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Kleinberg Kaplan thoughts anyone?
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It's going to help you. And even if it eats into hours and work you were comfortable doing, that will free you up to take a step further into seniority. Without passing the torch and pushing your comfort zone a bit, you'll get stuck at your current level.
Hi, I’m an 8th year dealing with these same thoughts! Very anxious. We just hired a 4th year and a 5th year on my immediate team and while intellectually I know they are not there to replace me, it’s been difficult emotionally.
Mentor
Nothing specific now, just reading and nodding along 🙂
Not to stress out your anxiety more, but is your group so busy there was a need for the juniors? This would concern me too. At least in my practice, BL employment, I do think there’s a point where your rate gets too high, so the team wants to redistribute your work to ppl with lower billing rates and slowing push you out…
Yeah..but no first or second year would be an adequate backup for a seventh year for at least 3-4years. If they needed backup they would’ve hired midlevels
Why would you be anxious for having juniors to support you..? Being a 7th year no less..I would have actually wanted juniors with more experience to help me (4th/5th years) rather than baby 1st and 2nd years.
I think, ultimately, it boils down to irrationally feeling like having juniors makes me feel more dispensable - and I have various family members depending on me to provide so that spirals into fear
Coach
Strategically, it may be wise to reach out to your networks and put into place a Plan B you can activate if the need arises. Who knows—maybe you’ll find a better law firm or other path that pays more and has a brighter future. Be bold and try for your best case scenario.
We all have instincts and I have found that it’s smart to listen to them. If you haven’t been so busy and you see these new hires, I can see why you would feel this way. In any case, take control of the situation as best you can and plot your next step.
I second this. Always have a eye on the market and your resume updated. Law firms are money making machines with the goal of making as much money as possible and that sometimes mean getting rid of expensive associates. However, do not get scared just because they hired other people as that will show up in your work and you will become more defensive. When reviewing work from your juniors, try to make sure that you find some mistakes or necessary revisions to show that you are adding value and justify being on the project.
Subject Expert
FWIW law firms make a lot of money off of skilled, productive associates. The incentive is to keep them not fire them.
Mentor
Are you an associate and how many years in are you?
Mentor
It’s not a crazy thing to think about. Lawyers always have someone nipping at their heels, no matter how accomplished they are.
I want to law school at the school that was then 20th ranked. I was law review and had great grades that got me an excellent clerkship. I then got hired by a good large local firm in a secondary market that today would be amlaw 100 or thereabouts. I was very fortunate and worked hard and was recruited as a young partner at what would be a V20 today. I went from having a very good resume at a mid law firm to having a resume that wouldn’t have gotten a sniff at my second firm. And the move I made was every bit like going from the kiddie pool to swimming a rapid in a real river. After ten years I was recruited by a more elite V20. At that point I was 17 years in, 41 years old, chambers ranked and had a screaming practice so the resume didn’t matter. But that move was like going from swimming a rapid in any old river to swimming Lava Falls in the Grand Canyon.
Everyone was brilliant and crazy accomplished. Our new associates had stunning resumes. And while it was an exceptionally collegial place, in that environment there’s nowhere to hide. Every day and in every way you’re being evaluated and tested by really talented people.
I found the increasing degrees of difficulty exhilarating, and they brought out the best in me as a lawyer and as a manger. I encourage you to look at those youngsters as assets, not threats. If you delegate to the best of them and manage their work skillfully they will make you look good. You can also learn from them.
In around 2011 we hired a Yale law/Penn undergrad who is probably the most naturally talented person I have ever encountered. From his first day he worked closely with me and one of my partners. Both of us are experienced and skilled trial lawyers and we trained him carefully. In 2015 he was my second chair in a complicated fraud and breach if fiduciary duty case involving thousands of sketchy transactions. He is a math savant with a gift Excel, so I tasked him with figuring out what an opposing accounting expert was up to in his report, which was superficially sound but reached a calculated outcome that seemed fantastical to me. The associate devoured the task, figured it out, and then devised a brilliant way to expose it at trial. I gave him the cross. I helped with a few organizational suggestions but the concepts were all his. He absolutely demolished the expert at trial in a way that I doubt I could have done even if I had figured out the details hidden in a giant spreadsheet.
You can look at that as “hole crap he’s going to steal my job” or “holy crap are we a great team.” I definitely chose door number 2. And that sort of thing happened over and over at final firm, which is stuffed with freakish talents.
I know it’s hard facing advancement decisions and competition. But if you use them properly (in the positive sense of the word) the people in that pipeline can lift you up.