Lawyering skills: More than just a class

In her Lawyering Skills course for first-year law students, Professor JoAnne Sweeny emphasizes real-world advice.

In fact, she brings in Brandeis alum, attorney and adjunct professor Dan Canon to speak about what mistakes he’s seen law students make.

One of the biggest problems is missing deadlines.

“The worst thing a student will do is say, ‘I’ll get this to you by this date’ and then they’ll just blow it,” Sweeny says.

Missing deadlines shows employers that you have problems with competence, diligence and time management, she says.

Another common mistake is lack of attention to detail. From Shepardizing a case to using proper citations in your writing, attention to detail is crucial.

Sweeny is so insistent on this skill that she will dock students a full letter grade for papers that are not properly formatted.

“When you’re writing legal documents, format matters. If you mess up a legal document, it will get rejected,” she says. “Get in the habit of being really attentive to detail.”

Thirdly, Sweeny emphasizes the importance of collegiality.

“Your reputation is huge in the legal community,” she tells her students, reminding them that they start building their reputations as soon as they enter law school.

“Lawyers are a small community, especially once you start specializing,” she says. “Having a good reputation is paramount. People need to be able to trust you.”

Although the pressures of practice can be grueling, it’s important for attorneys to maintain a good working relationship with other legal professionals, whose paths they will cross again and again.

“You fight for your client, but you respect your opposing attorney because they’re trying to do their job just like you,” Sweeny says. “It’s an adversarial system, but that’s not a reason to be disrespectful, rude or manipulative.”

A version of this article originally was published in the Louisville Bar Association's October 2016 issue of Bar Briefs.