First-Year Associates

T u e s d a y, s e p T e m b e r 4 , 2 0 1 2 F i r s t -Year Associates • 1

2Office Etiquette for

New Associates

3The Need for

Formal Training and Mentoring Programs

4Learning Lessons for Your Future

5Balancing Work for Multiple Partners

6First-Year Hiring Rising as Firms

Look to Fill Gaps

First-Year Associates

| Special Section | September 2012

2 | F i r s t -year associates T u e s d a y, s e p T e m b e r 4 , 2 0 1 2

A Hard Line on Soft Skills: Office Etiquette for New AssociatesBy Katherine LePore hamiLLSpecial to the Legal

This will be one of the most chal-lenging years of your professional career. You have chosen a profes-

sion in which there is little room for error and where reputations and relationships are a critical component of success. You have already demonstrated the technical skills to become a successful practitioner and are now officially a first-year associate.

Unfortunately, being a great lawyer requires more than just good technical skills. Lawyers with good “soft skills” are more likely to stand out as premier practi-tioners. Demonstrating sound work habits, communicating effectively with others and establishing a solid reputation all require strong soft skills.

Recognizing the importance of soft skills and devoting the appropriate amount of energy to developing them will ease your transition into law firm life, help distin-guish you among your peers and build the foundation for a long and successful legal career. Here are some soft skills that will serve you well through the early months of your career and beyond.

BE PRESENTThis may seem obvious, but it is one of

the most common mistakes made by young lawyers. Being present means being avail-

able to those around you at all times and being engaged in your work and your envi-ronment. Are you constantly on your iPhone or BlackBerry in the halls and dur-ing meetings? Do you engage in Gchat at work? Do you listen to music in your office? Do you have headphones on when you step into the elevator every morning? Is your office door always closed because you are buried in your work?

You might claim to be a skilled multi-tasker and say these distractions do not affect your attention or the quality of your work. While that may be true, these habits do in fact create the perception that you are distracted and not fully engaged in the work you are performing. Take the ear-

phones out, turn the music off, avoid the urge to check Facebook every 10 minutes and keep your office door open. You want people to perceive you as completely focused, dedicated and available at all times. You will quickly discover that the more present and available you appear, the great-er the opportunities available to you.

DO NOT COMPLAINAs a junior attorney, you may be given

work that makes you question the value of all of your law school training. Document reviews will seem endless; traveling for weeks on end will take a toll on your per-sonal life; having all your meals paid for will get old. Do not complain about it — at least not where others can hear you, and definitely not in email. Most new lawyers have to pay their dues by working seem-ingly endless hours on projects for which they are less than passionate. Complaining about it will only annoy those who have had to suffer through it before you. Furthermore, there will likely be others in the trenches with you and complaining to them will only make the situation less tol-erable.

It may not be easy, but try to make the best of it. Nobody wants to work with someone who complains all the time. It’s bad for morale, it’s bad for productivity and it’s bad for the positive reputation you are trying to establish. Performing well on the

less glamorous projects will generally lead to opportunities on the more exciting ones.

PROFESSIONAL EMAIL ETIQUETTEWhile at first glance it may seem easy,

proper use of email can be one of the more difficult skills to master. Email is best used for answering a quick question, making a record of a conversation or sending a brief status update. Email is not ideal in situa-tions where you want to convey any sort of emotion, solve a complicated and nuanced issue, or in situations where you would not want the communication to be shared with someone else. Once you hit send, you have no control over where the email will end up. It may not go further than the intended recipient’s inbox or it may be forwarded to several people you never imagined reading it. Always keep emails professional, as the person you are sending the email to might forward it to other attorneys or even cli-ents.

Always double-check who you are send-ing the email to before you hit send. Mistakes related to unintended recipients are some of the most common in email communication. It will happen to you at some point in your career. Be aware of it and make it a habit to double-check the “to,” “cc” and “bcc” fields before sending. Also make it a habit to read the entire

Etiquette continues on 8

KATHERINE LEPORE HAMILL is director of recruiting and develop-ment at Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young and is responsible for overseeing the recruitment, retention, training and evaluation of nonpartner timekeepers

and staff. Her development responsibilities include managing the associate evaluation and compensa-tion process; developing policies and procedures for associates; acting as a liaison between the associate body and firm management; and developing the firm’s professional development training programs for associates.


The Need for Formal Training and Mentoring ProgramsBy PhiLiP r. VoLucKSpecial to the Legal

Among the issues facing law firms is how to train new law school gradu-ates in the art and practice of law in

the midst of billing pressures and client concerns that they are footing the bill to train newly hired lawyers. There may be no tougher job in the legal profession than facilitating the transition of a first-year attorney into a functional, successful pro-fessional. According to a 2011 study by the Association of Corporate Counsel for The Wall Street Journal, internal cost controls have resulted in more companies refusing to pay for the work of first-year lawyers.

New attorneys graduate from law school with little, if any, practical experience. The cost of recruiting and then training young lawyers is enormous. Clients are no longer willing to pay for this learning curve. They want only experienced attorneys working on their matters, believing that they work more efficiently, saving the company money, notwithstanding higher hourly rates. The conundrum is that knowing the law is but one component of an attorney’s development and it is a universally accepted truth that the best way to become a good lawyer is by doing.

Relegating a new attorney to document review, proofreading and basic research for two years may be economical — and justifi-

ably billable — but the attorney is not learning anything substantive. While most attorneys will agree that training and men-toring new attorneys is crucial for main-taining a skilled and ethical profession, growing pressure for billable hours in many firms has severely limited the number of firms willing to take the young attorneys under their wings. Unfortunately, however, such an approach results in frustrated asso-ciates, increases turnover and those who remain are significantly limited in their ability to “think like a lawyer.”

Law firms have the ability to help change the perception that first-year lawyers are incapable of contributing quality work. Changing this perception requires a firm’s sincere commitment to actually mentoring first-year attorneys as to how to practice. Mentoring not only fulfills a lawyer’s pro-fessional duty to supervise junior attorneys,

but it also makes sense economically by reducing attrition and increasing the qual-ity and efficiency of the young lawyer’s work.

