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FirmlyRefuse 24 - 18 Apr 2012 - Main.JosephItkis
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| | I found this campaign (http://firmlyrefuse.tumblr.com) at Harvard to get students to think about why they are choosing to work for firms to be interesting, particularly given the themes of this course and our conversation today about grades.
Grades for me have served to stand-in for concerted thought as to what I'm actually doing here. I have convinced myself that if my grades are good enough, I'll have options because a strong transcript resonates across different realms of employment (this is essentially the point Ben made today about the fear of having paths foreclosed). No matter what it is actually decide I want to do with my practice, I consoled myself that having a strong strong transcript wouldn't be a detriment. Probably that's true, at least in bureaucratic employment fields where such factors matter, but focusing on grades has meant that I've spent little time thinking about my purpose in earning this license. This makes it more likely that I'll funnel into EIP, because it's easy and because I haven't really thought about what I would do instead. Grades aren't the only reason I haven't set about designing an alternative, but they are a part of it. | | | Returning to the training point: I worked at the DOJ for three years working on white collar cases. After 1L, and maybe after the end of the upcoming summer, I'm pretty sure that lawyers learn by doing. Earth-shattering, right? Because government offices, like the DOJ, are regularly understaffed, the junior attorneys are given loads of responsibility to handle entire investigations. Even as a fresh-out-of-college paralegal, I took notes at witness interviews and wrote up a memo afterwards. The person "across the table" from me taking notes was normally an eager mid-level associate. All the public interest jobs I've seen allow fresh lawyers to learn through immediate experience--something that seems like a privilege you work towards at a firm. If that isn't training, then I don't know what is. I've never worked at a firm, though, so I would appreciate if anyone can offer insights on how firm work is assigned (though I know it varies by firm).
-- ArleneOrtizLeytte - 18 Apr 2012 | |
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> | I know I'm pretty much entirely echoing what others have said but I find the "training" issue the hardest to understand. Arlene's point makes perfect sense to me - you learn by doing and you generally do more in places other than firms, especially early on. However, like Abiola said, it seems like many lawyers in the public sector strongly recommend spending a couple of years in firms for the training aspect. Abiola offered the higher amount of training resources in firms as an explanation, but it still seems to me that if 90%+ of what a young firm lawyer does is doc review then how are those training resources actually being applied? I feel like the best way to figure this out would be to talk to more public sector lawyers and dig deeper into why many of them suggest starting out in firms, but perhaps someone here might be able to offer some further explanation? Thanks and sorry if I'm being repetitive...
-- JosephItkis - 18 Apr 2012 |
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