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What If I Don’t Like My Intern?
Ok, so first I figure this was a good time to post this when I have NO interns assigned to me so that no one can think this is me throwing shade. I’ve manage a lot of interns since I began practicing–a lot. And if you ask any attorney that works with students frequently, they’ll tell you some interns they LOVED and some…were their interns lol. So I know that as new attorneys, working with students, we end up working with a medley of people and some we like, some we don’t. That’s normal–everyone isn’t for everybody, you know? But it can be difficult when we have a duty to…
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Quality Supervision: Ensuring Your Intern Grows
I say this all the time but it’s worth repeating: I love working with interns! I often feel like I’m drowning with work, but interns help make things move at a much faster pace. As I mentioned before, many attorneys dislike working with interns because they feel like it’s a lot of work for just a minimum amount of help. I do admit that it’s a lot of work upfront. But once you find a steady rhythm of supervising the work quality and quantity is so worth it! I can be tricky to manage when you’re new or when you’re not used to good supervision yourself–even though we’re in the midst of summer you…
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Lowered Expectations: Managing Interns & Boring Assignments
So here’s a funny story—practicing law can be boring. The day to day necessities can be tedious and annoying. Even when we really enjoy practicing law, there are parts of procedure and the rules that are just super boring. I mention this because many of us are about to start supervising interns and one of the biggest things we have to do when managing interns is to help manage their expectations—especially as they realize that the day to day of legal work isn’t exactly what they envisioned. First, most students, through no fault of their own, don’t really know what practicing law entails. I recall one student I interviewed that…
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Working with Interns as a New Attorney
Summer is my favorite time at work—not because of the nice weather or all the trips planned, but because we have a ton of student interns working with us, and that means that I’m going to get a ton of work done. A TON! Now, when I was still very new, I was uncomfortable directing students and didn’t know how to give them proper guidance. I would be disappointed in the completed work, and instead of confronting the student; I’d decide to just do the work myself. I think that is the method a lot of attorneys take because they get frustrated in the amount of work they have to…