Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: The Essential Guide to Thriving As a New Lawyer 1st Edition

"Swimming Lessons" is a great guide for new and aspiring lawyers. In it, Cleveland lays out the realities of professional practice in a clear and candid manner. The book is mainly geared towards those who are interested in "Big Law" -style private practice, and provides many key insights for how to thrive in that setting. This leads to much discussion of the Big Law business model, firm structure, and how a new lawyer can succeed in this highly specialized environment. Hence, there are useful tips such as the importance of always billing one's time (it is better to seem inefficient rather than lazy), and how to be strategic in the selection of non-billable work.While the focus is on Big Law, much of Cleveland's advice also translates well into other types of practice settings - such as non-profits and government. For example, his advice on building successful relationships with more senior attorneys applies to almost any type of practice (your superiors are more likely to invest valuable resources in you if you can show that you'll make their lives easier). Likewise, his thoughts on utilizing support staff, improving the quality of one's work, and successful organization transfer equally well. Some of the details may differ in implementation, but the core principles are valid in almost any professional setting. As such, "Swimming Lessons" is an excellent resource for anyone pursuing a legal career.

It made me feel better, but I don't know that I actually learned anything substantive from it. Mostly I gained a sense that everyone flounders a bit at the beginning and it's normal to feel overwhelmed. Also since most of the information is common sense, it relieved some of my anxiety because it seemed to indicate that most of doing well is common sense. The information applies mostly to large law firm associates. Since I'm at a small law firm, I needed more practical advice about how to get things done without a staff of secretaries or paralegals. So if that's the kind of advice you need...this is not the book for you. If you are at a large firm and need to know how to delegate tasks to your staff or get work from partners, then this book would be more helpful.

This book is an absolute must-read for law students and new lawyers. Grover's clear, direct advice definitely helped me to make partner in a large Northwest law firm. Later in my career, revisiting Swimming Lessons assisted in keeping me grounded and re-orienting to a new career as a government attorney.Having been a member of the firm's hiring committee and supervised many young attorneys (and having made my own share of mistakes), I can vouch first-hand for Grover's book as a key aid to smoothing the learning curve of professional life in the law. Swimming Lessons was also fun to read with great real-life examples of the issues junior lawyers are likely to face. I've given this book as a gift to several law students and young attorneys because I believe so strongly in the usefulness of its content.

This book offered a lot of really, really basic career advice. Since I went back to law school after several years in a professional environment, I didn't really need to be told not to get drunk and rub my boss's shoulders....but I guess some people need to be told that.There were a few tidbits in here that I will take with me that are more law-specific, but for the price I would have expected much more substance.

Loved this book. Was interesting to read.

Wonderful book! Read it as a book group with Junior Associates. It's a great conversation starter!

Thsi book sintetizes what you should know to begin your career in a law office, in all possible aspects. i do recommend!!

Some good points in the book, i.e. your boss is your client, dependability is gold, etc. Overall, the information provided in the book will be less helpful to you than scheduling 30 minutes to meet with your supervising attorney or another partner level attorney to discuss best practices, your role in assisting them on matters, and what makes an associate a net positive rather than a necessary annoyance.