September 26th, 2023
Hiring an Attorney
Hiring an attorney can be a stressful and overwhelming event because it typically accompanies a difficult, painful, or worrisome event in your life. You may feel lost, confused, or mistrustful, and may have no prior experience with attorneys and not know what to expect. It is important to find an attorney that is not only experienced and knowledgeable, but also that you can connect with and trust. One way to help you feel more at ease with entrusting your case to an attorney is to get to know your attorney better. Attorneys will learn a lot about you and your life as part of investigating and pursuing your case, but there are ways for you to get to know your attorney as well.
One of the first ways that you might learn more about your attorney is to check out their website and biography. This will usually contain a lot of information about the attorney’s education and experience, such as where they received their undergraduate degree and where they went to law school. It will likely list significant academic or professional accomplishments, such as if they have authored any published written works or if they have given presentations or been speakers at conferences or other events. The website biography will usually list the courts of which the attorney is licensed to practice, the areas of law that they typically focus on, and may also list some significant cases they may have worked on or won.
Another way to learn about your attorney is to perform a simple Google search. This will pull up various websites that review attorneys and can give you an idea of experiences that past clients have had with that attorney. Some of these websites include Avvo or SuperLawyers. These sites may also provide you with some additional information about the attorney’s significant accomplishments or awards and will also provide educational and licensing information for the attorney.
While all of these sources are useful for learning about the attorney as an attorney, it can also be beneficial to learn about who your attorney is as a person. It can help put you more at ease to find ways that you connect with your lawyer, such as knowing that you are both parents or that you enjoy similar hobbies. Website biographies can sometimes be a source of this information, but you might want to check out the attorney’s law firm social media pages as well. Those will often shed more light on the types of causes the firm’s attorneys support or events that they attend, including sporting events, community or church organizations, or charities that they support or serve as board members for.
Finally, the best way to get to know your attorney better is to ask them questions about him or herself! Most attorneys are happy to tell you about their work experience, education, or answer other questions that you may have to make you feel comfortable working with them.