10 Habits Every New Lawyer Should Learn

Adrienne Randle Bond
Texas Lawyer
June 08, 2010

While law school teaches students how to think through legal issues, it is less effective at teaching how to go about daily life as a lawyer. Below are 10 habits law schools do not teach but should. The sooner new lawyers adopt these habits, the better off they will be.

1. Keep track of time every day.

Practicing law is a service business, where legal services constitute inventory. If a lawyer does not contemporaneously write down what she does, she will forget the information quickly. Clients' memories of precise facts change, and lawyers' do, too. Keeping track of time every day will help produce a more profitable career.

As a corollary, during the first year of law practice, do not worry about how long it takes to complete assignments. Seasoned attorneys know new associates take longer to complete projects than do veterans. As associates gain experience, they will work more efficiently. If a new lawyer keeps track of his time, he will be able to chart his own improving efficiency.

2. Check the top and bottom of each document for the spelling of the client's name.

Clients may not understand the intricacies of tax law or civil procedure, but they certainly know how to spell their names. If a lawyer does not get that detail correct, the client may begin to doubt the lawyer's accuracy more globally.

3. Check to see that documents include each page they should.

It is easy for a copier or scanner to miss a page. Lawyers need to discover the absence before sending the document to a client, an opponent or a court.

4. Print out the final document and proofread back to front.

Lawyers miss more errors when reading a document on a computer screen than they do after printing it out. Proofread and spell check the final document, then print it out. Then read it from end to beginning. When going over a document from beginning to end, the reader can skip obvious mistakes, especially when she wrote the document. But starting from the final sentence, moving backward and reading each sentence in isolation renders the document alien. It prevents expectations from intruding on perception. Errors become easier to notice.

5. Keep e-mail simple.

E-mail is a dangerous part of the legal business because of its speed and informality. Do not make any untoward remarks about anyone in writing, and strive to keep e-mail as simple as possible. If there is a complicated issue to explain, resort to the old-fashioned memo to the file; do not use the e-mail for those matters.

6. Start a database of business contacts.

Even in these days of social networking, lawyers need to keep such a record of contacts. I am constantly amazed at how the people in my original Rolodex keep popping up. The "six degrees of separation" phenomenon, in which we are all connected to one another by six or less personal contacts, magnifies over time as lawyers gain experience and build their reputations. Work at maintaining contacts and building a network.

7. RTC.

Read the contract. This basic yet indispensible rule applies to business lawyers and litigators. If a client asks what to do, first take out the agreement out and look for the answer there. Most of the time there is an applicable provision.

8. RTS.

Read the statute. Do not rely on memory. Get out the actual provision (it's much easier in these Internet days) and read the language in light of the particular facts of the client's case. Do not shoot from the hip; go to the source. Each fact pattern will provide a twist upon which the statutory language will shed new light.

9. CC the client.

Keep the client informed. In my early days as a lawyer, that meant mailing clients a copy of correspondence. Now, it means copying them on e-mail and making regular phone contact. This does not mean a lawyer should rush to respond to a client's question before he knows the answer, but it does mean he should keep clients abreast of the traffic in their matters as promptly as possible.

10. Harness the power of pedagogy.

Put sticky notes that read "RTC," "RTS" and "CC the Client" on the computer monitor, along with "Think before you click." Visual reminders are great when trying to establish new habits. Use them like flash cards. Lawyers who are serious about establishing good habits can take it a step further and repeat the words out loud. This technique targets the three processing styles for learning: kinesthetic (writing it down), visual (sticky notes) and auditory (saying it out loud). Help the brain create the desired habit.

The practice of law is a worthy career; mastery does not come quickly or easily. Creating good habits from the beginning, however, will make a difference in the short and long run. Good luck and, to quote the famous "Hill Street Blues" saying, "Let's be careful out there."

Adrienne Randle Bond is a partner in Bond & Smyser in Houston. She focuses on energy and energy finance, including complex corporate, partnership and securities law, oil and gas finance transactions and mergers and acquisitions.