How to Succeed as a First-Year Attorney at a Big Law Firm
So considering that, here are some tips that I would offer to bright-eyed law school grads who are ready to kill it in Big Law. 1. Consider Your Short and Long Term Plans It’s obvious, but you absolutely have to sit down with yourself and think about your short and long term plans. Why are you working in Big Law? What are your goals? In fact, I’d argue that you need to do this before you begin your first day as a junior associate. Big Law can provide you with an awesome paycheck, but the golden handcuffs can tighten once you begin upgrading your lifestyle. It can become harder and harder to leave, even if you don’t necessarily enjoy what you’re doing. By contrast, it’s marginally easier to leave if you already recognize that you will only stay in Big Law for X number of years—or until you pay off your law school debt—before transitioning into something else. Ask yourself: do you want to become a partner at your firm or another firm? Do you see yourself staying in Big Law for just a couple years so you can become debt-free and then try something else? Or are you simply not sure about what you want to do? Whatever the answer, just be honest. This isn’t like The Bachelor, where you absolutely have to be in Big Law for “the right reasons.” Whatever your motives, keep them in mind as you’re starting off. If you’re feeling frustrated or stressed in your first year, it’ll be reassuring to know why you chose to work in Big Law in the first place. And who knows—your outlook on Big Law may change once you get your feet wet. 2. Handling the Day-to-Day Grind This topic could be an entire essay, but here are several strategies that helped me become a faster and better junior associate. Your strength is attention to detail: Let’s face it. Coming out of law school, most of us don’t know much about the actual practice of law. Our first year is essentially an extended training period — even clients recognize this and are increasingly refusing to pay for first-year work. As you’re learning how to actually be a lawyer, you need to become the master of details. This is something you can do right away: all it requires is patience and dedication. So if you’re working on a current lawsuit, be the member of the team that knows the facts inside and out. The same goes if you’re working on a deal as a corporate associate. I know, some of the work that you’re completing can be extremely boring. It’s even more of a challenge if you’re pulling late hours and constantly feel fatigued. But at this early stage of your career, you’ll get noticed and will bring value to the team by being the master of details. It also goes without saying, but all of your work should be absent of typos and should include all correct citations. And absolutely don’t forget to Shepardize everything. More matters > fewer matters: The question that I and other first-year associates would often ask is how many matters to take on. This is a tough question. Sure, you can say no to a partner requesting your assistance on a project, but this will probably cause long-term damage. Partners and senior associates will see you as less reliable and less of a team player. My general advice is that too much work is better than too little work. You want to be put on matters that have a long shelf life and where you are given a good amount of responsibility. It’s obviously difficult to project these factors, but that is the ultimate goal. At the beginning of my Big Law career, I was lucky in that I was the only associate working with two partners on a new lawsuit. The partners trusted me and gave me a good amount of responsibility, even letting me argue a minor procedural point in court. If possible, you should aim for these types of opportunities. Having said all of this, there may come a point where you’re inundated with projects. For instance, a partner may barge into your office and say a project needs to be completed “ASAP,” even though a different partner on another matter told you the same thing ten minutes earlier. If this is the case, you need to take action, and the most important thing here is communication. Describe your workload to both partners and the fact that you have conflicting, imminent deadlines. Be totally upfront with your ability (or inability) to complete the tasks on time. If necessary, the partners will have to work it out amongst themselves or seek out additional help. Mind your billable hours: As you begin at your firm, you should understand how many billable hours you’ll need to receive your annual bonus. Once you know the total number, divide it by twelve so that you know how many billable hours you need per month. This will be especially helpful during your first year (since your bonus will be prorated depending on your firm’s fiscal year), but it’s useful to have a benchmark for every month going forward. You want to constantly audit yourself to see if you’re on track. And yes, this means entering your time within 48 or 72 hours (your partners will thank you). If you’re not on track, you need to find work sooner rather than later. While many of your peers will be scrambling to find billable work just weeks before the end of your firm’s fiscal year, you can avoid this stress by ensuring that you’re on track throughout the year. Better to be proactive and eclipse the threshold by a large margin than panic at the end of the year. But along with this, recognize that the work typically ebbs and flows. For as much as we want to smooth out our workflow, it doesn’t work like that. It’s often feast or famine. If
