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?
(a) you need to distinguish between your anxieties (constant fear of getting fired or getting threats of being fired, miscommunication as to what the end deliverable will be, missing small things) and things that are actually problematic at your workplace (Getting reprimanded weekly for everything under the sun, not doing the work on weekend that I was asked to take up the next wednesday). If your anxieties are largely due to how you are treated in your team and the environment that you face day on day - then you have a problem. A place which strikes down your confidence for the wrong reasons and in a wrong way - is not worth working at (some humbling is part of professional life - e.g., when you meet someone who can solve a problem you are grappling with with ease - but that is fine). So take a call.
(b) There is always an adjustment period. If you are 6 months into the profession - you will make mistakes. You need to commit to learning from them and having a system through which they don't get repeated. But I would say, it is as much a responsibility of your seniors to mentor you with some compassion. By doing this, they are not doing samaj sewa- but rather ensuring that you become a contributor to the team's work (which also in the long run would benefit their bottom line). If your seniors don't understand this and you are not getting the required mentorship - please move to a different place. No point suffering as a broken person (& also not learning).
I'm often sreprimanded for mistakes most of which are usually made when I'm confused about something and do not want to disturb my senior by asking them up every 30 minutes. Sometimes, I'm certain that I'm completing my assignments in the correct way but then later I'm confronted with my mistakes.
I want to be seen as an associate whom the partner can rely upon.
I lose my momentum after each setback then it takes at least a couple of weeks to get the confidence back.
Other A0s here, do you also experience this? Do you feel lost too? Like you don't know anything, constant fear of getting fired or getting threats of being fired, miscommunication as to what the end deliverable will be, missing small things, idk, please share your experiences.
6 months as an A0 and I feel dumb as if I am growing and then coming back to where I started. Getting reprimanded weekly for everything under the sun (drafts, emails, following instructions to the T, not doing the work on weekend that I was asked to take up the next wednesday)