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 kept talking about wanting to work on “human rights” (and trust, this isn’t judgment because I had that same fixation when I was new)—but the more we dissected what that meant to him, the more I realized that they only had an idealistic vision of what practicing law could be like and had no clue what it really involves.  So imagine if this student came on board wanting to practice this nebulous idea of “human rights” only to then be assigned mundane tasks—tasks that are boring but have to get done in order to move a case forward? In cases like this, the student becomes disengaged and blames the experience on the firm or the attorney, rather than realizing that day-to-day practice is just not very exciting.

Second, some students don’t know their limits and expect to be given too many leading roles, which isn’t realistic. I’m not saying students should only be assigned administrative tasks because that defeats the purpose of their externship. But there may be times when a student really wants to do more in a case (stand in court, for example) but if that’s not right for the case then it’s just not an opportunity you can offer the student and it may difficult for them to come to terms with that.

The best way to manage these expectations and avoid bad feelings or mediocre work is to inform the student of the realities of the job. When I work with a student I explain that there is an ebb and flow of exciting work, but that overall procedure, administrative work, etc. is part and parcel of legal practice.

Then I make sure to give the students a mix of assignments. I keep track of assignments and try to make sure that not everything they are assigned is boring. This helps the student stay engaged and more willing to do the mundane things because they know that they’re also working on meatier assignments.

Finally, I ask the student at the beginning what is their ultimate goal for their experience—a writing sample, court experience, client counseling etc., and strive to make sure they get that before the end of the summer so that they can leave satisfied that they’ve accomplished their goals and increased their lawyering skills.

I know some attorneys may be like who currs about an interns expectations—they just need to do the work. I know I had supervisors like that and you can work like that if you want to, but 1) we were all interns at one point and there’s no point in being salty towards students just because you’re at a different level, and 2) working with interns is a great way to flex supervisory skills that you may not get to do as an associate or staff attorney—no one likes a shitty boss so why not work on skills that will make you a great boss in the future?

When you were an intern what did your favorite boss do to help you grow?