Chan Stroman has a great post on her Commercial Leasing Lawblog reflecting on the seventeenth anniversary of her law school graduation. Her advice to new lawyers:

"Know the difference between rabbits and elephants." When you're a hammer, everything can look like a nail, but not all nails are created equal. The best thing a lawyer can do is to learn what's relevant to the client, from the client's perspective, and exercise judgment in focusing on what's important to the client (the elephants) and not just dot i's and cross t's (the rabbits) for the sake of dotting and crossing. You can actually add value by helping the client see "elephants" that they would not have been able to see but for your expertise—and your efforts to understand what's important to your client.