Re: Young Student Interviews Seasoned Lawyer

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You are such a liar Hardy Parkerson. The internet is
littered with your shenannagans. My cousin was represented
by you and you were the worst lawyer ever. I wouldn't
recomend this quack to anyone. Nice description
as "seasoned." I guess if you practice law for 40 years,
you can claim to be seasoned, but seasoned in this context
by no means implies competence.

On 12/21/06, Hardy Parkerson, Atty. - Lake Charles, LA
wrote:
> Tabatha's Interview Questions
> And Hardy Parkerson's Answers
>
> Hey, I am a 15 year old girl. I have wanted to be a
> Domestic Lawyer since I was 10. I have practically my
> whole future planned out; well at least the parts that
> have to do with my career. I have wanted to interview a
> Lawyer for years, but just didn't know how. Well now I
> HAVE to interview one for school, my Career Information
> class.....so if you wouldn't mind answering the following
> questions: (I would appreciate it sooooooo much; it would
> mean the world to me to interview you.)
>
> What type of Lawyer are you?
>
> I am a sole practitioner and a generalist. I handle all
> kinds of cases. There is not much that I don't handle that
> an average person would want a lawyer for. I do land
> matters, probate matters, criminal matters, civil damage
> suits; you name it, I probably do it. Mostly, however, I
> handle criminal cases and automobile accident cases and
> other types of personal injury cases.
>
> How much schooling did you need to hold the position that
> you hold today?
>
> Graduating from law school so that one can gain admission
> to the Bar takes seven years, as a general rule. It takes
> four years to get a bachelor's degree, and then three
> years of law school. It's not easy, but it is very
> possible. Before I started to law school, a lawyer here in
> town described it to me as an "endurance contest." That's
> pretty much true. Just put in your time and do your work,
> and you will make it. College can be fun. Law school is
> not necessarily so, but even that has its good times.
> Everybody studies in law school. Not necessarily so in
> undergraduate school. Law school is competitive.
> Undergraduate school is not necessarily so. There is more
> to it all than this, but this is something to think about.
>
> Where did you go to school, high school, college and Law?
>
> I graduated from Lake Charles High School, a public school
> in Lake Charles, Louisiana; then graduated from McNeese
> State University, a public college in Lake Charles; and
> then I graduated from Tulane School of Law, a division of
> Tulane University of Louisiana in New Orleans.
>
> What did you major in?
>
> In undergraduate college I majored in Social Studies. That
> includes a lot of everything and not much of anything. It
> included some math (2 semesters), a lot of history, a lot
> of English, some French (5 semesters), some philosophy,
> some government, some art (one semester), some art-history
> (one semester), a lot of sociology, some speech courses
> (three or four), some economics and some science (two
> semesters - Botany and Biology) courses. As I say, a lot
> of everything, but not much of anything, except English,
> history and sociology. In those days a B.A. degree
> consisted of 120 semester hours, four years or eight
> semesters of at least 15 hours each semester.
>
> What did you study?
>
> Well, looks like I have pretty much answered this one in
> my answer to the previous question.
>
> How were you trained?
>
> Law requires no internship nor prior training prior to
> taking the Bar Exam and becoming admitted to practice law.
> You learn law by On Job Training (OJT). You learn by
> doing. It's the blind leading he blind. Not ideal, as I
> see it; but that is the way it is. One summer between my
> second and third years of law school I did work in a law
> firm as a law clerk, and I learned much law and how to
> practice it there. However, law school hardly teaches you
> the way to the courthouse as a practical matter. The
> matter of learning how to practice law comes after one is
> admitted to the Bar and begins to practice law. That's why
> they call it "practice"; I suppose, for one never really
> learns it fully. He is always getting ready to play the
> game, always practicing for the game to be played.
>
> How did you get interested in becoming a lawyer?
>
> As a young person I saw lots of injustices, and I knew
> that being a lawyer would help me right some of the wrongs
> I saw. I did not want to be powerless against the bullies
> that I saw who ran things, like school administrators and
> businessmen and cops. I wanted to be able to bring justice
> into situations where justice had been denied, where
> people had been treated unfairly and unjustly.
>
> What do you like and dislike about your job?
