Vault Law

It’s the most stressful time of year—whether it be annual reviews, bonus season, or law school finals—all are major events that can make us feellike we aren’t good enough. The dreaded imposter syndrome can take hold at any point in our careers.

If you struggle to make decisions, you’re not alone. Most of us have a hard time making at least some decisions in life.

“New hire’s remorse”—at least under this name—is a recent phenomenon that we broached last week. Also called “shift shock,” it arises when an employee regrets taking a job because it isn’t the right fit or is completely different from what was expected.

Starting as a first year at a law firm can be overwhelming. You are meeting new people, encountering new professional demands, and learning new substantive areas of law.

For many of today’s law students, firm culture, location, and practice area remain the most important factors in deciding where to apply. Recently, students have discovered that evaluating these factors — and making the right choice for their legal career — is easier when opting to apply directly to firms for summer positions.

Defining Pro Bono Pro bono publico (“for the public good”), or pro bono work, is the offering of free or low-cost services to those who cannot afford them. Pro bono is either required or strongly encouraged in the legal community for all lawyers and is not limited to those who chose public service as a career.

Starting your career in Big Law as a summer associate can feel like the beginning of your freshman year at college. The excitement of embarking on a new stage of life is exhilarating.

We are all familiar with buyer’s remorse, whether personally or anecdotally. It is the sense of regret that comes from obtaining something—perhaps a major item like a house or a car, or even something mundane like a pair of shoes—you realize you don’t like and don’t really need.

Choosing a practice area is a pivotal decision as you launch your legal career, shaping the nature of the work, the legal skills you develop, your network and your long-term career opportunities. It is also a very personal choice based on your career goals.

Rejection is never easy, especially early on in your career. If you struck out during on-campus interviews (OCI), you may feel like your career ended before it even began.

Up until now, we’ve discussed design thinking as a somewhat abstract concept. To borrow the definition from the Interaction Design Foundation, design thinking is “a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems, and create innovative solutions to prototype and test.

In our last blog post about design thinking, we promised that we would teach you how to apply it to career decisions and achieve amazing results. We intend to keep that promise.

In 1983, the American Bar Association adopted the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which govern lawyers’ ethical and professional responsibilities to their clients, to the legal system, to the legal profession generally, and for the quality of justice. [i] All states have subsequently created their own rules of professional conduct to regulate lawyers’ activities and behaviors.

On Thursday, November 10, 2022, Vault Law will host a 1L Diversity Summit for diverse law students in the very early stages of their legal careers. You can register for this free informational summit here, and learn more about it below.

Law firm mentorship programs benefit everyone involved—the mentor, the mentee, the firm, and the profession. While it may seem like a lot of work, the outcomes of having a mentorship program outweigh any perceived downside.

A quick search for law firms and diversity on Google will return a myriad of “Diversity Scorecard” news. Since at least 2016, ALM Intelligence, an information and intelligence company, has been ranking the diversity of a law firm’s composition as firms have been advocating for greater diversity in the workplace.

You’ve spent three years in law school—and perhaps some time practicing law—and realize now that the idea of spending time in a courtroom, reviewing contracts, poring over financial statements, taking depositions, dealing with clients, going toe-to-toe with opposing counsel, or keeping track of billable hours turns your stomach. And this isn’t merely a passing phase, but a certainty—you do not want to practice law.

Being laid off from your job can be one of the worst experiences of your professional life. The sting of a layoff can feel personal and traumatic, and while that is a natural human reaction, being laid off can also be a fresh start to something wonderful.

In our last post, Part 1, we detailed the findings in Section 1 of the Vault Law 2022 Diversity Survey report pertaining to firm policies, efforts, and initiatives in the DEI space. Today, we will walk through the key findings from Part 2, going over current law firm demographics.Women make up 49% of associates at the average law firm, up from 47% last year, but representation declines as we move up the ladder.

If there’s one thing this writer loves, it’s fusion. In cuisine, fusion brings us such gustatory treasures as the “kimchidilla” and the “sushirrito,” both of which are next level delicious.

Being a lawyer is stressful. Many factors—demanding workloads, long hours, deadlines, billable hour requirements, pressure to secure favorable outcomes for clients, student loan debt, the demands of keeping up with ever-changing law, and innumerable others—contribute to this.

Great leaders aren’t born. Leading well requires a certain set of skills.

We’re under no illusions that this post is the first to address the question of what makes a “good” junior associate (given that a quick Google search will reveal numerous identical-sounding pieces). What makes this post different is the simplicity of our suggestions that can help you from Day One.

The costs related to legal services have ballooned in recent years. Last week we reviewed attorney fees, billing rates, and what Americans spend on legal services each year.