As we prepared our coverage of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award winners and The American Lawyer's 40th anniversary, we asked several lawyers to reflect on their storied careers and share their advice for young attorneys just getting started. Following are some of their words of wisdom:

Elizabeth Cabraser of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein: "Look for a firm that will give you as much responsibility as you can handle as early in your career as possible. It will be scary, it will be challenging, but that is how you find out whether litigation suits you."

William Lee of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr: "You shouldn't have a three-year plan or a five-year plan. A legal education and degree will provide you with an enormous number of opportunities: public sector, private sector, legal services, business, academia, government. You can't anticipate the opportunities that become available to you. Work as hard as you can to become the best possible lawyer you can be, a lawyer of integrity, and take advantage of the opportunities that will eventually come your way."