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Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: Practical Advice For New Lawyers

Q: Shortly after turning in an assignment, I realized that instead of citing the controlling authority, I cited a model rule that had not been adopted. I fessed up. Is there anything else you suggest for handling mistakes?

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Q: Shortly after turning in an assignment, I realized that instead of citing the controlling authority, I cited a model rule that had not been adopted. I fessed up. Is there anything else you suggest for handling mistakes?

A: Coming clean right away was the right thing to do. Your goal is to try to shift the focus from the mistake itself to how you handled the mistake. You also want to show that you learned.

If new lawyers believe they have made a mistake, I first encourage them to pause and take a “time out.” Sometimes you may think you have made a mistake when you haven’t. Double-checking to confirm whether you have made a mistake might allow you to avoid an awkward conversation.

If you have made a mistake, the swirl of anxiety can lead to poor decisions. Taking a few minutes to compose yourself can help you focus on the steps to make the best of the situation. A brief pause can also help you begin to develop a solution.

As you recognized, as tough as it may be, you have to fess up immediately. In handling a mistake, you can repair the harm and demonstrate responsibility – or just dig yourself a deeper hole.

Maintaining the trust of senior lawyers is critical to building relationships. Covering up a mistake or blaming others will only compound your problems: If you do any of that, you have not only made a mistake but also shirked responsibility. That is likely to lead senior lawyers to conclude that you “just don’t get it.”

If possible, discuss the mistake in person. That will show the senior lawyer that you take the situation seriously. Communicating in person also gives you the benefit of tone and demeanor – although those may not seem like benefits at the time.

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Try to propose a solution during the initial conversation – as long as developing the solution does not delay coming clean. The senior lawyer is likely to appreciate your initiative. Then you need to convey singular dedication to resolving the problem.

You may still get a negative reaction. Prepare for that, and work to maintain your composure. But refrain from commenting on the other lawyer’s reaction. You are a colleague – not a spouse or therapist. A comment such as, “I know you are upset,” does not help resolve the problem.

Keeping the focus on the client is a better approach: “I am sorry if this will cause an awkward situation with the client.”

Yes. I used the word, “sorry.” For mistakes other than trivial ones, (and often small mistakes are not trivial) consider apologizing once. An apology shows you understand that you caused some inconvenience. Making a fetish of apologizing will make you appear weak or disingenuous – or both.

You also need to figure out why you made the mistake and explain to the senior lawyer how you will make sure you won’t do it again. This is essential. One of the few good things about mistakes is that they provide a chance to learn. If you make the same mistake more than once, grace may be scarce. To quote Esther Dyson, “Always make new mistakes.”

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Finally, don’t beat yourself up. As a new lawyer, it is unlikely that you could figure out how to make an entirely new type of error – or one that would cause monumental harm. Your colleagues may well have made – and fixed – similar errors. Focus on correcting the problem. Learn. And move on.

Good luck!

Grover E. Cleveland is a Seattle lawyer, speaker and author of Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: The Essential Guide to Thriving as a New Lawyer (West 2010). He is a former partner at Foster Pepper PLLC, one of the Northwest’s larger firms. His clients included the Seattle Seahawks and other entities owned by Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen. Grover is a frequent presenter on new lawyer career success at law schools and firms nationwide. Some of the questions in this column come from those presentations. Readers may submit questions here or follow him on Twitter @Babysharklaw.

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