Lawyers, Pass on Advice to Younger Lawyers

not a lawyer, but my golden rule for my staff was passed on by my first boss and still mentor

"Id rather answer 20 of your ******* stupid questions than fix one of your ******* stupid mistakes"

The staff under me who follow that rule always do well, learn fast, impress me and satisfy our clients.

Apply it as you will

Originally Posted by m@T

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not a lawyer, but my golden rule for my staff was passed on by my first boss and still mentor "Id rather answer 20 of your ******* stupid questions than fix one of your ******* stupid mistakes"
I nominate that quotation as the first post in the new SF "No Bullshit Business Maxims" thread.

Originally Posted by Henry Mein

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I'm a young BigLaw associate. I know the odds are against it, but I'm very driven to make partner at my firm.

Remember to figure out what it is you want and take satisfaction as you get it. If what you want is simply to always make more money, when you do make partner you'll feel you're chasing a mirage that continually retreats the closer you get to it. It can lead to a very unsatisfying life. If you have ever seen the movie The Prestige, it describes what I'm talking about. Obsession can be an ugly thing.

Top 5 real-world tips:

1. Move quickly when you walk down the hall, and always carry some papers, even if you're going to the bathroom. (courtesy TA, partner)

2. Pretend to schedule vacations, and then "cancel" them noisily, citing work obligations. (courtesy TM, "gunner" associate)

3. Park your car prominently near the front door on Saturday morning, leave an extra set of keys on your desk, and leave your computer on all weekend. (courtesy SMSgt GRN, USAF ret.)

4. Send out emails/voice mails after 7, 8, 9 p.m. and on the weekends. Appear to be in a hurry, needing responses ASAP (courtesy CEP, in-house)

5. Loudly announce the comings and goings of all competing associates, ala "half-day, Bob?" (courtesy of that little girl on the old commercial)

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

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You need to get yourself assigned to a case with numerous depositions all over the country. The depo's themselves and the travel time can really add up. (Plus, I thought it was fun to get to fly around and see different parts of the country back in the day when I was single and a lawyernotdad.) Being on a huge document review project can also make more solid billables, but the miserable tedium can easily outweight the benefits.

Bingo!! I've been out a few years now, and this is the easiest way for me to get hours. When I'm in the office, I scramble to make 7 or 8 billable hours. When I'm traveling, the 7 or 8 hours is pretty easy once I'm at my destination, and on travel days I'm usually billing 12+ hours. Easy money, plus you get frequent flyer miles and have lower living expenses (food is paid for, etc.)

Try and keep track of your time as you do it, rather than spending an hour doing your time all at once at the end of each week. If you don't record it somewhere right away, you're going to miss recording something that was billable. I record my time as I go along, and then I look through my emails for the week, both sent and received, and make sure I didn't miss anything.

Originally Posted by Associate

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5) Unless specifically instructed otherwise, take as many hours as you need to accomplish an assignment and bill every minute. Let the partner worry about the client's reaction. And if any hours are written off - make sure you get credit internally.

Another bingo! When I started out, I was afraid to bill all of my time because I didn't want to look like I didn't know what I was doing. Even now, a couple of years into this thing, I still have a little bit of apprehension. But the fact is - at least in our firm - no bill goes out without first being reviewed by a partner, and it's really easy for them to take their pen, shave off a few hours, and send it back to accounting if it's too much. (Usually it isn't, as long has you have good descriptions and break it up into reasonable chunks.)

The write-off doesn't matter for my billable time - I still get credit for the time internally. Sure, the dollars aren't there then, but at least no one can complain that I wasn't pulling my weight on work.

All that said, I don't like the life and I'm going back to school in the fall to get an MBA. Kind of a shame actually - I've finally learned how to play the game.

Originally Posted by Mr. Checks

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Top 5 real-world tips:

1. Move quickly when you walk down the hall, and always carry some papers, even if you're going to the bathroom. (courtesy TA, partner)

2. Pretend to schedule vacations, and then "cancel" them noisily, citing work obligations. (courtesy TM, "gunner" associate)

3. Park your car prominently near the front door on Saturday morning, leave an extra set of keys on your desk, and leave your computer on all weekend. (courtesy SMSgt GRN, USAF ret.)

