A first year associate's experience can be described as everything from “exhilarating” to “sort of what I thought it would be” to “nightmare.” After conquering the challenges posed by law school and the bar exam, young lawyers basically still know very little about the actual practice of law. Whether spent at a firm or (less likely) in-house, that first year out of law school is an important and intense time of learning, fraught with equally intense highs and lows. In this feature, associates Phemie Thomopulos and Valentina Rucker share their own on-the-job learning experiences.
Phemie Thomopulos
Euphemia “Phemie” Thomopulos graduated from Columbia Law School in December 2007, and joined Perkins Coie LLP's San Francisco office the following spring. “On my second day, I was asked to draft an answer and prepare for deposition. That was fairly terrifying,” she recalls with a chuckle. “Scrambling to put something together gives you a certain level of confidence, it's true—but at this point I like the smaller, discrete projects geared to first- and second-years. They give me the chance to learn and thoroughly understand what I'm doing.”
Thomopulos typically spends her days absorbed in labor and employment, commercial litigation, and antitrust work, mostly by preparing research projects and fulfilling requests made by partners and mid-level associates. Less frequently, she might draft an argument section for a motion for discovery, or participate in brainstorming sessions where larger arguments are crafted.
“Perkins did an excellent job in making the intern experience as realistic as possible, but nothing prepares first-year associates for their new work schedule,” admits Thomopulos. “As a summer associate at Perkins' Seattle office, I'd typically have 40 hours to complete a project, and now I usually finish a comparable project in a day or two. Despite the abbreviated deadlines, you still want to turn in the best quality work that you possibly can, and that gets tricky. Also, as a first year, you're working longer days than ever before. You're no longer the master of your own time like you were in law school—it's a tough adjustment.
“The other big challenge is developing skills,” she continues. “It's really incredible just how little a first-year associate, fresh out of law school, actually knows when they walk into a firm, not only in terms of substantive legal skills but also about how to work with other lawyers. Sometimes you don't know where to start with research issues and you'd really like to be able to pull from a reserve of knowledge where all the ‘law' answers are stored, but of course it doesn't happen that way.”
Thomopulos is not afraid to recognize that, like a lot of first-years, “I sometimes feel overwhelmed. Sometimes when you've exhausted what seemed the obvious avenues, you need to ask your colleagues and mentors where to look for an answer, and that can be pretty humbling for a new lawyer.” On the upside, Thomopulos praises the supportive and patient team of people at Perkins. She seeks to learn something new every day, ranging from interpersonal skills to a newfound love for depositions.
Although she has yet to get involved with any affinity groups, Thomopulos is actively acquainting herself with the National Bar Association's young lawyer's division and the San Francisco Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights. Growing up in Iowa with West African immigrant parents (her surname comes from her father's half-Greek ethnicity), there were a lot of times when Thomopulos felt different from everyone in the room. “I still feel that way sometimes,” she notes. “And that's been good in a way, because it forced me to push outside of myself and make connections with people from dissimilar backgrounds. In that sense, it has been a gift. Still, I realize the playing field isn't perfectly level, but knowing that in no way deters me from reaching my goals. Twenty-five years ago, that might not have been the case.
“Since law school, I've been interested in litigation over business,” she continues. “Not that I'm argumentative, necessarily, but I love a good debate. That, coupled with my enthusiasm for reading and writing, led me to litigation. As a summer associate, I did a business project to test the waters a little, and that just confirmed my preference.”
Thomopulos is happy with her home at Perkins and optimistic about the future. “My long-range plan is to become a very good litigator and generally knowledgeable of the law with an area of specific expertise, but for right now, I'm focused on having the best first-year experience I possibly can.”
Valentina Rucker
Valentina Rucker had little to do with arranging the specifics of her 1L summer internship. As a selected scholar in the Washington Metropolitan Area Corporate Counsel Association's summer internship program, she was given a stipend and matched with a participating corporate legal department; in her case, it was Sodexo, Inc., a leading provider of integrated food and facilities management services in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Happily for Rucker, the months she spent in Sodexo's headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md., served as an instructive and extremely pleasant introduction to the legal profession.
“As the only intern in the office that summer,” recalls Rucker, a graduate of Howard Law School in 2007, “I was able to work with a lot of senior people on a personal level. All the attorneys paid close attention to my work, and were happy to take time to tell me ways in which I might improve. To be honest, everyone was just incredibly welcoming and helpful. You don't receive this kind of attention as a summer associate at a large firm.
“After one year of law school, I didn't know a lot, so most of my assignments were based on research that didn't require much legal knowledge,” Rucker continues. “I did a 50-state survey, wrote memos, and traveled to Delaware to sit in on board meetings. Unlike at firms, where summer associates regularly receive instruction in formal classes, there was no need for presentations at Sodexo. Typically, someone would just sit down with me and explain things.”
Today, Rucker is a first-year associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where her practice focuses on antitrust and trade regulation issues. “It's almost impossible to go straight from law school to in-house. Legal departments in companies don't have the resources or the time to train new lawyers,” explains Rucker. “And my practice area—antitrust—is so specialized that it doesn't lend itself to in-house unless you're with a powerhouse company. Typically, a company's antitrust questions are outsourced to a firm.”
At 15, Rucker left her native Russia to study in the U.S. “Both of my parents are doctors, so there was never any question about whether I'd go to school,” she notes. “It was more who would I be: a doctor, lawyer, CEO executive, engineer, or diplomat?”
As an undergraduate majoring in international affairs at Wichita State University, Rucker also owned a DirecTV retail outlet. At the time, her plan was to go on to business school and to build upon her practical experience at the store to advance in life, but Rucker reconsidered and went to law school. “I like being a student, so for me—and I might take some heat for this—law school was very enjoyable,” she explains. “My introduction to antitrust in my second year of law school changed my life.
“On the first day of my first antitrust class, the professor drew supply and demand curves on the board,” remembers Rucker. “A lot of the other students freaked out because they had purposely come to law school to get away from this sort of thing, but for me—because I'd excelled in economic, management, and businesses classes at college—I felt I was home.”
Looking back on her time at Sodexo, Rucker notes, “I wouldn't change a thing. The in-house internship gave me a glimpse into a corporate legal department that I otherwise wouldn't have had. It gave me a fuller picture of the profession, and taught me a lot about how companies work. I learned to write more economically. Business clients aren't interested in flowery prose. They want you to get to the point: scenarios, risks, and that's about it.”
Clearly smitten with antitrust work and very happy at Wilson Sonsini, Rucker's plan for the foreseeable future is to remain where she is; however, she notes, “My in-house experience was great, so if somewhere down the road the right opportunity with a big company presents itself, I'd definitely consider it.” DB
Patrick Folliard is a freelance writer based in Silver Spring, Md.
From the May/June 2009 issue of Diversity & The Bar®