>
> I dislike always being threatened with disciplinary action
> if I do anything that displeases somebody. The so-called
> ethical rules are so stringent that a lawyer is afraid to
> pass his card to a potential client, lest he be haled
> before the Office of Disciplinary Counsel ("Bar Police")
> to answer charges of unethical conduct, and be threatened
> with disbarment, suspension or public or private censure.
> It's a phony system, the so-called ethics set-up. It's big
> business for lawyers who do not want to practice law, but
> who would rather make their livings taking away the right
> of other lawyers to practice law. I've got an attitude
> about it, I'll admit! Probably not as bad as I am making
> it sound, but there is a lot of truth in what I am saying.
> Nowadays, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel even has a
> web-site where any unhappy client can download a form and
> file a complaint against a lawyer; and the lawyer is
> presumed guilty until he proves his innocence; and the ODC
> keeps a permanent file on the lawyer, and no matter how
> many times he is cleared of such charges, they keep all
> the paper and in future cases decide cases on what I call
> the "thickness of file" theory: the thicker a lawyer's
> file is, the more guilty he is presumed to me. That is one
> of the things I do not l like about law practice. There
> are some others, including clients who are always hitting
> on their lawyers for money. I thought when I became a
> lawyer people would come to me and pay me money. I find
> they come to me and want me to pay them. Especially
> personal injury clients. And if you don't, hey! they fire
> you and go to some other lawyer. So what you end up doing
> is placating them and giving them whatever you can get by
> with and then trying to settle their cases and get your
> money back, and at the same time make some money on their
> cases. There is much more to it all than this, but this is
> something to think about.
>
> What, if anything, would you do differently?
>
> I think if I had it all to do over, I would not become a
> lawyer; but when I was young, I wanted that more than
> anything else. I would probably have made a better
> football coach or school teacher or college professor, or
> even an engineer, or medical doctor. I did the best I
> could in college and law school, so there is not much I
> could have changed about that.
>
> What did you find difficult in high school?
>
> Nothing really, except I was only interested in sports; at
> least until my senior year. Then I got serious about
> school; for I had been told by my parents that I had to go
> to college, and I knew I must begin to get ready.
>
> What did you enjoy in high school?
>
> I enjoyed sports; and when I got to be a senior, I enjoyed
> government. I took two years of Latin in high school, for
> I had heard that one wanting to be a doctor should take
> Latin; and when I started high school, that was my
> ambition; but I quickly gave that thought up, when I found
> Latin difficult. I enjoyed taking typing in the old days;
> that was before the days of computers. I also enjoyed
> mechanical drawing (drafting). I never cracked a book that
> I remember until my senior year, and I managed to do all
> right in high school.
>
>
> How did what you learned in high school help you in your
> chosen career?
>
> All of it helped me. Looking back, I wish I had been a
> more serious student. In those days, all that mattered was
> football first, basketball second, baseball third, and
> track fourth. Nobody ever encouraged me, that I recall;
> even though I had wonderful parents. Looking back, I think
> that perhaps I had great potential, but did not know it.
> When I was a senior in high school, my English teacher
> called me to the front of the room and asked me, "Son, now
> that you are graduating from high school, what do you plan
> to do?" I said, "I would like to go to college, but I
> known I am not smart enough." She said, "Boy! What are you
> taking about! You're smart!" No one had ever told me that
> before that I remember. That encouraged me to do better in
> school like nothing before had ever encouraged me. Pretty
> much the same thing happened to me when I enrolled in
> college the day after I graduated from high school. My
> faculty advisor asked me what I wanted to major in. I
> said, "I would like to be a lawyer, but I know I am not
> smart enough." He said, "Boy! What are you taking about!
> The best lawyer in this town was the dumbest guy who ever
> went through this school: Nathan Cormier." Well, after
> forty-two years, Nathan Cormier is still the best lawyer
> in this town. Nothing ever encouraged me more to make an A
> than making an A; but making a D never encouraged me a
> bit. I know teachers can't give away grades, but that is a
> lesson some of them never learned.
>
>
> What does a firm look for when hiring?
>
> As a general rule, firms look for the guy or girl who is
> the highest up in the class. Law schools usually rate
> students from highest to the lowest. The higher you
> graduate in your class, the better chance you have of
> getting the job you desire. The lower you graduate, the
> less your chances are. There used to be an old joke in law
> school that said, "A students end up being law professors,
> B students end up being Judges, and C students end up
> making money." Another joke is, "What do they call the
> lowest man in his class in law school?" ANSWER: Lawyer.
