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Midlevel litigation associate at a midsized firm. AMA!

1.) What makes juniors stand out, to you?
2.) How much of your work is litigation (writing, research), how much is "strategy," how much is junior supervision?

1. A few things make juniors stand out. First - owning up to mistakes. All junior lawyers make mistakes, but the ones who try to hide the mistakes or blame others end up looking bad. Ultimately, everything falls on the lawyers (i.e., don't blame a paralegal or whatever). Second - being diligent and trying to come up with solutions to problems. If you find an issue, don't just flag it - try to come up with a solution/strategy. Even if the solution/strategy is kind of dumb, it looks like you're taking initiative and not just passing the buck. Third - always, always keep track of deadlines, and constantly communicate them to your team.

2. The bulk of my work is research/writing. I also now do a lot more client-facing work (i.e., talking to clients about case strategy, following up with custodians to obtain docs, etc.). I also do a fair bit of junior supervision now, too. Things definitely change as you progress, but the baseline skills always remain useful.