| Transitioning from a junior bankruptcy associate to a mid-level bankruptcy associate can sometimes feel like climbing the staircases at Hogwarts: difficult and uneasy at first, but it eventually becomes second nature. As a junior associate, one learns the fundamentals of bankruptcy law, fine-tunes research skills, and finds an understanding of how to work with managing and senior associates and partners. Stepping into a mid-level position requires letting go of the handrails and transitioning into managing up and down, engaging with clients, and running the day-to-day of cases.
This ascension up the hierarchical legal staircase happens over time (rather than the day your title changes). While we are by no means experts, we want to offer a few tips and tricks we have picked up throughout our personal transitions from junior to mid-level bankruptcy associates in the hopes of making the transition as smooth as possible for others in the future.
The Role of a Junior Associate
There is a reason junior associates are sometimes referred to as “baby lawyers.” A first-year associate is much like a newborn baby, dropped in an unfamiliar place where they must learn almost everything about the work of actually being a lawyer. On-the-job training takes on a whole new meaning as a first-year associate. For Elysa, she still remembers the time a partner kept asking her to put the “caption” on a pleading but had no idea what that meant! She kept writing the name of the case in bigger and bigger font at the top of the page until her assistant finally took pity and showed her what a case caption was in a pleading.
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