Biggest mistake you made in practice and what the end result was. I f*cked up pretty bad (1st year associate, and no it wasn’t a typo in a motion) and I need some perspective. Feeling pretty anxious about it because it involves a missed discovery responses deadline for being naive and making an assumption. All feedback is appreciated!

Owning it to your supervisor, apologizing ONCE, learning from it, and never making the mistake again, is the path I would suggest. The ideal time to make mistakes is as a first year.... Indeed we expect them to make tons of mistakes. Even in my pretty intense firm, first years are allowed to make mistakes and the partners help fix it. I hope you have an understanding partner and I wouldn’t dwell once the mistake is fixed to the extent it can be.

I’ve told this story here before, but I once sent a summons to a police dog instead of his handler when I was an ADA.

The key with mistakes like this is to apologize ONCE. You’re working toward fixing it, which is the most important thing in this moment.

It’s great to be conscientious! And great to own your mistakes—particularly if your work demonstrates that it’s just that and not a common occurrence. That being said, a missed discovery deadline is not the end all. Depending on your state procedural rules, and the civility of your opposing counsel, there’s probably a way to recover. In CA, for example, missed discovery deadlines waived objections, but you can motion to be relieved of waiving objections based on reasonable inadvertence/mistake. And depending on the discovery (I may be incorrectly assuming written discovery), waiving objections may not be that serious. If they’re important and opposing counsel does not give you a courtesy pass, but you get substantive and good responses out ASAP, you can likely still avoid a motion to compel. This stuff happens—even with long term attorneys! Don’t beat yourself up and take it as a lesson learned.

What jurisdiction is the case in? As far as screw-ups, this is likely pretty low on the totem pole. People ignore discovery deadlines all the time and usually even if the rules say objections are waived if not made by a certain date, it’s not enforced - even if opposing counsel is an ass and tries to do so. It sounds like your supervisor is helping you work through it, as she should bc ultimately the partner is responsible for supervising you and ethically obligated to do so as well. Any judge worth their robe would bench slap a partner who tried to throw a junior associate under the bus rather than simply explaining to the court what happened and apologizing (if it even got that far). I would note if the partner throws you under the bus to the client - that would be a huge red flag and would merit a move in my opinion. Otherwise, breathe, learn, and move on. There are enough things that cause anxiety in the practice of law - an accidentally missed discovery deadline and a jerk attorney on the other side aren’t worth it.

The only mistake that’s unforgivable is missing the statute of limitations .. learn from it and move on.. You’ll be okay!

I’m not sure what state you are in, but where I practice discovery deadlines are usually not that big of a deal and OC are usually pretty understanding. Just reach out to the OC and ask for an extension.

Everyone misses discovery deadlines, especially in your first year. Learn from the experience and be grateful you have a good mentor!

Also, I’ve been practicing for 8 years and I’m sure I haven’t made my biggest mistake yet. I’ve made plenty - but none have been major enough to get even close to ending my career as a lawyer (although I haven’t given up hope yet haha). But they have all been learning experiences and I’ve never made those same mistakes twice. It can be terrifying, but just addressing it head-on and acknowledging whatever the mistake was goes a long way. And then you get to be a senior associate and take responsibility for mistakes made by junior associates. Or paras or assistants or even (bad) partners. I know in the moment it feels like the Mt. Everest of mistakes, but it will pass, I guarantee it. And please don’t hesitate to dm me if you want to chat in more detail.

Own up to it, come up with solution. "I screwed up, here's how I propose to fix it and here's a system I put in place to avoid repeating it. Think it will work?" is the best solution.

I have noticed that when I first make a mistake it always feels like the end of my career but after talking to a more experienced attorney I quickly realize it isn’t a huge deal and is easily fixed.

As many have said, own it, inform your supervisor, learn from it, and take all steps to avoid it ever happening again. Early in my career I totally missed a 9th Cir briefing deadline. Failed to calendar the briefing schedule that was only emailed to me. Turns out, you can call the clerk and get another deadline. I thought my career was over- I even panicked and called the state bar ethics hotline! Lastly, I would say be kind to yourself. As others pointed out, you wont be the last to make that mistake.

I agree with everything above... own it and move forward. The biggest issues we’ve had at our firm is when associates try to cover up their first mistakes. If they just owned up to it and did the work to fix it, it would have been fine but they made it a lot worse.

I read a scheduling order wrong and didn't send interrogatories on time and was not allowed to serve them. I thought the deadline was to send by the deadline. Local practice in that jxn was they had to go out in time to be due by the deadline.

OC played me hard too, asking for extensions etc. Then I filed a motion to compel when they didn't answer and they responded with my missed deadline. They won. No interrogatory answers for me. Suuuucked. When I got their missed deadline response I immediately alerted the originating partner and client.

Ultimately - I tried the case and won. But it could have been very bad. I've never messed that one up again!

You don’t learn without “mistakes” which aren’t “ mistakes” but learning lessons.

Definitely disclose it to the partner ASAP, and propose corrective action. Partners don’t love to be presented with problems unless you also present a solution.

Unless you blew a deadline to respond to request for admissions, discovery deadlines are soft deadlines and mostly meaningless. You want to avoid a motion to compel but most jurisdictions require the moving party to confer first which will buy you the time to respond. Also courts hate dealing with motions to compel because they are so trivial in the grand scheme of things.