It’s not often that we showcase the career cycle of a life in law quite the way we do in this issue. Talking to lawyers at significant inflection points in their careers—from associates who have had their first taste of Big Law to newly elected managing partners to lions of the profession reflecting on their life’s work—our reporters captured the possibilities, anxieties, excitement and legacy of an extraordinary group. Here are some of the takeaways you’ll find this month in The American Lawyer:
The early years. Midlevel associates, or those with three to five years’ experience, are happier today than midlevels have been in roughly a decade, according to senior reporter Ross Todd, who analyzes our latest survey of this group. Associates’ happiness strongly correlates with their belief that their law school prepared them for the practical duties of life as a lawyer. For that, Duke Law School and the University of Michigan Law School stood out.
