This is the second post in a new series called "My First Year..." In this series, which appears the first week of each month, we feature interviews of women as they begin putting their JDs to work in a variety of fields all over the country. Each interviewee answers a standard set of questions about her first year. We hope this project will give law students and new attorneys a realistic picture about what life is like during the junior years of a legal career.
Today we bring you the interview of a first year associate at a five-attorney law firm specializing in pharmaceutical litigation in the Los Angeles area:
How did you decide to pursue this position--was this something you envisioned yourself doing when you applied to law school, or was this something you learned about in school or during your summer?
After graduating from college, I took a job at a large legal defense firm as a Project Assistant, a position best described as a poorly paid, untrained paralegal. I spent my weekdays in an interior office updating databases and . . . yeah, just updating databases. While the work was mundane, I did become friends with three younger, but very unhappy, attorneys. All three have since left. Two went to smaller firms, and one went back to school to get his PhD. However, I also became friends with many other attorneys who were very happy and continue to thrive at the firm.
After several months of racking my brain for an escape route, my next step was, you guessed it, a Masters in Architecture program at Georgia Tech. Why wouldn’t a political science graduate with little to no experience in architecture, mathematics, or engineering decide to get a Masters in Architecture? I think maybe I had just read The Fountainhead and was inspired. I’m not even a Libertarian. I didn’t last a semester. Not one to learn lessons, I took another job as a legal assistant, but this time it was at a smaller firm. I immediately felt much more “at home” at the smaller firm. The environment felt more relaxed, there were not required classes, meetings, forms, hours, etc. I just felt more freedom to do my work and not worry with other unimportant things. After working at the smaller firm for a while, I decided to try law school, and it stuck. Going into 1L on campus interviews, I knew that I preferred the atmosphere of smaller firms - Of course the decision is also easier when, like me, you’re not in the top 10%. I ended up at a five-attorney plaintiffs’ firm my 1L year and haven’t looked back. I split 2L year between a small plaintiffs’ firm in Birmingham, Alabama and a medium-sized plaintiffs’ firm in Los Angeles (a comparison worthy of its own blog entry).
A small firm is by no means an oasis, free from the stresses of the larger firm. Since there’s oftentimes not as much of an infrastructure of support staff, sometimes attorneys, especially younger ones, have to pick up the slack. This can mean more phone calls, more filing, more letter writing, less organization, etc. You just have to figure out what fits for you. While I don’t have to bill or attend as many meetings and workshops, I am making much less money than my big firm counterparts, I don’t have my own secretary, and I don’t get engraved iPods.
Describe a typical day on the job...