Among the issues facing law firms is how to train new law school graduates in the art and practice of law in the midst of billing pressures and client concerns that they are footing the bill to train newly hired lawyers. There may be no tougher job in the legal profession than facilitating the transition of a first-year attorney into a functional, successful professional. According to a 2011 study by the Association of Corporate Counsel for The Wall Street Journal, internal cost controls have resulted in more companies refusing to pay for the work of first-year lawyers.
Firms have the ability to help change the perception that first-year lawyers are incapable of contributing quality work. Changing this perception requires a firm’s sincere commitment to actually mentoring first-year attorneys as to how to practice. Mentoring not only fulfills a lawyer’s professional duty to supervise junior attorneys, but it also makes sense economically by reducing attrition and increasing the quality and efficiency of the young lawyer’s work.
