate your cite-checking abilities?

☛ Tell me about your computer skills.

☛ Tell me about your analytical skills. Please give an example.

☛ How extensive are your factual investigation skills?

☛ Have you ever interviewed a witness?

☛ Can you put together closing binders? Trial binders? Exhibits?

☛ Have you ever summarized a deposition?

☛ Have you ever drafted pleadings?

☛ Have you ever attended trial?

☛ What do you know about the SEC?

☛ How would you prepare for a real estate closing?

☛ Can you prepare subpoenas? Notices of depositions?

☛ Tell me about the judicial system.

☛ Have you ever coded documents?

☛ Tell me about your organizational skills.

☛ How much experience do you have interfacing with clients?

☛ What are your crisis-management skills? Please give me an example.

☛ Describe your worst assignment and how to prevent it, if you could, today.

☛ Describe an assignment where you were the hero.

☛ Do you know your way around the courthouse?

☛ What do you know about imaging and scanning?

☛ Have you ever formed a corporation?

☛ Do you have any experience working with government agencies?

☛ What do you know about CERCLA?

☛ Have you ever worked on the case/matter? (Checking for conflict of interest.)

☛ To what extent have you been exposed to mergers and acquisitions?

☛ Have you ever worked with Blue Sky laws?

☛ Have you ever Bates-stamped? No? Have we got a surprise for you.

☛ How are punitive damages awarded?

☛ How do you prepare jury instructions?

☛ Have you ever prepared a lease summary?

☛ Have you been to/studied Family Court?

☛ Are you familiar with products liability litigation?

☛ Describe how a trademark is registered.

☛ Describe the patent registration process.

☛ What is the procedure to file a copyright?

☛ Give me an example of your organizational abilities.

☛ Describe the differences between Chapters 7, 11, and 13.

☛ What skills do you possess to be a great paralegal?

☛ Why have you chosen corporate law over litigation?

☛ Why are you seeking a position with an in-house legal department?

☛ What is the difference between arbitration and mediation?

☛ What practice area most interests you and why?

☛ What are your strengths?

☛ What are your weaknesses?

☛ How do you handle last-minute projects?

☛ How many matrimonial cases have you handled?

☛ How many of those cases went to trial? (An attorney who has done a lot of trials might not be a good negotiator. Keep that in mind, especially when the lawyer hasn't been in practice very long.)

☛ How many of these cases involved custody, support, business valuations, large financial settlements, or whatever issue feels like your major concern?

☛ Where did you go to law school? (Don't ask if the diploma is staring you in the face.)

☛ Are you experienced in unbundled divorce (or collaborative divorce, or whatever style of divorce you hope to enter)?

☛ Do you have the time to take on a new case now?

☛ Do you know my husband (or wife)?

☛ Do you know his or her attorney?

☛ Will you or another attorney in the firm be handling my case?

☛ Can I meet anyone else who will be involved in handling my case?

☛ What experience does he/she have?

☛ Are you available via phone or email?

☛ Do you have a heavy caseload? Will you have time to devote to my case?

☛ If I need to reach you, what is the best time of day?

☛ Will I receive copies of documents filed with the court, all communication with my spouse’s attorney and any other documents related to my case?

☛ Will I be kept informed of all developments in my case?

☛ Will you ask my opinion before planning strategy?

☛ What are your personal feelings about spousal support?

☛ What are your personal feelings about joint custody versus sole custody?

☛ Are you seeking full-time (permanent) employment?

☛ Can you commit to the end of the assignment?

☛ Can you work overtime?

☛ What are your computer skills?

☛ Have you ever worked in a temporary position?

☛ What skills do you have for this position?

☛ Do you take direction well?

☛ What hourly rate are you seeking?

☛ When does your current assignment end?

☛ What guarantees do we have that you'll finish the assignment?

☛ Do you need an office?

☛ Can you manage others?

☛ Are you available on the weekends?

☛ What agency do you work with?

☛ Can you start tomorrow?

☛ Describe an instance where you were required to make an important decision related to a temporary assignment. How did you handle it?

☛ Have you ever had an assignment like this before?

☛ Can you travel to the document production site?

☛ Can you get here on time?

☛ When is your time card due?

☛ Who is supposed to sign your time card?

☛ What would you do if you completed your assignment early?

☛ What would you do if you didn't understand the assignment?

☛ Can you describe the benefits package? (Includes vacation and parking.)

☛ Does the firm/corporation offer a 401(k) or other retirement packages?

☛ Does the firm/corporation reimburse or pay for continuing education?

☛ Does the paralegal in this position have an office or secretary?

☛ What is the vacation policy? How is it accrued?

☛ Does the firm/company endorse participation in paralegal associations?

☛ Does the firm/company pay for association dues?

☛ Are year-end or holiday bonuses offered?

☛ Does the firm pay for parking or offer a transportation allowance?

☛ Can you describe the health benefits?

☛ Does the firm/corporation offer dependent coverage?

☛ Do employees pay any part of the insurance premium?

☛ Does the firm offer long-term disability or life insurance?

☛ Does this corporation offer profit sharing?

☛ Will I be able to attend paralegal association seminars? Does the firm/corporation reimburse or pay for these seminars?

☛ Tell me how you handled the most boring assignment you've ever been given.

☛ What would you do if you were handed an assignment you didn't know how to complete?

☛ What makes a paralegal successful?

☛ Describe an assignment where you took the initiative.

☛ If you were in a situation where work was trickling in, what would you do?

☛ If you were in a situation where the volume of work was overwhelming, what would you do?

☛ How do you motivate a team?

☛ How do you go about making important decisions?

