A Few Tips for New Attorneys, 0915 ALBJ, 76 The Alabama Lawyer 324 (2015)
| Author | By Amy M. Hampton |
| Position | Vol. 76 5 Pg. 324 |
By Amy M. Hampton
As I began thinking about giving advice to new lawyers, I considered what I like to read. I want to know how my peers do what they do, what they learned on their journey to their success and if they can help me succeed.
I have now been out of law school longer than I was in it, which seems like forever ago, but it has only been six years. I have had three jobs in that time and learned valuable lessons from each. Hopefully, I am at my last job; I am a shareholder in my firm with my law partner, whom I met in law school. I can honestly say that I love my job and I really enjoy the area of law that I practice. Of course there are days when I want to quit, but they are getting few and far between.
I mainly (99.8 percent) practice bankruptcy law, representing debtors. I always thought I would represent creditors, working in a big firm, in a big city, wearing power suits, on the 20th floor of a high-rise building, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the many attorneys and support staff around me. That is the opposite of what I do and where I am. I practice in a small city in old houses that have been converted into offices. We have five attorneys in the offices–my law partner, three associates and me–two secretaries and two closing specialists. I wear suits on the days I go to court and business casual the rest of the time. I love it, but it did not happen overnight. Tip number one: Have several goals, but be willing to revise them often.
I knew that hard work would pay off, or at least I believed that it would. I repeated to myself, “All good things come to those who wait” and “Slow and steady wins the race” mainly because patience is not my strength. I got a job the week before I found out the bar results, pending the outcome, of course. I was so excited to be able to say that I had job in the legal field, and not just a job.
It was with a one-attorney firm. I am grateful for that opportunity, and learned that family law was not what I enjoyed practicing. I can do it, but I really do not like it. My parents divorced when I was in my teens and that experience left a bitter taste in my mouth. My favorite law professor teaches family law. In class, she mentioned that children of divorce either embrace family law because they want to help others with their knowledge, or they run from it like the plague. I handled one...
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