Here’s how I spent the last few days:
- Ordering lunch and dinner for the deal team
- Arranging for the building’s air conditioning to remain on after hours
- Fulfilling print requests
- Getting admonished for using the “wrong” printer
- Arranging for messenger pick-up
- Providing lists of client and attorney names to building security and parking attendants
- Validating parking
- Greeting meeting attendees (a/k/a playing receptionist)
I’m the only 1st year in a practice group with secretaries that go home at 4pm, which provides some context for the above. (I’m also the only female in my practice group, which may or may not have something to do with this.) I understand that someone has to take on these types of chores and, as the junior person, that someone is me. But I’m still disappointed. If I’m going to answer my phone, roll out of bed, and hustle to the office at 2:30am, I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to do at least one substantive thing during the subsequent 24 hours that I’m in the office.
I became a lawyer because I wanted to do intellectually challenging work, but I’ve yet to get an assignment that has been more substantive than anything that I did as a paralegal. My group doesn’t have any new associates starting this fall, so I’ll be low man on the totem pole for some time yet.
Read the full article: Playing Receptionist (or "What 1st Year Corporate Associates Do – Part II")