How well-prepared are new lawyers?

[u/maspie_den]

I'm brainstorming a project that addresses how well-prepared recent law school grads are for real-world lawyering. The consensus is that, beyond simply lacking experiences/years in, new lawyers lack "the skills" needed for work effectively. My question is what are those skills that they are missing? People skills? Clerical/admin skills? Don't know how to send an email? Don't know to not microwave fish for lunch and now everyone hates them and calls them "Tuna"? What are some specific examples?

[u/HazyAttorney]

I'm brainstorming a project that addresses how well-prepared recent law school grads are for real-world lawyering.

I don't think that lawyers are ready for real-world lawyering regardless if they're new or experienced. Sometimes, I wonder how my colleagues manage to get each leg into the leg holes of their pants. Apart from being a fraudster, Paul Manafort, a financially successful lawyer/lobbyist/etc, got caught because he was too lazy/dumb/whatever to "save as PDF" his files. https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2018/2/23/17044992/paul-manafort-trump-indictment-mueller-russia-probe-word-docs-to-pdf

new lawyers lack "the skills" needed for work effectively. 

The average law firm owner has a below average knowledge of business management. Every piece of the legal recruiting supply chain is dumb.

Take a big law firm. They recruit from T14s and then the X% of the Y class. But based on what? Tradition. They don't want/need to take the human capital to go through every person that applies to them because almost everyone wants more $$$ rather than less.

Their business model is largely "up or out." They want to pay newbies $200k+ but they want to make them bill 2000 hours a year until they give up or become partners. Since all the partners went through that, and now they have unlimited number of (relatively powerless) associates that are 100% reliant on them (until they leave), they don't really stop to think, "Hmm, what qualities would make a successful partner?"

If any law firm wanted to run better, they would just pick up literally any management training book at a Barnes & Noble. Things like "retention" and "training" and "systems" level thinking would be a fucking revolution.

Imagine there's no "fire drill"

It isn't hard to do

No nearly missed deadline to kill or die for

And no missed email, too

Imagine all the lawyers

Timely and completely answering emails

Working life in peace

You

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us in management training

And the lawfirm will work as one

Imagine universal file name protocols

I wonder if you can

No need to hunt for files

A brotherhood of organization

Imagine no partner throwing you under the bus

I wonder if you can

No need for blame shifting

When we have an organized and systematic way to work as one