Nothing annoys me more than the retail market’s transition from Halloween to Christmas. Because Thanksgiving is not a moneymaker, most retail establishments bypass the need to be thankful for what we have and focus on the things that we need. We will celebrate Thanksgiving and follow it with a day (or late night) of Black Friday shopping for things that we do not need.

But Thanksgiving has always been one my favorite holidays because it is a time of reflection. The following is my attorney’s thankful list:

1.  Clients – I am thankful for my clients and the work that I perform on their behalf. They are confident in my abilities to ensure they are properly represented and for my zealous representation of their interests. Clients and their attorneys are a team, working together toward a proper resolution of a problem.

2. Late nights and working weekends – More work gets done at night and weekends when others are not around.  Working late at night and on weekends is not ideal (I would rather be relaxing or with my family) but it is a great time to get organized and ready for a trial, hearing or upcoming meeting. It also means that I am busy, and busy is good. It’s better than the alternative.

3. Pleading Causes of Action – I love this book. A must for any litigator.

4. Google – The best and sometimes the most efficient legal resource. It provides a quick starting point for legal research, which in turn makes my search criteria for Lexis Nexus or WestLaw more specific.

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What do clients want in their lawyers? What do partners look for in associates? How do young associates make a name for themselves at big firms? I put these questions to some of my mentors who happened to be partners at three large firms: Saul Ewing, McGuireWoods and WilmerHale. Here are their thoughts on what it takes to be a successful associate at their firms.

What do clients want in their lawyers? Clients typically want three things from lawyers: First, they want to know that you can solve their problems – that you have the know-how and skill-sets to bring to the table on whatever issue or issues they face. Second, they want you to pick up the phone when they call and respond to their emails in a timely manner. Third, they want reasonable estimates as to the costs of your services.

What do partners want in their associates? “Just treat me like I’m a client,” one partner told me. Associates at law firms are assessed by their aptitude for navigating the often intellectually challenging rigors of firm practice, communicating promptly and effectively with partners and managing partner expectations by making accurate projections about the amount of time (and money) a particular project will take. Young associates should approach their relationship with a supervising partner as if he or she is the client.

How do young associates become successful at big firms? Successful associates are the ones who have managed to earn the confidence of the firm’s partners. This means the partners know they can leave you alone with a client or put you before a judge and not worry about how you will perform. Building this level of confidence takes time. However, increasing your exposure within the firm and having a grasp of the firm’s business model are invaluable steps in this process:

• Do not be afraid – in fact, seek out opportunities – to take work from different partners. By working with as many partners as possible, even across practice groups, more partners will know you to be someone they can count on for quality work product.

• Take leadership positions where available within the firm. Your involvement with firm management activities both sends a message that you are invested in the firm’s success and direction and allows you to build important skills that will distinguish you.

• Learn as much as possible about the firm’s financial and marketing models. A lucid understanding of how the firm earns revenues and markets itself to potential clients is not only important information for any young associate who seeks to advance within the firm’s ranks to have but also informs how you should approach assignments.

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After all my jabs recently regarding the challenges facing legal education, the American Bar Association has decided to try and discuss these issues at length via committee. The ABA launched the 18-member Task Force on the Future of Legal Education to spend two years examining the changes roiling the law profession and legal education, focusing on how well law schools are meeting the needs of the profession.

This is not the first task force to scrutinize the growing problems in our field. While the ABA’s committee will analyze the legal education more than some of the other earlier committees, task forces within the New York State Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association both convened in 2011 to discuss the training and education of new lawyers, law firm structure and billing, technology and work-life balance, as well as turning a special eye to job opportunities for new lawyers and law graduate unemployment.

In April, the NYSBA issued a 120-page report with its findings. In May, the 14-member panel of the MBA recommended an increase in mentoring for young attorneys and law students, the addition of law school-funded clerk positions within the state trial court system, establishment of post-graduate clinics and law school-controlled teaching firms.

