Tips for Career Development in Law

Law school taught me the law. But building a career? That’s a different story. Many years ago, I walked into my first day as a lawyer, armed with my 2nd Upper Degree, thinking I was ready. I WAS NOT. Here are 12 lessons I learnt the hard way: (I wish someone had shared with me before I started) 1️⃣ It’s Okay to Ask for Help Pretending to know everything? Rookie mistake. Ask questions. Get clarity. Even top-tier lawyers do. 2️⃣ Networking > Billable Hours Winning cases builds a reputation, but relationships build careers. That partner you avoid at events? Talk to them. 3️⃣ Reputation Is Currency Every email. Every call. They all shape how people see you. Guard your reputation like it’s your most valuable client. 4️⃣ Billing ≠ Just Hours Worked It’s not about grinding for numbers—it’s about delivering value. (And yes, padding your billables will get you noticed—for all the wrong reasons.) 5️⃣ Clients Crave More Than Advice They want trust, empathy, and someone who listens. Legal skills matter, but human connection wins clients for life. 6️⃣ The Best Lawyers Never Stop Evolving The law changes, and so should you. Stay curious. Stay sharp. Stay ahead. 7️⃣ Mentors = Secret Weapons Find someone who’s been where you want to go. The right mentor will save you years of trial and error. 8️⃣ Burnout Is the Silent Killer The late nights will come, but don’t make them your norm. Protect your energy—because no case is worth your health. 9️⃣ Pick Your Battles Not every fight is worth the courtroom. Strategic restraint is a superpower. 🔟 Mistakes Are Inevitable Here’s the secret: It’s not about never failing—it’s about how you bounce back. Own it, learn from it, and keep moving. 1️⃣1️⃣ It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint You don��t need to win every deal or impress every partner. Pacing yourself is how you last in this game. 1️⃣2️⃣ Never Lose Sight of Your WHY When the grind feels endless (and it will), your WHY will keep you grounded. Don’t let go of it—it’s your anchor. Law school taught you the law. But no one taught you how to build a career in it. Lawyers reading this, did I miss anything? What else would you add to my list? --- Repost this♻️ to help the juniors out there! ➕ Follow Shulin Lee for more. P.S. To the trainees starting out: It’s okay to feel scared. P.P.S. The partners you’re intimidated by? They were once where you are. Everyone starts somewhere. You've got this!

As a junior associate, if I want to level up my legal career and start building a book of business in 2026, this is the sustainable, realistic approach that fits alongside a full workload and prioritizes becoming an excellent lawyer first. 1) Treat relationships as part of client service. I calendar them. One coffee or lunch every two weeks with someone I work with or want to learn from. One follow-up or thank-you note each Friday. One thoughtful LinkedIn comment a day on legal or industry content. Strong practices are built on trust. Consistency beats intensity. 2) Pick a lane before I feel ready. Not forever. Just for now. I want people to know what I am building expertise in and what types of questions they can bring to me. I reinforce that through the matters I take on, the skills I develop, and the topics I engage with publicly. 3) Be intentional with warm, specific outreach. No mass messages. No vague check-ins. I reach out when there is a real professional reason after working together after an event, article, or case after a role change and I am clear about why I am reaching out and how it connects to our work. 4) Turn everyday legal work into quiet visibility. When I learn something useful about case law, prosecution strategy, or industry trends, I share it. A short post. A comment. A conversation in the office. The goal is not self-promotion. It is knowledge-sharing and credibility. 5) Invest early in mentors and sponsors. I am thoughtful about who I ask, prepared when I show up, and deliberate in my follow-through. I focus on long-term relationships built around growth, feedback, and doing excellent work. None of this requires being the loudest person in the room. It requires showing up consistently while I am still learning and honing my legal skills. This approach has helped me stay focused on becoming a stronger lawyer while building relationships that compound over time. It is not flashy. It is deliberate. And it has served me well so far.

