Associate Advice from the Corner Office: Part I

[WSJ_law_blog]

Final exams are upon us, Loyal Law Blog readers, and you know what that means: 1L’s will begin pondering law review and on-campus interviews, 2L’s will pack off to their summer associateships and 3L’s will begin their summer-long bar exam crams, followed by their first year as real-deal law firm lawyers.

To help you on your way, the Law Blog is rolling out a new series called “Associate Advice from the Corner Office.” From time to time, we’ll be speaking to the BigLaw partners who are involved with attorney hiring at their firms. These partners have seen hundreds of associates come through their firms, they’ve seen what works and what doesn’t, and now they’re eager to share some thoughtful words of wisdom on how to find success in law firm life.

First up is Diane Prucino, who landed at Kilpatrick Stockton in 1982 after graduating from UVA law. With 26 years of experience, Prucino is now the 500-lawyer firm’s co-managing partner with a special focus on attorney resources — which includes everything from hiring to compensation to outplacement. Says Prucino, a labor lawyer: “I have strong views on these issues because I think we could help new lawyers a lot if we sat down and were candid with them about some of the things we learned the hard way.”

Without further ado, Prucino’s advice to young associates:

Make sure you’re communicating clearly about work assignments.

Prucino says that many of the work assignments that don’t end happily, either for the new lawyer or the more senior lawyer, are a result of bad communication between the two. “So I always tell the new lawyer that when the senior lawyer calls you to the office and tells you what to do, before leaving, repeat back to them what you?re being asked to do,” Prucino said. “Get them to say yes before you leave. If they say no, then say, Oh, I must’ve misunderstood you. Tell me what I got wrong. And don’t leave the office until that happens.”

Prucino also recommends sending the senior lawyer an email, within 24 hours of getting the assignment, to confirm. And, she adds, “Even if you’ve done both of those things, if it’s something that’s spread over a period of any time, check back in periodically. Because sometimes what happens is that that the senior lawyer is dealing with the client, and so what they want you to do changes slightly over time.”

Finally, after you’ve turned in an assignment, Prucino recommends sticking your head in the senior lawyer’s office and asking them whether they got what they needed. “First, you’ll get feedback,” says Prucino. “And second, if there’s some misunderstanding and they think you’re still working on part B, but you didn’t know there was a Part B, then you’ll find out.”

Pick your mentor and use that person wisely.

“The conventional wisdom here is one of two things,” says Prucino. “Either, mentor relationships develop naturally and you can’t force them; or, they don’t develop naturally because law firms have gotten so big.” But she thinks there’s a third way: When new associates arrive at the firm, they should look around for a short period of time before identifying a senior lawyer in their practice area who could be a role model. “Having a mentor who’s looking out for you and cares about your development,” she says, “matters more than almost anything.”

Make yourself indispensable.

In other words, says Prucino, find a niche. “The opposite of that would be to be a general litigator or a general M&A lawyer — the two biggest categories of lawyers at big firms,” explains Prucino. “I’m not saying don’t go into those areas, but find some area of practice under the umbrella that no one else does and that you see a need for, either now or down the road.”

LBers, sounds like pretty good advice to us. Anyone care to agree? Disagree?