Something that comes up often in my mentoring of young lawyers is the concept of competition.
Many feel a lot of added pressure of “keeping up” with their peers or they feel like they are “falling behind” if they don’t have the same experiences at the same exact time — such as taking a deposition or appearing in court.
And my response is usually the same:
The practice of law is not a race.
Look, I get it.
It’s hard not to feel the call of competition.
Especially, when the gravitational pull starts early in law school – where the grading system boils down your worth to grades on a bell curve, where the messaging is strong: “look to the right and left of you – not everyone will make it,” combined with urban legends of how pages from law books in the library were torn out by some cutthroat fellow law student to prevent others from succeeding. I distinctly remember certain classmates loudly touting in the law library of how much they read, how much they prepared, how long their outlines were….
BigLaw was no better.
You go in knowing clearly who your cohorts are and how not everyone can make partner – and your worth is boiled down to how many hours you bill. I distinctly remember a fellow associate who would constantly ask me — “what i was at” referencing how many billables I’ve billed for the year.
So I get it.
It’s stressful.
Admittedly, it is only through my journey in-house, with (time for) reflection outside of private practice, that I can say – despite all that, the practice of law is not a linear race.
It may be helpful to share my career so far for context — small firm (almost 5 yrs), big firm (5 yrs) and in-house (4 yrs). From my personal experience, here is an observation.
Skills are more important than timing.
I know this sounds very silly (blame it on having a toddler and preschooler), but for me, the practice of law is more like an infinite Easter egg hunt instead of a race, meaning that everyone will find different eggs (skills in this analogy) at different times – and as long as you are still hunting and picking up eggs, you are growing in your practice.
It’s less like a race with specific milestones because there’s no requirement that says to be a good lawyer, you have to have a summary judgment hearing by second year or take a deposition by fifth year. (I note that individual lawyers or firms may create their own arbitrary development plan, but it is far from universal truth).
It’s not a race because you don’t necessarily get a reward for being the first associate in your group to have a hearing or take a deposition. And just because you haven’t gotten the same opportunity on the same exact timeline doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re behind. Maybe you haven’t had a case management conference in Federal court because most of your practice is in family law. (Note that if you are not being given any opportunities, that’s a different topic that we can address in the future).
Case in chief?
I had my first hearing in my first week of practice. I was second chair in a civil trial as a first year. I wrote a mandamus to the Texas Supreme Court the next. Does this mean I was a better lawyer or ahead of my peers?
Of course not.
I just had those opportunities because I was the only associate for two partners at a small firm. I just picked up those eggs at the time.
And then when I went to BigFirm, I picked up different eggs – learning how to navigate firm politics, formal deposition training and business development while realizing that some shareholders had never been in a trial (and I had been in 4 trials in my 4 year career). Does that make them a lesser lawyer? Of course not. Phenomenal lawyers can also resolve their clients’ disputes pre-litigation.
And now that I’m in-house, I’m still picking up different eggs – project management, internal branding, public speaking and executive presence.
The beauty of this is that these skills that I picked up could have been reversed, and it wouldn’t have impacted whether I’m a good attorney or not.
In other words, the timing doesn’t matter — the important thing is that I have been learning and developing my skills all along, and that my practice is a continuing journey, not a destination.
If you approach the practice of law like an Easter egg hunt where everyone wins (by acquiring necessary skills), it may help take some of the self-imposed pressure created by the false narrative that we, as lawyers, must always compete with one another to excel.
Happy hunting!