Most successful attorneys — practitio-ners, judges and law professors — can iden-tify those special individuals who influ-enced their approach to the law and the path of their career. When I was being trained, there was absolutely nothing an associate generated that was not first reviewed in depth by the assigning partner — often with the associate present — before it could leave the office. Then, new associates were rotated among several part-ners in order to learn how experienced attorneys analyzed claims and managed a particular client or case.

Today, the drive for billable hours has dramatically curtailed the ability of senior attorneys to engage in nonbillable activi-ties, and true mentoring is often considered economically unfeasible as the business community resists having young attorneys working on their files — companies want senior attorneys who know the law and know how to write.

Associates today are as focused on work-life balance as they are on advancing their careers. Attorneys move from firm to firm, where their prior training might conflict with their new firm’s operating protocols. Young associates also become very frus-trated at receiving an assignment with little

or no direction from the partner in charge. That frustration grows when the associate’s time is written off by the firm as inferior because of the time expended reviewing and revising by the partner in charge.

Law firms must realize that strong train-ing and mentoring programs are economi-cally feasible to the extent the firm pro-duces more sophisticated legal analysis and better writing skills from the trainees. Firms must be willing to budget these pro-grams if they expect to produce good attor-neys. Firms need to make an investment in their own futures and recognize that the up-front investment in training and men-toring will pay off in stability and quality lawyering.

Law schools could be doing much more to allow a new attorney to seamlessly move from the classroom to the conference room or the courtroom. Not enough law schools provide opportunities for real-world appli-cation. Knowing the law is quite different from applying it to a particular set of facts and/or analyzing a client’s exposure to lia-bility. As one Midwestern law school’s motto states, it is a “Law School for the Real World.” New attorneys often lack the ability to think like a lawyer. There is too much that law schools do not teach that might otherwise prepare first-year attor-neys for the real world. A stronger focus on

Mentoring continues on 9

PHILIP R. VOLUCK is the managing partner of Kaufman Dolowich Voluck & Gonzo. He has concentrated his practice for the last 32 years in the area of employment practices liability, with a particular emphasis on defending and resolving claims of sexual

harassment, employment discrimination and wrong-ful discharge.


Modern-Day Apprenticeship:By Joey tsu-yi chen, meri J. Kahan and courtney L. schuLtzSpecial to the Legal

Prior to the 19th century, eager would-be lawyers never set foot in a brick-and-mortar school of law.

Rather, they served as apprentices to estab-lished attorneys who instructed them in the lessons of the law through observation and hands-on experience.

Over the years, this model changed: Law schools were established, providing stu-dents with a formal curriculum focused on classroom discussion. As of the early 20th century, post-graduate education became a requirement for admission to the bar.

In the more modern legal times of the late 20th and 21st centuries, another trend emerged: Law students would enter law school and immediately upon graduation begin their first job at, more often than not, a private-sector law firm.

Law schools embraced the concept of modern apprenticeship in the forms of externships and clinics during law school. However, newly minted lawyers raced to begin their careers following graduation and typically relegated these experiences to the period of time before they were handed their diplomas. This was a stark contrast to other fields, such as medicine, where a post-graduate internship is the standard for

a complete education.

ECONOMIC CHANgEBut with the shift of the financial land-

scape over the past few years, a new trend materialized. The recruiting and employ-ment patterns that employers and students alike had come to expect were disrupted by the Great Recession. The NALP Foundation estimates that somewhere between 3,200 and 3,700 students from the class of 2009 were deferred from their law firms.

Suddenly, the market was flooded with junior legal talent and the legal “intern-ship” (used loosely here to also include fel-lowships, clerkships, etc.) was elevated to a new level — eagerly pursued by recent graduates looking to fill the time of a defer-ral, fill out the substance of a resume or obtain temporary employment.

And while judicial clerkships have been sought after for many years, the zeal with

which students began to pursue these opportunities was unprecedented. Applications made to judges for post-law school clerkships via the OSCAR system nearly doubled between 2008 and 2009, the time when the economy collapsed.

Though these recent graduates certainly may not have wished for their careers to unfold in the middle of an economic disas-ter, there is a silver lining. Students and law firms alike are realizing there is a lot to be learned from post-graduate opportunities. Internship, clerkship and fellowship num-bers continue to soar with stiff competition for these experiences. In fact, online judi-cial clerkship applications have generally held steady at the 2009 levels for the past two years, even as the economy begins to rebuild itself and deferrals are less com-mon.

Many firms, including Saul Ewing, wel-come the opportunity to see bright, talent-ed lawyers return after a post-graduate

clerkship or internship with polished legal skills and a mature perspective. Let the evidence speak for itself: Below are the les-sons learned from two such associates.

Courtney L. Schultz, an associate in the Philadelphia office, spent a year as associate general counsel at Arcadia University from 2009-10.

While working in the general counsel’s office at Arcadia, I quickly learned to adapt. I learned something new about the law every day. My responsibilities predomi-nantly included drafting university policies, providing compliance training programs, drafting, negotiating and reviewing con-tracts and advising the university on any number of matters of importance at any particular time. This broad range of respon-sibilities often required learning on the fly. Every day was something new, and I soon realized that it was pointless to plan each

Learning the Lessons of the Past And Present for Your Future

Apprenticeship continues on 9

JOEy TSU-yI CHEN is a litigation associate resident in Saul Ewing’s Baltimore office.

MERI J. KAHAN is the manager of attorney recruit-ment firmwide.

COURTNEy L. SCHULTz is a litigation associ-ate resident in the firm’s Philadelphia office.