Other state bar associations have recognized the problems facing young attorneys through committee discussions. While these efforts have identified problems, no dramatic changes in career development have resulted. I have heard and read about many crises within the legal profession and the operation of law firms but I have seen no substantial changes being made so far.

What changes do you think need to be made? What needs to happen before changes are actually made? What problems have you directly faced because changes have not been made?

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I was in Philadelphia on Thursday (for a lovely event at the new Barnes location hosted by my firm’s Women’s Development Initiative, among other things) and happened to run into Sheri, the firm’s director of career development.

Of all things, we started talking about my blogging.

I was flattered to hear my blogging had been used as an example — thankfully a “how-to,” not a “how-not-to” example — during a presentation at the Professional Development Consortium’s Summer Conference that addressed how to develop a professional presence in the physical and virtual worlds.

We discussed the fact there are concerns social media is encouraging people, including young lawyers, to spend more time online and less time interacting face-to-face when it should be more properly used as a tool for “extension and enrichment of what happens when people are physically present.”

My personal theory on social media has always been that it is a powerful way to help others “get to know you” before you ever meet them.

In fact, I talked about just that at this year’s Maryland State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting.

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You’ve probably seen the ABA summary of Anne-Marie Slaughter’s Atlantic article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.”

Slaughter raises a lot of good points related to the classic work-life balance struggle.  Points that deserve a great deal of debate. And in that vein, Slaughter will be online to answer questions about her article next Friday, June 29; you can submit questions or comments in advance here.

While I saw Slaughter’s article this morning, I didn’t actually plan to write about it.

But then I went to lunch. I had lunch with two lovely ladies. They are both also very hard-working professionals. They are also both moms of young children.

So we talked about our kids. We talked about where they are going to school next year. We talked about how busy we were at work, and where we were taking the kids on vacation.

But we also talked about work. And we talked about how we could use our positions, our individual professional connections, and our relationships with one another to help us each succeed in our respective professions. And we came up with a plan of action.

The three of us would never have connected with one another without our kids, or without the help of an event sponsored by the firm’s Women’s Development Initiative.

As I walked back to my office, I couldn’t help but think back to Slaughter’s article. The premise of Slaughter’s article seemed to be that it isn’t truly possible to “have it all,” and encouraged women to incite a cultural change; to develop a society that better accommodates a variety of choices.

But what about right now? Yes, we lawyer moms have to make some tough decisions. So do lawyer dads. And so do lawyers’ spouses. But no matter how much society’s expectations change, we will always have to make tough decisions. The legal profession will always demand long, unpredictable hours.  We knew that when we signed up.

But today’s lunch reminded me that we are already in the midst of an exciting time. There is already an open dialogue about how to make this work-life juggle work. We just need to help direct it, and make it work for us.

(Image: Phillip Toledano, The Atlantic)

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Over the last three years, I have had the incredible opportunity to work at Bodie with Thomas J. Dolina, who, in my opinion, is perhaps one of the most skilled, articulate litigators that I have observed. Tom has certainly mastered his craft.

These may merely seem like the words of a young associate who admires her supervising attorney. But I sat in court almost daily when I clerked for Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge H. Patrick Stringer Jr. My department litigates; that is all we do. So, when I say that Tom is one of the best, I make this observation having watched, worked with and worked against quite a few litigators.

While I have brought in some cases on my own, I have primarily worked with Tom on his cases and in his department. From Tom, I have learned to do almost everything in the litigation process: drafting a complaint or answer, drafting and responding to written discovery, taking depositions, attending mediation sessions, filing, opposing and arguing motions and, ultimately, trying cases. I have even had the opportunity to do some appellate work.

But, three years in now, who am I and who will I be? Will I follow in Tom’s path exactly or will I forge my own?

While I have asked myself those questions, I never gave them much pause. I simply accepted that I would continue to work in whatever capacity that Bodie needed me.

Then I walked into an early morning marketing meeting today with some of the attorneys in my firm.

“Sarah, where do you see your career going?” they asked. “What kind of attorney do you want to be?” Read the rest of this entry »

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