WSJ Posts Tips from the Corner Office

In the past couple of weeks, the Wall Street Journal Law blog has run a series of articles filled with helpful tips for law firm associates called View from the Corner Office. This four part series includes a variety of gems and a couple of clunkers, as far as advice goes. Here, we save you the trouble of reading all 4 columns and hit the highlights, along with a discussion of the more controversial of the recommendations, as commented upon by a thousand disgruntled lawyers (eek!)

From David Gordon, managing partner of the New York office of the firm Latham & Watkins, we get the slightly obvious but no less true gem to young associates that we should “make a commitment,” to our profession, to our colleagues and to our clients. While this may well be code for: bill a ton of hours and be available 24/7, its still a pretty good point, and it distills down the essence of what is expected of young associates.

Mr. Gordon offers the upbeat advice, “If you’re happy with your job 60 to 80 percent of the time, that’s really a pretty good job.” And later, on the virtues of good hard work, it “helps give you cover when you’ll need it for mistakes you’ll inevitably make.” This guy must be a real optimist.

A heated discussion followed on whether or not it is possible to practice law in a field you love, and whether being unhappy 20-40% of the time at work actually constitutes a good life. One associate poster noted that law is a great profession because “it allows you to be close to what you really enjoy in life… Cars, airplanes, sports, entertainment, music.”

A more cynical lawyer quibbled with that notion, noting that, “unless a plurality of recent graduates really love 3rd tier insurance companies, that’s total bunk.”

Paul Mourning, chair of the hiring committee at Cadwalader (which of late has been doing more firing than hiring), offered his advice for getting ahead in an earlier installment. For incoming summer associates, he advised learning how to cater to the boss, by learning the work habits and stylistic preferences of partners and senior associates whom you might work with. Knowing if someone prefers written to oral reports, and is more of a morning person than a night owl will certainly serve you well down the road.

Mourning also notes that, in this day and age, not every associate has a dream to make partner, and that’s ok. While we at TGH don’t think you should really shout it from the rooftops if you are a new summer associate who wouldn’t be caught dead slaving away at BigLaw ten years from now, you also shouldn’t broadcast your desire to be made the youngest partner in the firm’s history either. At best, it’s vastly premature. At worst, you are an annoying gunner who might jeopardize her offer prospects. Neither is the best way to win friends and influence people. A better route is to keep mum on partnership interests and put your head down and work hard to preserve your options.

Diane Prucino, co-managing partner at Kilpatrick Stockton and an expert in attorney resources offers one of the best pieces of advice in this series: make sure you are communicating clearly about your work assignments. “I always tell the new lawyer that when the senior lawyer calls you to the office and tells you what to do, before leaving, repeat back to them what you’re being asked to do,” Prucino said. “Get them to say yes before you leave. If they say no, then say, Oh, I must’ve misunderstood you. Tell me what I got wrong. And don’t leave the office until that happens.”

A wise commenter adds, “Pay attention to detail and be nice to paralegals and secretaries.” These are little nuggets of gold too. Especially the part about secretaries, paralegals and all support staff, which really make the world go round at big law firms. If nothing seems to be going right for you, paperwork gets misfiled, messages and interoffice mail get lost, and partners who come looking for you are informed that you are coffee break, chances are, your secretary hates you. Buy some chocolates, and learn from the experience of a person who has probably worked at the firm since you were sitting on the sharing carpet and taking naps in the afternoon at school.

With these wise tips from experts and associates in the trenches, go forth and prosper, future class of big law firm associates!