The Art of Balancing Work for Multiple PartnersBy JosePh r. WiLLiamsSpecial to the Legal

Anyone who has ever attended law school knows the intense pressure that law students face every semes-

ter. Overwhelmed with the amount of material that a first-year law student has to learn, all 1Ls know memorizing the sub-stantive rules and concepts is only half the battle. To achieve high grades, law students have to write a completely different style and tone for each of their exams. A torts professor might expect definitions of any relevant legal terminology and a thorough application of rules that do not even apply to the exam fact pattern, while a criminal law professor prefers responses that are concise and to the point. As a first-year law student at Duquesne University School of Law six years ago, I thought to myself that I couldn’t wait to be done with law school, where the law would be the law and I wouldn’t have to alter my work product to the preference of any one person. I was wrong.

Three years later, I landed my first job working as an associate at a 14-attorney boutique family law firm. My workload consisted of assignments from all five of the firm’s partners. I quickly realized that just like my law school professors, each partner had his or her own expectations as to the format and style of pleadings, the approach to preparing for a trial and the overall strat-

egy to a case. The personal preferences of one partner were sometimes discouraged by other partners. In fact, one partner would often send me in a completely differ-ent direction than the other partner who was right down the hall.

In addition to learning how to fine-tune my work based upon the assigning partner, I faced the challenge of balancing the time commitment associated with each partner’s case load. How could I make the brief I was drafting for one partner perfect when I had a huge discovery project going on for another partner? What about the trial I was supposed to second-chair the following week with a different partner? And how could I accomplish any of these things when I was presenting a motion in a county two hours away for yet another partner?

As time passes, the task of balancing work for multiple partners becomes more manageable, but other challenges arise.

Now a third-year associate, my responsi-bilities are far more significant than they were when I was a newly licensed lawyer. Instead of doing research, sorting through discovery and second-chairing proceedings, I am now taking on a larger role in more complex cases, serving as the first chair in court proceedings and counseling clients independently from the partners with whom I work. In addition to working for partners, I am now building my own book of business and trying to balance the demands of those cases, which requires not only legal services to be performed, but also the time associated with practice manage-ment.

Meeting the expectations and time com-mitments associated with working for mul-tiple partners can be done, but it might take some affirmative steps by you, the young attorney. Of course, the best way to become valuable to your particular firm is to mold yourself to the needs of those for whom you work. That said, here are some sugges-tions that every first-year associate can rely upon to keep his or her head above water and outshine the competition:

1. Get organized. Stay organized.The best way to instill confidence in your

superiors is to show them you are on top of the things coming your way. Keep a to-do list and update it every day. Notate due dates, deadlines and reminders on not only your own calendar, but the partner’s calen-dar, too, so he or she sees you are cognizant

of the deadline. Maintain a binder or folder of the memos you receive from partners with assignments and case updates. Communicate with your legal assistant to establish a system that will enable you and the people with whom you work to com-plete tasks in the most time-efficient man-ner possible. Keep a case list of all of your active cases, which should include items such as: the client name, the assigning part-ner, the opposing counsel, the judge and/or court and any pending court dates or filing deadlines.

2. Ask questions. Ask follow-up ques-tions. Then ask more questions.

It is imperative, especially in the early stages of employment, for you to commu-nicate with your assigning partners about what they expect from you. Find out how involved you should be in the case. Is your task to just complete the research memo or would the partner like you to take control of the file and serve as lead counsel on the case?

Ask questions about the logistics of han-dling the project. How far in advance of the filing deadline would the partner like to have a draft of the pleading? Does the part-ner prefer to have final signing authority on the pleading or is one cursory review of the document sufficient? Does the partner want the client to see all preliminary drafts of the document or only the finished prod-

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JOSEPH R. WILLIAMS is an associate at Pollock Begg Komar Glasser & Vertz in Pittsburgh. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, where he has served as a member of the young lawyers division

executive council, and the Allegheny County Bar Association, where he is active in the family law section and the young lawyers division.


First-year Associate Hiring Rising as Firms Look to Fill gapsBy Gina PassareLLaOf the Legal Staff

Despite the worst jobs report in NALP’s history when it came to jobs for 2011 law school gradu-

ates, Pennsylvania law firms have been hir-ing at increasingly higher rates for the last two years, with 2012 data compiled by The Legal showing double-digit growth in first-year associate hiring.

In looking at data gleaned from The Legal’s 2012 Pennsylvania First-Year Associates Survey, Pennsylvania firms saw a 10.6 percent increase in first-year associate hiring in their offices in the state between the 2011 class and the 2012 class. The firm-wide hiring of associates for survey respon-dents grew at double that pace, with Pennsylvania firms hiring 20.5 percent more first-year associates firmwide in 2012 than they did in 2011.

There were 21 survey respondents that provided data for Pennsylvania-based first-year associates in both 2011 and 2012. Those firms collectively hired 123 first-year associates in 2011 and 136 in 2012, for an increase of 10.6 percent. That follows a 6.6 percent increase reported last year for the growth in hiring between 2010 and 2011.

There were 14 survey respondents this year for which firmwide hiring data was available for both 2011 and 2012. Those 14 firms hired a combined 185 first-year asso-

ciates in 2011. That same group hired 223 first-years for this year’s starting class, mak-ing for a 20.5 percent jump in hiring across their offices.

Along with hiring more, the firms are also paying a bit more. While most respon-dents kept starting salaries for first-year associates the same, four firms have increased their entry-level pay. The average starting salary across the class rose 1.8 per-cent from $127,000 in 2011 to $129,250 in 2012.

Drinker Biddle & Reath pays its first-year associates $105,000 for the first four months while the associates focus on train-ing as opposed to billing clients. That pay was increased to $130,000 for the remain-der of the first year in 2011. But the firm has bumped that up to $140,000 for 2012.

Woodcock Washburn increased its start-ing salary from $130,000 to $140,000 and Pepper Hamilton raised its starting salary from $125,000 to $135,000, with former judicial clerks earning $140,000.

Saul Ewing increased its first-year associ-ate class and its starting salary in 2012 in an effort to meet demand as well as fill the firm’s pipeline of associates. The firm increased salaries from $110,000 last year to $125,000 this year.

