“Hey, Gary, draft this contract for me.”
“When you’re done with that contract I gave you, write me a memo about EB-5 offerings.”
“When you’re finished with that contract, I need you to review this 10-Q.”
Me: “What about the EB-5 memo?”
Partner: “Yes, don’t forget about that.”
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“While you’re reviewing the 10-Q, draft a partnership agreement for me.”
Me: “Is there a certain precedent I should use?”
Partner: “There’s hundreds of partnership agreements on iManage. You’ll find something. Make sure it works though.”
“Hey, when you’re finished with whatever you’re working on now, look over this client alert.”
Me: “This client alert is only half-done.”
Partner: “Oh yeah, I told the other associate she didn’t have to stay late tonight. Finish it for me, will you?”
“The client needs the partnership agreement ASAP. How much longer?”
Me: “I just got it two hours ago and I’m drafting another contract and reviewing a 10-Q and looking up EB-5 stuff–”
Partner: “Just get on it. They sent it to us last week, and it was a rush.”
“You know what your problem is, Gary? I never see you reading. Every time I walk by your office you’re working on something. You’ll never get better as a lawyer if you don’t take the time to read.”
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Gee, I wonder why I was never reading? But she was right. Maybe it’s overkill to say someone will never get better as a lawyer if they don’t take the time to read. But any lawyer who does manage to carve out the time to read is probably going to get better quicker than someone who allows him or herself to get constantly overwhelmed. (And as we all know, there’s no overwhelmed like Biglaw overwhelmed!)
What exactly should you be reading? Anything you can get your hands on. Other law firm’s client alerts, recent journal articles, popular blogs, relevant books, etc. Anything in your practice area. There is a wealth of information out there, nearly all of it free. In my primary practice area of corporate & securities law, I can Google just about any recent topic and find the latest news — an SEC no-action letter, for example — along with 15 or so links to relevant law firm publications. If the firm publications are too long — I can’t always spare the time to read 10 pages about every single topic that comes down the pike — there are usually non-law firm analyses from sources such as CPAs or venture capitalists that are often quicker and easier to digest. One thing I always have to tell my interns (who have spent the last 2-3 years mainlining Westlaw/LexisNexis), is that unless for some reason we’re specifically looking for case law history, the results from Google are probably going to be more useful than Westlaw or Lexis.
Biglaw partners have a vested interest in keeping abreast of the latest legal news, so they force themselves to spend the time staying up to date. Their superior knowledge and experience attracts the work, and keeps their team busy. Associates, on the other hand, are usually just trying not to drown.
Staying on top of legal developments is another area in which you can make yourself a partner (or partner-like) by making the move to SmallLaw. All of a sudden, you can spend your time however you want. You can go to the dentist every other day. Spend an hour each afternoon knitting something for mom. Get a TV for the office and watch M*A*S*H reruns.
Or you could read. You could pick out a few firms that always have good material, and try to read everything they put out. (I once had an admin print out everything a certain firm had on its website and bind it all together for me in a spiral. She looked at me funny but did it.) And subscribe to blogs, and make it a point to read the latest bar association books.
There’s nothing like having a client call you up asking about something one of his industry friends just told him about, and getting to say you just read about it a day or two ago. (It’s even better if you’ve already blogged about it, but let’s not get too deep into fantasy land.)
In SmallLaw, there’s nothing to prevent you from becoming a leader in your field. With enough discipline, anyone can study hard, write as much as possible (which should go hand in hand with reading), and carve out a little expertise. Then you can offer a more valuable billable hour, raise your rates appropriately, and then bill fewer hours but at a higher rate. And then with the decrease in billable hours, you could spend that much more time reading, making your billable hour even more valuable. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be at home on my La-Z-Boy looking over an industry white paper than chained to my desk doing grunt work. Readers shouldn’t be doing grunt work.
Gary J. Ross opened his own practice, Jackson Ross PLLC, in 2013 after several years in Biglaw and the federal government. Gary handles corporate and compliance matters for investment funds, small businesses, and non-profits, occasionally dabbling in litigation. You can reach Gary by email at [email protected].