3 Tips for Summer Associates & Request for ideas for list

Mother’s Day

I’m starting a list of tips for students and new graduates who’ll be starting their first “lawyer” jobs at law firms soon.

I hope you can help me add to and improve the list.

1️⃣

If you get assigned to perform a task that seems “below” you, show an eager and grateful demeanor anyway.

—When I was supervising firm associates, I could always sense if an associate was less than thrilled to receive a project. It infuriated me and made me not want to work with them again.

—Unless and until you demonstrate that you can handle some “grunt” work responsibly, firm lawyers will not be eager to trust you with more difficult, sexier assignments.

2️⃣

There is a category of people working at the firm that are not lawyers. Employees who come to mind include:

—paralegals, copy and mailroom staff, administrative assistants, help desk operators, marketing and PR peeps, receptionists, custodians, and all others in job titles that a firm might use for folks who work at the firm in a non-lawyer capacity.

These are the people who know everything you don’t.
They will help you when no one else will.
They can tell you all the unwritten rules.
They also know all the firm gossip.
They can be allies or foes.
Invest early in befriending all these people as allies.
These people are gold.

3️⃣

Try to anticipate the questions you’ll have when receiving new assignments.

Although it is difficult to craft universal questions that will fit with every task you might receive, here are some frequent ones:

-How long should it be?
-How much time should I bill, and to what matter?
-Does the client have specific requirements for time billing?
-Does the firm have models I should follow?
-Have others done similar tasks that I might seek out for guidance?
-By when should I return my work to you?
-What will my writing ultimately be used for?
-Do you have any writing-style guidelines or formatting preferences for the assignment? {N.B. I’ll have more to say about this one.}

Best is to ask your questions in the assignment meeting itself.

—I also typically followed such a meeting, either right after or the next day, with an email to the assigning attorney. My email would summarize my understanding of what I was to do and pose any additional questions I had thought of.

I will think of more and circulate in a future post that explains more about each, but this post is getting long.

******

🗳️ Please share any and all ideas for law students and graduating 3Ls who are starting their first law-firm jobs soon.

I will collect all comments and create a comprehensive guide for peeps that I post here.

Fondly,
💌 Amanda

#lawstudents
#lawyers