After not holding a summer program in 2010, Saul Ewing only had one first-year associate firmwide in 2011 and none in Pennsylvania. This year, the firm has nine first-year associates joining the firm, with

six based in its Pennsylvania offices.Saul Ewing hiring partner Erik Williams

said the firm is seeing an increase in demand across all of its departments, including cor-porate. But the growth in its first-year class

was also related to a perceived need to have more junior attorneys at the firm.

“We’ve been committed for years to our

Hiring continues on 11

Number of Associates Law School

26 Penn

16 Temple

15 Villanova

13 Rutgers-Camden

9 Pittsburgh

8 George Washington

6 Drexel

4 Duquesne

3 Boston College, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Virginia, William and Mary

2 Dickinson, Harvard, Northwestern, USC, Vanderbilt

1 Boston University, Columbia, Illinois, Minnesota, New York University, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Tulane, Widener, Yale, Washington University

LAW SCHOOLS


FIRM BY FIRM

Firm Name

Total Attorneys in PA Offices

2012 FY in PA

2011 FY in PA

2012 Women First Years

2012 Minority First Years

2012 Salary

2011 Salary Law Schools

Archer & Greiner 35 0 0 0 0 N/A N/A N/A

Babst Calland 94 2 3 2 0 $100,000 $100,000 Duquesne (1), Pittsburgh (1)

Ballard Spahr 212 5 14 2 1 $125,000 $125,000 Drexel (1), Penn (1), Temple (2), Villanova (1)

Blank Rome 219 8 6 4 1 $140,000 $140,000 Rutgers-Camden (2), Temple (2), Villanova (3), George Washington (1)

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney

280 7 5 2 1 WND WND Penn (1), Duquesne (2), George Washington (2), William and Mary (1), Pittsburgh (1)

Cozen O’Connor 248 12 9 6 2 $135,000 $135,000 Penn (2), Rutgers-Camden (1), Temple (2), Villanova (1), Cornell (1), Harvard (1), New York University (1), Northwestern (1), Pittsburgh (1), Virginia (1)

Dechert 163 10 11 5 2 $145,000 $145,000 Penn (1), Rutgers-Camden (2), Temple (2), Villanova (1), Columbia (1), Cornell (1), Vanderbilt (1), St. John’s (1)

DLA Piper 40 2 0 2 0 $145,000 $145,000 Villanova (2)

Drinker Biddle & Reath

199 8 11 4 2 $140,000 1 $130,000 Rutgers-Camden (2), Temple (1), Duke (1), George Washington (1), Harvard (1), William and Mary (1), USC (1)

Duane Morris 204 5 5 3 0 $145,000 $145,000 Penn (3), Boston College (1), Vanderbilt (1)

Fox Rothschild 234 8 2 4 3 $125,000 2 $125,000 George Washington (4), Pittsburgh (1), Seton Hall (1), USC (1), Tulane (1)

Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller

51 1 1 0 0 $125,000 $125,000 Yale (1)

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

317 16 13 7 2 $145,000 $145,000 Penn (4), Rutgers-Camden (1), Temple (2), Villanova (1), Cornell (1), Duke (1), Georgetown (3), Pittsburgh (1), Virginia (1), Illinois (1)

Pepper Hamilton 145 16 13 6 6 $135,000 3 $125,000 Penn (7), Rutgers-Camden (2), Temple (1), Villanova (3), Dickinson (1), Boston University (1), Pittsburgh (1)

Reed Smith 408 14 12 7 1 $130,000 4 $130,000 Penn (2), Temple (2), Villanova (3), Duke (1), Duquesne (1), Pittsburgh (2), Virginia (1), William and Mary (1), Washington University (1)

Saul Ewing 115 6 0 1 1 $125,000 $110,000 Penn (4), Widener (1), Dickinson (1)

Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis

102 2 4 0 1 $120,000 5 $120,000 Drexel (1), Boston College (1)

Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young

158 5 7 2 1 $125,000 $125,000 Drexel (1), Penn (1), Rutgers-Camden (1), Temple (1), Boston College (1)

Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby

80 2 2 1 1 WND WND Temple (1), Pittsburgh (1)

White and Williams

164 2 5 1 1 WND WND Drexel (1), Rutgers-Camden (1)

Woodcock Washburn

54 5 1 1 1 $140,000 $130,000 Drexel (2), Rutgers-Camden (1), Northwestern (1), Minnesota (1)

1 Drinker Biddle pays first-years $105,000 for the first four months while the associates are in training. The base salary is raised after four months.

2 Salaries noted are for first-years located in Bucks County, Chester County, Mont-gomery County and Philadelphia. Salaries for first-years in the Pittsburgh office are $110,000 for 2011 and 2012.

3 Salary noted is for first-years. The salary for clerks is $140,000.

4 Salaries noted are for first-years in Philadelphia. Pittsburgh salaries are $125,000 for 2011 and 2012.

5 Salaries noted are for first-years in Philadelphia. Pittsburgh salaries are $105,000 for 2011 and 2012.


string of an email chain when forwarding something. You never know what could be lurking deep down in an email string. Use caution and common sense when forward-ing anything.

Finally, you are strongly encouraged to avoid colloquial language, emoticons and unnecessary exclamation points. I can hon-estly say that I have never received an email from a partner or a client containing an emoticon. Do not use them in professional communications. Thanks!

DEVELOPINg PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Before you have your own clients, some of the most important professional rela-tionships will be with your assigning attor-neys. Treat them as you would a client. Formality and deference are important. Their time is literally more valuable than yours at this point, so do not waste it. Arrive early and overprepared for all meet-ings. Be direct and concise in your interac-tions. Your job is to support them in order to best serve the firm’s clients.

Developing strong relationships with paralegals, secretaries and other support staff is also a critical component of your success and requires strong interpersonal skills. You will quickly learn that it takes many people to serve clients effectively. Most of the partners at your firm probably don’t know when the last mail pick-up is or how to electronically file something with the courts, but all of the firm’s secretaries and paralegals do. The support staff pos-sesses a wealth of knowledge about your

firm, the legal industry and even your cli-ents. They deserve the utmost respect and professional treatment. Developing strong relationships with them will help you accomplish your objectives more efficiently and effectively.

