How to Be a Lawyer: The Path from Law School to Success

Transform your legal education into a successful and fulfilling legal career
In How to Be a Lawyer: The Path from Law School to Success, a team of veteran lawyers and entrepreneurs delivers an eye-opening discussion of how to translate your years of training and education into a running start in the world of practice. The book bridges the gap between law school and practice, whether you hope to be a big firm transactional attorney, a solo criminal lawyer, work for the government or any other legal profession. You’ll discover how you can use what you learned in law school and how you can develop the real skills you’ll need as you deal with clients and colleagues.
The authors explain what your professors won’t tell you in law school and what employers and clients will actually expect from you. You’ll also find: Case studies and guest chapters describing the transition to major areas of law and how it can and should affect your law school decision making Expert advice on making your first job a successful one Guidance on how to avoid the most common career pitfalls and client mistakes Unfiltered opinions from clients about what they really think about lawyers
An ideal resource for aspiring and current law students and early career lawyers, How to Be a Lawyer is the practical blueprint you need to build your legal career from scratch.
From the Inside Flap
“It’s law school, not lawyer school.”
Many junior lawyers have heard this cliché from their more senior colleagues when they observe that the lessons learned in law school seem to have limited application to the daily realities of practice. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t effective strategies to make practical use of your education.
In How to Be a Lawyer: The Path from Law School to Success, accomplished lawyers and entrepreneurs Jason Mendelson and Alex Paul deliver an intensely practical blueprint to translating your years of training and education into a running start in real-world practice. In the book, you’ll find a bridge between the largely theoretical world of law school and the client-driven world of private or public practice.
Whether you’ve already started your first job at a large firm or you’re still in school and dreaming about a role at a small nonprofit or government agency, you’ll find the concrete advice you need to succeed in this book. It’s filled with relevant, digestible advice you won’t get from your professors, but unfortunately your employers and clients will expect you to know on your first day.
How to Be a Lawyer offers case studies and guest chapters from accomplished lawyers who successfully transitioned from school to a wide variety of law practices, from criminal to tax, corporate, litigation, and more. The authors explain how you can radically improve your performance at your first job and avoid the most common career pitfalls and client service mistakes that can slow your progress.
Ideal for all aspiring and current law students, this book is also an essential read for early-career lawyers looking for a reliable and insightful roadmap to navigating a legal career.
From the Back Cover
PRAISE FOR HOW TO BE A LAWYER
“How To Be a Lawyer should be required reading for anyone entering the legal profession. Today, more than ever, to represent clients effectively, attorneys must not only be experts in the law, but be practical, creative, and emotionally intelligent problem solvers. This book goes a long way in helping new lawyers get a jumpstart on the critical skills they will need to succeed.”
—RICH BAER, Chief Legal Officer, Airbnb
“I am so happy someone finally wrote this book! Any law student or young lawyer who aspires to be a truly great and successful lawyer should read this book. For all its academic rigor and intellectual challenge, law school teaches students practically nothing about perhaps the most crucial skills for a successful lawyer—the soft skills that create trust, foster relationships, and provide the clie