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Background: I was lucky enough to get a spot working for a small frim in the area of practice I am interested. And it is paid. Sweet deal.

The first few months have been brutal, however. I feel so underqualified (just finished 1L) to be doing a lot of what I am asked to do. Now, I have no problem with a large workload, or difficult assignments, its just I am not given any instruction or direction of what is expected of me. And when I ask for help or clarification, the attorneys seem annoyed. Im just trying to save them time correcting my mistakes by getting it right the first time. Also, they do not provide me with feedback of my work.

I enjoy the work I am doing, but the whole situation is frustrating. I don't want tocome off as ungrateful- I know how lucky I am to have this position. My question is: Is this really what the legal profession is like as a whole, or is my situation more or less an exception? For those of you with similar positions, how has your experience been? Thanks, TLS

Hoosiers wrote:Background: I was lucky enough to get a spot working for a small frim in the area of practice I am interested. And it is paid. Sweet deal.

The first few months have been brutal, however. I feel so underqualified (just finished 1L) to be doing a lot of what I am asked to do. Now, I have no problem with a large workload, or difficult assignments, its just I am not given any instruction or direction of what is expected of me. And when I ask for help or clarification, the attorneys seem annoyed. Im just trying to save them time correcting my mistakes by getting it right the first time. Also, they do not provide me with feedback of my work.

I enjoy the work I am doing, but the whole situation is frustrating. I don't want tocome off as ungrateful- I know how lucky I am to have this position. My question is: Is this really what the legal profession is like as a whole, or is my situation more or less an exception? For those of you with similar positions, how has your experience been? Thanks, TLS

This is standard for small firms. You learn by seeing what they correct on things. You learn by reading and seeing other documents. Try to figure stuff out on your own by doing research. It's pretty frustrating at first, but you kind of get a feel for it. How long have you been doing it? You say "months" but school just ended 6 weeks ago? It kinda sucks, and you're gonna make a lot of mistakes. But after enough time you'll see similar projects over and over and know how to treat them. What type of law? Attorneys are always annoyed to be asked questions. Ask the lowest dude on the totem pole.

JohannDeMann wrote:

Hoosiers wrote:Background: I was lucky enough to get a spot working for a small frim in the area of practice I am interested. And it is paid. Sweet deal.

The first few months have been brutal, however. I feel so underqualified (just finished 1L) to be doing a lot of what I am asked to do. Now, I have no problem with a large workload, or difficult assignments, its just I am not given any instruction or direction of what is expected of me. And when I ask for help or clarification, the attorneys seem annoyed. Im just trying to save them time correcting my mistakes by getting it right the first time. Also, they do not provide me with feedback of my work.

I enjoy the work I am doing, but the whole situation is frustrating. I don't want tocome off as ungrateful- I know how lucky I am to have this position. My question is: Is this really what the legal profession is like as a whole, or is my situation more or less an exception? For those of you with similar positions, how has your experience been? Thanks, TLS

This is standard for small firms. You learn by seeing what they correct on things. You learn by reading and seeing other documents. Try to figure stuff out on your own by doing research. It's pretty frustrating at first, but you kind of get a feel for it. How long have you been doing it? You say "months" but school just ended 6 weeks ago? It kinda sucks, and you're gonna make a lot of mistakes. But after enough time you'll see similar projects over and over and know how to treat them. What type of law? Attorneys are always annoyed to be asked questions. Ask the lowest dude on the totem pole.

Youre right, its only been about 6 weeks. Its in trasnactional law. And I am asking the lowest guys on the pole, but it all seems to be the same reaction. I'll get through this summer, but I was already considering just bailing on law school, and this certainly isn't helping.

Thank you for your response

Assuming you aren't omitting anything important about your behavior, it sounds like your coworkers are the problem. A 1L summer shouldn't be expected to handle anything legally substantive without hand holding. 1L simply doesn't prepare you for real legal assignments. So long as you're communicating, being polite when you ask for guidance, and trying your best to get assignments done correctly, there's nothing more you can do.

I had a 1L summer job where I definitely felt like I was doing more sinking than swimming. It inspired me to work hard during 2L to improve my research and writing skills. Based on the work reviews I've received since then, the effort I put in during 2L paid off. Work also became a lot less stressful because I felt confident about my work product. So, to answer your question, no: I don't think that you should take this experience as a glimpse into your future no matter where you work or what you do. You seem like a nice person who is willing to work hard. If you keep up that attitude, I'm confident that you'll find a happier place to work or, at the very least, develop the skills necessary to keep up in a harsh work environment.

