Litigation Associate, Personal Injury Defense

Litigation Associate, Personal Injury Defense | Tampa, FL | $120,000 to $200,000 | Bodily Injury / Personal Injury Defense

Hours are the first thing most attorneys ask me about and the last thing most job ads mention. So here they are: 1,950 billable hours a year. Salary from $120,000 to $200,000. Hybrid, based in Tampa. Now that's out of the way, we can talk about the part that actually decides whether a job is good.

I'm Ryan Jaiswal at Distinct Recruitment, hiring a personal injury defense attorney for a Tampa insurance defense firm. The question I'd ask of any firm is simple: what do you get for those 1,950 hours? Here, the answer is real litigation experience.

What fills the hours

• Defending personal injury claims arising from auto accidents, premises incidents and general negligence

• Owning the file: case evaluation, discovery strategy, depositions of plaintiffs, treating doctors and experts

• Motion hearings, mediations and trial work, with first chair trials as your experience grows

• Regular contact with adjusters and clients, where your recommendations carry weight

• Opportunities to mentor other attorneys if that's where you'd like to go

Who fits

• Florida Bar members

• 2+ years of litigation experience, preferably personal injury or insurance defense

• Equally aimed at associates with five, seven or ten years behind them. The salary range is broad by design so experienced lawyers are paid properly

• People who like a busy docket but want every hour on it to count toward something

Working pattern

• Hybrid, with your base in the Tampa office

• Part of the week from home, with the team around you when it matters

Reasons people make this move

• Time spent on substantive work instead of shuffling files

• Trial work that's shared, not hoarded

• A clear path toward a bigger practice, whether that's counsel, partnership or simply more control over your own cases

• Pay that reflects your experience, set within a range wide enough to do so

None of that is unusual on paper. It's unusual in practice, and that gap is what I'd like to talk to you about.