WORKINg WITH ASSIgNINg ATTORNEyS

You have just been called to meet with an attorney regarding your first assignment. Now what? It may be some time before you are given your own case to manage. Your first few assignments will likely be discrete projects on large matters. The most impor-tant thing for you to do is to gain a clear understanding of the context of the assign-ment. Understanding the assignment with-in the framework of the entire matter will help you deliver the most useful work product. Do you understand what the cli-ent hopes to achieve? Do you know how much time you should spend on the assign-ment? What is the deadline? Should your work product be in the form of an email, a memo or just an oral report? If you do not understand something, ask. The worst thing you can do is spin your wheels and bill unnecessary time to a client. It is always appropriate to ask how much time the assigning attorney expects a given task to take so that you can establish parameters for your work. Make sure you understand the assigning attorney’s expectations for the final work product (structure, format, etc.) and the deadline so that you can prepare accordingly.

Now, take ownership of the project and run with it. Always be prepared to give the assigning attorney updates on your prog-

ress. Do not let a week go by without checking in — even if there is little to report. Demonstrating ownership of an assignment instills confidence. Never ask a question if you can find the answer your-self. If you encounter a problem that you are unable to resolve, raise it with the assigning attorney, but be sure to offer some possible solutions. Doing so demon-strates that you have thought through all of the options and have made a reasonable attempt to solve the issue independently. If you demonstrate the ability to manage your assignment efficiently and effectively, you will be given greater responsibility on the next one.

You should generally accept all work opportunities. Being too busy is not a rea-son to turn work down, unless you are physically unable to complete something within the allotted time. If you turn work down too many times, people will stop ask-ing and you will soon find yourself longing for the days when you were busy.

You will make mistakes during the course of your first year. The most important thing to do after making a mistake is raise it with your supervising attorney. Trying to clean it up yourself could lead to bigger problems down the road. Minor mistakes can become very costly errors if resolved improperly.

BUILDINg yOUR PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION

Protect your reputation at all times — it can make or break you. Avoid situations that might compromise it. Reputations are built or destroyed by word of mouth. Establishing a reputation within your firm

may take some time, but word will travel quickly after your first few assignments. Never submit anything short of your very best work. Remember that others will be relying upon it. Simply being available for assignments can also impact your reputa-tion. People will start to view you as a team player and someone who can be relied upon.

While building your reputation in the community is important, you should focus first on networking internally, as this is a critical component of building your reputa-tion. Start immediately. Get to know your firm and its practice areas, learn everything you can about the firm’s clients and their industries, and get to know your colleagues. In doing so, you are building the founda-tion for strong marketing and client devel-opment skills. Keep abreast of legal devel-opments and current events that might affect your firm’s clients. Use the resources available to you within the firm. Do not wait until you are up for partnership to finally start working with your marketing department. It takes time and effort to net-work, but it is arguably as important as performing excellent legal work, because if you do not have a source of work — inter-nally and/or externally — you will find you have nowhere to showcase your excellent technical skills.

You will face many challenges in the first few months of your career, but if you keep these soft skills in mind, you will quickly establish yourself as a valuable resource, a team player and, above all, an excellent practitioner who adds value to the firm and its clients. •

Etiquette continued from 2


internships remains an excellent way for first-year associates to hone their skills, gain real-world experience and learn about diverse areas of the law. Creating relation-ships with nonprofits and legal aid organi-zations, which are so desperately in need of manpower, is a great vehicle to get law students more hands-on experience. More internships at more law schools would go a long way to producing first-year associates with a skill set that is transferable to the real world of private practice.

Mentoring is still the norm with judicial clerkships, and the possibility of being mentored by a senior lawyer remains one of the reasons many new lawyers initially forego the financial benefits of private practice. Private practitioners can imple-ment a broad range of programming to train and mentor first-year lawyers. Some best practices are:• Establish and communicate written

protocols.The orientation process is critical. It is

during this time that new attorneys are trained in the firm’s internal case-handling protocols. Such protocols address the pro-cess of accounting for, recording and sub-mitting time; communicating with clients; communicating with supervising attorneys; and writing client status reports, among other tasks essential to ensure good busi-ness practices and important workflow tasks.

• Conduct in-house CLEs.At Kaufman Dolowich Voluck & Gonzo,

partners conduct in-house continuing legal education programs for associates. Even though actual CLE credits may not be awarded, attendance is required, and all attorneys ultimately benefit from the teach-ings of experienced practitioners. • Practice group presentations.New associates should be tasked with

explaining to their respective practice groups new legal developments or an inter-esting matter in which the firm was involved or of which the firm’s attorneys need to be aware. Through practice groups, new attor-neys are exposed to and engage in discus-sions regarding new legal developments or interesting issues with which the firm was involved.• Assign mentors.Mentoring for new associates is more

critical today than at any time in the history of the profession. Law firms that invest in formal mentoring programs for their asso-ciates are more likely to retain top talent than those that offer only financial incen-tives for such things as billable hours. Mentoring provides that real-life window into the practice of law, the ability to learn the tricks of the trade, as well as quality oversight of the legal skills needed to excel. For new attorneys, mentoring can be a critical component to finding success and happiness in the practice of law and can accelerate personal and professional growth. The results positively impact the

entire firm as productivity and collegiality increases. Mentoring should be considered a cornerstone to associate development, and to execute on this commitment, firms should implement formal mentoring poli-cies and programs. Young lawyers must recognize, however, that the most success-ful mentoring happens when they also take responsibility for making the mentoring relationship work. Young lawyers should be proactive and make themselves someone who others want to mentor — demonstrate a positive attitude and be a good listener who is receptive to criticism. • Facilitate “on-the-job” training.There is no substitute for the opportu-

nity to observe, firsthand, how the practice of law operates. Firms should initiate a skills-development program designed to incorporate practical training that most law schools simply do not provide. In addition to that training, new associates should be given the opportunity to attend deposi-tions, witness interviews, hearings and strategy meetings, even if they do not have any responsibility for that particular matter.

