Top Law Schools

Looking back on your first few years as a young associate in biglaw, what were some of the worst mistakes you made that were avoidable?

Biggest one by far is how often I’d take an assignment from a senior associate and not ask enough questions about it, resulting in me wasting time/overbilling/delivering a first draft that missed the mark simply because of a miscommunication. It’s very easy to do as a junior who wants to please people and is worried about coming across as incompetent if they ask too many questions.

I’ve gotten almost annoying to the extent of how much info I want when I take on something new, because I’ve learned that getting on the same page up front makes everything else so much easier.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 06, 2022 4:22 am

Biggest one by far is how often I’d take an assignment from a senior associate and not ask enough questions about it, resulting in me wasting time/overbilling/delivering a first draft that missed the mark simply because of a miscommunication. It’s very easy to do as a junior who wants to please people and is worried about coming across as incompetent if they ask too many questions.

I’ve gotten almost annoying to the extent of how much info I want when I take on something new, because I’ve learned that getting on the same page up front makes everything else so much easier.

This x1000. I learned to ask the right questions quickly, but as a senior associate now the biggest issues I have with juniors is when they are not on the same page. Of course, I take responsibility for not being clear, but it's also up to the junior to ask questions if they don't know what's going on.

I'd add a corollary to this: make sure you find out what's expected of you beyond a substantive assignment. In some practice areas you're just expected to manage parts of your matter on your own. A junior could be seen as completely dropping the ball even when nobody explicitly assigned them work. Good examples I've seen on the lit side are drafting a proposed order / attorney declaration and lining up PL help for a filing.