Reality check

Four things you won’t learn in law school

Success in the real world depends on more than good grades. People have to like you. Really.

By Sandra Rosier

Some people know exactly what they are going to do after graduation from their very first day of law school. In my class, these lucky people generally fell into one of two categories: those whose fathers were senior partners at law firms and those who eschewed traditional practice in favour of alternative careers in law.  It was easy to mistake their certainty for arrogance.  The rest of us were driven toward our destinies by the imperatives of convention, necessity or distinction; sometimes all three. I wish I could reach back into time and grab myself by the shoulders before I stumbled head-first over the threshold of my own future. I would tell that girl: “This is what you really need to know.  These are the four cornerstones of professional success:”

• Figure out what you really want to do.
• Take ownership for your own professional development.
• Build your brand.
• Build relationships for leverage.

Summering and articling present the perfect opportunity to figure out what you really want to do.  Now is the time to design a career path and identify short-term goals. These will focus your efforts and provide incentive, even as they shift over time. You may not yet be in a position to understand what a “real lawyer” does but you can discover some pretty revealing things about yourself if you are mindful about asking the right questions.  Do I like the culture?  Is this the career I really want?  Do the associates and partners present a desirable model for what I want to be when I grow up?  Am I proud or conflicted about being here?  Did I choose this with all my heart?   Am I just here for the money, and if so is that okay?  

It’s fine if you don’t have all the answers right away. There is no such thing as a career mistake unless you’re Bernie Madoff.  If you learn nothing other than “I hate Bay Street” during your articling year, that is valuable information gained about yourself.  It’s called experience. Use it to inform your career decisions going forward. The more your values and true passions align with your career, the happier you will be.

Don’t wait to be spoonfed

You are 100 per cent responsible for your own professional development.  This means that you need to take ownership for your substantive learning.  Don’t sit around waiting to be instructed, trained, mentored, oriented and fed information.  Take initiative.  Proactively seek out work.  Exploit the plentiful firm resources to understand the “why, what for and for whom” of each assignment.  In addition to precedents and research databases, firm resources include junior associates, paralegals, your assigned mentor, library services, and knowledge management lawyers. Remember that substantive learning includes understanding the organization, for instance, its strategic objectives, key milestones, political taboos, and knowing who are the knowledge gurus and stars.

Branding 101

Taking ownership for your professional development also means building your brand.  Beyond hard skills, brand is composed of the unique characteristics that distinguish you. You are a business person now. There are guide books.  Devour all the career self-help literature that you can get your hands on about personal branding, soft skills, executive presence and effective communication in the workplace.  Use that information to start promoting your personal brand and to distinguish yourself. 

Distinguish yourself from the pack by getting noticed in the right way. That Facebook pic of you with the bong can hurt you badly.  Reputation matters.  These days, most firms systematically verify web profiles. Get noticed in the right way by speaking up and asking informed questions during group meetings, by volunteering for charity and social committees, by offering to research or co-author articles, by networking offline (i.e. through direct contact with humans), by pro-actively getting to know the people you work with from the receptionist to the managing partner. Build your brand! 

Use your brand as a platform to cultivate relationships.  Relationships give you leverage. Leverage is absolution; with leverage you can afford to be a little less competent and smart.  A significant degree of subjectivity is involved in decisions to reward or retain one person over another.  Such decisions can often appear arbitrary when in fact they are merely evidence of the power of relationships. Intelligence and expertise are not enough to succeed in our profession. You have to be liked.  Assuming baseline competence, you build relationships by being likeable, respectful and ethical in your dealings with everyone at work.  We hire the people we think we will like. We give opportunities to the people we like. We give good reviews to the people we like.  We hire back the people we like. We absolve the people we like. Brand + relationships = leverage.  What I would give to have known then what I know now.

Sandra Rosier is a tax adviser in Toronto.

– Published in National Magazine's 2011 Student Edition.