Training and mentoring can make sub-stantial contributions to a firm’s economic success by reducing turnover, improving integration of new attorneys into the firm and increasing the rate at which junior associates can work independently. Taking time and interest in mentoring young asso-ciates will create a positive work environ-ment where the associates know they are valued and sends the message that the firm

cares. In the end, lawyers will have greater career satisfaction, be better trained and the firm’s clients will be best served. The bottom line: Mentoring associates is simply good for business.• Possible solutions to billing pitfalls.The need to meet a firm’s billing require-

ment is the most common obstacle to a good mentoring program. One solution is to record the time an attorney spends on a learning activity that cannot be charged to a client to a nonchargeable account and at the same time attribute the time toward the attorney’s billing targets. Law firms could alternatively allocate junior attorneys a bank of hours to be used for professional training, such as sitting in on a mediation that the junior attorney would probably not be doing for several years. The time would be credited to the attorney’s billable requirements but not charged to clients. While these approaches will likely have a short-term impact on the firm’s bottom line, the learning will far outweigh the loss.

In the end, law firms cannot abdicate their responsibility and role in producing the newest generation of lawyers. While the recent recession has changed the para-digm whereby clients are no longer willing to absorb the cost of training their future outside lawyers, law firms must actively plan and work to ensure that the profession thrives as the mantle is passed to future generations. •

Mentoring continued from 3

day — the plan always changed. The biggest lesson that I took away from

this experience is that until you try some-thing, you have no idea whether you will like it or whether you will be good at it. Indeed, at the end of my summer at Saul Ewing, when it came time to rank my department choices, I had many interests, but litigation was not one of them. After spending almost a year at Arcadia, I realized that I wanted to take a second look at litiga-tion. This was just one of a number of les-sons I learned during my time there.

So, how does my experience translate into a how-to guide for first-year associ-ates? A few thoughts:

• Make sure that your department’s assigning partner is aware of what practice areas interest you.

• Reach out to partners who do the kind of work you think you might like. This will show them you are interested in what they do and they will think of you the next time a new matter comes in the door.

• Don’t be afraid to try something new and a little out of your comfort zone — you might surprise yourself.

• It is important to acknowledge early in your career as an associate that in order to be an effective advocate you will be required to learn a great deal about the business worlds in which your clients operate. This knowledge is invaluable and will probably help you on another case in the future, so dive in.

At the end of the day, much of my advice falls into the category of being your own advocate. In the back of your mind, always think about whether you are getting all of the opportunities that you need in order to become the best attorney you can. If you

are not getting those experiences, speak up and ask — no one can help you get what you want if you do not take the first steps yourself.

Joey Tsu-Yi Chen, currently an associate in the firm’s Baltimore office, served as a judicial clerk to Maryland Court of Special Appeals Judge Stuart R. Berger (then a judge on the Circuit Court for Baltimore) from 2010-11.

Now that I have nearly completed my first year at a law firm, I have come to real-ize that relationships are the key to gener-ating business. Of course, producing high-quality work and evincing professionalism are fundamental to any workplace, but in a service profession such as ours, maintaining good client relationships for business devel-opment is a no-brainer. As a first-year asso-ciate, learning how to build rapport with clients can be challenging. Nevertheless, building relationships early in one’s career is critical and need not begin with paying (or even nonpaying) clients. In fact, devel-oping this skill with other attorneys inside your firm, particularly senior attorneys, serves the dual purpose of both adding to your job satisfaction and establishing potential sources of work.

I did not begin practicing law immedi-ately after graduating law school. Rather, I chose to spend a year clerking for a state court judge, who over the course of the year presided over both civil and criminal jury trials. As an aspiring litigator, I thought, “What better way to start my career than with an insider’s perspective of the court system?” It was here that I began forging important relationships with judges and clerks of that court. My judge was my cli-ent, and the other members of the court-house, from law clerks to staff, were my colleagues. It was my job to represent and protect the interests of my client, not only

within the judiciary, but also to the legal community at large. The judge relied on me to assist him, and attorneys looked to

me as a point of contact for those cases on Apprenticeship continued from 4

Apprenticeship continues on 10


uct? Does the partner want you to pull and summarize any cases or other authorities referenced in the pleading or does he or she trust your use and application of them?

Ask questions about the partner’s pre-ferred writing style and the presentation of the document. Is a detailed case history necessary or should you cut right to the disputed issue? How vibrant should your analysis be? How should you refer to the parties — by name, as plaintiff/defendant, as something else? What type of font does he or she prefer? Should the paragraphs be justified?

Ask questions about the partner’s likes and dislikes. Does he or she have examples of good pleadings in other cases that you can review to get a better idea of what is preferred? What about examples of bad

work product that illustrate what not to do?In addition to asking questions, don’t be

afraid to answer questions that are asked of you. If a partner asks you if you have time to do something and you truly don’t, be honest with him or her. He or she will be more upset if you take on something you do not have the capacity to complete and then do not give the assignment the time and effort it requires.

3. Talk to other associates and staff members.

Perhaps the best way to get an under-standing of what a partner expects and likes is to ask those who know best: other associ-ates, secretaries, paralegals and office and billing administrators. Ask other associates for tips on the best approach to addressing the partner’s needs, such as extra things that can be done to move a case forward or bring the partner up to speed on a particu-

lar issue. Does he or she prefer status memos? Should you schedule a time for the two of you to have a conference regarding the case?

Find out how the partner does his or her own work. Talk to his or her secretary about the tone and style that the partner uses when he or she dictates pleadings and client correspondence and about consider-ations that should be given if scheduling the partner for a client meeting or court appearance. Talk to the billing administra-tor about common revisions on time entries by the partner and ways to draft favorable billing descriptions that will enhance the partner’s client bills. Other individuals who support the partner are often the best resources for figuring out what is expected of you.

