In your experience, do new lawyers have the necessary skills to be ready to practice?
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In its first annual survey of law students, professors and practitioners, the BARBRI Group reports that one of the key findings was this: “Law students, and particularly 3L law students, assess their own readiness to practice law more positively than do attorneys who work with recent law school graduates.”
The group’s “State of the Legal Field Survey” (PDF) found that while 76 percent of 3Ls felt they were ready to practice “right now,” only 56 percent of practicing attorneys who work with recent law grads felt that the newly minted lawyers were prepared to practice law.
So this week, we’d like to ask you: Have the new lawyers you’ve worked with possessed the necessary skills to practice law right off the bat? What knowledge, if any, were they lacking? When you were a recent law grad, did you feel prepared and ready? And looking back, do you think you adequately assessed your own skills?
Answer in the comments.
Read the answers to last week’s question: What is your office doing to be eco-friendly?
Featured answers:
Posted by Netochka Nezvanova: “We stopped buying bottled water and got a water filtration system for the kitchen. We put a pitcher of water in the waiting room instead of handing out bottled water. We have ceramic coffee cups in the kitchen instead of paper (but for some reason we still put paper coffee cups in the waiting room). The partners like to tell clients that we’re ‘paperless’, but then they’re the worst at printing up every single email so it can be put in the file, even the ones that only say ‘thanks.’ “
Do you have an idea for a future question of the week? If so, contact us.
