How much actual court experience should a junior litigator expect to get in the first year? I've been my firm 6 months as a civil litigator not and have yet to go to a hearing. There have been a few (all relatively minor) but each time the partner tells me it's not important enough for me to attend. As a junior, I feel like I need to learn and no hearing is to minor. How else am I supposed to learn?

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How big is your firm? I spent two years as a litigator in a regional firm (140 attys) out of law school. I went to court once. Most partners had no trial experience. It was a total MTD/SJ paper pushing gig. The only true trial lawyers were the former AUSAs that did white collar work.

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Former AUSA, class of 2019. 5 trials, was in court multiple times a week. In private practice now, I’ve been to 3 hearings in 6 months.

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AmLaw100, but a smaller office

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The litigation world is filled with paper tigers who pounce on the limited opportunities to argue motions and then settle before trial.

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Ask the partner if you can attend but not bill to the client. Tell them you’re eager to see and learn but don’t have to get billable credit for it if that’s important. Also some firms have “shadow” programs where you can bill that time to a shadowing number and still get some billable credit. Partners often won’t invite juniors because the client won’t pay for it and you are not necessarily needed fr the clients perspective, but if you offer to go for free then they’ll rarely say no.

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Good point!

The bigger the firm, the less likely you will get hands on courtroom and trial experience. Need to go somewhere small so that you have to do the hearings because there's no one else to do them.

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Don’t go to biglaw for actual litigation experience. When most of the partners have never first chaired a trial, that should tell you all you need to know.

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If you want court experience you may want to consider ID

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Totally understandable

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