This may be widely understood, but, in case it is not, here is something to know about using a law firm: If the claim gets approved on the first try - as mine did - the law firm doesn't make a nickle. And they're okay with that. They make money on volume of cases, and they expect that some percentage of their clients will get approved early in the process.

I will say that they do not make a "heavy lift" effort early on. It's just not worth their while. Like - in my case - I never actually talked to an actual lawyer. I'll bet not one of the partners ever heard of me. All the work was done by paralegals and clerks . . . mostly clerks. I saw on stuff the SSA sent me that the clerks had been a little sloppy about some things - like not even putting my address exactly correctly. That's why I did the rest of the paperwork, myself . . . to make sure that a real effort went into it. (I was facing possible homelessness.) I had to be willing to say some unflattering things about myself. I accepted that and told about my failures in the workplace.

They do want to know about every single job you've held in the past 15 years. By the way, that information is available to them, as you would likely guess. They are looking for a series of failures, or a very good reason why you could not now successfully do what you were successful at in the past.