Too Many Closed Doors

Working at Donovan Hatem the past several weeks has allowed me to truly understand how complicated and multi-faceted an attorney’s work is. They are constantly juggling a huge case load and are required to be up to date on all relevant statutes and proceedings in cases under different jurisdictions across the country. Because most of the partners’ work is self-directed, there is little collaboration or firm-wide meetings to discuss current issues or successes in a larger group setting. Because this is a small firm, the attorneys are more aware of each other’s cases, however I believe they would benefit from a weekly or bi-weekly meeting to update on another on their successes and failures and apply what they learned to future cases. There are so many intelligent and experienced partners that the associates can gain immense knowledge from, but I believe the partner’s expertise is underused in properly training the next generation of lawyers. There are so many moving pieces, that it seems like lawyers do not always use their time as effectively as possible because they are constantly being pulled in different directions. Although I believe this is problematic, I think it is a systemic issues that occurs in all law firms because of the nature of the work. There are ways to mitigate the sporadic nature of the job, such as finishing a task completely rather than working on several simultaneously, however phone calls and urgent emails are bound to occur and it is unlikely a lawyer will have all the information they need on hand to complete a task in one sitting. I believe increased collaboration between the associates and the partners would help to aid in the associates learning. In addition, there could be a system set-up in which each partner is assigned an associate and they work together on all the same cases. The current system is a little more haphazard in which the associates work with several partners at the same time on different aspects of individual cases as needed. I think the consistency of an associate and partner on a case would be beneficial to both involved. Although these are small changes, I believe that increased collaboration firm-wide and a more structured mentorship program would greatly benefit both the attorneys and their clients.