EING NICE to everyone is key to your success as a summer associate. You may have heard this advice already and may be questioning its wisdom. You have probably seen, and perhaps were even prompted to become an attorney by, the brash and abrasive lawyers on any number of television programs; it never matters whether they alienate everyone around them since it always turns out all right in the end.
But, this is real life, not a script. Okay, then, in real life, your friends at law firms may have told you all about the screamers who get their work done by intimidating everyone within earshot. Screamers are the exception and, for any number of reasons, particularly seniority or rainmaking, they are tolerated. As a summer associate, you are not in a position to emulate their style.
