By Wesley R. Payne IV
As fall begins, we will welcome the latest group of newly-minted attorneys into our community. While law schools and other educational institutions provide instruction and experiences that are crucial to becoming an effective and successful attorney, there are also many lessons that you can only learn once you’ve started to do the job.
Here are some of the lessons that, if I could go back in time, I would impart to my younger self:
You will never have as much time to get things done as you did in law school. While you might have 60 hours to write a brief while in school, but the pace of professional practice is much faster. You need to be able to respond quickly and to organize your time in such a way that you’re keeping cases moving.
You also need to keep track of that time so you can keep your supervisors and your clients informed. Perhaps more importantly, you have to learn how to communicate with people at different levels of an organization and from different backgrounds and perspectives. For clients, you need to be able to break down the legal process and the tasks you are doing on their behalf in a way that they can understand, so they will give you their approval to do what you need to do to hopefully reach a successful outcome.
You must aim to have civil and productive inter- actions with opposing counsel and with the judiciary. While you will always want to do all that you can to advocate for your client, it’s possible to do so while still maintaining your civility. The legal profession is a small world, and doing this today will reap myriad benefits down the road because you will almost definitely encounter the same attorneys and the same judges numerous times during your career – and they will remember those first impressions.
Networking and marketing yourself is crucial to building your practice. That’s one reason why Bar Association involvement is so important. You will meet legal professionals from all parts of our community, and develop an extensive contact list who you can turn to for help or support, for referrals for career and leadership opportunities, and also make friends for life.
You spent three years in law school learning to think like a lawyer. These next few years and also get critical experience that will help you you’re passionate about, and what kind of opportunities you want to pursue in your long-term career. The Bar Association views young attorneys as the future leaders of our community and of our organization – this is an exciting time, because we all benefit from the power of your voice.
Wesley R. Payne IV is 2022 Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association.
