Unprofessional Attitude

Nothing wears more quickly on a practicing lawyer than a summer associate with a ‘bad attitude.’ I can hear some saying this is not fair. You are about to join a profession in which an unwillingness to roll up your sleeves and get a job done.

The senior partner who manages client relationships spent years developing her skills and many nights doing work that wasn’t necessarily as fascinating as arguing a $500 million appeal in the Ninth Circuit. When a summer associate breezes through a program and appears uninterested in a project or delivers late or superficial work product, the supervising partner will notice, and their conclusion will be negative. The wise summer associate is timely, focused, interested, and committed to the work at hand.

Poor Writing

Law schools cannot teach students to be excellent writers. While some new lawyers are excellent writers, excellence for most takes years of effort. Nothing puts you at peril more quickly than sloppy, unfocused, or error-filled writing.  Some supervising lawyers are anal-retentive about writing. But that is not unfair in a world where clients pay a literal fortune for legal advice and have the right to expect perfection.

If you wouldn’t accept a sloppy paint job on your Saab, or a shoddy work on your condominium, why should clients tolerate sloppy prose? A simple typo can cause a multi-million dollar headache. Lawyers who criticize carelessness are trying to teach you lessons which they learned years ago.

            Do not resent it.  Spell checking and grammar checking are not the guardians of perfection. Take the time to abide by the Mary Poppins Rule (“practically perfect in every way.”). Sometimes the most conspicuous and embarrassing errors survive spell check and grammar check — misspelling the name of the client, the partner, or the project are three favorites.

            Consider what happens to your written work product. First, it crosses the desk of the lawyer who assigned the project. Next, it will be read by another partner or two who work in that department. Finally, a copy is sent to the partner who runs the summer program. At the end of the summer writing can be the tie-breaker in determining whether you receive an offer.