Summer Associate: Thoughts, Anxieties, Experiences, etc. Forum

[Georgia Avenue]

I have four projects on my plate. Ain't that a bitch.

[Skye]

Week 3 down! I have to say that this was the first time I was happy to declare, TGIF. Other than work the highlight of the week was being invited to lunch with a couple partners and witnessing a battle royal between an associate and an SA over differing opinions — quite the spectacle. How did you week go?

[Stonewall]

Currently still at work. Along with all the other summers, so yea...

[Sheffield]

This going-to-work thing is starting to feel very routine. Since the assignments have been pretty straightforward (and well received) the apprehension level has died down to non-existent.

Hope that statement doesn’t totally jinx next week! :

[Omerta]

Hello Summers. I have something I'd like to share with the thread that's common knowledge but bears repeating: forget about pace. Attorneys don't expect you to be as efficient as they are because you're a summer associate. In their eyes (and rightfully so), you're getting cute fun assignments sprinkled in between social outings, which is nowhere close to an actual attorney's workload.

That means do not turn in an assignment unless you know that it's well-written and is not the wrong answer (note: I didn't say it needs to be the right answer). ALWAYS err on the side of taking more time unless you were given a hard deadline by the attorney.

Here's my reasoning: you want to give the firm zero reasons to no offer you. A botched assignment, no matter how small, is going to raise a big flag for the reasons stated above.

The worst is “no offered,” but in second place must be getting an offer after fretting throughout your SA experience. I need to hang with more optimistic people!

Being anxious about being no-offered is like being anxious about grades. At best, all you do is freak yourself out. At worst, you actually hurt your goal. Everyone chill out, use common sense, and ask an attorney mentor or other summer for advice if you have a question about the proper course of conduct.

Most of the time, no offers occur for circumstances entirely out of the student's control (change in work flow, needs, partner dislikes you for trivial reason). Just do the best job you can.

[Sheffield]

A bit of a mystery here. I had lunch with two SAs from a different firm (same building) and they said one of their SAs was unexplainably gone. A partner made the announcement without offering details. Nobody at lunch knew why, just that the SAs desk was cleaned out. No one at lunch said anything negative about the guy, actually the opposite, so it is a mystery. If it were a death in the family, or the SA had been run over by a bus, or decided to become a plumber or whatever, wouldn’t the firm say? Conjecture is that the SA didn’t quit and perhaps something happened after work on Friday. Anybody here lose an SA yet?

[NYstate]

A bit of a mystery here. I had lunch with two SAs from a different firm (same building) and they said one of their SAs was unexplainably gone. A partner made the announcement without offering details. Nobody at lunch knew why, just that the SAs desk was cleaned out. No one at lunch said anything negative about the guy, actually the opposite, so it is a mystery. If it were a death in the family, or the SA had been run over by a bus, or decided to become a plumber or whatever, wouldn’t the firm say? Conjecture is that the SA didn’t quit and perhaps something happened after work on Friday. Anybody here lose an SA yet?

What could have caused this? I'm sure that if something happened to him or his family, they would let everyone know. If he was quitting he would have told a friend or emailed them after he left. Maybe he had a medical issue ?

I have never heard of this happening where a person just disappears.

[shock259]

Ugh. I have a memo due tomorrow. Put wayyy too much time on it because I was meandering around in my research and being inefficient. Scaaaarred to actually turn it in.

[Anonymous User]

A bit of a mystery here. I had lunch with two SAs from a different firm (same building) and they said one of their SAs was unexplainably gone. A partner made the announcement without offering details. Nobody at lunch knew why, just that the SAs desk was cleaned out. No one at lunch said anything negative about the guy, actually the opposite, so it is a mystery. If it were a death in the family, or the SA had been run over by a bus, or decided to become a plumber or whatever, wouldn’t the firm say? Conjecture is that the SA didn’t quit and perhaps something happened after work on Friday. Anybody here lose an SA yet?

Drug test / background check / immigration status issues?

[thesealocust]

People do drop out / quit summer programs. Much more likely than the hammer falling.

[aces]

Ugh. I have a memo due tomorrow. Put wayyy too much time on it because I was meandering around in my research and being inefficient. Scaaaarred to actually turn it in.

Ditto. I spent somewhere in the range of 20-30 hours on a memo that will be in the six page range (and a fair amount of that is caselaw cites). Mildly terrified.

[Sheffield]

People do drop out / quit summer programs. Much more likely than the hammer falling.

There was some discussion that maybe the hammer fell, but if so, no one could figure out why. I doubt that a firm would arbitrarily dismiss an SA unless something egregious occurred.

At my firm a partner (who is always very pleasant) went over to an SA’s desk and saw a web site on the screen (something to do with basketball). The partner suddenly looked disappointed and sighed. It was probably a good thing the SA wasn’t at his desk. Screw up and catch a partner having a bad day, who knows what could suddenly happen.

[Anonymous User]

. edit.

[5ky]

People do drop out / quit summer programs. Much more likely than the hammer falling.

