Professionalism guidelines for law students
The legal profession has its own norms and expectations about how to act professionally. Some of these may seem outdated or needlessly formal, but being aware of these guidelines can help you navigate interactions early in your career and ultimately develop your own professional identity. These tips address some of the most common questions I hear from law students about soft skills and professionalism, as well as a few of the most common complaints I hear from professors and legal employers.
Forms of Address
Most workplaces, law offices included, are fairly informal these days, and colleagues will call each other by their first names. However, when writing or calling to ask for an internship or job, always use “Mr.” or “Ms.” (For women, always use “Ms.,” never “Miss” or “Mrs.”)
Faculty should be addressed as “Professor [Last Name],” both in person and in writing. Deans should be addressed as “Dean [Last Name].”
Drop-In Visits
If you drop by a professor’s office without an appointment, ask “Do you have a moment?” This shows that you respect the person’s schedule, rather than demanding they drop everything to speak with you. Note that some people find the question “are you busy?” to be rude because it assumes the person is not working; I think this is dumb, but it’s a thing for some people.
Whenever possible, make a list of your questions and ask them all at once (whether in person or via email), rather than asking a series of single questions at different times. Please do not send six emails, several minutes apart, each asking a single question! By asking your questions all at once, you will both appear more organized and will be likely to receive better answers because the professor or supervising attorney can respond efficiently all at once.
Professional emails are more like a mailed letter than a text message; when in doubt, err on the side of formality. Professional mails should include a greeting and a closing. For example, begin with “Dear Ms. Smith:” rather than just jumping into your message. End your email with something like “Best regards” or “Thank you,” and sign your name.
Professional emails should always be written with correct capitalization, grammar, and punctuation. Remember that email is a permanent medium and that emails are easily forwarded; you don’t want to be known as the law student whose embarrassing email was forwarded around the country or made it on Above the Law.
Check your law school email account at least once daily. This is also good training for future employment; busy attorneys may receive hundreds of emails per day and will be expected to handle all of them.
Always acknowledge an email. If you write a professor to ask a question and receive a response, you should send a short response to thank the professor. If a supervisor or a professor sends you an email that they think may interest you, send a thank you email. Often professors send these notes to students and receive no response, and then we are left wondering if the student received the message, didn’t care about it, was annoyed by it, etc. Don’t let emails go into a black hole—respond!
Voicemail
Your recorded voicemail greeting should be short and professional. For example, “You have reached the voicemail of Mary Smith. I am not available at this time, but please leave your name and number, and I will return your call as quickly as possible.” You are becoming a professional. Your voicemail greeting should not have music playing in the background or a silly outgoing message. Do record a personalized greeting, rather than using the standard robot voice greeting that may leave callers wondering if they dialed the wrong person.
When leaving a voicemail for someone else, short and professional is again the theme. Speak slowly when leaving a phone number; a stream of hurriedly recited digits can be impossible to understand. “This is Mary Smith, returning your call about a possible internship in your office. My phone number is 602-123-4567, and I will be available at this number for the rest of the day. Thank you.”
Always return emails and voicemails promptly; within twenty-four hours in most cases.
Work Product
Anything given to an employer or a law professor must be your highest quality work. You never know when something you write—whether a short email or a long office memorandum—will be forwarded on to other people. Your name is on this document, so make sure it reflects the image you want to present to the world.
Many lawyers will say “there is no such thing as a draft.” Anything you show to your employer should be your final version, even if you end up making several rounds of revisions to the document after receiving feedback from your supervisor.
While printing on both sides of a piece of paper is recommended as a way to reduce the waste of paper, documents given to employers and professors should only be printed on one side of the page. Fonts should, in almost all cases, be limited to something “standard” such as Times New Roman or Aptos. Documents should be printed in black ink only.
Deadlines
Attorneys filing documents in court must adhere to deadlines or face malpractice charges, so you should get in the habit of regarding deadlines as absolute now. If something completely unforeseeable happens and you realize you will miss a deadline, notify your professor or employer before the deadline passes. Waiting until after a deadline has passed to explain that your mother is in the hospital is not received as well as contacting the appropriate person in advance to explain about your ill mother and ask what can be done. In the case of a professor, an extension may be granted, depending on the circumstances. In the case of an employer, assignments can be handed off to another employee if you allow sufficient notice.
Online Presence
Nothing can be wholly hidden on the Internet. Exercise caution in posting to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, reddit, Discord, blogs, bulletin boards, etc. Social media sites are fine to use, but use good judgment about what you post, both in comments and in photos. No matter what your privacy settings are, unflattering information has a way of getting out. Even if you post comments to a chat room under an anonymous username, it is easier than you think for people to discover your real identity.
Be sure to create a professional LinkedIn profile that can be one of the top search results when someone Googles your name.
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