The transition from law student to lawyer can be tough. How tough?
A 2015 survey by Barbri found that while 71% of law students believed they had sufficient skills to practice law, only 23% of practicing lawyers thought that those new lawyers had sufficient skills to practice law.
A survey by LexisNexis revealed even more dismal results – 95% of hiring partners and associates believed recently graduated law students lacked key practical skills at the time of hiring.
If you’re a law student or junior lawyer reading those numbers and feeling nervous about your readiness to practice law or ability to succeed in the workplace, the good news is that you’re not alone.
My online, self-paced course Survive & Thrive, is here to help you not only survive but thrive in the daily grind of working life as a lawyer.
So, What’s Inside the Course?
Survive & Thrive is designed as a self-paced course with tactics you can begin implementing right away, like:
- How to set up your personal life for success at work before you start your job (or in a weekend, if you’re already working).
- Professionalism and communication tips and expectations, including how to deal with “big personalities” (or, jerks).
- How to create and submit excellent work product, including my best tips for legal research and writing.
- Simple ways to get and stay organized.
- Tactics to improve your productivity & efficiency – helpful whether or not the billable hour rules your life.
- How to maintain a good work/life balance, even if you’re currently feeling overloaded or working a super demanding job.
- How to delegate and outsource successfully.
- How to manage up.
- How to seek and implement feedback.
Along the way, you’re going to get scripts for tough communications – like turning down work while maintaining your relationship with a more senior attorney. I’ll also give examples for lower-stakes communications (on which I’ve seen many a junior stress), like what to include in your out-of-office email when you go on vacation. (And yes, you can take vacation as a junior lawyer! I’ll walk you through how to plan for it.) You’ll also get checklists and other handouts developed to help you streamline your daily work life and create good habits to last your entire career.
Why These Topics?
The skills you’ll learn in Survive & Thrive are the ones I’ve seen work for junior lawyers over and over again over the years. They’re the things my colleagues, classmates, and friends say they expect of junior lawyers or wish they themselves had known to do as a junior lawyer.
They’re also the things that thousands of lawyers from across the country say junior lawyers need to know to succeed at work. A survey conducted by the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, to which over 24k lawyers from all 50 states responded, identified the kinds of qualities, skills, and characteristics junior lawyers need to succeed in the office. I’ve done the legwork so you don’t have to and distilled their responses down into actionable steps you can take to excel in a variety of legal workplaces.
For a limited time, I’m offering a huge discount on Survive & Thrive in an effort to help as many young lawyers succeed as possible. Just enter coupon code SandTAug2022 at checkout by August 31 and join for $29, a $70 savings on the usual price.
Learn more and sign up here.