There was some discussion that maybe the hammer fell, but if so, no one could figure out why. I doubt that a firm would arbitrarily dismiss an SA unless something egregious occurred.

At my firm a partner (who is always very pleasant) went over to an SA’s desk and saw a web site on the screen (something to do with basketball). The partner suddenly looked disappointed and sighed. It was probably a good thing the SA wasn’t at his desk. Screw up and catch a partner having a bad day, who knows what could suddenly happen.

Was it that Cleary SA on ATL?

[nyf]

People do drop out / quit summer programs. Much more likely than the hammer falling.

There was some discussion that maybe the hammer fell, but if so, no one could figure out why. I doubt that a firm would arbitrarily dismiss an SA unless something egregious occurred.

At my firm a partner (who is always very pleasant) went over to an SA’s desk and saw a web site on the screen (something to do with basketball). The partner suddenly looked disappointed and sighed. It was probably a good thing the SA wasn’t at his desk. Screw up and catch a partner having a bad day, who knows what could suddenly happen.

Was it that Cleary SA on ATL?

What is the deal with that whole situation?

[Peyton]

Was it that Cleary SA on ATL?

What is the deal with that whole situation?

C'mon somebody, step up and give us the dirty lowdown.

[Anonymous User]

Was it that Cleary SA on ATL?

What is the deal with that whole situation?

C'mon somebody, step up and give us the dirty lowdown.

What's there to know? He had a bad past, he didn't tell them and they probably ran a criminal background check too late.

[Peyton]

Was it that Cleary SA on ATL?

What is the deal with that whole situation?

C'mon somebody, step up and give us the dirty lowdown.

What's there to know? He had a bad past, he didn't tell them and they probably ran a criminal background check too late.

So the rest of the story is. . . they dumped him or . . . like you noted, too late for the firm to do much of anything?

[A. Nony Mouse]

C'mon somebody, step up and give us the dirty lowdown.

What's there to know? He had a bad past, he didn't tell them and they probably ran a criminal background check too late.

So the rest of the story is. . . they dumped him or . . . like you noted, too late for the firm to do much of anything?

You could actually go to Above the Law, where it's the first article on the front page, the headline gives it away, and it will take you 10 seconds to read.

[Anonymous User]

I know this is egregious misuse of the anon feature, but I don't want to out myself as being a complete idiot. When you guys are doing research, do you often find yourself just basically reusing amjur or your state'sjur? A lot of my assignments seem to lead me to these cases regardless of whether I search it out or just go there. I mean, of course I check the cases and make sure they fit. I also check the citing references to make sure that I'm in the correct court, but it just feels kind of crazy. Has this happened to you?

[Georgia Avenue]

I know this is egregious misuse of the anon feature, but I don't want to out myself as being a complete idiot. When you guys are doing research, do you often find yourself just basically reusing amjur or your state'sjur? A lot of my assignments seem to lead me to these cases regardless of whether I search it out or just go there. I mean, of course I check the cases and make sure they fit. I also check the citing references to make sure that I'm in the correct court, but it just feels kind of crazy. Has this happened to you?

I'd say that if you don't know anything about the area of law or problem you're researching, going anywhere to start but CJS/AmJur is a waste of time and money (unless there's already a super secondary source for that area, i.e. evidence/copyright).

[alicrimson]

I know this is egregious misuse of the anon feature, but I don't want to out myself as being a complete idiot. When you guys are doing research, do you often find yourself just basically reusing amjur or your state'sjur? A lot of my assignments seem to lead me to these cases regardless of whether I search it out or just go there. I mean, of course I check the cases and make sure they fit. I also check the citing references to make sure that I'm in the correct court, but it just feels kind of crazy. Has this happened to you?

I'd say that if you don't know anything about the area of law or problem you're reaching, going anywhere to start but CJS/AmJur is a waste of time and money (unless there's already a super secondary source for that area, i.e. evidence/copyright).

This is what I've found too. The firm I work at has unlimited primary law sources and they're free (we're transaction based), but it's much more efficient to use CJS/AmJur as a starting point and then drill down from there. Like you said, check the cases, make sure you're in the proper court, and maybe check to see if there's a court that cites the opinion and goes with what you want to do for your client. Good luck!

Also, I totally understand this question. I asked someone I know who's at another firm this same question during the first week. lol.

[kryptix]

Lexis Advanced is free for summers so that's been the go-to... As for AmJur etc, it really depends, researching something new on one of those would be absolutely useless.

[teabreeze]

Third day in the office and work is slow. I've already talked to a bunch of associates and partners to let them know im free but no one has anything. My assignment coordinator is busy... Anyone else with lots of downtime?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone else feel like there is a culture of awkwardness at their firm? I normally don't feel like I'm a very awkward person, but when everyone else is super awkward it's hard not to feel like every interaction is weird. The sad thing is I think everyone at the firm has gotten to the point where it's normal for them.

Sorry, stopping the anon rant now.