Associate Realizes He Can't Cruise Through Firm Like He Did Law School

Duke Law School graduate and 1st year real estate associate Thomas Finnegan considered himself quite lucky not to have a pushed back start date. Following three years of classes, papers and exams, he was ready to begin the actual practice of law. However, after only a few weeks on the job Finnegan abruptly realized that he wouldn't be able to do minimal work and still get by as was the case in law school.

"Especially during 2L and 3L year I hardly put in any effort yet suffered no negative repercussions," remarked Finnegan, underscoring that despite a precipitous GPA drop he still maintained the firm job procured during the on campus interview process. "When I arrived at the firm, though, I was told by colleagues that if I didn't work hard every day I would get into major trouble if not fired. That is certainly not the lesson I learned from law school."

As a law student, Finnegan graduated despite hardly going to class, barely doing his reading and writing poorly researched papers. Finnegan's lackadaisical attitude, however, proved unhelpful as he began working on various transactions.

"Every morning the real estate team I'm on meets to discuss the progress of the deal, reviewing the never ending stream of documents the lender's counsel sends over," stated the former Duke student. "Of course I didn't look the new stuff over, figuring that [Corporate Partner Wesley] Clark already called on me the last meeting. That was definitely a mistake because when he questioned me about the contents of the purchase agreement I just looked at him like a dumbass. It turns out that, unlike at law school, I always need to do the reading."

Not only has Finnegan grasped that he must remain informed about all relevant documentation, he has also begun to appreciate that attendance at all these meetings is mandatory.

"I believed that if I went to at least a majority of these strategy sessions things would be fine," expressed Finnegan, figuring that things would be ok considering that he only went to 50% of his 3L classes and still passed. "Lo and behold that is grounds for termination at a law firm."

Finnegan reports that there are other things that were certainly acceptable in law school but are definitely not in the firm. According to the 1st year associate, management does not approve of employees who come in only three days a week, get deal notes from friends and doze off during conference calls.

It appears that the new real estate associate isn't the first one to have a rude awakening that he can't cruise through the firm like he did in law school. Countless other recently graduated students have reported that they've had to adjust to concept of putting in maximum effort to succeed. Despite candid advice and stern warnings, an unfortunate few never are able to unlearn their bad habits.

"I still remember the story of Dara Springer, a Harvard Law graduate from last year's class who was a notorious slacker," stated Dan Lee, a second year associate at Finnegan's firm, who mentioned that Springer loved to brag about how she did zero work in law school, pointing out that she never even learned how to bluebook properly. "Well during the first couple weeks she was given a memo to write analyzing a contentious legal issue in an important securities litigation case. It was so poorly written and featured such awful citations that she was eventually let go when the firm started downsizing."

Lee continued: "So the moral is: if you ever want a chance of succeeding at a law firm, forget everything you learned in law school."