> Just do the best you can! That's all you can do.
>
> What does a new lawyer usually make (money wise)?
>
> It's different for every lawyer. My first law firm job
> paid me $125.00 a week, and I was glad to get it. That was
> in 1967. That was not great money, even then; but, as I
> say, I was glad to have a job. I was worth about $25.00 a
> week. I have a young daughter-in-law who graduated high in
> her class at William and Mary Law School, and she is an in-
> house attorney for Norfolk-Southern Corporation in
> Norfolk. Just judging from her and my son's brand new home
> and the cars they drive, and knowing what he makes as a
> young Naval officer, I am sure she makes upwards of
> $100,000.00, or more. Not bad for a young person. Every
> person and legal job is different, and there is no
> uniformity about what lawyers make. It might be that a new
> lawyer would start out practicing law out of his or her
> car, or out of his or her living room, get a good case and
> make a million dollars the first year. Not likely, but
> possible. It's been done before many times. I like what
> Tom Wolfe says in YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN: "Pick out what
> you want in life, pay the price and take it!" What you
> make is up to you. Do the best you can in high school,
> then in college, then in law school; and you can make
> anything you want. The potential is there.
>
> What is the pay based on?
>
> Lawyers like me work generally on a percentage of what we
> collect on a personal injury case. I have heard of an
> annual high of $60,000,000.00 for a lawyer, and a low of
> minus-$250.00. I am the one who made the minus-$250.00;
> and my best year was one for which I reported $225,000.00
> of taxable income, after having deducted everything that I
> could dream up, and then some. The sky is the limit of
> what you can make, and then you can end up paying money to
> practice law. For me there are times when the money falls
> out of the sky and times when it costs me money to
> practice law. But I am not necessarily the typical lawyer.
> Law firms pay an annual negotiated salary, as a general
> rule; and then they may pay bonuses for exceptionally good
> years for the firm. There is a lot more to it all than
> this, but this is something to think about.
>
>
> What is/was the most difficult thing for you to
> learn/understand/be willing to sacrifice, etc. in you
> present job?
>
> I have never had a salary, except my first year or so of
> law practice. Ever since then, I have been a sole
> practitioner, and it has been up to me to make it or break
> it. My wife is a school teacher, and she always had a
> salary, a check she could count on on a regular basis. No
> so for me! As I said, one year I made a cool, clear
> taxable $225,000; and I had one case that I did hardly
> anything on that paid me a fee of $94,000 for doing noting
> more than filing a petition. The potential is there, but
> there are no guarantees, especially for the private
> practice of law for the sole practitioner. I still say
> that Thomas Wolfe was right: "Pick out what you want in
> life, pay the price and take it." He got that from
> Emerson's essay on "Compensation." Read Thomas Wolfe,
> especially "YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAN."
>
> Of course, let me say this: The most important thing in
> life is God and your relationship to Him. Miss out on
> that, and you've failed; you've missed everything. Get
> that right, and you've accomplished all that is important.
> Yet we still have a life to live, and even God expects us
> to work and earn our way and to contribute to society and
> to help our fellow man; so I go back to the Thomas Wolfe
> principle: "Pick out what you want in life, pay the price
> and take it!" Again, there is more to it all than this,
> but this something to think about.
>
> What advice do you have for me, a high school student,
> looking to pursue a similar (or same) career?
>
> I've pretty much set it out for you above. Just go for it.
> Pick out what you want in life, pay the price and take it!
> But remember that the most important thing in life is God
> and your relationship to him. Make sure you do not go
> wrong there. Then the rest is lagniappe.
>
> I would appreciate if you answered ASAP....(sorry if I
> sound pushy....but I have a quick deadline on my paper....)
>
> Well, I answered quicker than I expected at first. I will
> also send you the questions and answers to the other
> internet interviews that I did with young high school
> students. I would like for you to let me know your name
> and address, and I would like for you to keep me advised
> as to how you do in high school; and I would like to
> receive an invitation to your high-school graduation so
> that I can send you a graduation gift. I recommend Sophie
> Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans for an
> undergraduate degree, and then Tulane Law School, if you
> do not get into Harvard or Yale Law Schools. Best of luck!
>
> Thanks a Million!
>
> One day Domestic Lawyer,
> Tabatha
>
>
>
>
>