Advice for Summer Associates: Don’t Cost Law Firms More Than You Have To

Jerry Maguire made a memorable plea to retain his client: “Help me, help you. Help me, help you.” As a summer clerk, you are very expensive for the law firm — in addition to your salary and entertainment expenses, firms spend hundreds of attorney hours monitoring your work and keeping you interested. You do not want to add more to that expense if it can be avoided, especially if it involves simply following firm policies and procedures. While we have already covered how summer associates should act in social settings in and outside the firm, summer associates must learn how to properly manage their work and conduct research on their day-to-day work assignments.

The following tips on time entry are brought to you by Frank Kimball of Lateral Link, an expert recruiter and former Biglaw hiring partner. Please note that these are general guidelines a summer associate should adhere to — be sure to check with your firm to determine what the firm’s actual policies are.

Now on to the tips….

ACCOUNTING FOR TIME

Welcome to a profession where you are paid for your time. Clients pay for legal services by the hour. Recording your time accurately, comprehensively, and consistently is important to your firm, its clients, and your career. Developing this habit takes effort but it must be done. Record your time daily and turn it in daily. Most firms look closely at lawyer’s time in assessing the productivity, profitability, and making decisions about compensation and promotion. Most firms will ask that you enter four types of information in a format like this:

Continue reading more about logging the time you worked as well as how to manage your online research over at the Career Center — which also contains additional career insights, as well as profiles of individual law firms.