Best Practices for Summer Associates: In Three Simple Charts

A few years ago I collected all my advice for law firm summer associates, dispensed with bullet points and such creative titles as "The Best Top 10 or So Tips for Summers EVER", and, instead, incorporated this accumulated summer wisdom in three simple charts. (All because, honestly, I really, really love charts.) Today, prompted by an email from one of my 2L coaching clients, who is both excited and anxious about starting her summer job at a New York firm, I am reposting these updated tools especially for this year's class of summers.

The first chart covers the three topics of most importance: Assignments, Citizenship and Professionalism.

The second offers examples of common ways to go off the rails in each category. And there really are quite a few.

The third and final chart is titled, simply, "Standing Out". It describes some things a summer associate can do to break out of the crowd; a few critical ways to be memorable for all the right reasons.

Those of you I have coached as 2Ls know that I'm as focused on your first four months as an associate as I am on your summer experience. It's during those early months of practice that being "memorable"--over the 14 plus months since you received your offer--means getting the best assignments and engaging, right out of the box, with people of influence at your firm.

Everything good flows from good work--as well as from solid relationships initiated during the summer months. It isn't the offer that matters most in the long term, but whether next fall you hit the ground running, wherever you may land, on the fastest possible track to productivity. That's the play that counts.

So here --below-- are my three unimaginably excellent charts. I hope they're helpful. (If you're reading this on your cell phone you may find the font too small, so wait till you're on a desktop, or screenshot the page and zoom in. Simpler still, I'd be happy to send you a Word version of the charts to stash in your desk drawer-- just note your email address in the comments or a direct message. (Bizarrely, in an uncharacteristic display of user-unfriendliness, mother LinkedIn resolutely rejects pdf links.)

And have a wonderful summer! (Just remember not to overshare at social events....)