After finally accomplishing your goal of becoming an attorney, stepping into an office or home office as a lawyer, and no longer as a student can be a bit intimidating. Here are some tips to help you navigate your first year and all the responsibilities it brings.
- Shine in execution: stay organized, follow through, identify problems and offer solutions. Remember you are part of a team, and do good work. Ask questions to make sure everyone is on the same page and avoid misunderstandings
- Context: get to know everything you need about the case, the client, similar cases,
- Set goals for yourself, both short and long term at the start of the year. You don’t necessarily need to broadcast these goals to the entire world, but the act of setting goals will help you prioritize and feel accomplished.
- Find a mentor and Identify sub-areas that you’re interested in to get involved in relevant projects.
- Develop a network: develop organic relationships with your colleagues, secretaries, paralegals, and outside the office too. Look for associations that target your goals.
- Build good time habits: try to enter your time at the end of every day. You want to make sure that both the billing attorney and client understands the value that you’re adding to the team. Also, ask how much time each assignment is expected to take so that you can be sensitive to the client’s budget.
- Get familiar with your firm’s resources.
- Take notes: this helps you stay on track and jot down questions or ideas.
- Learn how to deal with ethical dilemmas and difficult situations: this can include disagreements with partners or clients. Be clear from the beginning.
- Take care of yourself: physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, etc. and find your daily dose of relief. Beinga a lawyer can be stressful.