New attorneys—particularly those starting their careers in a large firm surrounded by many seasoned attorneys—may fear that there is a limit to how much value they can add to their teams early in their careers. After all, they know they won’t be first chairing a trial or negotiating a multi-million dollar transaction. But as I learned early in my career, new attorneys can start making meaningful contributions to their teams from day one. Here are five of the key lessons I learned early on.
Every case needs an attorney who thoroughly knows the facts of the case—the attorney who has committed the complicated case timeline to memory, who has pored over the documents and identified the key ones, and who can recall witness testimony by heart. This is often a great role for a newer attorney. Partners are too busy (not to mention too expensive) to spend hours doing document review, building out case timelines, or preparing witness outlines. They rely on the more junior members of their team to learn the key facts and educate more senior members. As a junior attorney, it is important to understand that critical role you play on the team so that you can execute it well—and prove yourself to be an invaluable member of the team as a result.
Senior attorneys love when junior attorneys volunteer to take on more responsibility, so don’t be shy about doing it. So, if you know of a partner working on a case that you find interesting, reach out and ask if you can assist on the matter. Or if you wish you were getting more opportunities on a case, tell the attorney leading it that you would like to do more. For example, if you want deposition experience, tell the partner that you would like to take or defend some of the depositions in a case and ask if there are witnesses for which that would be appropriate. The more you advocate for yourself in getting opportunities, the more likely you are to get them.
If you are part of a busy practice, you will learn early that you will at times have more work than you can comfortably handle. As a junior attorney, it is critical that you develop systems to help you stay on top of your emails and deadlines. I recommend that you flag key emails that you cannot immediately respond to so you know to come back to them later. And find a way to carefully track your internal deadlines, whether that be setting calendar reminders for yourself, maintaining a spreadsheet with your internal tasks and deadlines, or—if your firm has it—leveraging a work management platform like Asana. Developing your own tools for staying organized helps you not only stay on top of your deliverables to others, but it will make you feel less overwhelmed with everything on your plate.
As a junior attorney, you want to be known for being a true team player—the kind of person who will volunteer to work on a weekend, if necessary, who will assist other attorneys on the team when they are swamped, and who will stay at the office late to meet a deadline. Showing early in your career that you value helping your teammates—and also putting in the extra time and effort to service your clients—will mean that partners will want you on their teams. As a junior attorney, that translates not only into strong relationships within your firm, but means you are more likely to get mentorship and favorable opportunities from the partners who keep coming back to you.
For me, some of the most rewarding parts of practicing law come from the relationships I have built with colleagues and clients along the way. As a junior attorney, make efforts to get to know your colleagues and your clients; it will help you build both an internal and external network. Good ways to do this are participating in recruitment and summer associate events, going to firm lunches and happy hours, and asking partners whose practices interest you if they will have lunch or coffee with you. Having friends and mentors in the office will not only make coming to the office more enjoyable, but it will also serve you professionally down the line. Most attorneys don’t spend their entire career at one firm, and the relationships you build in your early years may help you when you consider moving to another position, or look to bring in clients, later in your career.
