We want LI to be one of the friendliest places on the internet, where lawyers and law students help each other with their career related queries and occasionally discuss other stuff that might affect their lives too. In other words:
1. Be kind, respectful and helpful to each other.
2. Be bona fide, truthful, genuine and curious.
3. Assume the best intention of others.
Therefore, in using the site, you must agree to do your best to uphold these community guidelines.
Note that what you find here is written and moderated by anonymous people on the internet.
Therefore everything you read here is very likely unverified, rumour, speculation and/or downright false.
In continuing to read anything here, you must therefore agree not to take anything you read here as factual and that you will exercise due caution, diligence and common sense before acting on any information you may come across here.
You also agree to report any inaccurate or malicious comments with the buttons. Moderators take action within 24 hours, as required and appropriate under law.
Our full terms and conditions apply too.
Do you solemnly agree to all of the above?
Crap happens. Unless your senior is an absolutely narcissistic POS, they will just ask you to not do it again.
But firing is not going to happen. At all.
You have made me a little less stressed as I settle into a strange city and a strange job!
When I was an A0, I once deleted a folder from the shared drive by mistake. It had working files for an ongoing deal. The team had to scramble to recover things, and I was genuinely scared I was going to get fired. I felt terrible. But the senior just said, “These things happen. Just be more careful,” and we moved on. You’re going to mess up. That’s part of the job, especially early on. Nobody expects you to know everything. What matters is how you bounce back, whether you’re learning, and if you’re reliable over time.
Don’t read too much into how quiet people are. Most seniors have seen these mistakes before. They’ll only be concerned if you stop trying or keep repeating things without learning.
So no, your career isn’t doomed. You’re just new. Give yourself time. It gets better.
All seniors from corp firms - please provide kind and helpful advice for A0s starting out in 2025 - is it really okay to fuck up in the first few weeks? Have seen differing opinions on this but have messed up once or twice myself and now not sure if seniors in the team are hiding their opinion of whether my career is doomed or not 🫥
Please advise!!