http://www.lawconsultingblog.com/2010/07/articles/career-development/20-things-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-when-i-was-a-first-year-lawyer/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15787496)

lol, Westlaw.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15793796)

Outed as a dumb.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15794611)

Setup westlaw and lexis to email you your search histories. Helpful for billing and future cases with similar issues.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15793895)

Women partners and senior associates have major chips on their shoulders.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15792788)

1. Billables are the most important thing as a junior, keep those up to keep your job.

I found this out the hard way. I was billing a crap load early on mainly because I was volunteering for doc review projects (although I was not litigation). Halfway through my 1st year, I had among the highest billables in my class and my midyear reviews were stellar. The partner who reviewed me commended me for my great work.

Second half of the year, my work dried up, and I couldn't even get on doc review. My billables fell sharply. Only about 4-5 months after my stellar midyear review, that same partner came in and told me that I sucked and stealthed me.

2. Cultivate relationships with the rainmakers.

These partners can keep giving you work. Unfortunately, this was my 2nd biggest mistake. The work I was getting early on was from partners without much say in the firm and not as much work to dole out. When shit got slow, my go-to partners didn't have work for me, while the rainmakers had work to give to their favorites.

3. Make contacts outside the firm starting like NOW.

Network, network, network. People will be willing to talk to you while you have a BIGLAW business card. MAke contacts now. You never know when you will WANT or be FORCED to GTFO.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15793952)

And yea, join your local bar association, attend alumni mixers, and of course, cultivate good relationships with your clients.

Even as a first year, I had several smaller clients that I dealt with and had frequent conversations with

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15794626)

I KNEW who the rainmakers were, I just didn't want to work with them cause they were assholes.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795101)

I'd this just par for te course in biglaw? Am I restricted to finding friends outside of work?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15794288)

if you're great at the work being a partner at a major firm can be a superb, very satisfying job. and it's not difficult to know if you're that relatively rare person. it's the many, many people who split their time between pretending that's what they are and fretting that the truth will be discovered who define a predominant form of law firm misery. everyone else already knows the truth, and they don't give a fuck about your vaunted "social skills" or the extensive thought that went into your "casual Friday" ensemble.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15794720)

thanks

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795070)

managing complex discovery

trial strategy

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15801543)

http://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=1354979&mc=16&forum_id=2

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795065)

um wut?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795074)

the only exception to that are very high profile cases like prop 8 in california that gets a lot of media attention.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795197)

At my firm, we don't do pro bono.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15801559)

PURE SHIT, niggers' work product is.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795153)

http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=1077491&forum_id=2

The game hasn't changed, only the players. I'll answer supplemental questions in this thread if you have any.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795222)

If you are a deferred associate starting in 2011, God help you. But help yourself by not taking time off until 2012, because the summers will be there stealing your work in May and the new first years may get to actually show up in the Fall. Don't be interchangeable with either of those groups.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795254)

Take your take off when the work allows. I have never once "planned" a vacation.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795303)

Many people in our culture have a tough time making the BIGLAW trade-off --- money for personal time -- but enough of us do not that you will be out-competed if you aren't willing to act like you do.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795352)

You don't either. You will live and learn, friend.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795448)

the thing is, if you're good and develop a good reputation, the small stuff doesn't matter.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795291)

Honestly - I don't think your work can be any good billing this many hours, you'd be exhausted and stressed and it'd be difficult to focus.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795438)

you don't need to "focus" b/c half of it is meaningless BS. we stayed up for 36 hrs straight doing a 1000+ exhibit list. it's brainless.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795447)

I can hardly focus after a normal day in the office - a 12 hour day and I'm cooked.

Working all night? I'd be pretty well useless. . .

There isn't much in the way of brainless transactional work.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795504)

"

Was that a joke?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795525)

that seems pretty common among my corporate friends.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795566)

my corporate friends typically have a very bad week (or a few bad weeks) when a deal is closing (i.e. waking up at 4am to take calls in some far off country, sleeping 4-5 hours/night, if at all).

as for the 4 months thing, lots of clients seem to want to close at the drop of a hat and doesn't seem that organized in terms of timing so there are a lot of fire drills.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795582)

Leading up to close can be very hectic yes and involve late nights, yes. But again, 90-95% is anything but brainless work. So while there are times when the hours can get long - I personally don't function well if it's too much of this. 300 hour months seem absolutely abhorrent to me and there is simply NO WAY I could do efficient, timely, accurate contract drafting working this many hours.

Maybe I'm just not cut out for it. . whatever, I really don't believe that anyone could do much better than I short of using stimulants.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795641)

anyway, i don't know what sort of "substantive" corporate work you're doing, but 95% of what my friends are keeping track of multiple versions of things, running deltaview, entering edits/grammar/punctuation for docs nobody's going to read anyway.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15801617)

1. The advice above about finding the rainmakers is good. A corollary to it: make sure that your client's in-house counsel knows you, can identify you by name, and likes you. You need to be a valuable asset to them. They're the ones paying the firm money; you want them comfortable with you and even asking for you in the future.

