Before starting as a summer associate, I was so anxious thinking about whether I would know anything that would have to do with my job. Considering I had only learned what transactional work was during 1L spring semester, all I knew was that I was (mostly) free from the Bluebook.

Of course, matters did come up that I learned in school. This past Spring semester, I took Corporations after a friend told me it would be helpful for my work. Indeed, my largest and most time-consuming summer assignments involved proxy season analysis and deep research into the SEC’s EDGAR database. I would have had zero clue what the heck proxy season and EDGAR was without my prior corporations knowledge. However, while helpful, taking corporations before summer was not necessary.

On the other hand, friends who worked in litigation positions told me that Civil Procedure and Law Practice were necessary for their work. Outside of the mandatory 1L classes, Evidence was also identified as an extremely helpful class to take before a litigation-heavy summer. 

So what did I need to know before working as a transactional summer associate? Well, nothing specific. I didn’t need to know how to navigate a merger agreement on my own or interpret a multi-party project finance contract. This was a breath of fresh air as I emerged from the law school bubble, knowing that the classes I didn’t enjoy or do my best in had no bearing on my success as a summer associate. Summer was another opportunity to start fresh with a new group of law students from all over. Each summer associate had different class schedules, prior work experience, law school backgrounds, practice interests, and levels of confidence. Yet we were all learning roughly the same things at roughly the same time. It made me realize that comparing my preparation to someone else’s was probably not helpful to me at all.

The things I actually needed to know had much less to do with substantive law and much more to do with how to conduct myself in the workplace. For example, I had to employ close and careful reading, handle multiple projects with different deadlines, use Westlaw and Lexis, and proofread. Interpersonal skills such as confidently asking questions, accepting constructive feedback, and communicating effectively in-person and through email are also ones that we cultivate here at school. I had to learn how to tell when I was stuck or confused with an assignment, how to manage an assignment I’ve never seen before, and most importantly, learning to accept that I would not know everything. The summer taught me that being a good summer associate does not mean walking into the office already knowing how to manage all my assignments.

This experience also changed how I think about choosing law school classes. I used to think every class needed to serve a clear career purpose: if I wanted to do transactional work, shouldn’t every class I took prepare me for transactional work? Shouldn’t I be taking contract drafting, M&A, securities, etc.? After this summer, I’m less convinced. Some classes will directly prepare you for your job. Others won’t. But that does not make them a waste of time. Almost every associate I spoke to this summer told me to take the classes that I was interested in—after all, we are still in school.

Looking back, I spent far more time worrying about whether I knew enough than I actually spent needing to know something before starting an assignment. The expectation was never that I would walk in knowing how to do everything. The expectation was that I would listen, learn, ask questions, and try.

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Alexandra Staller is a 3L student at BC Law and President of the Impact blog. Contact her at stallera@bc.edu.