Sorry about your experience so far, and best of luck in the future!

MinEMorris wrote:Assuming you aren't omitting anything important about your behavior, it sounds like your coworkers are the problem. A 1L summer shouldn't be expected to handle anything legally substantive without hand holding. 1L simply doesn't prepare you for real legal assignments. So long as you're communicating, being polite when you ask for guidance, and trying your best to get assignments done correctly, there's nothing more you can do.

I had a 1L summer job where I definitely felt like I was doing more sinking than swimming. It inspired me to work hard during 2L to improve my research and writing skills. Based on the work reviews I've received since then, the effort I put in during 2L paid off. Work also became a lot less stressful because I felt confident about my work product. So, to answer your question, no: I don't think that you should take this experience as a glimpse into your future no matter where you work or what you do. You seem like a nice person who is willing to work hard. If you keep up that attitude, I'm confident that you'll find a happier place to work or, at the very least, develop the skills necessary to keep up in a harsh work environment.

Sorry about your experience so far, and best of luck in the future!

Thank you for your response. I have certainly been polite and courtious when asking questions- I know better than to burn down any bridges, especially in this field. The other day an associate said I seemed really stressed and I just relied with, "Nah, just a rough morning." I try to just keep my head down and show that I'm putting in the work

This definitely sounds like an issue with the assigning attorneys, not you. Hell, I'm a first-year lawyer and I have to ask questions all the time. They shouldn't be annoyed with you for wanting to get it right, but they shouldn't expect you to be able to do it on your own.

If you like the actual work itself, then stick with it. If you hate the people and the work itself, then bail.

I'm a rising 2L who is working for a judge this summer. The first couple of weeks, my experience was similar in the sense that we were being handed large tasks (such as writing the judge's orders) with little background in a lot of the subject matter. As my time there has gone on, I've learned to accept more of the learn-by-doing mentality. I just work off of old orders so that I can best match the language and formatting that the judge has used in the past (I imagine that you can probably do the same at your office with old motions, etc.) Proofread your work several times and submit, knowing that you've done the best that you can.

Some of the staff that I work with appear a bit annoyed with questions sometimes, but in general, I think that asking is better regardless, because it shows that you care about the product that you are submitting.

Hang in there!

I appreciate the encouragement, and I'm trying to keep my head up. I've just never been so consistently frustrated in my life, and it's been taking its toll on me.

I don't want to overreact and start rethinking of my career choice, but at this point I'm only 8k in debt and stepping away might just make me way happier than staying. But I'm hoping its just a product of the firm being really busy and the people instead of it being a reflection of the profession as a whole.

Of course you're frustrated. You don't know what you are doing.
People are always going to be annoyed by questions. It is difficult to understand how little a 1L knows. Do the best you can and don't take it personally.

doctoroflaw91 wrote:I'm a rising 2L who is working for a judge this summer. The first couple of weeks, my experience was similar in the sense that we were being handed large tasks (such as writing the judge's orders) with little background in a lot of the subject matter. As my time there has gone on, I've learned to accept more of the learn-by-doing mentality. I just work off of old orders so that I can best match the language and formatting that the judge has used in the past (I imagine that you can probably do the same at your office with old motions, etc.) Proofread your work several times and submit, knowing that you've done the best that you can.

Some of the staff that I work with appear a bit annoyed with questions sometimes, but in general, I think that asking is better regardless, because it shows that you care about the product that you are submitting.

Hang in there!

Sam exact situation. Handed be three motions, and was told to write the Judge's order. Literally had no clue what the hell I was doing. I checked out old templates and did my best. Just hang in there, it's difficult but great experience!

I'm at a big size firm now for the last 5 weeks after my first year of law school. Google has became my new best friend. I have a chain of associates throwing my assignments and one of them is my go to when I have problems because the others couldn't be bothered. He's a Vandy grad and is helping me through just about everything, thankfully. My work on my first assignments sucked ass but I have progressed. I just completed a 16 page memorandum in 2 days and I am pretty fucking proud of myself. You don't realize how important this legal research and writing class is and how DIFFERENT it is within firms. My firm I'm at just wants the answer. No bullshit, just the simple yes or no answer.