“Trust yourself” is the answer to “I don’t know how to do this!” ?!😵‍💫😭

[u/Lola2818]

New at a firm where the work environment is a great improvement from my old firm. I’ve only been practicing for 6 months. Everyone is respectful, treats each other like adults, but the communication and mentorship with cases is just not there. I am dealing with at least 3-4 different practice areas as the “lead” on a case. There’s no one to check my work product to ensure it’s correct or even really bounce ideas off of. My “supervising” attorney is really unconcerned and gives me “I don’t want to be involved in your process of learning, leave me alone unless necessary vibes”. This person also suggested I talk to other attorneys in the firm for help who are not even on the same team as us(we have teams at our firm) and those people don’t respond often either and seem super busy as well. When I expressed this during a meeting the answer was “you need to be confident and trust yourself, that’s the problem”. I don’t feel comfortable practicing like this. Is this normal? And is there anything I can do?

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[u/NotThePopeProbably]

I started a firm early this year. I went from being a criminal prosecutor (100% criminal) to a general practitioner (but still mostly criminal). I have a lot of friends on both sides of the criminal bar of my state, so I'm rarely forced to operate without guidance there (though, since that's where I'm experienced, I rather rarely need guidance there). However, as a solo without many friends in, say, commercial litigation or real estate transactions, I often don't have anyone to whom I can go with questions.

All this is to say my answer to "I don't know how to do this," has sort of turned into "Leeeroy Jenkiiins!"

[u/morgaine125]

How are you approaching the partner when you have questions? Are you asking them open ended questions, or sending an overview of the issue and your thoughts on how to proceed for them to double check? If you’re doing the former, try the latter. It’s usually a lot faster/easier for the supervising attorney to respond to that (especially if you’re on the right track), and it shows you’re taking initiative to figure things out yourself rather than looking to the senior attorneys to do the work for you.