Lauren Nuffort and Paul Shapiro drafted an article for the Winter 2014 edition of Minnesota Defense, “Tips from the Trenches: How to Succeed as a Summer Associate and as a First-Year Associate.”
Article summary:
The Minnesota Defense Lawyers Association (MDLA) 2013-14 New Defense Lawyers Committee set out to uncover the top recommendations for how to find success and feel empowered as a summer associate and as a first-year associate. We hope you can use these tips to guide you as you begin your practice.
- What are my responsibilities as a law clerk or as a summer associate?
- What’s “non-billable work” and how should I prioritize it?
- How should I use my team members?
- Apart from completing projects on time, how can I demonstrate value?
- I haven’t really practiced my writing since that legal-writing course back in my 1L year. How can I improve my writing?
- How do I go about drafting a pleading for the first time? I’ve never even heard of this type of pleading!
- How about some practical “nuts and bolts” advice for improving my writing?