Your early career will be a time of learning how to apply the skills and knowledge you have gathered. During this phase, it can sometimes be difficult to gauge how well (or unwell) you are doing. Unlike in law school, there is no grade at the end of the day telling you what a bright, young legal star you are. Through my own experiences and after many years of working with attorneys as they traverse this phase, I have discovered a few prompts to assess your own progress and performance and suggestions for how you can ensure your success along the way.
Are You Controlling the Things You Can Control?
Unless you are one of the brave souls who chose to hang his or her own shingle immediately after law school, you will likely be working in a firm or office with other lawyers. Despite the pressures we all put on ourselves, those more experienced attorneys do not expect you to know how to navigate every question or task sent your way. Each new attorney needs years of hands-on experience to develop their peak legal prowess. But there are things you can control that help those around you develop trust in your work and skills.
To give yourself some easy points and maintain a healthy learning environment, control the things that you can control.
- Always turn in a clean work product free of typos.
- Be responsive to your colleagues and clients.
- Dress and behave professionally so you are ready to pounce on unexpected opportunities to attend hearings and meet with clients.
- Be timely.
- Try not to blow past deadlines; if you absolutely must, communicate that possibility early and have a good reason.
Are You Being a Good Team Player?
A little secret about the legal biz is that sometimes it sucks to be a lawyer. We are in a client-service industry, and that comes with what sometimes feels like an endless list of impossible and high-pressure tasks. The best tool we have to dredge through those times is a good team around us to make things more manageable. As a new lawyer, the most valuable thing you have to offer is your time and will to help wherever needed.
Although the tasks handed to you may not always be the most stimulating (trigger warning: proofreading documents, sorting through discovery, researching obscure issues, and managing checklists), they are important to the overall transaction or case. More importantly, if you were not there to handle these tasks, they would be given to your colleagues, whose plates are likely full already. Be sure that your actions make it clear that you are an eager and reliable member of the team, and those menial tasks will quickly shift to cooler opportunities.
Are You Coachable?
You are going to screw up. You are going to whiff on analysis, say the wrong thing, and make many other mistakes that will no doubt fuel your anxiety for years to come. And that is OK. As mentioned, the attorneys you work with do not expect you to be perfect from your first day.
Instead, they expect you to be coachable and open to feedback. After years of success in school, my first few years of practice felt like I was always messing up and being called on it. After a few mild crying sessions and questioning my life choices, I realized that those critiques were meant to make me a better lawyer. I was lucky to have gifted lawyers who generously offered their time and talents to coach me along the way.
The attorneys you work with want you to learn how to be a good lawyer, and they are there to help coach you and course-correct you along the way. That said, remember that no one likes to spend their time trying to coach a defensive know-it-all—don’t be a defensive know-it-all.
Do You Give a Damn, and Do Your Actions Reflect That?
Perhaps the most important point to assess yourself on is your level of give-a-damn. Caring about the work matters. It is a measuring stick that pulls together all the other points above. If you care about giving your best effort, learning, being a good colleague, and helping your clients with whatever mess they have thrown your way, then you are doing just fine. If you make all those things clear to those around you through your actions, then you are doing even better. Remember, you can get away with a good number of missteps if it is clear to those around you that you are genuinely interested in learning and improving.
The start of your career as a practicing attorney is an exciting time but certainly comes with challenges. Take every opportunity to learn and get better, but more importantly, take care of yourself and show yourself grace as you navigate your way. At the end of the day, you are bright, you have made it this far, and you will figure it out.
