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"My Advice Is to do What Your Parents Did; Get a Job, Sir!"

A while back a person asked in the comments for advice and a thread for new or starting associates. As a new associate myself I?m not sure I can provide the advice but I can provide the thread.

. . . well, without venturing so far as to call it ?advice,? I do have some suggestions that have helped me greatly during my clerkship and in the two short months I have been a litigation associate:

• Figure out a way to organize your email. For me, this is a system of folders and outlook rules. At the end of each day I empty my inbox and sent mail into these folders so that I start each day fresh. This also helps me review issues that came up during the day so nothing slips through the cracks. It may be different for you, but this little ritual has helped me to keep on top of things.


• Figure out a way to organize your tasks and assignments. For me, this is a running ?task list? document that I keep on my desktop. Its columns are: task, due date, client, and status. I also update this at the end of each day, which helps me to stay on top of things.


• Figure out a way to organize your timekeeping. For me, this is combination of a downloadable stopwatch and a yellow sticky that sits next to my computer. There are about as many systems for keeping time as there are lawyers in the world so find what works for you, but whatever you do, don?t let timekeeping get away from you.


• If you are doing document review online, take some time to really learn how the platform works and how to use all of its features. This is another big time saver.


• Ask as many questions as occur to you, even if they feel (or are) dumb. Many of them will turn out to be not very dumb at all but that doesn?t matters. What matters is that you don?t know something, and you need to. So you gotta? ask.


• All of the standard rules for politeness and professionalism that you received for OCIP and for your summer gigs apply to your job as well, but if at this point you need to read this bullet to realize that you probably are doomed.


• ?Fess up to your mistakes immediately. I?ve made a few and the two lessons they consistently teach me are (1) pretty much every mistake you could possibly make has been made many times before, and (2) most things can be fixed if addressed quickly by people who know how.


• Write lots of stuff down. Get in the habit of being a jotter, and a saver of notes. Stick your jottings in a folder near your desk and ignore them until later when you suddenly find you urgenly need them. Which you will.
  


• Pay attention to the differences between being a law student and being a lawyer. My experience as the former has given minimal guidance in many important aspects of the latter. In a lot of ways I feel like I am starting all over again. It seems to me that, like the first semester of law school, now is the time to give it one hundred percent.

I am sure that the comments to this thread will be far more helpful than what I have posted above. In a year my own thoughts may be totally different. But this should get things going.

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on December 08, 2011 (boomark / email).