Many new associates will begin their careers at law firms this month. Having run a law firm over the past 16 years, I’ve learned what makes an associate stand out and excel. Here's how it's done: 1. Write concise emails A partner does not want to read a long email analyzing a particular question or issue. The partner does not have time to read and understand it. Your job is to take the issue at hand and distill it into a few bullet points that can be easily understood. 2. Know what you don't know. Feel free to admit it and ask good questions Partners expect that you need to learn. It is a lot easier to be around a humble associate who asks good questions than someone who thinks they know everything and constantly makes mistakes. 3. Always be improving It is noticeable to a partner when you make improvements. It doesn't matter whether your writing advances, you develop your research skills or you just get better at fielding and answering questions. If you make it a mission to learn and improve every day, it will get noticed. 4. Make a partner's life easier When a client sends a long email, if you can summarize it for the partner and even draft an initial response, you've just made their life 10x easier that day. If your draft responses become the actual responses the partner sends, you become irreplaceable. 5. Develop a good bedside manner If people like you and feel comfortable working with you, a partner will trust you to work directly with a client. If you are cold or off-putting you might be kept far away from direct client interaction. 6. Communicate with partners about the turnaround time for your work You might receive work requests from multiple different partners. Make sure you communicate and ask when something needs to be returned. This way here you are meeting the expectations of the partner (who is your biggest client btw). 7. Don't take advantage of work-from-home policies If you are lucky enough to be working remotely, make sure you are working just as hard as you would in the office. You should also always be available to partners during working hours. If you take advantage of the system, people will know. It will affect your career significantly. 8. Be a hard worker and work long hours Yes, I know..."hustle culture" is not cool these days. But, hard work never goes out of style. Partners notice who is working hard and who is on cruise control. This will affect your ability to be promoted and even keep your job. ============= Are there any tips you would add to my list? #attorneys #lawyers #legalcareers

Here's one of my favorite pieces of career advice: take actions that create more options. Having options means having greater autonomy. Something I wish I learned sooner is that sometimes you have plant seeds way in advance of when those seeds will actually bloom into options. I often discuss this principle with junior lawyers, when the question "When do I need to start focusing on business development?" comes up. My answer: Sooner than you might think, perhaps not for the reasons you think, and likely not in the way that you think. When: now Why: creating options How: building relationships internally, especially if you're at a midsize to large firm As a junior lawyer at a midsize to large law firm, you won't be originating work. But that doesn't mean you can't make a positive contribution for your firm—and create more options for yourself. Some of the long-term opportunities that may arise when you build strong relationships with colleagues, across offices and practice groups, include: - Getting brought in by your colleagues to help pitch and win new matters. - Generating referral work from lawyers you currently work with who move on to other firms. - Generating client work directly from those who move in-house. - Inheriting clients from other lawyers when they retire, move in-house, or otherwise transition out of the firm. These things won't happen overnight. But they won't happen at all if you don't start building strong relationships now. Here are some tangible steps you can take to position yourself for future success: 1. Rethink your value proposition. You're an important member of the team, not a worker bee. Even as a first-year lawyer, you can make a valuable contribution. 2. Make yourself visible. Be an active networker within your firm, especially with those in other offices and practice groups. Showcase your communication and leadership skills through internal presentations, writing for internal and external publications and participating in firm committees. 3. Take ownership. From client work product to internal firm initiatives, adopt an ownership mindset for every task you take on. If you hope to make partner at your firm some day, it’s never too early to start acting like one. Even if you're not interested in making partner, this mindset will serve you well in any endeavor you pursue. 4. Be proactive. Look for opportunities to contribute. Bring ideas to the table. Show enthusiasm. 5. Be a sponge. Pay attention to the habits and practices of the high achievers in your firm. The path to success has been marked by trailblazers who came before you. Follow their lead. If you're a junior lawyer, taking these steps will go a long way toward helping you succeed in both the practice and business of law, and create more options for you—from advancement in your firm to capitalizing on other career opportunities—in the future.

Advice for “minders” and “grinders” from a partner who has served all roles and survived 25 years in BigLaw, in-house, and back again: Not everyone in a firm is a “finder.” Some lawyers are minders, the managers who guide matters and keep clients calm. Others are grinders, the doers who research, draft, and carry the load no one else wants. Without them, nothing gets filed, closed, or argued. Yet if you do not originate work, the path to fulfillment requires clarity, boundaries, and a different definition of success. ⸻ 1. Own Your Role Without Apology Minders and grinders are not second-class. Finders may bring clients in, but minders keep them, and grinders ensure the work stands. Clients often forget who pitched them but never forget who delivered. If you consistently produce, people rely on you. That is leverage. Pro tip: when you make colleagues and clients look good, your value multiplies. ⸻ 2. Protect Your Sanity Minders wrestle with shifting demands and politics. Grinders battle deadlines and invisible hours. Both risk burnout. Guard your time. Rest. Push back when needed. You do not earn respect by breaking down. You only guarantee more work without credit. ⸻ 3. Build Influence Without Origination You may not control the client list, but you can control reputation. • Minders: become the lawyer who sees problems early and solves them. • Grinders: master a niche skill so you are the go-to person. Do not vanish behind the work. Share insights. Teach juniors. Offer to present. Visibility is power even inside the firm. ⸻ 4. Play Politics Intentionally Firms reward rainmakers, but they also reward lawyers who protect rainmakers. If you want influence, you cannot only be tactical. Volunteer for pitches. Ask to join client updates. Position yourself as someone who understands business goals, not just assignments. When leadership sees you as strategic, your career opens up. ⸻ 5. Redefine Success Beyond Origination If you measure only against finders, you will feel small. Instead: • Minders: take pride in being the trusted hand that keeps clients loyal. • Grinders: take pride in precision. Cases collapse on details, not visions. Plenty of lawyers build respected, well-paid, and stable careers as minders and grinders. Equity is not the only win. Expertise, influence, and fulfillment count just as much. ⸻ Bottom Line Not every lawyer will be a finder. That is fine. But if you are a minder or grinder, success comes from valuing your contribution, guarding your mental health, earning visibility, and defining your own scoreboard. Do that with intention and law becomes not just survivable, but sustainable, rewarding, and even extraordinary. #LawFirmLife #YoungLawyers #AttorneyAdvice #LegalCareer #LawFirmPolitics #BrownRudnick #BigLaw

