Assignments
You are asked to help draft a motion, but after some initial research, you realize you do not agree with the legal strategy. How do you raise this concern, and to whom?
Discuss your findings to the supervising attorney and ask them how they would like to proceed.
You are walking around the office to meet lawyers in a practice group you are interested in. As you walk by, you notice everyone's doors are closed. What can you do?
You can listen to see if the lawyer is in a meeting and, if not, knock on their doors to see if they are available to chat.
You have several receipts from the Summer Associate Academy that you want to submit for reimbursement. You could try to do it yourself, but you are unfamiliar with the process and know it would take you a long time to do. What can you do?
Reach out to your assistant group for help as they know exactly what to do and are eager to help.
You are invited to a social event that sounds like something you do not have much interest in. What do you do?
You go if you are able to! Social events are optional, but attendance is preferred as these are opportunities to network. We want you to be present and want to get to know you.
You have an assignment due in two days and you realize with all of the events scheduled on those days, you will not finish it in time. What do you do?
Communicate with the assigning attorney your concerns as soon as possible.
You submit an assignment and the reviewing attorney says that while your analysis was strong, your conclusion was wrong. You find this review to be vague. What do you do?
Accept the feedback and ask for clarification or specific examples.
You have lunch scheduled with an associate, but that associate has to reschedule at the last minute. What do you do?
Ask can ask other associates if they would like to go or ask your fellow summers if you can join them. Either way, you should make an effort to use lunches as a way to get to know people at the firm.
You had a busy day and forgot to submit your time. What do you do?
Submit your time the next morning. You should be recording your time and activities throughout the day so that you can accurately enter your time. There are several reasons why you should not wait too long to enter your time.
You have had a few drinks at an event and you start to feel tipsy but the event is not over. What do you do?
Monitor your behavior and don't get out of control. At this point it is probably a good idea to start drinking water or, if you are no longer feeling well, you can leave the event.
You are on your way to work and you get a flat tire. What do you do?
Communicate with those that you are working with about the situation
You are asked to summarize a contract for a deal. You decide to use the firm's AI tool, Harvey, to help. Once you get the summary from Harvey, what do you do?
You review the summary and fact check it before submitting it as work product.
It is the middle of the summer program and you have no assignments. You have reached out to your work assignor, but no new work has come in yet. What do you do?
Reach out to people you have not had a chance to speak to or work with and see if they could use help or have meetings you could sit in on.
You were tracking your time with the timers and you forgot to turn your timers off before switching assignments or going to an event/meeting. What can you do?
You can look through chats or emails to see when you were working on a tasks. Look at your calendar to add time for any events/meetings, make your best estimates, and supplement the remaining time with PPA until you hit 7.5 hours.
You have a few assignments that will be due around the same time. You receive another assignment and start to feel overwhelmed, but you do not want to say no. What do you do?
You let your work assignor know what projects you are working on, when those projects are due, and how long you have been working on them. Let your work assignor assess whether you can handle another project.