5 Tips for Supervisors

By: Mario Reyes Solano

Supervising interns is also hard.  Trying to balance giving meaningful work that pushes the intern into developing as a lawyer, with giving them only exactly what they can already do to minimize the amount of work you might have to redo.  To balance having meaningful and realistic expectations, with not assigning work with deadlines that would require working after hours.  "No worries, this is just a teachable moment, try again" with "moving forward, I'll just handle this from now on."  But when you strike the right balance, you will create a meaningful and impactful professional experience for your intern that will serve them for the rest of their career. 

Here are 5 tips to help you strike that balance.

1. Teaching requires a personalized approach. Imagine asking a neurosurgeon to explain to a five year old how to perform a hemispherectomy — one of the most difficult neurosurgeries to perform.  First, the doctor will need to understand the five year old’s basic knowledge and second, operate within that universe when explaining the procedure (no pun intended!).  Now think about asking that same neurosurgeon to explain the same surgery to a pediatrician.  Perhaps the pediatrician may not be as well versed in the intricacies of neurosurgery but they will at least possess some fundamental knowledge that will allow for a quicker explanation.  In other words, the pediatrician’s base knowledge is higher than the five year old’s.  As hyperbolic as these examples may appear, the point is that interns’ knowledge and experience comes in all shapes and sizes.  It is your job to first understand the base you are working with and navigate within those bounds; once you begin teaching interns, what you think is obvious may actually require work to teach.  Some interns have had extensive work experience and understand basic office etiquette.  Some interns are detail oriented and appreciate—and may even get excited about— the obvious stuff.  Other interns, especially those who have never had a chance to hone those skills previously, may struggle at first.  For example, asking a 1L law student to write a motion to dismiss will likely require more instruction than asking a 2L, who presumably has had at least one summer of legal experience, and that still will be different than asking a first year associate.  The same could apply to two first year law students assigned the same task, one of whom is a first generation law student while the other has family members who practice the law.  Being patient with yourself (and the intern) to understand your audience will make you a better leader and the intern a better lawyer.

2. Detailed instructions pay dividends.  When you are giving feedback, make sure to be clear about what you expect the intern to do and how you expect them to do it.  Even if it may be a nuisance to fully think through and relate to the intern, the payback is significant.  Inevitably, detailed instructions will have the consequence of overwhelming the intern; you are giving them a lot of information all at once!  Even if this happens, though, that is preferable to not being clear enough.  In one instance, for example, one of my supervisors gave me feedback on my written work.  The only problem was that the feedback was a total of seven letters and two words: “fix this!”  Maybe because I was timid or nervous, I chose not to ask them what or how they wanted me to fix the section.  Instead, I spent hours trying to figure it out on my own.  When I turned in my work again to them, without fixing the issue, my supervisor was forced to spend more time sitting down with me to explain in detail what they wanted me to fix.  Had they outlined what they were looking for initially (and perhaps had I been a bit more brave) it would have saved us both time.  Having detailed instructions is not just more efficient, it also eases any unnecessary stress caused by having a lack of direction or by having to repeat yourself multiple times.

3. Think about the long-term.  Interns are typically looking more for training than they are for a future job.   In that vein, consider the areas the intern needs to improve and work with them to strengthen those areas throughout the internship, either formally or informally.  Formal development can entail discussing interns’ goals and setting up a plan to ensure they have some exposure and training in those areas.  Informal development looks more like paying attention to their work product and conversations and focusing on areas they can approve.  In my internship, my supervisors all took an informal approach.  Instead of making a set plan to follow, they would give me detailed feedback on my work, guided me on how to quickly improve, and, more importantly, focused on my long-term career.  To that end, they would intertwine their feedback with real life experiences, focusing on how I can utilize their feedback in my work.  Sometimes my supervisors would highlight examples of great writers and great oral advocates to teach me.  Importantly, they understood that there weren't enough weeks in the internship for me to apply what they had taught me but it didn't matter because I would utilize it later in my career.  As a result, I became a more confident writer and skilled legal thinker.  Indeed, leaving the internship feeling this way made the experience a meaningful and impactful one that will serve me for the rest of my career.  

4. Let your interns be interns. On my first task at my judicial internship to draft an opinion on a motion, my supervisor warned me that, while I had autonomy to decide the disposition, she already had an idea, based on her years of experience, about where the case would end up.  Still, she took time to go over the different legal theories I had encountered.  We weighed the pros and cons on all of them.  Slightly embarrassed, I would frequently apologize.  Excitedly, she reminded me that it was actually a good thing that I would talk to her about my ideas.  As an intern still in law school she understood that I was still developing my skills and enthusiastically encouraged me to think creatively about the law even if it was further outside the box than we'd be able to practically apply.  Similarly, my other supervisors would take time to explore other areas of the law with me.  We would criticize the law and even have light hearted debates about what we thought was the best way to address our concerns.  This experience made me a better intern.  First, I felt comfortable approaching my supervisors for advice about my tasks but also about my career.  As a result, I felt comfortable being myself, which allowed me to think outside the box.  Second, I was excited to go to work everyday, which made me work harder.  The moral of the story:  take time to talk to your interns about their interests, dive deep with them on those issues; you will likely find it a great trust building exercise with many benefits!

5. Constructive criticism is uncomfortable but required. Internships can be messy; they can often reveal the areas for improvement for both the intern and the supervisor.  One way interns lose motivation and confidence is not getting any feedback.  Even worse are supervisors who attempt to subtly let the intern know they have made a mistake by dismissing them or by being rude.  As difficult as it is to be assertive and clear about your expectations, it is necessary.  In virtually every aspect of my previous internship, I received feedback, both positive and, even when I did not particularly enjoy it, negative, too.  Paradoxically, some of the hardest days were also the most impactful.  On one occasion, my supervisor candidly let me know that I did not do a good job on the task she had assigned.  Instead of admonishing me, however, she printed out my work, marked it up, and sat down with me going over the major parts I missed.  Equally difficult was going over another finished task with another supervisor, where together we edited my work line by line.  I still remember feeling discouraged and disappointed in myself.  For my supervisors that was not the goal.  Instead, they pointed out those things to make me a better intern and a better lawyer.  While it may be awkward to be so assertive and likely easier to write off the intern’s mistakes, doing so will likely lead to a repetition of those mistakes and an increase to your workload.  Perhaps you are afraid of appearing righteous or even too harsh.  Interns, however, need to learn the areas of improvement.  Chances are your intern will actually appreciate your guidance.  That was certainly my experience.  When I look back at my time with my supervisors, it was the difficult discussions and the uncomfortable moments that had the biggest impact on my work.  So don’t be afraid to be honest and constructive in your feedback, your intern will be lucky to hear it!

Supervising interns is difficult, but hopefully these five tips help you strike the necessary balance to make it a little easier.

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Internships are also hard for interns.  Having the privilege of working with a supervisor who is committed to your professional growth can make a big difference.  Hafsa Mansoor, one of the law clerks who supervised me during my judicial internship and who previously supervised junior associates in BigLaw, has five tips for interns to help them strike the balance: https://www.naml.info/post/welcome-to-the-muslim-legal-journal/5-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-internship.