New Lawyers

Across professions, there is a process to mastery. Hard work and perseverance don’t guarantee success, but it’s almost impossible to achieve success without them. This is particularly true in the legal profession, which is as competitive as it ...

In a 1955 essay in The Economist, Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a British historian, described a phenomenon that would come to be called “Parkinson’s Law.” His key insight: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” In ...

When I was practicing law at a large firm, the associate annual review period was always an interesting time around the office. This may not be true at all firms, and perhaps there’s more frequent communication happening these days, but in my ...

Your law firm cares about your personal and professional growth. But make no mistake, the law is a business — often a cutthroat one. Your firm has made a big investment in you in terms of salary, benefits, training and overhead. It expects a ...

Big firm or small, there's a single question the partners ask about young associates: "Is she a keeper?" And, while legal skills certainly count, we all know what ultimately swings the pendulum on that question: "Can she bring in clients?" Help ...

For many young associates, their first “real” job is at a law firm. If you fall into this group, it’s likely that you’re receiving honest — sometimes glowing, sometimes harsh — feedback about your work for the first time. On the other hand, you ...

It is said that new lawyers only face two challenges when opening their own practices: not knowing how to practice law and not knowing how to manage a practice. Other than that, the rest is easy. Other than that, the rest is easy. In ...

Athletes often discuss the fact that each time they advance to the next level the game “speeds up.” The leap from high school to college ball is a significant one. Players are bigger, faster and stronger, and the game moves at a more rapid pace. ...

A great deal has been said and written about the epidemic of the unhappy lawyer. Surveys suggest that career dissatisfaction among lawyers, and even rates of depression, are on the rise. Law firm associates are not immune. In fact, a survey from ...

Having your own clients and business has long been characterized as “critical” for lawyers in firms of any size. Now that’s elevated to the survival level. The days of paternalistic law firms maintaining client-less lawyers at their long-time ...