I was once a junior lawyer. I’ve worked with and still work with many junior attorneys. Navigating the beginning of your legal career while managing your personal finances is a challenge.
Below are some tips to junior lawyers from this grizzled veteran:
1. Work Hard
Don’t be afraid of working hard – in fact, seek it out. Embrace the early part of your career as the opportunity to learn and do things. Law school didn’t train you to practice law, so welcome the chance to learn while being paid. By working hard and gaining experience, you will develop a confidence that only comes from practice and familiarity. You are a knowledge worker, and the more skills you can pack into your brain, the greater your potential value to clients and the greater the chance for you to leverage that value financially.
2. Work Smart
Try to allocate your working hours to where you will have opportunities to learn and grow – if you’re a budding litigator, don’t just bill thousands of hours doing document review because those are “easy hours.” Look for opportunities to stretch your brain – you will not become a great lawyer by doing what is routine and easy, and those “easy hours” become lost hours as you progress in years worked but don’t have the skills that are expected of someone of your class year.
3. Save Money
Don’t upgrade your lifestyle the moment you graduate from law school. It’s tempting to buy things to act and look like what you think a successful lawyer should look like – resist that impulse and save your money. You’re going to be working very hard anyways, and no one’s going to be impressed with your Porsche when you’re still living at home with your parents. Instead of spending your money, save it, invest it and let it work for you. You can always upgrade your lifestyle later. If you upgrade your lifestyle now, it’s going to be hard to pull things back if and when you need to. And, if you find yourself unhappy with your first job, with the practice of law or being a lawyer as unfortunately many lawyers do, having some money saved will give you the confidence and security blanket to make a change.
4. You Need to Look Out for Your Own Career
As a corollary to no one caring about your money as much as you do, no one cares about your career as much as you, and you need to look out for yourself. Life is going to be very busy as a young lawyer when you’re working hard and still trying to figure out up from down, but take the time to periodically assess where you are, where you want to go and how to work smarter. Whether you are at a law firm, corporation, in public interest or government, you are going to be surrounded by people motivated by their own interests and agendas, and you’ll be lucky if someone takes an interest in you. You can’t count on someone looking after you. You can choose to go with the flow and maybe you’ll end up OK, but managing your career passively could mean letting others control your professional destiny. Did you get placed on a litigation matter but want to do transactional work instead? Work hard on the litigation matter, navigate the system and speak up to get that transactional work experience.
5. Find a Mentor
You might be a smart, hard-working whippersnapper, but having someone who has been around the block to help guide you is going to be a tremendous advantage. At worst, you’ll learn a little bit about being a lawyer and the practice of law. At best, the mentor can open the door to opportunities that wouldn’t have otherwise been available. This can be particularly powerful for women and minorities, and it’s something that I wish I had done a better job of when I was in Biglaw.
6. Be Humble
A junior lawyer has a lot to learn and doesn’t have all the answers (neither do senior lawyers, by the way). Be humble because the practice of law can be a humbling experience.
7. Don’t Call Yourself “Doctor”
Yes, you have a juris doctor degree. No, you’re not a doctor. OK, maybe in other countries, like Germany, lawyers use the doctorate title professionally. But, not here in the United States. Just don’t do it.
As a corollary, don’t add “Esq.” to your name. It impresses no one and just makes you look pompous. Just don’t do it.
