Susan Cohodes encourages aspiring PI lawyers to be honest about whether they’re cut out for the rigors of personal injury practice — before it eats you up.
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In “A Life in the Law,” trial attorney Susan Cohodes shares pearls of wisdom from her long career in personal injury law and her transition to “less-than-full-time” practice. This time: Do you have what it takes to succeed as a PI lawyer — or will it chew you up?

When aspiring lawyers ask me for advice on the best path to becoming a personal injury lawyer, my answer is always some variation of, “Do what I say, not what I did.”

I took what was, back in the day, the standard path to becoming a lawyer. Four years of undergrad straight out of high school, followed immediately by three years of law school. My first job in a law office wasn’t until the second semester of my first year of law school.

As I wind down my career and look back, I’m not sure that was the best path. Law school is too big an investment of time and money to jump in without some practical experience in the type of law you want to practice. These days, more college graduates are spending a couple of years working (or traveling) before starting law school, and that’s what I recommend.

Before Shopping for Your Lawyer Suit

I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer. When I was 12 years old (in 1972), I announced that goal to my parents. Maybe it was the Perry Mason reruns, but to me, being a lawyer meant being a trial attorney helping injured people. What sealed it was a family vacation in Washington, D.C., where I saw all those women walking around with briefcases, wearing socks and sneakers and suits with little bow ties that mimicked their male counterparts’ neckties. I thought they looked so cool. (Anyone over 55 years old will recall the thick yellow or blue tie material with little paisleys.)

So, I decided that that was who I wanted to be.

As I got older, I progressed beyond how cool I’d look in a particular professional uniform. My desire to be a trial lawyer didn’t waver, however, and as it turns out, I was right. (If looking cool had remained my top consideration, I would have been an astronaut, a cowboy, or Cher).

To be clear, I do not think wardrobe should figure prominently in anyone’s career decision. In fact, there are several things for potential PI lawyers to consider before shopping for that new going-to-court suit.

Is Being a Personal Injury Lawyer a Good Fit for You?

Whether a new graduate or an attorney considering a switch to PI practice, I urge you to look in the mirror and be frank with yourself about whether personal injury law is a good fit. Being a PI lawyer is not nuclear physics, but it is intellectually and emotionally demanding. You regularly deal with people who have suffered trauma and are in dire straits. They expect you, the lawyer, to make everything all better right away. Usually, you can’t. Always, you have to tell them that.

In fairness to your clients and your real life, you need to be able to compartmentalize so that you can give your all to your clients and represent them zealously, but still read bedtime stories to your kids, or read this month’s book club book, or go out to dinner with someone who isn’t a work colleague. If you can’t compartmentalize, then a PI practice is not for you because eventually it will eat you up. Then you won’t be any good to your clients, your family or yourself.

Next, assuming you have the emotional strength to assure people all day long that, even though the sky isn’t falling, you can’t build them a brand-new roof right away, you need to consider whether you can handle the intellectual rigors of a personal injury law career.

Academic prowess, though not the main factor, should be a consideration. If, however, you are reasonably academically inclined and willing to work hard, you can handle the intellectual side of law school and PI law.

In addition to the workload and emotional stress of PI practice, you must be sure you have the attributes required for the job.

Attributes of a Successful Personal Injury Lawyer

First is natural curiosity.

When you represent injured people, you have to get them to tell you their story. And after you hear several hundred stories, they can all start to sound the same. “Blah, blah, blah, neck hurts. Blah, blah, blah, can’t sleep, blah, blah, blah can’t vacuum.” (I always viewed that last one as a bonus, not a problem.) If you have natural curiosity, you don’t hear the same story because there is always some twist or something interesting about the real human telling the story … if it is your natural inclination to ask. If it’s not, then getting to that story will be tedious and overwhelming, and you will not enjoy a PI practice.

A close second is the ability to listen well.

If PI clients come to you, it’s probably because they feel like an insurance adjuster didn’t listen to them. So you must. You must listen wholeheartedly to not only what your client says but also how. Body language is as important as the spoken word when you are trying to draw a story from someone. So, when you are talking with a client about what they went through, you cannot also be scrolling on your laptop or phone. No taking a call from another client. No doodling on a notepad. You have to be able to focus on the person who is talking to you so that they trust that you understand and are genuinely concerned and interested in what they are going through.

Empathy is also important … sort of.

Your clients aren’t paying you to tell them what they want to hear. They want your sympathy, but they are paying for your professional judgment. Sometimes that judgment is that they are not entitled to what they think they are — or to anything at all. (“I know that slide at the park that cut your child was really dangerous, but Recreational Use Immunity shields the park district.”)

Again, if you don’t think you’ll be able to tell clients what they don’t want to hear, PI is not for you.

The Best Way to Find Out If PI Practice Is Right For You

Even if you are sure you are built to be a PI lawyer, I don’t recommend jumping into law school directly after graduating from college.

If you are a student considering law school, by all means, join the debate team, pay attention in civics classes, study political science or even journalism in undergrad (not English lit), and take an LSAT prep course.

Just as important: Get a job — any job — in a law office.

Working in a law office before applying to law school — or early in your law school career — is the best way to figure out if PI practice is for you. Talk to practicing lawyers about their work and life. Ask a lot of questions. Find out if your thoughts about how a PI practice would work for you are realistic.

Lawyers are always looking for support staff. You probably (not a chance) won’t be asked to help with actual cases, but even sitting at a desk answering phones will give you a glimpse of what the practice is really like. In fact, if you are sitting at the front desk, you’ll learn quickly if PI is for you the first time an amputee client offers what is left of his hand for a handshake, which you cannot decline.

Better still is an internship in a law office where you get experience with the work of a PI lawyer. While internships are harder to find than support positions, they are out there. You just have to chase them.

How to Find an Internship

The best way to find an internship is to ASK EVERYONE. If you meet anyone affiliated with a law office in any way, ask them if their attorneys do informational interviews or if they would be willing to spend a little time on the phone with you. Then follow through and reach out.

If you see a lawyer’s ad on a city bus or on TV, give that lawyer a call.

Flattery may get you everywhere. All lawyers were young once, and my experience is that lawyers are generous with their time when young potential lawyers reach out. I’ve spoken with many potential law students over the years. Even when I was not able to offer an internship, I have always been able to give them the names of other lawyers they could talk to. Remember, the first five lawyers you talk to may not have an internship opening, but the sixth just might.

Make Sure PI Practice Suits You

Deciding whether a PI practice is the right one for you is serious. While you can always change your practice area, making the right decision at the start can help you avoid the stress of working in a practice that is not suited to you. Getting at least a glimpse of a PI practice before you enter law school can save you the trauma of working in a job you hate.

The first years of a law practice are hard. If you are like most young, smart, driven new lawyers, it will likely be the first time in your life that you won’t know what you’re doing. The learning curve is steep, and if you hate the work, that mountain is insurmountable. If, however, you look both inside and out and decide the life of a PI lawyer is for you, it can be a satisfying and rewarding career.

Not everyone is emotionally suited to personal injury practice. If you are, personal injury law offers a wonderful opportunity to make a living meeting and helping interesting people when they are most in need.