The Grace Period: Shining A Light on Lawyer Wellbeing
The Grace Period: Shining A Light on Lawyer Wellbeing
Episode 34: From Summer Associate to Success: The Big Law Survival Manual
Making the leap into big law as a summer associate or first-year attorney? The learning curve is steep, but this episode provides the roadmap you've been searching for. We're breaking down the unspoken rules and critical strategies that determine whether you'll simply survive or genuinely thrive in the demanding world of high-stakes legal practice.
Discover exactly what to do when you receive your first assignment – from the initial meeting with the assigning attorney to the final submission of your work product. Learn how to ask effective questions, establish clear expectations, leverage support staff, and follow up appropriately. These seemingly small details make the difference between being perceived as organized and reliable versus appearing overwhelmed and unprepared.
Beyond assignment management, we explore fundamental habits that build a successful legal career: triple-checking work, communicating proactively, developing organizational systems, managing time ruthlessly, and building relationships throughout your firm. Most importantly, we tackle the delicate balance of delivering exceptional work while preserving your well-being through boundaries and self-care practices. The truth is that burnout doesn't have to be inevitable – with the right approach, you can excel professionally while maintaining wholeness as a person.
Whether you're just beginning your legal career or mentoring those who are, this episode offers practical wisdom that law school never teaches but practice quickly demands. Ready to find your grace period in the midst of billable pressures? Listen now and transform how you approach your legal career from day one.
Find out more at https://thegraceperiod.substack.com/.
Welcome to the Grace Period where we get real about attorney mental health and well-being and pull back the veil on the high-stakes world of big law. I'm your host, emily Logan Steadman. In this demanding profession, it is crucial that we don't lose ourselves in the hustle for billable hours. On the Grace Period, we have honest conversations about finding consistency, minimizing chaos, developing coping strategies and destigmatizing mental health. It is time to prioritize our shared humanity to find our grace period. Welcome to episode 34 of the Grace Period. Today, I want to give some advice to summer associates, but a lot of this is also applicable to first-year big law associates, as well as anyone laterally to a big firm from maybe a smaller firm or other type of legal department. To start, I want to talk about what to do when you get your first assignment. When you take on a new project, the first thing you should do is review any initial context that you're given. Some partners and senior associates will give you a lot of context. I'm one of those. Some partners and senior associates will give you none. So, depending on what information you get, you should either review it and or start thinking about what additional information and or documents you need. Start thinking about what additional information and or documents you need. Next, if the assigning attorney doesn't schedule a meeting with you to go over this assignment and introduce you to the assignment, you should immediately schedule the meeting, either asking them what works for them, using the Outlook scheduling assistant to find a time and propose times that look to be open on their calendar, or working with their assistant to find the time. So you've got some, or no, initial contacts and you've scheduled the meeting. What next? The first meeting with the assigning attorney.
Speaker 1:You should take notes. For some of you, this will be on your laptop or iPad in a notes app or document. For others, it'll be on an old school pen and paper legal pad. Either way, it doesn't matter, just take notes and be prepared to take notes. You should also be prepared to ask as many questions as time allows. Most partners and assigning attorneys will complain that you didn't ask enough questions up front or along the way. So do not hesitate to ask questions. If the assigning attorney seems unwilling or too busy to take your questions, ask him or her who else on the team you can ask your questions Before you leave the meeting.
Speaker 1:Make sure you know these things. What do they want? The product that you're working on to look like. Is it a formal memo or can it be in an email? Is it a contract or a PowerPoint presentation or some other format? Make sure you're clear on what the end product should look like. Next, ask them about how long they anticipate this project taking, how many billable hours it'll take, and ask them if they want you to check in if you're getting close to that hours estimate and you think you need more time. Next, ask them how they prefer to follow up or communicate with you. Some partners want to do it by email, some want you to drop by their office, some want you to send them a Teams message, Some want you to pick up the phone and call them.
Speaker 1:Make sure you know how your assigning attorney prefers to communicate before you leave that first meeting to communicate before you leave that first meeting. Next, before you dive in, review all the contacts that you have, make sure you have no further questions and then begin your work. While you're working, if you're stuck, hash it out with another associate or team member. If you're still stuck, then you should follow up with the assigning attorney. When you do that follow-up, you should outline everything you've done so far, ask for offer or schedule another meeting and keep working in the interim. Before you're done, double check everything, have a mentor or another attorney or a legal assistant, review it for typos, try to build in time to sleep on it, to let the product sit there so that you have fresh eyes an hour or a day later to review it and then submit your final deliverable. You should also, in that submission, ask for feedback. You may not get it, but you should always ask for it and show an openness to receiving feedback. Finally, you should offer to continue working on the file or other matters. Explain why this was interesting to you or show that you can see what the next steps on the matter might be and that you have time and interest to help with that.
Speaker 1:Something to keep in mind and what they don't teach you in law school is using assistants and paralegals to your advantage. Legal assistants and paralegals have often been doing their job a very long time, longer than you as a summer associate or first year associate. They're also here to help. They're a wealth of knowledge no question is too silly and they know everyone. So ask them what it's like to work with the assigning attorney. Ask them what types of things they can help you with, whether that's court filings, case management, administrative tasks, preparing documents or proofing. You should delegate and learn to delegate by working with assistants and paralegals as soon as possible. That means If there's not another attorney and you have questions, don't be afraid to ask for something if you don't know how to find or do it, and likely the paralegal or legal assistant will either know the answer or they'll know who to direct you to for the answer. Just like you hope your assigning attorney will give you as much context as possible when you're working with an assistant or paralegal. Give them that same context the client number, the case file information. Provide the deadlines, explain if they're internal or external deadlines, help them prioritize, just like you're doing, and treat all paralegals and assistants with the same respect you expect to receive from them. All legal work is a team project. It's a one big group project. We're all working together and toward the same goal. So the same respect you hope to receive and that you likely give to the assigning attorney, you should also give to paralegals and legal assistants and use them and delegate to them from the jump so that you build that skill of delegation as you rise through the ranks, and it won't be as hard for you to delegate to other associates when that time comes. So that's what to do when you have your first legal assignment, either as a summer associate or a first year associate.