2. Document review is extremely important. If you're in the weeds understanding the facts, you'll be go-to person on the nitty-gritty facts that can make or break your case when things get heavy. I knew fairly senior partners who went out of their way to spend at least some time doing document review because that's the only way to get a handle on the case. If you're the master of the facts on your team, you will quickly become indispensable.

3. Get a good airline card with good reward miles depending on your firm's travel preferences.

4. Hours matter--and not just because that tends to make-or-break you for reviews, but because it's experience. The difference between a first-year who billed 2000 hours and a first-year who billed 2500 hours is that the latter has 25% more experience, even though they're the same class level.

5. Proofread one more time than you'd ordinarily do so.

6. Midlevels will blame you for their mistakes. So make no mistakes, or anticipate this and decide what's appropriate to do. This is one of the hardest areas to navigate, and I don't have much more advice than to be aware.

7. Better to respond to an e-mail in 30 minutes with some thought put into it than in 3 minutes suggesting you rushed a response or weren't busy and just had the time to respond some trivial answer.

8. Decide your financial plan and budget, today. You'll have extra money--are you going to invest it in your Roth 401(k), pay down your debt as quickly as possible, or create a safety net in a secondary banking account?

9. Don't get sick. This means exercising daily, eating well, and taking vitamins. The last thing you want is anything to knock you out of commission for a few days.

10. Have an exit plan. As in, if, 12 months from today, you were going to be at a different job, either voluntarily or involuntarily, what would you do? This involves keeping your resume up-to-date, keeping recommenders apprised of your current situation and (possibly) future interests, networking, and figuring out the best application seasons for other jobs as well as the most likely times you could lose yours (generally after reviews) or voluntarily end yours (generally the month after you receive your year-end bonus).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795276)

i got way more substantive experience as 1st year billing 2100 than people billing 2700 hours on a giant case stuck in discovery.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795288)

6. Midlevels will blame you for their mistakes. So make no mistakes, or anticipate this and decide what's appropriate to do. This is one of the hardest areas to navigate, and I don't have much more advice than to be aware. "

Very good advice, and directly correllated - do NOT expect people higher up the chain to catch all your mistakes, even though that's their job. Do expect them to occasionally put in mistakes that weren't there.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15801508)

I always keep a copy of the pre-changes document handy so I can do a comparison in Word.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15801598)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roth_401%28k%29

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15805153)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15805357)

By making this concession, you will keep yourself from getting frustrated when you end up spending your Friday nights cite checking. It should be a pleasant surprise when you make it out.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15795470)

I haven't worked for him yet, but am working for a nicer service partner where I just won't hit my targets at this rate. Should I try to get some work from the silverback? Thanks.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15796344)

The point of the story is not that it's objectively a mistake to not read an email as soon as it comes in; it's to show how perceptions can play a huge part in your fate at a firm. For people who enjoyed being perceived in school as "as smart as the gunners without having to work as hard" there is additional cost beyond any deficit in work product. Sometimes lazy people think that they're walking into Biglaw with a big advantage b/c their work style allows for more chaos and stress, and so they will have an easier time dealing with the hard parts of the job. And if a law firm was as charitable and forgiving a working environment as a prestigious undergrad university, this would probably prove true. The reason why that's not the case is that your chaotic style will get revealed before you have chance to show your ability to deal with pressure. Your typos will be expected b/c people will already have certain judgments in their heads based on the work persona you project. In effect you get dinged twice for being a lazy: once for being "laid back," and once for your typos. And so you'll get stuck with shitty work that you'll fuck up and as a result you'll never progress.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15802259)

reading emails as they come in requires 10 secs of clicking on an attachment and scrolling through and then responding "will do." that is the minimum expectation. it's not striver behavior at all. you read emails as they come in when you're sitting at your desk and you check your blackberry every 10 min or so when you're not at your desk during the work week about every 20-30 min on wknds, even if you have nothing going on. i can say firsthand that partners/other associates will be anywhere from annoyed to pissed at you if you don't respond within 5-60 min to an email btwn hours of 9am-11pm 7 days/wk with at least a "will do" as acknowledgment, even to something non-urgent.

the average incoming big market biglaw 1st year understands these expectations and acts accordingly. i cannot speak of secondary markets though where the expectations may be different.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15802928)

i've mastered the game and that includes 2-3 hours gym/lunch breaks in the middle of the day. none of that would be possible if people suspect you're not monitoring and reading your emails.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15811286)

some of the partners i work for are more micro managing than others, but they all expect this. i'm also "in" with enough partners who talk to me very frankly about how perceptions of associate availability and reliability is very important. if the partners hate me for it, they certainly hid it well in my stellar reviews, which, of course, is the only thing that counts when it comes to getting fired.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1395680&forum_id=2#15812469)