As a young associate in a busy Social Security disability practice, I attend between five and 10 administrative law hearings on average each week. This guarantees one thing in particular: I am going to have a lot of client interaction. And yes, I said it, I am a young associate. At the age of 26, I look about my age. This has raised concerns about my competence and has drawn skepticism from some of my clients.
In fact, after an interaction over the phone or upon first seeing me, quite a few of my clients have asked me how old I am and what my qualifications are. At first, I took umbrage to such a question because, to me, it implied that my client was not entirely confident in my capabilities based on my looks or my youthful voice. I took a strategy of evading the question, angry that my client was immediately suspect of me for a characteristic beyond my control.
