CBA Record March-April 2023

YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION: ADVICE FOR YOUNG LAWYERS

How to Be a Better Associate: Minimizing Stress (on Yourself and Others) By Brian M. Bentrup J oining a law firm as an associate is exciting and stressful. On one hand, associates get to roll up their sleeves, stage of your career: you will try the best you can, you will likely not produce a fully polished work product the first time, and you will continuously improve.

neither. This path is professional and will lead to reduced stress, anxiety, and worry, but you must fully embrace it. I learned to embrace the mantra of “don’t worry about things you can’t control” because what a partner did with my assignment and whether they provided feedback, cri tiques, or (not so) constructive criticism, was simply out of my control. Letting go was hard, but it was certainly not a way to excuse myself from work product accountability. I still wanted to return assignments with the best possible product. However, I did stop fixating on projects once they were turned in and out of my hands. This mindset requires you to be invested but to redirect your focus to the next task to maximize your productivity, avoid unnec essary distractions, and stop agonizing over things outside of your control. The ability to let go arises from neither apathy nor a lack of personal investment, but instead from a desire for mental health sustainability and inner peace given the way law firms operate. To maximize prof its and salaries, law firms are structured in a certain way. Rainmaker attorneys bring in clients and then delegate all or part of their cases to the lowest applicable billing rate. Associates receive work because their

take the initial crack at legal research, and be the first to untangle the facts of com plex projects. On the other, associates are expected to know their role, quickly climb the learning curve, and meet a range of expectations from clients to colleagues. Given associates’ many responsibilities, below are some tips for young attorneys entering that role. It is my hope that they will help you minimize stress not only on yourself, but also on your colleagues and clients. Adjust Work Product Expectations During my early years in practice, part ners assigned projects, and I continued to worry about them even after I had submitted them. After I graduated from law school, I started as an associate, and I wanted to produce a work product simi lar to that produced by attorneys with 20 years of practice experience. At that time, I failed to recognize that the quality of work I wanted to produce was not what partners expected when they assigned projects. Instead of setting unrealistic standards, I suggest adjusting your work product expectations to reflect this initial

Avoid Constant Partner Follow-Ups and Let Go of the Uncontrollable I spent countless hours soliciting feed back. I constantly followed up whenever I did not get a response within a week of submitting an assignment. Why? I thought I needed to know what the revi sions were. I needed to know whether the client had any feedback. I needed to know that the matter was done, and no further tasks existed. Some mistook this habit for ambition when in reality it was a persis tent, perverse habit that took several years to break. Partners do not want (or need) inces sant follow-ups because they are simply too busy. Not only are these types of follow-ups a veiled commentary on a partner’s ability to manage time, files, and people, but they are also unnecessary because they reduce a partner’s time to work on existing matters and network to bring in new clients. Ultimately, I resolved to simply let go. If that sounds overly reductionist and a shade unprofessional, I assure you that it is

28 March/April 2023