Getting Started

At this time last year, I was consumed by thoughts of starting my new job.

• What would my first project be like?  I would wait three months for my first project, supporting a deal out of the firm's Tokyo office.  The tasks I was assigned during this first deal included: printing, stapling, compiling documents in binders, delivering printed documents to conference rooms, diligence, and compiling a diligence memorandum.

• Would the other attorneys act differently than they had while I was a summer associate?  Yes.  I joined a relatively small practice group with four partners and seven associates.  One partner and one associate (whose office was two doors down from my own) only spoke to me once in the six months that I worked there.  When the work runs dry, a practice group of seemingly great people can turn unpleasant fast.

• Were there any active deals in the office?  Rarely, and when one appeared, I would not be staffed on the deal because the partners decided work would go to the most senior associates first (the managing partner of the group made this policy explicit).  After transferring offices, I would later learn that a key senior associate deemed giving any work to me a "waste of time" because (i) it was clear there wasn't enough work to sustain the number of associates in the group, (ii) it didn't make sense to spend time getting me involved in the small amount of work in the office when other associates had already been trained, and (iii) it was implied that I would either be let go or transferred because there simply wasn't enough work to go around.

Blissfully unaware of the workflow problem, I also worried myself over more trivial details:

• What would I wear?  After four years of wearing jeans to campus every day, I spent an entire afternoon re-evaluating the clothes in my closet.  I now work in a practice group in which I am the only woman, and I worry whether I'm dressing too feminine or too young from time to time.  I still don't feel like I have my work wardrobe figured out.

• What supplies would I need to have on-hand in my desk drawer?  Corporette has recently devoted an entire post to the subject and, as of this writing, 65 commenters have entered the fray.

• What would I carry?  My firm provides a standard-issue laptop bag.  Its enormity and heft belies the surprisingly small amount of storage space.  It's also outrageously masculine.  Finding a sophisticated, but feminine laptop bag was no small task.  Eventually, I decided to splurge on a sleek, but practical, bag from Lodis (in black).  I'm happy with my choice.  This bag has held up well.  I expect that it will be around for years to come after learning that a senior associate in the litigation group has been carrying a different model from the same company for years.

My practice group doesn't have any first-year associates starting this fall (or this year), but I hope all the freshly minted associates get off to a great start, or at least a better start than I did!