I have been practicing law since 1981. I started out as an associate in a small firm in my hometown of Dickinson, North Dakota. The firm was a general practice firm but tended to do more plaintiff's work than defense work. I did a fair amount of family law, civil litigation which ran the gamut from construction law to personal injury to unfair trade practices, and criminal law from both the defense and prosecution sides. The firm served as the city attorney for a number of smaller rural communities. I then worked for a few years as a staff attorney for Social Security's Office of Hearings and Appeals in Fargo. The judges I worked for are all gone now, either relocated or retired. Quite a number of the staffers are still there though. From the start I intended to use the experience to eventually start a practice with a focus on representing persons with social security claims. I did note at that time that the attorneys representing claimants were often the youngest and most inexperienced attorneys at a larger law firm or were general practitioners who did a few cases a year. I also found that I very much missed the contact with clients.