Five Easy Steps To Help New Associates Put Their Best Foot Forward

Depending on the size of a firm's entering class, space and time constraints, and access to human and capital resources amongst other things, orientation programs can last anywhere from a few hours to a full week or span over one or two hours a week for a few months. Some are held in conference centers and hotels, in a retreat-like setting and include new lawyers from multiple offices of a firm. Others are smaller in scale, held in a firm's local offices and may even involve one-on-one integration sessions in lieu of a formal orientation program. Whether your firm chooses to have a weeklong retreat, one-on-one orientation briefing sessions, or something in the middle, the following provides an overview of some orientation must-haves to help your associates get up to speed quickly and hit the ground running.

1) Firm History, Structure, and Vision: Each and every law firm has its own story, its own history, and aspirations for the future. Each is different, wrought with twists and turns, rough patches, and successes. Some read like tragedies, others like comedies. All are unique. Whether your firm is in its infant stages or celebrating its 100th birthday, it is important that you share its history, structure, and vision with the newest members of your community. There are many creative approaches for delivering this information to your new hires. Some firms provide timelines and flow charts that highlight important firm events, reporting relationships, and structures, while others create videos using in-firm actors to tell the firm's story. Still others take a more conversational approach and enlist firm leaders to deliver 'fireside' chats. No matter what your approach might be, sharing the firm's story will inevitably foster a sense of camaraderie and team spirit, give associates a better sense of their community, and provide them with good baseline knowledge that can (and will) be shared with others outside of the firm.