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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I am the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast, where we help you easily transition from a law school student into your professional career as an attorney, once you pass the bar and get your full attorney license, and where we make the practice of law fun.
[00:00:21] Scott Benton: And on this episode, we’re going to answer the question of What worries you about your first attorney job? What worries you about your first attorney job?
[00:00:30] Scott Benton: [00:01:00] So let’s paint the scenario here so we have a little bit of context to answer this question with. Let’s assume we’re talking about someone who’s gone through law school, they passed the bar, and now they’re looking for the first job. So they’ve been applying to job postings, and they might have even gotten a few interviews out of it.
[00:01:34] Scott Benton: Maybe this person had some summer internships or a law clerk position while they were waiting for their bar results to come in. So they have a little bit of experience at law firms or maybe they clerked for a judge or a DA. And we want to know what some of their biggest worries are about finally getting hired into their first job as an attorney.
[00:01:53] Scott Benton: In other words, what keeps them up at night? Now, one worry that will come up often has to do with [00:02:00] navigating that transition of moving out of the theory of law when you’re a student into the practice of law when you’re actually an attorney, or shifting from being that student to a professional attorney in that capacity, and it’s what this entire podcast, the Classroom 2 Courtroom Podcast, is centered around.
[00:02:18] Scott Benton: Yes, we understand that worry at the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast, and it’s exactly the problem that we’re here to solve. So if you feel like you don’t know how to move from a more passive student mindset to an active mindset, As far as practicing law is concerned, then just know that you have a lot of company.
[00:02:37] Scott Benton: In fact, that’s the space that many new attorneys bring with them when they go into their jobs for the first time. And while we’re not going to be able to tackle everything on this one episode, you can know that we’re giving you all the information you’re going to need throughout multiple episodes on Classroom 2 Courtroom.
[00:02:54] Scott Benton: before you join a law firm. In fact, we’re dedicated to giving you the [00:03:00] missing puzzle pieces that law school doesn’t teach you, but that they expect you to learn after you’ve already gotten into a law firm, after you’ve gotten into a law firm. Now, we don’t think that’s a very good plan at all for anyone, ever.
[00:03:13] Scott Benton: So we responded by putting the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast so that we can help you step with confidence into a law firm and get to work right away without spending months of time learning how to practice law and that is hopefully streamlining the legal services you provide, which is making your to do list, performing the legal services, billing your clients, and getting paid, and then going back to the to do list and starting all over again. Now, if you have no other sources of information, hopefully this podcast will diminish many of the fears that you’re bringing with you into your new attorney career.
[00:03:47] Scott Benton: Another worry that tends to come up frequently, and this depends on the specific practice area you’re going to find yourself working in, is understanding the litigation process, which could include filing motions or hitting [00:04:00] deadlines, even knowing and being aware that there are deadlines. Knowing the rules of the court and how the discovery process works.
[00:04:07] Scott Benton: There’s going to be many areas along the legal landscape that you don’t necessarily learn on a granular level in any law school class that you are going to now need to know. So theory is one thing, the classroom. Practical experience in actually doing those tasks is quite another thing altogether, and it’s an important skill for you to develop.
[00:04:27] Scott Benton: Now some of these tasks are going to be difficult to get ahead of since topics like courtroom rules can actually be quite complex. Fairly different from county to county or from courthouse to courthouse, in which case the more you interact with a particular courthouse, the easier it’s simply going to get.
[00:04:43] Scott Benton: So there is a time value that goes on here and an experience value. There’s also some good news, which is that there are going to be people working in your law firm who do know the rules for all of these different courts. And those people are going to be usually other attorneys or paralegals or maybe people who are on the [00:05:00] records team that do some of this work.
[00:05:03] Scott Benton: And remember that the staff, they are there to support the attorneys. So one of the things you’re going to want to do is make sure that you’re building relationships with everyone at the firm. Now this is something that we talk about a lot, building relationships and the value of building relationships.
[00:05:18] Scott Benton: And doing that with the clients that you work with, being able to develop a relationship. Instant rapport, getting to a point where you can just connect with people right away, but honestly, you want to do that with everyone in the law firm, not just your clients. In fact, that’s the entire key and all of it, it’s going to take a little effort for you to do it, but it’s going to make 100 percent difference in terms of you being able to get up to speed as an attorney in your first position right away or second.
[00:05:43] Scott Benton: Let’s say you leave one law firm and you go to another law firm, then these are the same ideas that you’re going to want to apply, even if you’ve been working as an attorney, let’s say, for a couple of years. You want to do the exact same thing. Now, if you keep yourself in a vacuum all day long in your office and you never interact with anybody, then you’re going to [00:06:00] have a much more difficult time getting up to speed when it comes to activities like filings and learning court procedures and processes.
[00:06:06] Scott Benton: The best practice for you to get into that mitigates these types of fears is solved simply with basic person to person communication and just simple, just human bonding. Now there are many other worries that tend to come up when you seek out your first job as an attorney.
[00:06:25] Scott Benton: Some people have families and bills that they’re responsible for. So there can often be financial obligations that’s causing stress. Other attorneys can be worried about getting a job when they lack any experience to actually do that job. Maybe they didn’t perform any of these activities when they were Interns or law clerks are doing summer associate jobs.
[00:06:47] Scott Benton: So this comes down to a mindset shift because you’re going to have to ruthlessly abandon your experience as a law school student, which tends to be more passive in nature, and you’re going to have to turn on those fully [00:07:00] proactive and participatory afterburners to get up to speed. You have to become active.
[00:07:06] Scott Benton: So you want to abandon your law school experience because that’s passive. You want to put that behind you and you want to move forward in an active mindset and frame of mind. And you probably know that all jobs take time to settle into, which is natural. And it’s a normal part of the process. Your job in this case is to figure out how to do that as quickly as possible.
[00:07:30] Scott Benton: So I hope that’s helpful information. I’m beginning to take a closer look about some of the areas of worry that new attorneys tend to experience as they look for their first job. Now, there’s going to be many, there’s all sorts of concerns and worry, and this list is not exhausted by any stretch of the imagination, but I hope you can see that the worries that you have, any of them, whether the ones we talked about or others, They’re also shared by all of the other new attorneys that are looking for work.
[00:07:57] Scott Benton: And each one, each [00:08:00] problem, each concern, each worry, everything that you’re stressed about, it has a solution that you can exercise. So maybe that will help you not bring in so much anxiety or worry or stress into your job search as a new attorney. I am Scott Betton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast.
[00:08:18] Scott Benton: Thank you so much for listening to this episode and tuning in. Now, if you like this material and you’d like to receive an alert every time we put out a new episode, you can go to our website. Our website is classroom two courtroom.com. That’s classroom the number two, courtroom.com. You can leave us your contact information, we’ll send you out an alert whenever we put out a new episode.
[00:08:36] Scott Benton: And if you’re finding this to be valuable information, don’t forget to share, and subscribe. That will also help you stay on top of all of our new episodes. And until next time, we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time. Thank you so much.
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