An observation: It’s very funny how junior (especially first year) associates working in transactional law can spend an entire deal screwing up signature pages, checklists, and redlines.... and then complain that it’s BS they’re “doing administrative tasks instead of legal work.”

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I mean, we were all once these prideful juniors. I think we could prevent them from feeling this way and making so many mistakes if we...did a better job teaching them. The learning curve is mountainous for transactional work and law school doesn’t prepare you for a day of it. First year transactional associates need their hands held longer than litigation associates, it’s just a fact.

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I’m a new transactional first year and my firm puts a serious emphasis on mentorship and it does make a big difference. I almost always get the first crack at drafting a new agreement and the partner I’m under will take time at the end of the day to go over what I did and show me if/how he changed it. There is pretty much nothing they have me do that I would complain about. I also accept that it makes the most sense for me to do certain things, like preparing simpler agreements, customizing template agreements for the transaction, or legal research, because I have the lowest hourly rate. I just do whatever I’m told well and I’ve yet to be unhappy with what I’m being assigned or feel like it was beneath me.

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There’s plenty of associates who have never failed at anything and have a hard time believing they know nothing when they start practicing. They learn. You can either be humble or life will humble you.

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You must be popular among junior associates.

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I’m actually a junior/mid-level myself, and I never think I’m above an assignment, even if it’s running a redline or pulling signature pages. My point is don’t have an attitude about being assigned something you think is beneath you if you can’t even do it right. Everyone screws up, but screwing up and then having an attitude that you were asked to help in the first place isn’t a great look

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I just had a second year question a point that a partner and I made based on his extensive experience. He was so so so wrong and basically told me “no” when I told him to do this thing because he looked at precedent and that’s not how it worked. Mind you, this was a very bespoke deal and this junior was barely involved so he had no clue what the documents contained.

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I am also a junior and I am shocked and appalled by the behavior of my peers and even more junior associates when they voice complaints about doing the “menial” tasks. Even more shocked when they don’t recognize that they are the same associates who keep getting those tasks while others who have not complained moved on to better roles !

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