1. Employment Profile: What exactly does a n Attorney do? |
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 What field is your job in?
Law
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What is your job title?
Attorney
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Please provide a brief description of the firm or organization that you currently work for
(size and general description of what type of organization it is)
I work for a private high end civil practice law firm with about 50 attorneys. The firm is full service and does both transactional and litigation work.
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How long have you been employed in this position?
2 years
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How many hours do you work a week on average?
50
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Please provide a BRIEF description of your duties and responsibilities. (job description)
As a younger associate, my job responsibilities are primarily to provide support and services to more senior attorneys. I do legal research, document review, drafting of most kinds of pleadings, drafting of legal memoranda, trial support, and court appearances for more minor cases and hearings. Young attorneys also do pro bono (free) legal work to get greater familiarities with client contact and trial experiences.
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What was your gross income last year? Please include any bonuses or incentives received.
100,000
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What is your expected gross income for this year? Please include any bonuses or incentives you expect to receive.
110000
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Please
list any benefits you have (Please include number of weeks vacation,
sick leave and type of health insurance, retirement plan 401k)
2 weeks vacation, 1 week sick days, 3 additional personal days, 2-1 matching 401k, 3 months maternity leave w/ full pay, full insurance at zero cost including vision and dental, 150k in life insurance coverage free, disability insurance
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Do you feel you are under/well/over compensated at your current position?
well / fairly compensated
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2. Work environment! |
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Does
your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this
something you like/dislike about your job? Explain
Group work is the majority of legal work. Each case is generally handled by a team of 2-8 attorneys who work together to both divide up and collaborate on the case work. As a young attorney, it can sometimes be frustrating to be on the bottom of every team (and get some of the less desirable work) but it is also an excellent learning experience to work side by side with much more senior attorneys.
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Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes
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Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes
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Describe
your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what
you like/dislike about working in it
Group work is the majority of legal work. Each case is generally handled by a team of 2-8 attorneys who work together to both divide up and collaborate on the case work. As a young attorney, it can sometimes be frustrating to be on the bottom of every team (and get some of the less desirable work) but it is also an excellent learning experience to work side by side with much more senior attorneys.
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Please rank in order of importance from 1-8 (1- most important 8- least important) Assign each number once.
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1 Income
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4 Work Environment - co-workers
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2 Work Environment - supervisors
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7 Benefits
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3 Hours
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6 Level of responsibility
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5 The actual "work" you do at your job
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8 Job Title
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3. How should someone new to the workforce get a J-O-B like yours? |
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If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
Go the best law school you get accepted to, regardless of scholarship money. The loans are easily paid back with a good salary. Better firms often do not recruit at all at lesser schools, and if they do, significantly better grades are usually required even for a 10 minute introductory interview.
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What
skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a
position like yours? Please be specific and explain why (e.g., social
skills, organization skills, technical skills)
Writing skills are surprisingly likely the most important, as most work done for the court is in the form of written pleadings, not oral arguments. Most work done for senior attorneys will also be in the form of written memoranda. Social skills for client interaction, new client solicitation and development and interpersonal attorney contacts. Organizational skills for sure since you'll have maximum amounts of hours you can likely to charge for certain tasks and if you can't get it done in that period, you're doing the remainder of it for free (and for an unhappy boss). Oral/Debate skills for trials and hearings.
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Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
You cannot be an attorney or take the bar exam without a J.D.
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What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
View everything as a learning experience and do your absolute best even at the less pleasant assignments. The time and effort will show and will land you bigger and better projects. Expect to put in very long hours (50 hour regular weeks, more hours + saturdays if anything big is due) and make sure they're something you can deal with. If you can't, a large high end firm is not going to be the right fit--look for government legal work (public defender, prosecuting attorney) or smaller firm work.
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