Dear Summer Associate – Law Firm Terminology
It’s hard to feel comfortable working at a law firm when the attorneys say things you’ve never heard before. Here are 6 sayings that I heard for the first time when I worked there.
Learn these today, so you won’t hear them, feel clueless, and be left to wonder.
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🔸 “I forgot how ‘green’ they are.”
This is something more senior layers say to each other.
Typically, they say it about first-year associates, but it would apply to summers, too.
“Green” means inexperienced.
🔸 “I’m ‘brief-blind.’”
You say this when you’re at the very end stage of writing a brief.
You cannot see typos because you’re too close to things.
You must wait 24 hours before editing, or give it to a colleague to help.
🔸 “Be careful when you start ‘drinking the Kool-Aid.’”
This amonotion applies when you’re finished writing a substantive brief.
You’ve become convinced that you will win and your client is set.
Watch out, as you may be missing something.
🔸 “She has a ‘heavy pencil.’”
People say this when they think someone “pads” their time or bills too much time for working on a project.
🔸 “Can you help on this client RFP?”
In this context, RFP stands for “Request for Proposal.” (RFP is also commonly used for “Requests for Production” in discovery, fyi.)
But with client RFPs, a current or prospective client sends a big request to several law firms asking them how they would handle a new case and how much they would charge to do it.
Working on an RFP response is often non-billable.
It is also extremely time consuming.
I did a lot of them. 😩
🔸 “Don’t ‘block bill.’”
You will hear this instruction on time recording.
Instead of billing “8.0 – Work on MSJ,” you should break up the day.
E.g.,
2.0 – Prepare argument section on pretext for MSJ.
1.5 – Prepare legal standard part of MSJ.
3.5 – Review and analyze cases cited in other side’s brief.
1.0 – Outline themes for MSJ preliminary statement.
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🗳️ What are some other terms or expressions that rising 3Ls might learn before they start their law-firm summer jobs?