1. What’s Your name and Where do you work?

- Joan M Craig, Nossaman LLP, in Downtown Los Angeles CA

2. What kind of legal practice do you have?

- “Insurance coverage difficulties, employment law, and general business litigation
are all areas of civil litigation where I specialize. I've had the good fortune to
handle practically any type of civil lawsuit, including professional liability, and
have had numerous jury trials in California courts”.

3. What does a typical workday look like for you

- “I normally arrive at the office between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. and work for 10 to 12
hours, depending on the workload. If I'm on trial, my work day is normally 16 to
20 hours long, with early morning office prep, late afternoon and evening
post-trial day review, and next-day prep, as well as weekend work. I don't work
weekends unless I'm on trial”.

4. What aspects of your profession do you enjoy the most?

- “I appreciate the difficulty of figuring out what really happened and how to create
a claim or a defense to a claim, as well as the variety of fact patterns. The
continual variety of law–new practice areas, as well as the nearly daily creation of
the law as appellate courts and lawmakers conduct their work–are among the
problems. I like the creative aspect of coming up with a legal argument and
authority to back it up. It's very satisfying to make law in an appellate context,
and I've been lucky enough to be a part of a few that have done so.It is really
rewarding to assist folks who want legal assistance and to be successful in
obtaining their rights”.

5. What aspect of your job do you dislike the most?

- “Time sheets, accounts receivable collection, and other facets of the legal
profession”.

6. What do you wish you had understood about the legal profession before you decided to
pursue it as a career?
- Apart from idealistic portrayals in the media, I knew very nothing about the job,
which is probably a good thing.

7. Do you have any recommendations for students considering a career in law?

- “Prepare yourself for a lot of difficult work. Mental agility, as well as the ability to
simplify, are essential. The finest lawyers can break down complex situations into
simple language. In all legal job, being succinct is critical: Being able to say in ten
words or fewer "who is suing whom for what." A concise statement that
expresses the concepts in simple declarative words is far more persuasive than a
long, convoluted speech. Judges only have roughly five minutes to work up each
case that comes before them, especially at the trial court level”.