James Amaro, of the personal injury firm Amaro Law Firm, joins us to talk about practicing a heavy case load during COVID-19, how to be useful in all areas of life, and a key missed opportunity job seekers make on resumes.

COVID update (as of 4/9/20)

Firm has been tech savvy for a long time; most of the intake is virtual, but after that people do like to come in
30 people in the office in Houston that had to go remote
hired consultants and really looked hard at how best to do this
High risk employees were prioritized
VOIP investment
Much of the litigation show went one, and filing deadlines were continuing to come up
Daily morning meeting/update
Keep everyone on their top three things they need to do (hardest first)
Monitoring the COVID data regularly to try and stay up to date and be ready to adjust
He had only done a few Zoom depos prior to this
Some insurance companies don't want to use Zoom due to security issues and want to use WebEx
Also need to learn depo-specific technology (exhibit presentations)
Courts and orders have been a challenge
Several state courts have been inconsistent
Federal courts are doing their own thing
Keep the team updated on changes
Tough for new graduates with the Bar exam and entering the profession during this

His firm/practice

Started in insurance defense before jumping out on his own in 2005 to work on the BP explosion in Texas City
Actually was going to start a job at the SEC in New York, then 9/11 happened.
Almost 100% personal injury now (he had done some insurance work earlier - tried the first Hurricane Ike case to verdict)
Still involved in the Deep Water Horizon case (10 years old)
Lots of brain injury and trucking cases on top of the typical car wreck case
Wanted to build a firm that he would have wanted to join coming out of law school
thinks millennials get a bad rap
COVID has dramatically reduced the traffic on the roads, which lowers car wreck numbers

Advice for young lawyers

Be used and useful
help where you can help; not just at the firm but in all areas of your life
check in on people; let them know you care / thinking of them
try to set aside personal/financial ambition; that will come over time
take advantage of professional development opportunities books/seminars/etc.
if you want to build your own book of business or clients, establish relationships with lawyers who have the infrastructure to front cases and ask them if you can help
over time of doing great work and providing great customer service will lead to positive reviews and referrals, which leads to business (Mattress Mack example; Zappos book)

Advice for lawyers applying for jobs

Looks for people who did well in school (reflects effort)
No typos
justify text in every document
put your strengths up first; no cutting/pasting of typical resume bullets; be specific about how what you did helped someone
put some conversation starters in your resume
prepare well for the interview; show what you can add to the team in value
show you want to be there for some amount of time, so the firm doesn't feel like it might be wasting its investment if you leave after a year or two

Rapid Fire Questions

trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: realness/authenticity
key habit: being real / true to yourself
favorite app/productivity tool: Outlook
favorite social distancing activity: spending time with 5-month old daughter
favorite legal movie: A Civil Action