The Flip Side of Associate Feedback
When young lawyers submit work to partners, they long for constructive
feedback. In return, they insist, all they get is “blood”—red ink splashed over
every word of their draft.
“It’s hopeless,” I often hear. “Why even bother?”
But is the problem so one-sided?
Let’s face it: most partners don’t have time
to sit down with an associate to pore over a revised draft. Yet they do care
deeply about developing associates’ writing skills.
How to Receive Feedback
Young attorneys need to do what they can to generate their own feedback as
they work through partners’ edits:
- No one likes to see their written work ripped to shreds, but don’t fall
back on the crutch that legal writing is all “subjective.” Most edits are
worth taking seriously. At every firm I work with, the partners agree on which
associates are the strongest writers. Buried in the mass of edits you see
before you is a message about how to join them. If nothing else, be happy when
the partner or senior associate returns your draft all marked up—it means your
draft was a good start.
- When you review partners’ edits, try to separate minor stylistic quirks
from basic writing techniques. Too many associates obsess over which partners
like the word “clearly” and which hate sentences that start with “However.”
Too few associates obsess over how to generate what all partners want to
read—clear, concise prose that’s well supported and easy to follow. It’s much
easier for a partner to adorn your draft with her favorite expressions than it
is for her to restructure it from scratch.
- When a stylistic edit makes sense, add it to a working list—either a list
you keep for a particular partner or a master list for all future assignments.
Many partners complain to me that they make the same edits again and again.
- Ask partners for general suggestions or observations on your writing. You
may be surprised how much guidance you get. It’s not that partners don’t want
to give you feedback, it’s that they barely have time to get your document out
the door. At that point, discussing yesterday’s news is far from their
minds—unless you prompt them first. Partners and associates are all on the
same team, but sometimes even the best intentions must cede to client demands.
- If all else fails, exchange drafts with your colleagues to get feedback,
something few associates ever think to do.
