A Real Pinch Hit

Why would you need a pinch-hitting attorney? Has anything like this ever happened in your law office? Imagine you are a sole practitioner with one associate. Your top client is being sued. You have three days to file a responsive pleading, which will involve a dozen or more exhibits. Your associate is in court all week; you will be working into the wee hours to get this pleading filed.

Of course your phone still rings, and your other clients still need attention. You speak to clients and adversaries, putting out small fires as you go along.

Into the middle of this comes another issue – a matrimonial matter where you represent the wife. The husband has taken unilateral action which harms your client. You emailed opposing counsel taking exception to the husband’s action, and today you received the reply. Counsel claims that not only was his client justified, but that some unspecified case law would impose liability on your client for opposing his position. It’s not an everyday issue, and though counsel’s claim doesn’t sound right to you, you can’t recall the law off the top of your head. It is a time sensitive issue, and you must respond.

This clearly called for a pinch-hitter. The practitioner described gave me a call, spent fifteen minutes getting me familiar with the case, and gave me copies of the relevant emails. I researched the point of law, asked a few more factual questions, and presented her with my analysis of the relevant law as applied to her client. (By the way, the adversary was blowing smoke, big time!) The practitioner outlined a few points for the response, I drafted a letter to the adversary, and sent it to the practitioner to revise if she liked, sign off on, and send to her adversary. The whole thing took me about two hours, and the practitioner was able to respond to her adversary in less than twenty-four hours. A real pinch-hit.

– Megan Oltman

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. Both comments and pings are currently closed.