Have you ever found yourself constantly racing against time, feeling like there's never enough of it no matter how fast you work? I've been there too. In my four decades as a trial lawyer, I discovered something counterintuitive that completely transformed my practice: success in law isn't about working faster or harder but mastering the art of patience. When I was managing partner at my firm, I looked successful on paper. But behind the scenes? I was drowning. Every victory felt hollow because I was already worried about the next case. My mind was always racing to the future, never present in the moment. This pressure cooker environment is all too common. Courts have their deadlines. Clients have their emergencies. Partners have their expectations. Then there's the internal pressure—the constant worry about missing something crucial, the fear that opposing counsel might outmaneuver you, the nagging feeling that you should be working even when you're with your family. In my latest episode 297 of The Free Lawyer, I share four practical strategies that transformed my approach to practicing law: 1. The Long-Term Perspective Framework Start each week with a "5-5-5" review: Where do you want to be in 5 months? In 5 years? What 5 steps can you take this week toward those goals? This helps you make decisions with your long-term vision in mind. 2. Daily Centering Practices Implement structured routines like morning priority setting (reviewing your top 3 priorities) and the Response Delay Protocol (categorizing communications as true emergencies, urgent matters, standard communications, or strategic decisions—and responding accordingly). 3. The Client Communication Matrix Transform one of your biggest pressure points by proactively setting expectations with clients from day one. Establish clear timelines, regular update schedules, and emergency protocols to manage client relationships effectively. 4. The Professional Growth Protocol Regularly assess your skills, seek mentorship, and redefine what success means to you beyond billable hours. Focus on building a practice that sustains rather than drains you. I recall that difficult defamation and sexual harassment case where we were outmatched by opposing counsel's resources. Our patient, strategic approach led to a substantial verdict including punitive damages. The company president was fired—a gratifying result that required deliberate patience. The path to a successful legal career isn't about working harder. It's about working smarter, with intention. It's building a practice that sustains rather than drains you. What one small step could you take today to bring more patience into your practice? #TheFreeLawyer #LegalPodcast

I passed the bar ten years ago today, so it seems appropriate to list some things I’ve learned for the benefit of those who are entering the practice of law: 1. You don’t know anything about being a lawyer coming out of law school. That’s ok. Everyone else is in the same boat. 2. It takes at least two years to figure out what you’re doing. Don’t panic. 3. Don’t be scared to try a case. Be willing to cut your teeth on the tough, small-value cases. Losing a few trials is a good thing. 4. It is highly likely you are dispensable in the eyes of your employer. And you probably are. Aim to become indispensable within three to four years. 5. Becoming indispensable requires two things: the ability to get results for clients and the ability to originate new clients. 6. Getting the business is half of the business of law. Don’t think you’re above salesmen — you should be one too. See above. 7. Find a mentor. Seems corny, so call it something besides “mentor” if you need to. If no one in your firm is teaching you or giving you feedback, you need to reevaluate where you are. 8. Your reputation is everything. Never cheat or lie, even if it allows a short term gain. It will be a long term loss for you professionally. 9. Don’t be a dick to opposing counsel. It does you (nor your client) any good. If you do it more than once, every lawyer in your area code will have a negative opinion of you within a few weeks. 10. Last, and most importantly, don’t let your career cause your personal life or your health to suffer. You only have one life. Don’t let meeting your professional goals be at the cost of your health and happiness. Carry on.

