Monday Mentors with Litigator and Law Firm Founder Brandy Austin

Brandy Austin is our guest today, and she leads The Brandy Austin Law Firm, a litigation and general practice firm in the Dallas/Fort Worth market. Brandy talks about the benefits of Zoom hearings, the always changing personal injury practice, and rooting out entitlement.

COVID-19 Updates

• Interesting to see who does well working from home, and who doesn't
• Lots of people want to stay working from home, so not sure what it will look like after
• 90% of clients have done great. They don't need the attorney or paralegal in the office; just a receptionist or someone who can take their payment or documents, etc.
• Not nearly as many personal injury cases
  • since people aren't driving and getting into accidents;
  • people aren't going out or to people's houses so no no slip/falls and no dog bites
• Court
  • Zoom hearings in some courts; not all
  • Has a jury trial set for October but courts are preparing for no jury trials in the late fall/winter
  • Waivers for in-person hearings coming?
  • Nothing is universal
• What has been learned?
  • No need to create office space for everyone or make people come to office
  • Quick hearings by Zoom (eliminates the drive time to the courthouse, waiting time, etc.)

Her Firm and Practice

• General practice firm with four lawyers and about a dozen staff
  • personal injury
  • family
  • probate/estate planning
  • business litigation
  • bankruptcy
  • criminal
• Personal Injury
  • changes every legislative session
  • filing requirements for affidavits (for example)
  • Also local rules are important, and sometimes need to be challenged!
• Dallas v. Arlington v. Fort Worth
  • Dallas lawyers would attach a motion for sanctions in all their pleadings; completely shocked her!
  • She filed one in Tarrant County once when it was very deserved and freaked out the other side
  • Family law is night and day between Tarrant and Dallas counties

Advice for Lawyers

• Impostor syndrome is a real thing, and doesn't mean you don't know what you are doing
• Rarely is something black/white; almost always a gray case to make!
• Ask for help from other attorneys who you don't practice with; they will help you!
• Get involved in organizations and take advantage of list servs; she now has a well-stocked portfolio of trial briefs for any occasion
  • Texas Lawyers Facebook group or your law school alumni FB group (Daniel)
• Have a great work ethic
• Try to resolve the problem before bringing it to your supervising lawyer; they can work with you from there, but won't want to help if you haven't tried to solve it yet
• Entitlement issues. For example, younger lawyers often feel like they should have a legal assistant or paralegal to draft things for them
  • You have to know everything about your case and be able to take responsibility for all of it
  • Draft the document and then send it to the paralegal/assistant! That will go a long way, and let you learn at the same time.

When she is hiring:

• She always asks for resumes in PDF format; if a candidate doesn't do that, they are not considered. Attention to detail!
• She will always stop and look if the resume is visually interesting
• Wants to see some applicable legal experience
• (Daniel tip) Add your name to the file name of the document (e.g. "SallySmithResume" instead of "Resume"); also know that the more unsual or extravagant the resume, the higher risk/reward
• She has her office administrator call and do a screening interview to look for entitlement problems and whether they are tech savvy
  • Especially if someone is coming from Big Law where they have had so many resources that won't be available in the smaller firm

Parting Shot:

• Mental health. She sees it in her staff and younger associates. Make time for yourself and set boundaries. Create outlets for anxiety.
• TLAP

Rapid Fire Questions

• One trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: diversity
• Key habit: show up
• Favorite app/tool: Macbook
• Favorite social distancing activity: building a playhouse for the kids from scratch; Doordash
• Favorite legal movie: The Devil's Advocate; Legally Blonde