4. Plan ahead. Work ahead. Inevitably, you will face the day when a

partner comes into your office on the day a pleading is required to be filed with the court with pages and pages of corrections and additions to the document you drafted. It will be much easier to make the request-ed revisions if you haven’t backed yourself into a corner with your time and you are not facing imminent deadlines on other projects. The time commitments of a law practice are like a roller coaster. There will be very busy days and there will be days with fewer balls to juggle. Take advantage of those light days. Look at your case list (see tip No. 1 above) and see what projects you can work on in advance. Start compil-ing research for a brief that may not be due for another month. Put together a prelimi-nary settlement agreement for a case close to resolution, knowing that you can fine-

Partners continued from 5

For more information and to attend, please contact:

Andre Sutton (757) 721-9020, [email protected]

Event SponsorsList of 2012 WinnersMorgan Lewis & Bockius Winner DLA Piper Finalist Cozen O’Connor Finalist

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Morgan Lewis & Bockius Winner Salmanson Goldshaw Finalist

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General Litigation- Large Firm

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Intellectual Property

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For more information and to attend, please contact:

Andre Sutton (757) 721-9020, [email protected]

Event SponsorsList of 2012 WinnersMorgan Lewis & Bockius Winner DLA Piper Finalist Cozen O’Connor Finalist

Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller WinnerMeyer Unkovic & Scott Finalist

Reed Smith Winner

Pepper Hamilton Winner

Morgan Lewis & Bockius Winner Salmanson Goldshaw Finalist

Reed Smith Winner

Marshall Dennehey Winner

Kessler Topaz Winner

General Litigation- Large Firm

General Litigation- Midsize Firm

Intellectual Property

Products Liability / Mass Torts

Labor and Employment

Insurance

Medical Malpractice

Class Action

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Partners continues on 11

the judge’s docket.Transitioning from law clerk to practitio-

ner, while the face of the client has changed, the importance of relationships has not. As a junior associate in a law firm, particularly a first-year associate, your immediate client is the higher-level associate or partner in the firm who can give you work. To culti-vate these relationships, be visible and proactive in your firm. Attending firm events and firm-sponsored events are great ways to show initiative and get to know other attorneys who could be potential sources of work for you or resources to assist your development as a lawyer.

Outside the firm, it is important to be active in your personal and professional communities, not only for work-life bal-ance but also as potential sources of busi-ness development later in your career. Bar associations, for example, provide excellent opportunities to meet and network with others in the legal community. Get involved in your community, establish your relation-ships early, and allow them to grow and bear fruit for your practice.

Just as relationships are the key to build-ing business, communication is the key to fostering good relationships. The adage that comes to mind is “knowledge is power.” In the workplace, people do not like sur-prises. The best practice is to keep your

client in the know. Start by getting a sense of how much the responsible attorney wants to be informed regarding your prog-ress on the assignment. Does your assign-ment necessitate progress “checkpoints”? Good communication can assist the super-vising attorney’s decision-making — i.e., how he or she wants to use that informa-tion for the client’s benefit. A word of cau-tion: Not all communication is good, how-ever, and it is important to exercise com-mon sense and good judgment regarding the information you decide to share and with whom you choose to share the infor-mation. As long as you are mindful of your audience, and tailor your communication accordingly, you will enhance your credi-

bility with your audience and lay founda-tions for strong relationships.

KNOW THy NEIgHBORWhile the two anecdotes above make it

clear that there is much to be learned dur-ing an internship, clerkship or other hands-on educational opportunity, they also shed light on another important lesson: Your colleagues are a rich source of advice and insight. Though you may not have worked in a judge’s chambers, the second- or third-year attorney in the office next to you may have. Draw on the collective experience of your peers whenever possible. •

Apprenticeship continued from 9


summer program and growing from the ground up. And when in 2010 we had no summer class, leading to no starting first-years in 2011, when you have that gap, all of a sudden you need to backfill to get your associate numbers and keep your balance throughout the firm,” Williams said.

Williams echoed a trend several recruit-ers have reported to The Legal in recent months — a dearth of fourth- and fifth-year associates in certain corporate prac-tices like real estate. Firms weren’t training many corporate lawyers when the market turned in 2008 and now that they are look-ing to hire mid-level corporate attorneys, there are few places to look. The junior associates who were being hired were put into litigation practices, Williams said.

“That has created a gap in training,” he said, adding firms have more senior associ-ates and no junior associates in certain practices.

“So in order to appropriately staff vari-ous matters and have lower-rate, more junior attorneys to do certain aspects of assignments, you need to continue to hire at that level and continue to train,” Williams said.

If firms don’t hire at the junior level, the alternative for clients is to pay higher rates for more senior attorneys doing the work a more junior lawyer could do for less, Williams said.

After several years of hearing that clients aren’t willing to pay for first-year associates and aren’t willing to pay for their on-the-job training — something that helped spawn Drinker Biddle’s training program — firms are apparently billing clients for the work their first-years are doing.

For the first time, The Legal asked survey respondents whether they were able to bill for first-year associate work or whether they were billing less of that work in favor of training the associates.

All of the 21 respondents said they were

able to bill for their first-year associates. Four firms — DLA Piper, Drinker Biddle, Babst Calland and Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis — also said they were billing less in favor of training junior associates.

“Clients are realizing that and accepting the fact that there are aspects of transac-tions where it’s cost-effective and makes sense for junior attorneys to work on mat-ters,” Williams said.

Saul Ewing decided to increase its start-ing salary for first-years, Williams said, because the market and competition are picking back up. While several firms reduced starting salaries during the reces-sion, the market rate has quickly rebounded and Saul Ewing wanted to stay competitive, Williams said.

Saul Ewing wasn’t the only firm that upped its first-year associate hiring. Reed Smith grew its first-year associate count in Pennsylvania from 11 associates last year to 14 this year. Even more noteworthy, how-ever, is its firmwide hiring increase from 25

first-years in 2011 to 41 in 2012. While it increased its class size, Reed Smith was the only respondent that said it was deferring associates. The firm said it was deferring “some” associates until January 2013.

