Associates, what are your biggest pet peeves when it comes to partners? Partners, what are your biggest pet peeves when it comes to associates?

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When partners fire off multiple emails about the same thing instead of finalizing their thoughts and sending one coherent email.

When they make up arbitrary internal deadlines and then don’t review the work that sits in their inbox for weeks. (I understand the difference between internal deadlines that are set for a purpose and have never had issues meeting deadlines)

When partners complain about other associates.

likesmarthelpful

@P5, it’s not usually 2 emails, it’s 5-10 emails that you get while you’re still trying to input comments from the first email. As a junior I am explicitly told that in order to be not-annoying to seniors and partners, I should put all my questions in one email rather than peppering them. I would just like that same courtesy extended to me

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Associates who don’t spend the time thinking before doing. That produces substandard work and makes my job harder. Part of my job is teaching associates more sophisticated concepts and solutions. Shouldn’t be teaching things younger associates have mastered.
Bad time managers - I get it’s a skill to learn but if you have been practicing for a few years, manage your time.
Not communicating concerns - from “I don’t understand” to “I need more time.” Getting garbage late is frustrating when a few interim conversations may have solved the issue.
I get it, alot of you work for asshole partners who won’t make time or view questions as signs of stupidity. I hope you leave those firms and find the normal partners who just want to produce the best quality work and train associates to one day do that work unsupervised. I enjoy training and I want your full involvement in the project.

likehelpful

Incompetence? How do you think they became partner?

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Also, when partners keep us out of the group or client discussions to cut costs, but then are surprised when we don’t have a concept of the big picture.

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Failing to explain the big picture is a terrible partner oversight. It robs the client of more potential insight and it robs a learning opportunity from the associate Our primary jobs with associates (aside from taking care of our clients) are to keep you busy and to help you become a partner. I’d never just blindly accept a task from a client without talking with that client first about the facts, goals, etc. Next time you don’t get proper context, politely ask for it - it’s a great way to show interest, enthusiasm, and to inspire more confidence in you.

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Partners who have absolutely no ability to budget time correctly. One of my weird strengths is looking at a brief, or research project, or discovery production, and queuing up what needs to be done in what order, and how many hours it will take. So this sort of conversation is common:

Partner: Write this brief.

Me: Ok. That’s a 25 hour project. When do you need it by?

Partner: Tomorrow.

Me: That’s not realistic but I can make it happen; how much junior associate support can I use?

Partner: None. But here’s a paralegal.

Me: Well, ok, I can work with that, but this means this brief is my top priority.

Partner: Great, Thanks. Oh also I want to see a draft expert report tomorrow.

Me: I’m not sure you heard me. This is my priority list (list) this is how I’ve subdivided it to get it done (list) and it’s humanly impossible to do 52 billable hours of work in the next 24 hours. Can I propose getting the expert report to you by Friday, instead?

Partner: You associates are so whiny.

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“Why are associates so entitled?!?!"

It drives me insane when partners don’t know what they want, so even when I give them exactly what I asked for, they make me turn around another draft. This creates a logistical nightmare for me because I budgeted a certain amount of time for the project, and when that inevitably ends up going out the window, it puts me behind on assignments for other partners. So I have to make up the difference by sleeping less.

likeuplifting

THIS. Summaried my entire Biglaw life.

likefunny

Bad communication. Associates are not clairvoyant. Tell us what you want. If it turns out what you initially said you wanted was not what you actually want, just own it. If partners would just say: “I know I asked you for X and you gave me X, but I decided I actually want Y,” I would be a more motivated associate. But instead, Partners like to default to: “you should have known I meant Y.”

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Meanness. It’s not unworkable to take time to decompress if you are stressed, and you are not entitled to be a jerk just because people pissed you off particularly gravely on any given day. The same thing is true for me—and partners are quick to remind associates of it: if a paralegal or LPA leaves me in a complete lurch, am I allowed to be nasty to them? No, because we’re adults and professionals and we’re expected to behave better. Partners that forget that (and who don’t take responsibility for the effect that negativity can have top-down on a case, practice group, or firm’s culture) aren’t worth what they’re making.

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Yep. Even as bw partners and bw associates.

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Associates who don’t seem to understand their sole job is to make partners’ life easier. The entitlement of associates these days is spoken of at length between partners and associates are delusional if they think their snitty, entitled attitude will work out in the long term.

likefunny

For me it’s probably just an overall lack of clarity about what partners want. I can take the initiative one day and be told to do it exactly how it was (poorly) described or I can follow instructions to the letter and be asked why I wasn’t intuitive. Ultimately, I guess it’s the whole aspect of having to manage partner’s wanting things to be done well but often hiding the ball on what is just entirely subjective. It makes for a miserable experience and you are unsure if you’re developing.

