BL Corporate associates: what do you wish you knew before you started? Forum

[JiveTurkey]

Title!

[Anonymous User]

Just be reliable and communicate.

Nobody expects you to know anything about the law. They do expect you to complete things by the times you promise them by, to make an honest effort, and to avoid sloppy mistakes if possible. You'll earn good will as a first year by executing instructions properly, not by being a genius.

[Anonymous User]

You can push back on assignments if you're truly at capacity and do it respectfully. It's not worth sacrificing work quality and thus your reputation just to please the douchebag partner that wants to staff you on another deal.

[eastcoast_iub]

Responsiveness, good attitude, taking a minute to think about the context of what you are working on instead of just following instructions to the T (for drafting), and asking thoughtful questions are the hallmarks of a good junior.

[Anonymous User]

Being good at your job only leads to more work, longer hours and staffing on more important clients (which itself means, more hours and higher stress). Don't be good at your job - do just enough to not get fired.

[Anonymous User]

^ this x1000 and I say this is a very well regarded associate at my firm

[Anonymous User]

Makes folders for matters/clients and save all possibly important emails, especially those with docs

It’ll surprise you how many post closing matters or other random requests spring up way down the line

[Anonymous User]

Being good at your job only leads to more work, longer hours and staffing on more important clients (which itself means, more hours and higher stress). Don't be good at your job - do just enough to not get fired.

Totally. There was a time where I was just killing it. Churning out assignments left and right, way ahead of schedule. My reward? More assignments! It's not like in school or in most other jobs where if you work your hardest, it means you get to save more time down the road. No, you just get even more work, only know with the notion you work just as hard as you did previously.

Even if there aren't any more assignments to hand out, you're just going to get your previous assignments back, with miniscule comments to just lengthen the process until the last possible moment. Parkinson's law is at its strongest in biglaw.