Your relationships with your classmates are almost as important as your reputation. Years from now, you`ll laugh with them about how you spent your first year together dying of fear. your second, who works until death; and your third, bored to death. This camaraderie with your classmates is extremely valuable in itself. Spend time with classmates you love. Let your relationships grow naturally. Enjoy. There`s no point in spending time with people you don`t share affinities with, and besides, life is too short to do so. As a side effect, you`ll find that your law school friends form a valuable professional network once you become a practicing lawyer. A lawyer`s reputation is his most valuable asset.
Fortunately, the keys to developing a good reputation are simple: do the job and act with integrity. While it would be nice if we could all be superstars, you don`t have to be the brightest in the class or have the top marks to have a good reputation. Regardless of your grades, you will earn respect if you diligently prepare for the course (or study group) and behave honestly and ethically inside and outside the classroom. I thought it was a one-time exchange, but later in my career I met another lawyer who was working on this massive case that my former firm had been working on. This lawyer also asked me if I worked with this senior partner from my former law firm. I said I did, and this other lawyer started discussing how my former boss had pulled out of a deal to share experts, and that left a group of lawyers and their clients holding the bag. I couldn`t believe these lawyers were still talking about something my former boss had done years earlier, but his reputation had taken a big hit and people remembered the situation years later. Maintaining these relationships during law school is usually easy. Classes and extracurricular engagements often provide opportunities for other students to interact with each other. However, once you start practicing law, it takes more effort to maintain these relationships due to competing demands on your time, such as work or family commitments. As your legal career progresses, make it a habit to occasionally contact your law school friends. Social media like Facebook or LinkedIn are great ways to stay in touch and up to date.
For friends who practice in other cities, you should meet them for coffee or a drink when you are in their cities. It`s as much about enjoying a balanced life with your friends as it is about business. Your first year is just the first step in a career that will hopefully span several decades. As one of the co-authors can attest, nearly 25 years after his first year in law school, he is still in touch with many of his classmates (especially the one he married). He has often referred questions to his classmates whom he respects, and he is always looking for ways to work with them. In fact, one of his 1L law partners is now his legal partner and one of the main reasons he moved to his current firm. Another classmate is sometimes his opposing lawyer and their relationship benefits both clients. Others are in-house in companies that have become customers or have been excellent sources of reference.
Although his connections with these individuals have grown and developed over the years, they began when, as a law student, he took the first important steps in developing his reputation and relationships. This is reflected in a recent Gallup poll that measured public opinion on the honesty and integrity of various professions. According to respondents, lawyers fall somewhere in between, more trustworthy than politicians, car salespeople, advertisers and executives. They lag behind nurses, doctors, teachers and engineers, among others. While journalists have been perceived as highly unethical by some and highly unethical by others, lawyers are right in the middle, with most respondents believing lawyers to be of average integrity. Separation is difficult to do: in order to sever relations with Ye, legal hurdles must be overcome for companies that have not thought about their termination options. Lawyers have been the target of hate and jokes as long as there is a legal profession; It`s not going to end anytime soon. However, it appears that lawyers are viewed more favourably, even though Chief Justice John Roberts warned last year that „we take democracy for granted and political education has fallen by the wayside.” This may be one of the reasons for the improved vision of lawyers: despite our old reputation, the role of lawyers in a healthy society is crucial. While the title of this blog is a bit sardonic, it`s really good to see a renewed appreciation for the good ethical work of many lawyers. Lawyers have always had a mixed reputation. For every popular portrayal of a lawyer as a crusader for justice, there is another who is willing to lie, cheat and steal for money. Every assault lawyer is called an ambulance hunter at least once.
Defense lawyers will describe themselves as a twisted variation. Yet most people injured in an accident or prosecuted trust their lawyer to guide them and behave ethically. The first year of law can consume everything. The 1Ls have their hands full just to survive their studies, and business development is probably far from their minds – as it should be. The first year of law school is not the time to worry about marketing or business development for a potential law firm. The energies of a 1Lâ are best spent learning, for example, how to break down a court sentence or distinguish mens rea for murder from mens rea for manslaughter. Nevertheless, we advise 1Ls to be aware that from the earliest stages of your legal education, you are laying the foundation for two of the most important aspects of business development: reputation and relationships. While no lawyer is satisfied with the average, it is an achievement for lawyers. In 2018, the same Gallup poll found that 18% of respondents consider lawyers to be ethical. In 2020, it rose to 22%. In 2013, a 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center found that one-third of all respondents felt that lawyers contributed little or nothing to society, the least respected profession at the time. So it`s getting better.
Lawyers use their reputation for a variety of reasons throughout their careers. Lawyers usually change jobs several times, and they can rely on their reputation and what people say about them to move forward in the employment process. In addition, lawyers often use their reputation to obtain referrals from other lawyers, as lawyers usually only refer cases to other lawyers they can trust, as referral can affect the referring lawyer. Lawyers may also need another lawyer to vouch for them if they apply for admission to a new bar or some sort of authorization within the legal profession. An employee has a reputation for telling partners that some employees were busier than they actually were, which allowed him to obtain assignments through other lawyers. In addition, it was believed that this lawyer had abandoned some of the non-billable business development projects that employees were required to carry out from time to time in this firm. I heard that this employee`s reputation was reflected in that employee`s new office, probably because the legal community is quite small and the people in the new firm knew lawyers in the area where we worked. Develop a sense of self-awareness to determine if you`re on the right track.
Are you the kind of person your classmates want in their study group? Or do they avoid group projects with you? Are you ready for your lessons? Or do you come without having studied the material and try to inspire it? Are you doing your own work? Or do you recycle other people`s work so you don`t have to struggle with the material? Do you make lifestyle choices outside the classroom that might give your classmates reason to doubt that they can trust you professionally? Try to answer these questions honestly. They will help you identify areas for self-improvement. Don`t be put off by the inevitable missteps you make along the way. You started building your professional reputation from day one of law school, but every day you have a new opportunity to improve it.