Being an attorney is often considered a glamorous profession. Indeed, lawyers are frequently dramatized in popular culture and media. Famous actors such as Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart, Paul Newman, Henry Fonda and Tom Cruise have all romanticized the role of an attorney. We all have our favorite legal drama, whether it is a favorite novel, play, TV show, or movie (and if not, we highly recommend “My Cousin Vinny”). More practically, “attorney” is routinely ranked as one of the most prestigious occupations in the world. Yet, surely many of you by now have realized there are many aspects of this job that are not even slightly glamorous, but are rather grueling, tedious and quite frankly unexciting. And those tasks, for better or worse, often fall on young lawyers.

In particular, document review and due diligence are the bread and butter of many junior attorneys. However, these assignments can be extremely monotonous. Document review often requires litigators to sift through thousands of documents, while due diligence requires transactional attorneys to prepare for a deal by compiling a multitude of corporate records, contracts and other documents.

There is a temptation during these types of assignments to turn your brain off and just complete the tasks without exercising any sort of critical thinking. Doing so, however, would be a big mistake. Document review and due diligence assignments are rife with opportunities to have a meaningful impact on a matter and stand out to partners and clients. Especially on larger matters, where there can be hundreds of thousands of documents to comb through, you are likely the first (and sometimes only) attorney who will look at certain files. Thus, document review and due diligence assignments can be an opportunity for you to shine by showing that you have a firm grasp of the fine details of the matter and are keying in on the meaningful documents.

Document Review: Set Yourself Apart

Before beginning a document review, take the time to learn about the case. Meet with the senior attorneys on the matter, ask background questions and review the central case documents to get to know the issues and parties involved in the litigation. Understanding how the document review fits into the larger case will allow you to more easily identify key facts and flag important documents that might otherwise be overlooked. Going beyond just simple issue-spotting and actually thinking through how certain documents fit into your team's overall strategy and theme will help you have a meaningful impact on the litigation.