☛ Can you work without direct supervision?

☛ What process do you use when faced with a job-related problem?

☛ Will anyone (usually an associate) be assisting you on my case?

☛ What is his or her experience?

☛ Can I meet the associate now?

☛ What work would the associate do and what work would you do?

☛ Which one of you will negotiate the case? (If you want to be sure that the lawyer you are seeing is the negotiator, make that clear. You don't want an intern performing your quadruple bypass surgery, and you don't want an inexperienced associate you haven't met negotiating your divorce.)

☛ Who will try my case?

☛ Are you available to take phone calls?

☛ Is the associate available to take calls?

☛ What hours are you usually in the office?

☛ Do you have any time-consuming trials coming up?

☛ Will I get copies of all papers (letters, faxes, legal papers) in my case? (Be sure the answer is “yes.”)

☛ 1: Does the county have a self-contained family law division of judges familiar with dissolution law, or is there a chance that a motion or trial will be heard by a judge with unknown family law experience?

☛ 2: Are there one or two appraisers or auction houses in the geographical area that do most of the furniture evaluation in dissolution cases?

☛ 3: In this county do all judges refer custody disputes to mental health professionals to prepare a recommendation to the court.

☛ 4: Is mediation of custody disputes confidential or will the mediator reveal my statements to the judge.

☛ 5: If mediation fails is the mediator the person who makes a custody recommendation to the court.

Correct answers to questions 1 to 5 above are an indication that the lawyer is capable of representing you in a custody or visitation dispute and knows the county procedures regarding family law and property division issues. An attorney who does not know the local procedures for determining these matters is at a disadvantage which means you are at a disadvantage. You should also ask about the following issues relating your relationship with the attorney.

☛ 6: Is the attorney a certified family law specialist? This doesn't mean the attorney is great. But it is something to consider. It means the attorney passed an examination on family law and is required to take a certain number of continuing education classes in family law each year.

☛ 7: Is the attorney rated by Martindale Hubbell? An A-V rating is the highest possible and only 5 percent of U.S. attorneys have the rating. It's an indication of the highest legal skill and ethical conduct.

☛ 8: Even more important is how many divorce cases does the attorney handle. Is he a "dabbler"? Is he offering to take the case as a favor to you or a friend? If so he's not the right guy. Family is very complex in California. You can't "wing" it.

☛ 9: Is the firm a divorce mill? (Not a good sign.) A divorce mill handles lots of cases. At your first meeting you will be introduced to the owner, or a partner. After that all work on your matter will be done by non-lawyers or inexperienced young lawyers. Your interrogatory responses will be drafted by these persons. Pleadings drafted by these persons. Experts will be hired by these inexperienced persons and when it comes time to go to court Mr. Big will appear, and may be prepared to argue the motion. But, he won't know your cases and won't be able to intelligently discuss settlement, and for that matter won't want to discuss settlement because it will cut off a firm income stream. Your case means money to the divorce mill.

☛ 10: Will the attorney send you copies of all letters sent to and received from opposing counsel, and copies of all pleadings filed with the court? (A good practice is to send these documents as .pdf files via email to make it easy for the client to store them.) You want this so you can remain current on your case status.

☛ 11: Will the attorney personally return calls about substantive questions? Obviously, if you are calling to confirm a hearing date or a location you needn't speak with your lawyer, but if you have a question about the matter it is better to be able to speak to the lawyer or lawyers working on the case.

☛ 12: What other lawyer will work on the case for you? If your spouse files an emergency motion for example (known as an ex parte motion) and your attorney has a conflicting appointment who will accompany you to court?

☛ 13: Will you be charged for secretarial time? (I think this practice is very unfair to a client. Beware also of being charged for paralegal time. A paralegal is not a lawyer. He or she is usually simply an experienced secretary. Charging for paralegal time is something you should refuse to do.)

☛ 14: Will the attorney be willing to suggest a settlement conference to opposing counsel as soon as possible? Usually after you and your spouse have made their financial data available. Will the attorney be willing to commit to a face-to-face settlement conference if your spouse's attorney agrees? (Obviously, the more you can agree upon the less there is to fight about and the less traumatic, expensive and time consuming your divorce will be)

☛ 15: If your spouse already has an attorney, ask if the attorney is familiar with the lawyer. Has the attorney worked with the other lawyer before? Does the spouse's attorney normally make reasonable efforts to settle the case?

☛ How many paralegals are in the firm/corporation?

☛ Have paralegals been promoted into other positions within the firm/corporation?

☛ How many attorneys or paralegals have been promoted to vice president in this company?

☛ Do paralegals meet on a regular basis?

☛ Are paralegals included in department meetings? Client meetings?

☛ Who supervises the paralegal's work?

☛ Where do I go if I have questions?

☛ How do paralegals receive assignments?

☛ Do paralegals use the Internet?

☛ Do paralegals perform legal research?

☛ Do paralegals draft documents in this firm/corporation?

☛ Does the firm/corporation offer continuing education or in-house training?

☛ Do paralegals attend trial?

☛ Do paralegals attend depositions?

☛ Do paralegals have access to secretaries or word-processing support?

☛ Does the firm/corporation have a litigation support department?

☛ Does the legal department work separately from other departments in this company?

☛ Can you tell me how paralegals receive updated information regarding laws, technology and clients?

☛ Does each paralegal have a computer?

☛ Can you describe the culture of the firm?

☛ What are the long-term plans of the firm/corporation?

☛ Has the level of paralegal assignments progressed over the years?

☛ What is the average tenure of the paralegals here?

☛ Does the firm have a career path for its paralegals?