September 10, 2024 – Today, Lawdragon’s Emily Jackoway spoke with Elsberg Baker & Maruri partner Silpa Maruri on her advice for young attorneys and how she approaches strategy in complex cases.
Prior to becoming a trial lawyer and founding partner at EBM, Maruri taught in Newark’s public schools. She noted that similar to being a teacher, as a lawyer, “You take arcane subject matter, and distill it to its core components,” she explained. “You make something that seems complex simple.”
Jackoway inquired into some of the cases that stood out from Maruri’s early years as a lawyer. “As a very young lawyer, we had a client that had significant budget constraints. So, I had to do a lot of the day-to-day work on that case,” Maruri recalled. “I took all of the significant depositions and led strategy. So, even though I was a third- or fourth-year associate at that time, I was effectively functioning like a senior lawyer on that case.”
The conversation continued with Jackoway asking if, as a young lawyer, Maruri had mentors that help shape her career, and what she learned from them. “I took a little bit from every single person that I worked with,” Maruri said. “Every time I worked with somebody who was more senior than me, I honestly and sincerely studied exactly what they did and how they did it, and I took away a little piece of them and made it my own.”
Maruri offered a bit of advice for young attorneys: “It’s really important for young lawyers, as they think about their career trajectory, to make sure they're looking at every single time they work with anybody as an opportunity to pick up a new skill or add a new tool to their arsenal.”
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