The Atlanta Lawyer December/January 2020 | Page 15

IN THE PROFESSION no surprises when the reply brief, order, or appellate opinion comes. You also need to convey your conclusions with an honest assessment of your confidence in them. Over-selling your research denies your supervisor a chance to devote more resources to issues you may have spotted. Conversely, a lack of confidence in your work will lead to you getting led around by others who may well have more gusto but less knowledge. A critical assessment of the strength of your own work is vital to others and their reliance on it. As you work through a case file and research the relevant law, you will likely come to know it better than anyone else in your office. After all, you have spent the most time with it. Because you have done the detail work, challenge your boss when they have misstated something—though be sure to give them a chance to consider your objection in private. Passing notes in a hearing or deposition can be helpful. If you spot an issue but fail to voice it, you have rendered your time and research worthless. Do not let a sense of others’ authorities outweigh your well-researched conclusions. Your Non-Legal Experiences and Knowledge Are Valuable To Your Firm A partner at my firm practices what she calls “reverse stealth mentoring.” While she takes on mentees who look to her for advice on legal skills, career building, and firm life, she is also purposefully learning from them. By listening to their perspectives, hearing their issues, and observing their practices, she avoids the type of stagnation that going unchallenged for years can bring. This also shows her mentees what makes them uniquely valuable, even at the earliest stages of their careers. New attorneys may know areas of the law that have recently changed (like the new Georgia Evidence Code or the Federal Tax Code) better than a partner steeped in older ways of thinking. Clerks and associates tend to have different expectations about how technology will function in the workplace and are often aware of new tools that render time- consuming tasks more efficient. Young attorneys tend to look at documents with fresh eyes and can suggest changes to boilerplate that has been cut-and-pasted for years. (I caught a typo on my first day of a new job that may have been in dozens of previous documents). Lastly, diversity at law schools and law firms is increasing, and new associates may better relate to clients in fields that have changed faster than law. A wider array of people, experience, and perspective can change internal firm culture for the better too. As a new attorney, it is easy to quickly form an expectation that you are already hopelessly behind. The reality is that, by virtue of being new, you have a unique value. It is important to see exactly what that value is if you’re to bring it to bear. BRIAN WILSON Bodker Ramsey Andrews Winograd & Wildstein PC [email protected] www.atlantabar.org THE ATLANTA LAWYER 15