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“Please call me”

What’s wrong with setting it out in an email?!

likefunny

I think the partner may be too busy to put it in email and then talk about it. Maybe a subject would be helpful but I don't think that's necessary.

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I’d say that when associates forget that the partner assigning them work is, for all intents and purposes, their client.

If you wouldn’t hand an outside client the work product you’ve produced, you shouldn’t hand it to me. Pull schedules and exhibits together if you can. If you can’t, consider where they will come from and how long they may take to obtain. Clean up your typos. Anticipate open issues and have some potential solutions. Really, you’re in charge of making sure that things simply get done. That’s your job, not to give some modicum of effort. Own your work assignment.

If you have questions about what to do, ask me those questions before handing me something half finished, and budget the time necessary to complete the work assignment after you get the answers but before the deadline you were given.

That sounds harsher than I intend. I was always happy to talk through issues with my associates (although I admittedly gave up on one or two), but just as my job includes training, your job is more than simple task fulfillment.

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When partners forget the instructions they gave associates verbally. Or forget discussions during case plan meetings.

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I jinxed it . This happened today 😭

Biggest partner pet peeve: when they edit my work and leave it littered with typos.

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A26 yaaaassss. They are so disinterested that they forget what they wrote, don’t know why they wrote what they wrote, or completely change the meaning. The longer I do this the more baffling the extreme hierarchical structure of the legal apprenticeship practice seems because in few other industries would you accept the person in charge to have such little boots-on-the-ground knowledge of the work (partners) when so much is at stake and one who knows the ins-outs has been practicing for a fraction of what the partner has (associate). If you stop and think about it (don’t take it for granted) it’s truly bizarre that we accept and perpetuate it.

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Associates that tell me they’re going to handle a task and later tell me they are “just finishing it” when I ask them long after the agreed upon deadline. No need to lie. I’m not a moron.

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When partners spend a lot of time giving advice about networking and business development but then expect you to work late every night and weekend.

likefunny

As an associate, I can appreciate when there is a need to work late hours and on the weekends but I get so frustrated when that crunch time is artificial. I was on a big project with a young partner. The other associate and I were sending him drafts of documents in June, and she sent no comments. We kept sending drafts. She went on a 2.5 week trip to visit her family in July, but did not take vacation. But she barely worked or provided comments. The other associate and I were both taking time off at the end of July to spend time with our families - we told her this in June at the beginning of the project. When she wasn’t responding to our emails, I set up a weekly call to try and manage up. Surprise, the other associate and I had to work through our separate vacations. I am be you frustrated that the partner saw this coming, but decided to fully appreciate her time at home. While I had to work most days when I was home.

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I like this post and most of the comments from both partners and associates.

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I am sorry so many of you work with such awful people. You should know people like that are not the norm in the legal world, although perhaps that is a norm in biglaw and perhaps more so in biglaw in NYC and a few other big cities. There is a world of lawyers beyond biglaw; most are pretty decent people who don’t treat associates poorly. Would you trade some of the money, prestige and ego boost for better work environment?

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Absolutely. The greatest untapped secret in the legal industry is maximizing talent. It is such a stodgy profession that it resists the otherwise sound approaches in the HR world from many other industries, grounded in a simple understanding of give and take and knowing the employee’s self interest. Partners I work with will never know how much I’d be willing to give on prestige and even pay for intellectually stimulating work, genuine and sustained mentorship to developing my craft. I crave mentorship and guidance more than I will ever let on because it makes you vulnerable (and the legal industry doesn’t like that—in fact pounces on it at first sight), and no one I’ve ever worked for has ever asked the simple question: “what motivates you”? I’ve tried to proactively bring it up only to be dismissed. if I could find a firm where I felt like there was a mutual exchange of providing one another what we each genuinely want, I’d stick around.

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Partners who approve emails (which have gone through multiple review stages) without reading them and berate you when it’s sent out after realizing they would have liked to change something. I’m working for a partner who once genuinely believed I screwed up because I should have made sure that he knew what he was approving even after he gave his approval explicitly (as in, “please send”).

Partners who respond with snarky emails to junior associates following up on pending approvals but respond courteously to more senior associates doing the exact same thing (e.g. “don’t you think I would have told you something already?” versus “not yet” or “working on it”)

Partners who panic overreact by implementing unnecessarily burdensome workflows for EVERYONE at the firm just because one associate or paralegal made a mistake.

Partners who berate you because you should have double checked whether an email you drafted based on REALITY conformed to what was said to a client even though you didn’t participate in the conversation nor told about it.

There are more things, but I’m going to leave it there because the post will stop feeling therapeutic and become the reason I actually start going to therapy.

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Having to take orders from a non lawyer busienss associate who is best buddies with the partner. Dude is a space cadet and makes more money than every attorney.

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Partners who cannot control their emotions and take their frustrations on associates.

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