THE AUTHOR:
Jonathan Passaro, Executive, Team Coach, and Founder of Jonathan Passaro Coaching
Navigating life as a mid-level associate in a large law firm presents numerous challenges; one that lawyers raise frequently is how to establish and maintain visibility at this crucial phase of one’s career.
Junior associates’ contributions on complex cases tend to be strictly well-defined; the expectation of the most junior members of a team is usually that they will do what they are asked to do, to do it well, and not much more. At the opposite end of the associate hierarchy, senior associates’ leadership roles are well-established: the expectation that they make substantial contributions to strategic discussions is clear.
Mid-level associates — and this article is directed at you — are caught in a bit of a grey zone. Partners expect you to make contributions beyond the strict boundaries of your assigned work when appropriate. And in those last two words lies all the complexity.
How do you successfully navigate this challenging landscape?
Developing Keen Self-Awareness
Get to know what you know — and what you don’t. You must be able to accurately assess the limits of your own knowledge and have the humility to accept when you should defer to others. This involves being open to feedback — positive and negative — from colleagues of all levels of seniority (yes, even those more junior than you).
Resist the urge to become defensive in the face of criticism, or to put difficult conversations out of your mind as soon as they are over. Instead, make sure you fully understand the feedback you receive, and develop a plan to improve that takes it into account. Remember that more senior colleagues would not waste time giving you feedback if they did not think you had the ability to improve. Consider how boring your job would be if everything you did were so easy you could do it perfectly on the first try.
Be honest with yourself about your working style and personality. Find ways to contribute that align with who you are and showcase you at your best. Although you will need to occasionally offer input in ways that force you outside of your comfort zone, with a little bit of creativity — and wisdom from more senior peers whose personality is similar to your own — you can engineer ways to make yourself seen and heard without feeling like you are pretending to be someone you aren’t. If you can’t find any role models within your firm, reach out to others in your network.
Understanding Your Environment
Get to know those around you. Take note of colleagues’ preferred working styles, and understand what their individual sensitivities are. This will allow you to ensure that your contributions are as well-received as possible — even when it involves disagreeing with someone else’s reasoning.
Non-verbal cues can provide crucial information about whether your input would be welcome; take note of these if you can. If you have trouble reading the room, consider talking to other team members about how they decide when it’s a good time to speak up, and see what other patterns you can observe to make that determination for yourself.
Don’t forget that what works best can change based on what your more senior colleagues are experiencing on any given day. It might be fine to offer input on most days, but risky when the workload is particularly high or when the lead lawyer has just returned to the office after a punishing period of travel. Let your experience be the guide: part of your job as an associate is gaining an intimate understanding of the individual working styles of senior colleagues, and adapting your behaviour accordingly.
Understand your firm’s culture inside-out. How is speaking out as a more junior lawyer viewed in general? Is it acceptable in some contexts (e.g., informal lunchtime meetings) but frowned upon in others (e.g., meetings involving multiple practice groups)? If your firm has offices in multiple locations, how does the culture vary from location to location, and how do you need to adapt your behaviour as a result?
Understand the crucial impact of interpersonal dynamics. Peoples’ behaviour can change dramatically depending on the combination of people in the room. That senior associate who loves sparring with you in late-night discussions in a half-empty office may not be so receptive to you pushing back during all-hands-on-deck meetings. Partners who are typically open to hearing views other than their own may understandably be unimpressed with such input when the client is present. When new to a team, spend some time observing: take note of when comments are well-received, and when they appear to cause distress. What patterns emerge?
Determine who your allies are. Senior associates are not there to hold your hand, but part of their job is to develop younger lawyers. Know who is committed to and capable of doing this, and think about how you can create win-win situations that allow them to demonstrate to partners that they are growing as managers by highlighting the contributions you have made to the team under their guidance.
Like any other skill, effectively making yourself visible takes dedication and practice. Keep an open mind, and open eyes and ears. Mistakes are inevitable; learn from them. This means taking risks, and being ok with not sounding as polished as the senior associates in the room as you start to explore speaking up when you have contributions to make. Draw upon the resources around you in order to increase your chances of success the next time around. Eventually, making the right contributions at the right time and place will feel like second nature.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jon Passaro is a Paris-based executive and team coach who works with French- and English-speaking lawyers on fast-paced, high-pressure teams around the globe. He works with lawyers at all stages of their careers, on issues ranging from business development to management and leadership. Before starting his coaching practice, he was an associate in the international arbitration practices of two leading international law firms, and then a member of the in-house legal team at the OECD. He has a Professional Certified Coach (“PCC”) credential from the International Coaching Federation (“ICF”) and a JD from Harvard Law School.
*The views and opinions expressed by authors are theirs and do not necessarily reflect those of their organizations, employers, or Daily Jus, Jus Mundi, or Jus Connect.
