Monday Mentors with Waco Elder Law Attorney James Rainey

James talks about the elder law practice area, working well with support staff, and the importance of showing interest in the firm when interviewing.

• Their firm and practice
  • Elder Law - planning, medicaid, nursing homes, wills/trusts/power of attorneys, probate/guardianships
  • opening a Georgetown office
  • He used to do general litigation, and then when he and his wife Elisa partnered up,
  • Elder law rules change all the time, because the legislature is active in the area; tax laws too
  • Also lot's of non-lawyers are in the field (financial advisors, accountants, etc.) giving advice.
• Advice to young lawyers
  •  Working well with assistants and paralegals. This is often overlooked by lawyers.
  • Be on time and ready to work
  • Be willing to accept new challenges
  • Start recognizing what is needed before being asked, and take the initiative to get it done
  • When given feedback, accept it, learn from it, and put it into practice
    • In most cases, the purpose of critical feedback is to teach and build up, not to personally criticize
  • Also get along well with the staff
    • as a young lawyer you will likely be working with staff who have more experience than you
• If you are a candidate
  • Read the job ad and respond specifically to what is asked (if it asks for both a cover letter and resume, send both!)
  • Make sure cover letters and resumes look good and are grammatically correct
    • Have someone check your work!
  • the interviewer is often just looking for whether you are a good fit with the other people in the office
  • prepare for the interview to show your interest in what the firm does
  • Ask questions that focus on what the firm does, their clients
  • If transitioning into a new practice are, communicate what you are willing to do to get up to speed and learn the area
    • Also recognize you may not be as valuable (i.e. $$) as you are in your current role, at least until you get up to speed
• Advice on business development
  • Get involved in the community and the industry you practice in
  • Ask your supervising partner for advice on how to bring in new clients to the firm
  • Do great work for your partner's clients
  • Make sure the partner knows you aren't looking to build business just to leave and take clients with you; but that you want to help grow your firm
• Other thoughts
  • Recognize that there are always trade-offs. If you want to work fewer hours, be ready to accept less pay.
  • There is a big difference between a flex schedule (i.e. rearranging a full-time schedule to non-traditional work hours) and simply taking time off.
• Rapid Fire
  • Associate trait/characteristic - practicality
  • Key habit - hard work
  • Legal movie - My Cousin Vinny