Are you a new attorney starting out but feeling overwhelmed, disorganized and like you're not matching the skills that you laid out on your resume? Are you fearing that the people who hired you will realize that you don't really know what you're doing, that your skills only scratch the surface? Are you already missing deadlines or turning in the wrong thing when asked for work? If so, you'll want to watch this video to the end. I'll cover what's happening and the solutions that you can easily Implement to perform well, meet EXP expectations and feel confident about your role as an attorney .
Hi. I'm Jennifer Duclair, Attorney Mindset Mentor helping you build a law life that you can fall in love with on this channel. I cover the gamut from starting out in your attorney life to increasing your income and finding balance between work life and home life so that you can feel fulfilled across the board and really love the life that you've earned now.
If you're a new attorney diving in in yay you this means you graduated law school you passed the bar exam and you secured your new job and yet you probably realize now that feeling of not being enough and not Measuring Up doesn't go away in fact the stakes get higher and now you're really feeling the impact of feeling behind the eightball. As far as your skills are concerned to top it off you may not have ready access to your employer or attorneys who have been working there longer than you so you end up spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to do it yourself but at the same time you need communication you need to interact with other clients and you actually need to turn in the work that you've been asked for, so you find yourself working over time through the night and on the weekends.
First let me assure you that you are not abnormal you're not doing anything wrong and this is actually a very normal scenario for new attorneys, you can expect to be working more than your colleagues while you're producing less for the first six to 12 months of your career.It's normal but you don't have to stay there.
In this video I'm going to outline the things that you can do to help your mind be at peak speed for learning to surmount that learning curve and get to a more normal work schedule faster whether you implement these tips or not. I want to assure you, you will get there. You're a very capable attorney you got here through your skills and your will. You will get to the other side of this learning curve but here's what can make it easier
Number one, If you find yourself not only feeling behind the eight ball as far as your skills are concerned needing to do extra research to get things done but also look around you and see that you're way more disorganized than you'd like to be and that you actually have to spend a whole afternoon or even your time off to reorganize your work area, so that you can get back to it chances are you are suffering from nervous system disregulation which happens very easily If you're worried about things. You're worried about your work product. You're worried about missing a deadline. You're worried about somebody calling you up and telling you that this is not good with their scaving criticisms. I'm sorry that you're going through that you'll want to calm yourself and find ways to stay proactively calm. This is not the time to dispense with your exercise routine. This is not the time to skip your meditation sessions. This is not the time to skimp on sleep. All those things that have helped you to be a balanced and healthy person up till now, you'll need to bring them in again or even double down on them and do more of them. I know this might sound C productive, the truth is that if your mind is scattered and your body is in constant fight flight mode with no relief, you're wasting more time than you think. You're sitting there reading things and not synthesizing the information properly so your first order of business is to get re-regulated. Recover your nervous system, calm yourself back down.
Now this is particularly difficult for people who are used to working against deadlines and feel that they're the kind of person who works well under pressure. What's happening is that you are accustomed to being in fight flight mode so you may not realize that your nervous system is disregulated but I can tell you that a Calm Mind does much better work you will be intuitively led to the resources, you need to complete your work more efficiently and you'll be able to retain information better for the next go round more importantly. When you're interacting with your boss or colleagues you won't be so stretched thin that you have absolutely no resilience for constructive criticism that could come your way calming your nervous system before you do anything else is going to enhance your work let it take less time and your work product will be so much better that you will feel confident sooner as an attorney.
Now there is a learning curve and it does take time. My recommendation to the attorney clients that I Mentor is that you do not do that learning on the job, instead be proactive about your learning. Find out the bodies of work that have the most comprehensive information for your area of Law and set aside time on the weekends to self study. I know you think you left behind the studying thing back with law school and the bar exam but I assure you that if you want these next 6 to 12 months to go faster and to feel confident. Sooner self-studying is your Ace in the Hole. This is going to be where you calmly gather the information you need. This is where you repeat and review things that you were learning on the go, maybe in fight flight mode during the day at work and now you get to calmly review it and go “Oh that makes sense now”, this is where you also have a library of information in your head so that when your boss or someone who's training you mentions something you actually have a reference point for it , this is where you get to review the information and then take a nap afterwards to let your brain synthesize it for you. This is how you let your brain do the heavy lifting to learn your area of law instead of you feeling scattered trying to learn it on the goal while you're trying to put together a document or meet a deadline so I highly recommend that you set aside time for self study. You'll only need to do this for a few weeks if not up to three month, you'll find yourself way more up to speed and getting your work done a lot faster and more confidently the third thing to look at.If you find yourself in a situation where you're overwhelmed with your tasks you're not getting them done on time you're missing deadlines in communications, you're feeling like you're not measuring up to what your boss is expected of you and you are in constant fight flight mode with your nervous system.
What you'll want to do is gain a resource for mentorship and guidance it may not be your boss maybe it's a colleague who's been working there for a longer time or maybe it's outside of your firm or organization, maybe you get plugged into a group like the Attorney Mastermind that I run every quarter or maybe your networking has been working for you and you have other attorneys that you can call up get support and get guidance on things. What's really important is having someone who has walked the road ahead of you at least just two or three years ahead of you and can give you advice and effective strategies to complete your work and to feel confident on the job you can gather as much information from books and and YouTube videos and podcasts as possible, but there's something about the human touch and hearing from someone else that your experience is validated and your ideas on what to do are sound that really puts you in comfort so much quicker and'll free you to get your work done and get your work life balance going.
Look below for a link for a 15 minute call with me if you'd like to go deeper into what your particular situation is and what resources are available to help you through it. We've got a wide variety of on demand workshops, master classes that are live and also our coaching programs ,there's the attorney Mastermind where you'll get to meet with a group of colleagues under my leadership where we'll walk through your current work problems and get you to the resolution or private attorney mentoring one-on-one with me. Look below for a link to explore the resources that are available and if you'd like you can book a 15-minute mini consult with me to get an overview of where your step place is and where you can work to get the most bang for your buck.
See you in the next video.