4. Send out emails/voice mails after 7, 8, 9 p.m. and on the weekends. Appear to be in a hurry, needing responses ASAP (courtesy CEP, in-house)

5. Loudly announce the comings and goings of all competing associates, ala "half-day, Bob?" (courtesy of that little girl on the old commercial)

Absolutely.

Also, leave yourself a bunch of emails and then dial your voicemail on loud speakerphone until the part where the lady says "you have 12 new messages", and then pick up.

Originally Posted by Mr. Checks

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Top 5 real-world tips:

1. Move quickly when you walk down the hall, and always carry some papers, even if you're going to the bathroom. (courtesy TA, partner)

2. Pretend to schedule vacations, and then "cancel" them noisily, citing work obligations. (courtesy TM, "gunner" associate)

3. Park your car prominently near the front door on Saturday morning, leave an extra set of keys on your desk, and leave your computer on all weekend. (courtesy SMSgt GRN, USAF ret.)

4. Send out emails/voice mails after 7, 8, 9 p.m. and on the weekends. Appear to be in a hurry, needing responses ASAP (courtesy CEP, in-house)

5. Loudly announce the comings and goings of all competing associates, ala "half-day, Bob?" (courtesy of that little girl on the old commercial)

I see a huge problem with this approach (I know it's meant as a joke and all, but anyway). It's kind of a problem if people think that you're too busy because you might end up not getting enough work. The only thing worse than having too much work is not having enough and sitting in your office surfing the internet all day. If the partners think that you have a million projects going on and that you are cancelling vacations and coming in every weekend, they may decide to give that nice big new juicy project that comes in to one of the other 5 associates in the group, rather than the guy that's frantically running around all the time like he's ready to have a break down at any moment.

I don't know about anyone else, but whenever something new comes in, I'd like to be the associate that's at the top of the list for getting that project. That's probably the best advice anyone has given me - that you should become the "go-to guy." When a partner has an important, or time-sensitive or juicy piece of work come across his desk, you want to be the guy that he thinks of first. The only way to do this is to consistently turn out a high quality work-product without missing deadlines.

Originally Posted by Henry Mein

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Do you have advice? Mistakes you made or saw people make: both in attitutde and in their work?

Here's one: when those firmwide emails go out asking about some arcane legal issue, if you have a spare moment, do some quick research and provide it to the requestor. Why? It might lead to some work on the project and when you come up for partner, it's nice to have partners in other offices who chime in on your behalf. Spreads your tentacles widely. A corollary to this is DO NOT blow off small assignments for partners you rarely work with. It is very common that an associate commits a CLM (career limiting move) when working on a "one off" project for some remote partner and does a crappy job on it. That partner will never forget it and you may not get another opportunity to impress them. Do as much or more for partners you don't know (and don't expect to work with) than you do the ones who you work with daily.

Originally Posted by odoreater

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When a partner has an important, or time-sensitive or juicy piece of work come across his desk, you want to be the guy that he thinks of first. The only way to do this is to consistently turn out a high quality work-product without missing deadlines.

That's exactly right. I haven't been into the office on a weekend in over 6 months. Why? I don't need to be there to get work from partners. Of all of the associates in my group, I'm the go-to guy for scientific research, so they just send me those types of assignments via email. It doesn't matter if associates X, Y, and Z are in the office that day. I'm going to get that work.

Getting face time at a firm doesn't matter as much as it does at places that don't bill by the hour. Partners don't care if you're not in the office 24/7, just as long as you're finding enough billable work and you're reachable if they need to find you.

just out of curiosity, where are you doing your mba, alflauren?

Originally Posted by Mr. Checks

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Top 5 real-world tips:

1. Move quickly when you walk down the hall, and always carry some papers, even if you're going to the bathroom. (courtesy TA, partner)

2. Pretend to schedule vacations, and then "cancel" them noisily, citing work obligations. (courtesy TM, "gunner" associate)

3. Park your car prominently near the front door on Saturday morning, leave an extra set of keys on your desk, and leave your computer on all weekend. (courtesy SMSgt GRN, USAF ret.)

