Page 2 - First-Year Associates Handbook

S2 | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014 | First-Year Associates Handbook
| NYLJ.COM

First Year

Managing Your BigLaw Career From the Start

BY GILLAD MATITEYAHU

It’s inally time to put all that schooling to

good use—Welcome to being a irst-year
associate! Being a lawyer is akin to build-
ing a personal brand. Your success at build-
ing your brand will be directly proportional
to your skills, reputation, and credibility. In
today’s competitive legal landscape, being
an exemplary lawyer with great attention to
detail and a knack for meeting tight dead-
lines is simply par for the course. So, how

can you distinguish yourself from your peers?
This article is geared toward helping you
make the most of your irst year by setting
goals, improving your networking skills, and
using the latest technological tools that can
increase your eficiency and lifehack your
career.
Early in your irst year you will encoun-
ter the steep learning curve in your practice

area and realize that it may be dificult to
ind purpose as a irst-year associate. You
may work grueling hours and be thrust into
projects with little sense of the bigger pic-
ture. It is critical that amidst the tedium, you
continually strategize about your long-term
career.
Your irst task is to create a list of profes-

sional goals. Creating a list of professional
goals is of paramount importance to your
development because it will give you a sense
of direction and focus your efforts to build
your reputation. I personally found it to be K
extraordinarily dificult to set speciic goals OC
with the very limited knowledge of what was GST
expected from me beyond getting my assign- : BI
ments done well and in a timely manner. Keith AGE
R IM
Ferrazzi, acclaimed writer and author of the
VE
CO
|
GILLAD MATITEYAHU is an associate at Cadwalader, K
Wickersham & Taft in New York. JEFFREY ROTBLAT, TOC
a partner at the irm, supervised the writing of this IGS
article.
B

Contents

DIVERSITY
PUBLIC RELATIONS
FUNDAMENTALS
Lean In, But Don’t Blend In S6 Using PR to Lay a Foundation for Success S8 Basic Principles Make Exceptional Attorneys
S4
BY ALLEGRA J. LAWRENCE-HARDY
BY JAMIE DIAFERIA AND JESSE DUNGAN
BY WILLIAM T. MCCAFFERY

• •
FIRST-YEAR ASSOCIATES HANDBOOK, New York Law Journal Special Report:
KRIS FISCHER, Editor-In-Chief ANGELA TURTURRO, Sections Editor
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