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First year here. Not going to lie, I've experienced a tough learning curve. I've made few mistakes here and there (nothing repeating) and feeling pretty down because of it. How often are first years fired/laid-off (not taking economy into account)? What are things to watch out for to avoid this?

Unless it's egregious or your firm is in financial trouble, I'm sure you will not get fired after your first year. Expectations are low and the firm will have lost a lot of money on you if it fires you after a year.

ETA: This is HLSPerson1111, didnt mean to be anon.

OP here. What's an example of something egregious?

Anonymous User wrote:OP here. What's an example of something egregious?

Your firm aggressively expands into the mortgage backed securities business in New York just before the financial crisis hits, only to see the flow of work to immediately dry up.

thesealocust wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:OP here. What's an example of something egregious?

Your firm aggressively expands into the mortgage backed securities business in New York just before the financial crisis hits, only to see the flow of work to immediately dry up.

Oh, I thought he meant egregious in terms of a mistake one might make during work.

That's kind of the joke. As in, that's what it takes to get fired from biglaw as a first year.

You can't get fired as a first year. It would take a major client firing your firm for your actions to get fired.

Don't worry OP. I've made some shitty mistakes as well that I've gotten some bad criticism for, and I've been getting myself down about it. But it's pretty clear that (at least at my firm) there's no danger of getting fired in the first two years and unless the mistakes venture into malpractice territory.

Everyone screws up, it happens. People who say they never have are either lieing or never got work they could screw up (e.g., only did doc review). Its not an issue other than the person you made the mistake for may not give you work anymore.

Anonymous User wrote:I've made few mistakes here and there (nothing repeating) a

Bolded is key. You're going to make mistakes and people realize that. Just don't keep making the same mistake.

zweitbester wrote:You can't get fired as a first year. It would take a major client firing your firm for your actions to get fired.

Or they catch you looking at kiddie porn.

Unless your mistakes have caused others to stop giving you work, you don't have to worry about being fired.