Anonymous User wrote:T14 3L here. Spent last summer working at the Texas office of a NYC-based biglaw firm and it was....rough. I had never worked in a professional environment before, and I pretty much made every mistake in the book (workload balance, extending deadlines, screwing up assignments, etc.) as a SA.
While I received an offer, I am concerned about the impression I left with the firm and want to know if they've already written me off. Talking to several of my classmates, it seems I am not alone in my concerns. Is there anyone who has been in a similar situation, or knows of someone in such a situation? I'd like to know if the firm will give me a fresh start, or if I need to start looking for job #2 right from graduation.
Also, to be clear my SA issues were all work-related. I genuinely liked most of the people and I think I hit it off with the associates/partners, so while they might think I'm an idiot, at least they don't think I'm an asshole.
When I was a summer, I screwed up a small assignment, then screwed it up again when it was made a little bigger, and then screwed it up a third time. I was pretty sure I was going to get no offered, but I ended up saving myself with some crazy last minute work (I was in the office until midnight the last night of my SA). I also had a couple of luke-warm reviews, and I spent the second half of my summer terrified. It was rough, and I was pretty sure I was getting no-offered, but apparently I had turned it around enough at the end that people on the committee were impressed and were happy to give me an offer. When I was giving input on the practice group I wanted, I basically chose practice groups that weren't either of the ones I had struggled in, that way I wouldn't have to work with any of the folks who didn't like me. But I don't think that that it is necessary to find a new practice group - I didn't really care which group I ended up in, so "people not liking me" ended up being a major factor in my decision
Anyway, I ended up getting into a fantastic group that couldn't care less about what had happened in the summer, and SA stuff has NEVER come up in my performance reviews. I think if you just get in there and do a good job, they're going to be more than forgiving. Obviously if you show the same tendencies, they're going to remember that you haven't learned anything since you were a SA, but I think they'll give you the benefit of the doubt. And honestly, they might not really even remember - we always joke about how we can't remember the stuff we worked on the day before, and I think it's entirely possible that it's all just water under the bridge, and that the never-ending stream of summer associates kind of makes them all blend together.
Hope that helps - good luck!