Cozen O’Connor grew its Pennsylvania first-year class from nine to 12, and increased its firmwide numbers from 13 to 20 year over year.

Not every firm grew its class size, how-ever. Ballard Spahr shrunk its Pennsylvania first-year class from 14 in 2011 to five in 2012.

THE BREAKDOWNIn total, the responding firms hired 136

first-year associates across their Pennsylvania offices. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Pepper Hamilton had the larg-est class sizes in Pennsylvania, each with 16 first-years.

Of those 136 associates, about 56 percent

Hiring continued from 6

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tune the details later. Prepare a discovery request for a case even if it has been rela-tively dormant. There are always items you can tackle to enhance your productivity. Even during the busiest of times, find ways to work ahead and avoid procrastination. Take work home even if you only have one free hour in an evening. Come into the office on weekends. The more you can avoid facing last-minute crunches, the bet-ter your work product will be and the hap-pier your boss will be with you.

5. Embrace and encourage construc-tive criticism.

As bright as you might be and as hard as you might work, as a first-year attorney (and after, for that matter) there are always things you can learn from your superiors. Don’t take it personally. It’s a necessary process in career development. In addition to the feedback partners provide, do not be afraid to seek out advice and tips for improvement. Even if you receive a “great job,” follow up with the partner about what you could have done to make the document better. If the partner is too busy to provide

constructive criticism on a project-by-proj-ect basis, try to schedule a time for lunch or coffee every few months to obtain general-ized comments on things you can do to grow professionally. Your superiors will never fault you for caring too much.

The practice of law can be overwhelming in the early stages, but with a proactive approach, it is not only manageable, but incredibly worthwhile. Similarly, although balancing the workload of multiple part-ners or assigning attorneys can be intimi-dating, it will make you a better lawyer. Of the five partners in my firm, no two of them

run their practices the exact same as the other. In fact, I am sure that no two attor-neys in any firm run their practices identi-cally. As you develop and grow as a lawyer, you will develop your own approach and style for practicing law. Learn from those above you and appreciate the experience. You will acquire different skills from each of them and over time you will find what works best for you. And before you know it, you will be one of the partners sending a new associate in a different direction than your colleague right down the hall. •

Partners continued from 10

Hiring continues on 12


Firm2009 Hired / Still With Firm

Percent Retention

2010 Hired / Still With Firm

Percent Retention

2011 Hired / Still With Firm

Percent Retention

Archer & Greiner 1/1 100% 0/0 — 0/0 —

Babst Calland 1/1 100% 2/2 100% 3/3 100%

Ballard Spahr 0/0 — 15/12 80% 14/14 100%

Blank Rome 10/8 80% 5/5 100% 6/6 100%

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney 9/9 100% 5/5 100% 5/5 100%

Cozen O’Connor 9/7 78% 10/10 100% 9/9 100%

Dechert 11/10 91% 27/24 88% 11/11 100%

DLA Piper 0/0 — 2/2 100% 0/0 -

Drinker Biddle & Reath 19/16 84% 10/10 100% 11/11 100%

Duane Morris 9/7 78% 5/4 80% 5/5 100%

Fox Rothschild 6/4 67% 5/5 100% 2/2 100%

Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller

0/0 — 2/2 100% 1/1 100%

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius 9/9 100% 22/19 86% 13/11 85%

Pepper Hamilton 20/19 95% 6/6 100% 13/13 100%

Reed Smith 15/12 80% 8/8 100% 12/11 92%

Saul Ewing 4/4 100% 0/0 — 0/0 —

Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis

6/3 50% 6/4 67% 4/4 100%

Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young

9/9 100% 3/3 100% 7/6 86%

Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby

3/1 33% 3/3 100% 2/2 100%

White and Williams 6/4 67% 5/4 80% 5/5 100%

Woodcock Washburn 5/3 60% 2/1 50% 1/1 100%

RETENTION IN PENNSYLVANIA

are men and 44 percent are women. That is a big shift from the 2011 first-year class in Pennsylvania, in which 59 percent of the class were women.

Minority associate hiring has remained basically steady year over year. In 2011,

19.4 percent of the first-year class were minorities and in 2012, 19.9 percent are minorities. Of the 136 first-years in Pennsylvania, 17 are black, four are Latino, four are Asian American and two fall into another minority category.

When it comes to where these first-years matriculated, area law firms are hiring the most from the University of Pennsylvania

Law School, with 26 of the 136 first-years in Pennsylvania graduating from the uni-versity.

Temple University Beasley School of Law came in second, with 16 graduates represented among the first-year classes in Pennsylvania. That was followed by Villanova University School of Law at 15 and Rutgers University School of Law-

Camden at 13.Law schools from out of the area were

also represented among this year’s first-year associate class. Eight of the class mem-bers were from George Washington University Law School.

Gina Passarella can be contacted at 215-557-2494 or at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GPassarellaTLI. •

Hiring continued from 11

September 13, 2012Sofitel Hotel120 South 17th StreetPhiladelphia, PA

Registration and Breakfast: 7:45am – 8:30am

Program: 8:30am – 4:00pm

To Register: Logon to www.thelegalintel.com/summit or contact Diane McCollum 215-557-2335 | [email protected]

Registration Fee:$155 per registranttFive or more from one firm –Call for details

Attention All Litigators Join The Legal Intelligencer, in partnership with Furia Rubel

Marketing and Public Relations, on September 13 for our first annual Litigation Summit. This 6 credit CLE program (including ethics credit) will cover the latest trends and issues in litigation that affect your law practice. Seminar topics will include:

• What’s Hot in Litigation

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• Computer Forensics

• Judicial Panel Discussion (Ethics Credit)

• Plaintiff and Defense Use of Economic Damages Experts

• Jury Consulting

Seating is limited – REGISTER TODAY!

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First-Year Associates