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A law student’s standardized feedback is usually relegated to simply a grade A-D. This simple indicator of how “well” a law student does is the extent to which students can “understand” what they may have done correctly or incorrectly.
I was lucky to have great professors who were willing to meet outside of the classroom to give substantive feedback. That was an optional choice, one that puts the onus on students to make that first step. As uncomfortable as it was to figure out what grade you received in a class, that was really the end of that particular class’s “instruction.” You didn’t have a future filing deadline or additional edits to be made. You received a grade, and in many cases “that was it.”
This is mirrored when law students graduate and begin to study for the bar exam. While the Uniform Bar Exam hands out a numerical score, I am sure that all of my classmates would agree that they are really just looking for the “Congratulations” at the beginning of the score report. Again we have feedback that is generally diluted down to a simple “pass” or “fail.” This system that everyone is so accustomed to completely changes as soon as you are sworn in. Long gone are the days of a simple grade. Redlines, comments and exemplars become the new “feedback” to a young attorney.
Suffice it to say, this can be extremely overwhelming, especially when you may be exploring unfamiliar areas of the law or legal practice. There is already a learning curve to becoming an attorney — new responsibilities, trying to find the elusive “work-life balance” and handling this new world you have joined. Learning this new system of feedback adds to those responsibilities but is crucial to beginning to become a successful attorney.
I am not trying to indicate that I have all of the right answers. However, I know from personal experience that embracing redlines, comments and substantive feedback will allow you to gain confidence and grow as an attorney and as a professional.
It can be initially disheartening to work extremely hard, stay after hours and spend substantial time on research only to get a brief or motion filled with feedback and redlines. Sometimes it can feel that you may have wasted your time. However, once you embrace this learning and feedback process, you begin to see the bigger picture and are able to build “healthy” habits as a young attorney.
I have been blessed with incredible attorneys and mentors to learn from. They are willing to take the time to give me feedback and push me to be the best I can be. That starts with creating these “healthy” habits so that they become second-nature — even when they feel so foreign in the beginning. This learning process also requires a scary proposition — that you will make mistakes (sometimes multiple mistakes at the same time). Again, accepting these mistakes and using them as learning moments will allow you to grow as an attorney and give you the confidence that you won’t make them in the future. These mistakes may sting in the moment, but they are a challenge to learn and to move forward as a more experienced and confident practitioner.
I always thought that law school was the journey, and becoming an attorney was the “light at the end of the tunnel.” I was wrong. Your first day as an attorney is the start of a long, arduous journey of education and learning. One of my bosses told me that the practice of law is like peeling an onion: As soon as you get comfortable with the first layer, you discover an entirely new layer to explore. Embracing the journey, the mistakes, the feedback and the redlines is all part of this journey. Even only seven months in, I have discovered so much, and every day is an opportunity to get better and become the attorney that we all spent years striving to be.
This doesn’t mean there won’t be difficult days. What it does mean is that you can be confident that you will learn from those difficult days and become a better attorney because of it.•
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Pitchford is an associate at CohenMalad LLP.
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