Five Pieces of "Wisdom" for the Young Lawyer

We have all heard it before: "Law school teaches you how to think." Do you know what I have never heard: "Law school prepares you to be a young lawyer." Other than word of mouth, the amount of advice I received at the beginning of my legal career left me wanting. I'm nothing more than someone with a few years of experience that's still going through the young attorney learning experience. I've already had some great mentors who have taught me innumerable lessons. Not everyone gets so lucky, however. So, I'm stepping into the shoes of a mentor with very limited experience! Here are the five things I would tell someone undertaking their first few years of legal practice. Drumroll, please…?

1.????Focus On Billable Hours.?Popular television shows depict new attorneys working in the grey areas of the law and winning cases by the skin of their teeth. The reality is much more exciting! In the real world, young firm attorneys are judged heavily via their number of billable hours. Law firms are businesses, and until they can bring in clients, the way for a new associate to bring value to that business is to bill hours. On that note…

2.????Track Your Hours in Real Time.?I must confess: I cannot tell you how much billable time I spent working on something as recently as earlier today. I can’t be the only one! Yet, many first-year associates rely on their underslept and overstuffed memories when billing their time. They work those enjoyable long hours and then track how much time they billed via an allegedly organized confetti-like mess of post-it notes. When the guillotine that is the deadline for submitting time finally falls, our poor new attorney must collect and enter those notes into their firm's timekeeping system. They are creating another job for themselves that isn’t even billable. The horror!

There is a better way to live, my overworked and overcaffeinated brothers and sisters. Your firm has software that allows you to run timers while working, assign that time to a matter, and submit your time at the end of the day. But wait, there's more! Using the timer software will allow you to:

• At Least Sound Like You Are on Top of Things.?Having a real-time answer when a Partner asks how much you’ve been working on a matter. "[x] hours" is a better answer than "Hang on, let me consult the ancient texts of my post-it collection and get back to you."
• Communicate About Work Load. I get it. Nobody likes declining work due to being overloaded. Having an up-to-date hours count will help you collaborate effectively with whoever is giving you an assignment. If you can communicate your situation, the more merciful partners and senior associates will be understanding and likely work with you. The way to do this is to say: "I'm very overloaded right now. I billed [Y] hours last month and have already billed [X] hours this month/week." not??"Um… yeah...I've worked a lot lately."
• Plan Ahead. If you have a real-time tally of hours, you’ll be able to take that vacation or weekend trip with less guilt. You'll know you're still on track for your billable target.

3.????Treat The Person You Work for Like Your Client.?Imagine the panic you would be in if your firm gave you clients immediately upon passing the bar exam. Luckily (some may disagree with my use of that word), the traditional firm model gives newly-minted attorneys plenty of initial practice handling “pseudo-clients.” While a higher-level attorney's work often goes straight to the client, a beginner’s work will first go to an upper-level person in the firm for review. Get in the mindset of treating this reviewer like your client, and you will quickly develop a quality reputation.

How does one treat another attorney like a client? I’m glad you asked!?

• Ensuring that all drafts you send are free of formatting, spelling, and obvious legal errors.
• Promptly responding to communication, even if the response is as simple as “Received. I will review this soon and get back to you.”
• Track the status of all related documents and be ready to answer questions when asked.
• Following up on emails that require a response.

If you do this right, the upper-level attorney will, in turn, also treat you like a client and send you more work (and thus more billable hours!).?

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4.????Take Care of Yourself.?A billable hour requirement can put tremendous pressure on a new attorney. They may quickly oscillate between worrying about not having enough work and being overloaded. The back and forth can lead to them never unplugging and relaxing.

We can’t stay “on” all the time. Not taking the time to rest and recharge is a recipe for burnout and unhappiness.

Any career, especially a legal career, is more of a marathon than a sprint. The only way to practice effectively over the long haul is to develop a sustainable lifestyle. Part of having a sustainable lifestyle means making time for both the hobbies and people you enjoy. Even if this means playing a bit of video games every night, or intentionally scheduling dinner time with a spouse on a shared calendar, doing such things will allow you to still make time for you the person, and not just you the lawyer.

5.????Get The Right Things Right.?Experienced attorneys know that law school doesn’t teach one how to practice (we reviewed this earlier). Because of that, any good attorney who supervises you won't expect you to instinctively know the key parts of the transaction or substantially develop the case. If you can do those things right off the bat, you likely either have specialized training or are in the real-life start of a John Grisham novel. For the rest of the young attorneys in the world, when beginning our careers, we can focus on what we can be good at even with little substantive legal knowledge. Some of these are:

• Grammar and Punctuation. This one may seem straightforward, but legal writing has punctuation conventions that law school provided you with your first exposure to. Always keep those in mind when drafting.
• General Detail. Make sure you spell the client's name(s) correctly. Use the correct states, dates, and dollar amounts. Check that people are signing under the correct title in the signature blocks.
• Deadlines. Make sure you keep track of any deadlines. Tracking deadlines doesn't just mean the deadline for when the partner tells you the assignment is due. It also means any case or deal-related deadlines. The partner has a lot on their plate and will appreciate you reminding them.
• Document Status. Create a system or document that tracks the status of everything related to the project. If your team already uses these, it will likely be your responsibility as a new attorney to keep them up to date. Knowing the status of items and staying on top of the process is an easy way to add value and be a key part of the case or deal.
• Responsiveness. When you hear from a partner, acknowledge that you've received the communication. Even if you are unsure what to do from there, being responsive will show that you are paying attention.
• Professionalism. Realize that you are affecting the bottom line of partners. Tell them if you won't be able to meet a deadline, and do not do it at the last minute. Treat them like a client whenever possible.

While certainly not an exhaustive list, I hope this article can help some young legal eagles start their careers on the right foot (or talon?). If a young attorney keeps these points in mind, they may save themselves some painful lessons in the future!

Do you have any other pieces of advice for new attorneys? Put them below in the comments, and I will add them to a later version of this article!