I'm gonna discuss with you some of the things I've seen in recent years with attorneys in the family law practice, in particular the difference between lawyers who are members of big law firms and lawyers who are solo practitioners.

I recently met with a client who came to see me about hiring me and we did an interview, which is called an initial consult. And I do not charge for those initial consults in an effort to help people who are trying to make this critical decision. This lady was telling me that when she went to this law firm, she knew that they had six lawyers working there and that they were all practicing family law and so she met with someone in the firm and agreed to hire this law firm. When she came back to the law firm to turn in her financial affidavit and other financials, she was given another attorney to meet with her because that attorney was not available. And then when she had a hearing, she met the third lawyer in the law firm. Throughout the time that she was working with the lawyers that she hired, she never met with the same lawyer more than once. She was meeting with multiple attorneys and never really understood who was working on her case.

In this office, and in other offices where there's a sole practitioner, the client is going to get hands-on experience from the same lawyer that the client has met on day one and the same lawyer on day 181. That means there's going to be continuity. You're not going to be shuffled around from one lawyer to another in a firm. Whether there's six lawyers or 16 lawyers in a law firm, I feel it's not fair to a client. It's always best in these situations for a client to have an experienced lawyer whose going to be the assigned lawyer, whose going to know everything about the client's case and is gonna work with that client on a consistent basis.