Speaker 1:Now I want to run through some just high level tips to consider and keep in mind as you're embarking on your big law journey. You should always triple check your work before sending it out. Accuracy is everything. Make sure your typos and citations are correct, always proofread it, let it sit, review again with fresh eyes or have someone else proof it for you. Now I'm not asking you to be perfect. I'm the queen of typos. They plague my life personally and professionally, so I'm always having an assistant or associate or paralegal review things for me before they go out. You can also set a delay on your emails. So when I hit send on an email, they all sit in my outbox for one minute. That means I can go back to them, edit and catch typos one more time before the email actually goes out, and I rely on that a lot more than I'd like to probably admit.
Speaker 1:Next, communicate proactively and professionally. In this job, there's really no such thing as over communication. You want to keep supervising attorneys updated on your progress, especially if you hit a roadblock, especially if you're going to miss the deadline or especially if they've given you a five-hour billable time estimate on the project. You're approaching the five-hour mark and you're nowhere near done. Don't wait until the deadline or until you submit the project to let them know that you've hit this kind of roadblock or bump in the road. That'll be too late. You need to communicate as early as possible.
Speaker 1:Next, take notes and organize everything. Organization is how you can show off as a junior associate or summer associate. Take notes, organize your emails, write down instructions, calendar and docket all deadlines. Develop a system to track assignments and to follow up as needed. That is a very personal endeavor. We all develop our own systems, but you need to create a system for yourself from the beginning that you're finessing every step of your journey in big law.
Speaker 1:Next, ask questions, but don't be afraid to try to find answers first. Saying I don't know, but I will find out is your friend. Ask clarifying questions, but also show you've made an effort to find the answer on your own. This demonstrates that you're taking ownership of the file and that you respect others' time because you've tried to find it out yourself first. Next, be responsive and reliable. I like to say be reasonably responsive and 100% reliable. Respond to emails promptly. This does not mean you have to give a substantive answer the same day, but you need to acknowledge receipt and give an estimated time of answering. So if a partner asks me to do something, I'll say received and understood. I'll report back to you with an update by XYZ time, and that goes both ways. If an associate is due to give something to me on Friday and they do, I acknowledge receipt and then say I will review and report back with questions by this estimated time. Again, being responsive and being overly communicative are your friend working event or in your own time? You might acknowledge it or you might respond first thing the next morning, but within 24 hours, at least an initial response will show that you're being diligent, responsive and reliable.
Speaker 1:Next, treat every task as important. Most of us go into big law because we want to do big substantive things. But a lot of legal work is tedious and not fancy and shiny and sophisticated. But in that routine, mundane work is where you show that you are reliable and trustworthy by taking ownership of the small tasks of being organized. Then you will build trust with the attorneys you're working with and they'll give you bigger and bigger tasks and more and more work. So don't take the small grunt routine work for granted. Do it and do it well, and use it as an opportunity to build relationships with the attorneys you're reporting to.
Speaker 1:Next, manage your time ruthlessly. You cannot survive in big law if you don't manage your time well. Whether that's to-do lists, calendar reminders, blocking time, tracking your time and billing it contemporaneously Whatever it is you have to develop a system that allows you to manage your time and manage all your projects well. How you do this as a summer associate and a first year associate will look vastly different from how you're doing it in year five. But you need to start developing those systems from the jump so that you can finesse them and adjust as you grow as an attorney.
Speaker 1:Next, learn the firm's systems and resources, whether that's from a mentor attorney or a paralegal or assistant. Take time to get familiar with your firm's document management, billing systems, research and library tools and who does what in the office. Administrative staff, business professionals and paralegals are invaluable. They will make your job easier. So get to know them and what they do and delegate to them immediately. Next, build relationships up, down and sideways. You want to connect with as many people in your firm as possible staff and business professionals, associates and partners. The only way to survive in this job is to have good relationships both in and outside of your firm. It is okay to be friends with your coworkers and build those relationships. You will go through tough times together and you will need each other to lean on and to get through the hard times and to celebrate the big wins that will come your way as well.
Speaker 1:Lastly, take care of yourself. Set boundaries where you can get sleep. Take care of your health. Burnout is real, but if you keep all of these tips in mind, you will find time to become rested. Time to become rested and a whole human, both at work and outside of work, whether that's hobbies, community involvement, spending time with your family, travel, you can manage your time ruthlessly through boundaries, communicating, being responsive and reliable. And take care of yourself. If you don't, you will burn out. If you do, you might not always avoid burnout, but you'll have a toolbox of things you can rely on to recover from burnout and enjoy the ride along the way.
Speaker 1:So those are some tips on what to do as a summer associate and first year associate. I hope those are helpful, especially for those of you just starting out in your career, but also, hopefully, they are a good reminder for those more senior listeners who might be mentoring associates or needing to think about how to get back to the basics in their own career. Remember you don't have to sacrifice your well-being for career success. By prioritizing self-care, setting boundaries and seeking support, you can survive and even thrive in the law and in big law. Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other. That is the path to our grace period. Disclaimer all views and opinions expressed in this episode are strictly my own. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute professional advice of any kind, including legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by listening to this podcast.