Unsolicited advice to younger lawyers: One of my new lawyer friends asked me a question about common mistakes young lawyer make and how to avoid them. I shared my thoughts with him on another post. Several people emailed me privately and suggested that I share my thoughts more broadly. I cleaned them up a bit and here they are: 1. Focus on your passions and helping others, not on making money. If you work in an area that you are passionate about and you focus on helping others, the money will follow. 2. Narrow your focus - today's world is increasingly specialized. It is hard to be good at everything and even harder to be known for being good at everything. Consider finding an area of law that you are passionate about and become a true subject matter expert in that area. I am living proof that this can work. 20 years ago when I first decided to focus on truck crash law, there were very few lawyers in this space who really knew their stuff and limited their practices to this area. Many laughed at me and told me the specialty area was too narrow. I don't think anyone would say that today. 3. Develop your skill set. If you want to be a courtroom lawyer, there are amazing programs to help advance you in that direction - but you will need to find a way to actually get into a court room. There is no real substitute for time preparing for and actually engaged in trial. That said, to advance your skills requires more than just time in trial - it also requires becoming a student of the art and science of trial work. Both out of court learning and practicing and in court time is needed. 4. Most trial lawyers are really trial preparation lawyers. Learn how to be an exceptional strategist and learn how to prepare for and take exceptional depositions. Of course the better you are at doing this probably the less trials you will get. 5. Remember that you are not your legal career. Schedule you life to include time for fun, relationships, and non-law hobbies. Specifically remember to pour attention and time into your marriage, your kids, your close family and your best friends. Work on being the best human being you can be - the best version of yourself. It will be a better life and it will even help you in your career in more ways than I can articulate here. 6. Don't be an island. Neither the practice or law nor the practice of life are solo sports. Isolation for more than short periods of time tend to lead to dark places and stuck places. As humans we need other humans to sharpen our thoughts, challenge our beliefs, and remind us of what is important and what is not important. 7. Have a long term vision. You will be temped to make decisions or act in the moment in response to what someone else did. If they are jerks to you you will be tempted to be a jerk back. But is that the human being you really want to be. You are building your long term reputation with each decision and each action you take. Act accordingly.

If I were a recent law graduate looking to build a sustainable and enjoyable career, here are some of the things I would do (based on a few things I got right myself, and a bunch that I didn’t). 1. I would prioritize my physical and mental health. You get one body, and it needs to last you your whole life. This doesn’t necessarily mean BQ marathons every year, or deadlift PRs, but it means staying active, eating mostly food that makes you feel good, and getting sleep and other forms of rest. 2. I would start building my network (or better yet, continue nurturing what I already started growing in law school). Not just with people in my firm, but more widely in my city and industry. 3. I would think about where I wanted to be in 5-10 years and make a plan to get there. I’d accept that no one cares about my career as much as I do, so planning my professional development is my responsibility. 4. As much as possible, I’d try a variety of types of assignments, working with different people across my firm or company. 5. I would find ways to give back. I'd perform pro bono work, become a mentor, etc. Giving back is a habit best started early. 6. I’d establish a habit of regularly checking in with myself on what’s going well and not, personally and professionally. It all needs to fit together. There is no point in being a successful lawyer if your life stinks. 7. I would establish or continue my habit as a reader and life long learner, making sure to consume content that expands my mind as well as content that is just enjoyable (even if it’s silly or mindless). 8. I would find mentors within and outside of my current employer. 9. I would start building my personal brand by creating content. Unsurprisingly, LinkedIn is my platform of choice, but any platform you enjoy works. You don't have to post all the time - commenting on other people's posts, or creating your own every couple of months, is a great start. 10. I’d commit to a growth mindset. Early on in a legal career, a lot of things will be hard. You'll feel like you're bad at them. Remember, you're just not expert at them YET. Experienced lawyers, what would you add to this list?

To all the new lawyers, here are six things you can do to make an impact at your firm in 2024: 1. Don’t Eat Lunch Alone. This is a saying I heard early in my career. Whether you’re a junior associate in a firm or have started your own shop, building relationships with colleagues in your firm or other lawyers in town is the single best way to advance your career.  Taking somebody to lunch or out for coffee is a great way to build those relationships. 2. Keep Learning. Your education as a practicing attorney is just beginning when you finish law school. Study your craft. A student’s mindset will help you get better faster. 3. Ask Questions. Early in my career, I was worried that asking questions might make me look stupid. I wanted to seem like I knew everything already. But when you're starting out, you don’t know everything. And everybody else already knows that, so you don't need to pretend. Asking questions shows you’re interested and that you want to get better. 4. Ask around for more work. In some firms, work just lands on your desk. But I know that's not usually the case. Associates who proactively pursue work get more assignments than those who wait for the work to come to them. You might worry that you're being annoying, and you don't want to overdo it. But being proactive shows you care. 5. Stay patient. I knew I wanted to be a trial lawyer in law school, and I was in a hurry to get in the courtroom. I spent five years supporting other lawyers before getting my chance to start trying cases myself. Waiting for the opportunity was hard. But by focusing on learning and being useful to my colleagues, I was better prepared to capitalize once my chance arrived. 6. Treat everyone with respect. How you treat people matters. There's that stereotype of the successful lawyer who treats their support staff, younger colleagues, and even court staff badly.   You don’t want that reputation. You also don’t know when you’re going to need a favor from someone. Are there any tips you'd add for new lawyers wanting to start off on the right foot?