4. Send out emails/voice mails after 7, 8, 9 p.m. and on the weekends. Appear to be in a hurry, needing responses ASAP (courtesy CEP, in-house)

5. Loudly announce the comings and goings of all competing associates, ala "half-day, Bob?" (courtesy of that little girl on the old commercial)

6. When leaving early for the day, carry lots of papers, look harried, and rush to the elevator while speaking (to no one) on your cell phone like you're late to a meeting.

7. When you stroll in late from the parking lot, always talk animatedly on the cell phone.

8. Confide in your mentor that you're thinking of canceling your engagement because your fiancee wants you to spend weekends at home.

9. Cut off office gab fests after 7 minutes explaining, "I need to do client work for the next 8 minutes so I can bill this quarter hour."

10. When you go on vacation, create an auto-reply that reads "I am out of the office attending to a medical emergency, however, I can be reached by email and mobile phone and I am checking voicemail every 5 minutes."

Originally Posted by coatandthai

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Here's one: when those firmwide emails go out asking about some arcane legal issue, if you have a spare moment, do some quick research and provide it to the requestor. Why? It might lead to some work on the project and when you come up for partner, it's nice to have partners in other offices who chime in on your behalf. Spreads your tentacles widely. A corollary to this is DO NOT blow off small assignments for partners you rarely work with. It is very common that an associate commits a CLM (career limiting move) when working on a "one off" project for some remote partner and does a crappy job on it. That partner will never forget it and you may not get another opportunity to impress them. Do as much or more for partners you don't know (and don't expect to work with) than you do the ones who you work with daily.
It's something small, but great advice (even in a non-legal environment).

Originally Posted by MrPL007

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just out of curiosity, where are you doing your mba, alflauren?

Don't know yet. Yale, Cornell, or Tuck; in at one and waiting on the other two.

Welcome to the forum, btw.

Originally Posted by odoreater

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I see a huge problem with this approach (I know it's meant as a joke and all, but anyway). It's kind of a problem if people think that you're too busy because you might end up not getting enough work. The only thing worse than having too much work is not having enough and sitting in your office surfing the internet all day. If the partners think that you have a million projects going on and that you are cancelling vacations and coming in every weekend, they may decide to give that nice big new juicy project that comes in to one of the other 5 associates in the group, rather than the guy that's frantically running around all the time like he's ready to have a break down at any moment.

I don't know about anyone else, but whenever something new comes in, I'd like to be the associate that's at the top of the list for getting that project. That's probably the best advice anyone has given me - that you should become the "go-to guy." When a partner has an important, or time-sensitive or juicy piece of work come across his desk, you want to be the guy that he thinks of first. The only way to do this is to consistently turn out a high quality work-product without missing deadlines.

Yes, joke.

My real advice: on everything you do, don't turn it in until you are satisfied that you have done it as well as you can.

No bullshitting is required, but the above test is a very hard one to meet if applied correctly; it allows for no excuses or justifications, because in this field your client's money, time, or liberty is always on the line, and there's no room for excuses.

If you do this, you'll become "a good lawyer," perhaps more, and you'll never want for work or money.

Originally Posted by coatandthai

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A corollary to this is DO NOT blow off small assignments for partners you rarely work with. It is very common that an associate commits a CLM (career limiting move) when working on a "one off" project for some remote partner and does a crappy job on it. That partner will never forget it and you may not get another opportunity to impress them. Do as much or more for partners you don't know (and don't expect to work with) than you do the ones who you work with daily.

That is probably the best advice I have ever heard.

One of my "big breaks" came this way. I had to travel to another state to introduce a new project and the people in attendance were somewhat hostile.

A lady in the audience that I had never met before turned out to be an executive just listening in. She was impressed with how I handled myself and 1 year later promoted to a position where i would be the company's youngest Lead Engineer.

That same lady refused to even interview another person for a job because he blew her off on a project...