Be Nice To Your Interns; One Day They Will Be Attorneys

In a profession where reputation matters so much, small things can make a big difference.

As summer sadly begins to draw to a close, I write to offer a humble reminder to my in-house and Biglaw colleagues alike: be nice to your interns (or externs, summer associates, or whatever you call them in your organization; in my workplace, they’re law clerks).

Sure, on a basic human level, it is the right thing to do. They have likely spent the last few months performing menial tasks with minimum thanks. The least we can do is send them off with a proper good-bye.

But on a more selfish note, your failure to do so could come back to haunt you in the future.

Without a doubt, any law clerk worth their salt has likely let you know they want a job after they graduate. If you are in a Biglaw firm, and the clerk has managed to avoid any catastrophic errors or getting too drunk at an office outing, there is a good choice they will receive an offer of employment and join you as a colleague in a matter of months. Likewise, if you are in-house and grow fond of your clerk, you will probably attempt to hire them after they graduate.

In either scenario, do you really want your former clerk spending his or her first days in the office recounting to his now colleagues just how big of a jerk you were when they were nobodies?

Even if the clerk has proven time and again they are not suited for post-graduation employment with your specific employer, it is still worth your while to be kind to them on their way out the door. While you may not want to hire that particular clerk, you may be interested in hiring a friend of theirs from school.

And if one thing is certain, it is that law students talk. Having a former clerk sing your praises only helps with current and future recruiting efforts. Likewise, having a clerk share horror stories of how you berated them for hours on end for taking a Friday off so they could attend a funeral will likely limit your future applicant pool. While we may think it unfair, the words of a perceived incompetent clerk matter amongst their peers.

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Finally, even if you never plan to hire your clerk, or could not care less what they tell their friends back at school, keep in mind that the law clerk will likely be an attorney practicing in your local community in just a few short years.

Receiving a call or email from a former clerk, now turned opposing counsel, is bound to go more smoothly when you both parted amicably. And again, not to beat a dead horse, but that former clerk and now attorney can either choose to share fond or foul memories of their time with you to his new colleagues.

In a profession where your reputation matters, even these small things can make a big difference.

So before those clerks whose names you’ll barely remember return for the fall semester, feed them and thank them. Take them out to lunch, listen to their stories from the summer, and tell them how much you valued their time and their work. Even if you ignored them all summer, there is still time to make a good lasting impression.

Besides, you never know which of them might grow up and become a judge.

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Stephen R. Williams is in-house counsel with a multi-facility hospital network in the Midwest. His column focuses on a little talked about area of the in-house life, management. You can reach Stephen at stephenwilliamsjd@gmail.com.