Details - the Lawyer's Lifeline

The American Bar Association routinely analyzes legal malpractice claims data. The Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims: 2004-2007 is the latest, and offers insight that affect your job search and material preparation. Just over 25% of claims arose from "preparation, filing, or transmittal of documents" and slightly more than 17% from "commencement of action/proceeding." Taken together, these two categories come down to nearly 50% of all claims and represent one thing: ATTENTION TO DETAIL. If this is where lawyers are being perceived to mess up and upset their clients (after all, these are just claims), your ability to follow instructions when applying for positions, register for events, and tap into resources, matters to employers. They notice, and in this market, set aside your materials or won't email you back. After all, if you can't handle these details, then why would they trust you to handle the clients' details?