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Beyond Biglaw: 3 Essential Junior Associate Qualities

Junior associates, do you exhibit these valuable traits?

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Most junior associates are hired based on their “paper” credentials: diplomas, transcripts, cover letters, and résumés. It is well-known that in the legal industry prestige matters — perhaps never more so than at the point when a law student transitions into an actual law practitioner. So the quality of one’s degrees, both in terms of type (an economics or finance background will typically be more attractive for law firms than fine arts) and source (ATL has reams of material on the importance of both undergraduate and law school prestige on employability), are of the utmost importance. As is the quality of one’s transcript. No surprises there.

Cover letters and résumés are also important, but mostly because of their power to negate a favorable impression generated by one’s educational background. It may seem trite, but rambling cover letters can cause an otherwise viable job candidate serious damage. It is one thing to use a cover letter to highlight serious accomplishments or specific expertise gained as part of an established legal or prior business career. It is another to trumpet inane prior activities as important, or indicators of future legal success.

For new graduates, or those looking to move on from their first firm job in the hopes of finding more “exciting work,” a long cover letter (or more likely cover email) is usually inappropriate. And creates more opportunity for potential employer enthusiasm-killing typos. Likewise, when a newbie candidate crafts their résumé, a spare approach is usually preferred to a more “inclusive” one. The fact that you were co-treasurer of some college or law school club is likely not of interest to the recipient of your résumé (unless you are targeting former co-treasurers from the same club). Otherwise, it looks like filler and sends the wrong impression, especially when accompanied by two sentences dedicated to your origami and birdhouse-building hobbies.

So junior lawyers need to get their “papers in order” in order to secure that all-important first crack at legal employment. Law school career services offices are well-equipped to assist in that regard. As lawyers get more senior, recruiters often fill the breach in order to make sure that credentials are presented properly. But what happens when you (beat the odds to) land that first job? What qualities will allow you to stick out, and perhaps make it to the wonderfully overworked status of mid-level associate? For most, the list of qualities necessary for advancement will be idiosyncratic and based heavily on the preferences of the person supervising them, or signing their paychecks.

At the same time, there are some common qualities that are attractive to all but the most sociopathic of employers. These qualities are also nice to demonstrate whenever one starts a new job, of course. They are most critical, however, when lawyers are most vulnerable — right at the start of their careers, where their value to employers is most tenuous — and when the competition is toughest, since the pool of like-situated job candidates is deepest.

The first quality that a junior lawyer would be wise to display is humility. Even if one is by nature full of confidence (arrogance?), it is important in the early stages of one’s legal career to be humble. No matter how sterling your educational attainments are, or how compelling your life story may be, a lack of humility will create a negative impression in the eyes of more senior colleague. Entitlement, especially when exhibited to older lawyers, is an effective career-shortener. So feign humility if you need to, and demonstrate to your seniors that you are willing to learn from their example — and prepared to do things “their way.” Irrespective of how inferior “their way” is when compared to your fresh and modern approach to legal practice.

Second, no matter how easy things come to you, lawyers place a premium on effort, and romanticize “working hard” as a necessary quality for junior colleagues to demonstrate. Of course, as a young lawyer, if things seem easy, there is a good chance you are missing something, if not approaching the task in completely the wrong way. Remember that there is nary an experienced lawyer who does not believe that they have “worked long and hard” to get to their current position. So most want to see that meritorious quality in their less experienced charges. At the same time, no one wants their associates to be working hard because they are not smart enough to handle the work. So you need to demonstrate a strong work ethic, without ever giving the impression that you are overwhelmed. A balancing act, to be sure.

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Finally, another essential quality for success as a junior lawyer is attention to detail. Let’s take a research memo assignment as an example. While the senior lawyer or client behind the assignment wants the research to be through, and some evidence of legal judgment provided in the memo’s contents, there is also an expectation that the analysis will not be perfect. Which is fine, even if the rewards for turning in perfect research memos are fantastic — usually the chance to do more research memos. While there might be a margin of error available for the content, when it comes to presentation there is no such safety net. Checking obsessively for typos will take relatively little time when compared to the time spent on the memo. So do it. Attention to detail is a skill that remains evergreen in the legal industry. Failure to demonstrate that trait early on is a way of hitting the ejection-seat button on your career.

Yes, these attributes seem obvious as important ones for young lawyers to demonstrate. But when so many don’t do so, and so much potential talent gets washed out of the profession prematurely, reminding ourselves of the characteristics necessary for success is important. Especially when people work so hard to get themselves in the position to secure that first job in the first place.

Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.

Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique. The firm’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.

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