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Rising third year, and the transition to midlevel has been incredibly difficult. I was considered a good junior, but now that I am expected to know more substantive concepts and law and drafting, I am constantly feeling lost and stupid. Any advice? How did you all learn the substantive concepts (by doing or learning on your own)?

Practical advice: keep checklists of things, slow down, make notes on the things you don't understand and either look them up or ask someone else, and ask more senior attorneys to walk you through certain concepts if it's something you're struggling with. Sometimes there's a gap because junior associates often only do small one off projects that aren't integrated into the overall project very well, and so you're learning about more of the structural pieces of the client advice as you transition to being a mid-level...and suddenly you realize there's a ton of stuff you don't know! It can be a bit scary at first - when I was going through it I used to say I wish I had been a 2nd year forever, because I knew enough to not be constantly stressed but wasn't responsible for knowing more than what someone asked me It's fine to feel lost sometimes, you just need to note the areas and reach out for advice and help when you need it. I learned the concepts I needed both from doing but also from more senior lawyers sitting me down and explaining things to me. Now that I'm more senior, I'd rather a junior or midlevel associate call and ask me to walk through a concept rather than them spinning their wheels for hours or just being in a constant state of anxiety that they missed something.

Key to progressing as a lawyer at a law firm is taking more responsibility/ownership for issues as they come to you. So if as a junior you would just research the one issue, as a midlevel you'll want to think about how it fits with the rest of the project, or what the potential problems are as a result of the research you've done.