Monday Mentors with Waco Construction Lawyer Julia Jurgensen
Julia Jurgensen, partner and construction lawyer with the full-service firm of Beard Kultgen in Waco, joins us on today's show! Julia talks about practicing law post-COVID, planning for work/life balance, and how to show you'll be a good fit in a firm.
Her firm/practice
- She is in her 15th year of practice
- full-service firm that does everything but family and criminal law
- 21 attorneys and have been growing
- She got her start as a plaintiff's attorney in Houston, but since moving back has done more general/commercial litigation and construction law
- Several law changes lately in construction law: surety, indemnity
- Construction law:
- She enjoys the clients: they are direct!
- Got to work with family friends
- Likes getting out to the job site and learning more about development and real estate
- Contract consulting is a big piece
- Waco market
- Loves that she knows many of her clients outside of work
- You will often know the attorney on the other side of the case, which most of the time brings a level of civility
- Lots of sophisticated work and people
- Great judges who are fair/thoughtful
COVID Update (as of 9/17/20)
- Big investment by the firm in technology
- How do we best serve elderly / high-risk clients? (e.g. signing wills in the parking lot with masks)
- The practice itself hasn't changed much
- She also handles some of the HR duties within the firm, so implementing protocols has been important as well as transitioning people to work from home.
- Post-covid
- Keeping people safe/healthy is important for them and the firm, so that should stay a priority moving forward
- Helping people to be productive working in a flexible or work-from-home situation
- However, it is still important to be physically present at the firm if at all possible, especially for young attorneys looking to get work from partners and popping into offices.
Work/Life Balance
- It's hard, and balance means different things at different points in your life
- Think about it early in your career, especially what you might want 5, 10, 20 years from now
- Do you know now that you always want to practice full-time? Part-time once you have a family?
- (Daniel) Look ahead at the people going through different life stages and see how the firm is responding to them
- She can now model that to other lawyers now and be a resource for them
Advice to lawyers in their job search
- Law school grades are important because they are an indicator
- If a lateral, do they have a book of business?
- What do they do outside of work? What did they do in high school? So interests on the resume are important.
- Helps to figure out whether the person fits into the firm culture.
- (Daniel) if you have interesting interests, include them; if not, don't!
- In the interview
- Can the person look her in the eye?
- Do they demonstrate honestly/integrity?
- Will they get along with others in the firm?
- Ask good questions; shows how interested they truly are
Rapid Fire Questions
- Name one trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: strong work ethic
- What habit has been key to your success: keeping things in perspective
- Favorite app/tool: paper list and a combo paper/electronic calendar
- Favorite social distancing activity: coaching little league
- Favorite legal movie: Erin Brockovich
Thanks again to Julia Jurgensen for joining us on the show!