How does one deal with an incompetent paralegal? I am gracious to all paralegals because it’s not an easy job either but there is one in particular who is driving me up a wall. It’s literally taking me more time to explain to her how to do basic tasks that I end up doing it myself.

There’s no reason you have to put up with a job you hate. I spent many years working in a toxic environment with a boss who gossiped and lead through fear. He wasn’t really much of a leader but basically a foreman. And he could make my existence miserable. I admit that it wasn’t easy to find another job but the bottom line is: trust your guts. If you feel something is wrong it’s because it probably is. Don’t second guess yourself. Look for options and and fight for your mental health.

Junior here. How common is it to be nudged off a brief when you can't get ideas through internally? My partner and I are often put on the same briefs as more experienced (sometimes senior) teams. As a result, their work tends to make it through to the client presentation while most of ours dies somewhere along the way from CD to CCO. Is this worth worrying over?

My boss is always making last minute changes to my schedule. Adding shifts or asking me to cover for other people. Any advice on how to handle this? I want to be a team player but the last minute changes stress me out.

Witnessed ageism in a unusual way. I am a P, Male, 51
Client counterpart and I were discussing a Consultant and the client told me he didn’t want this guy because the consultant is in his 50s. I quietly told the client that cannot be a reason plus I am in my 50s and you should have seen the client back paddle with compliments for me. Just a weird situation. Ageism is real.

Second year associate here. How should I deal with the one partner in my practice group who seems to exclusively give me lousy assignments that we’ll never get paid for? I get great work from everyone else.

Are you responsible for giving performance feedback? Avoid giving personality based feedback. Examples include telling an Asian person they are too quiet/shy or telling a Black person they are agressive/abrasive. DO NOT DO THIS. It clearly represents bias in Performance Management. Performance feedback should be tied to business outcomes with clear examples of what the person does well + how they can improve.

Ex consultant, currently in industry. BCG HR contacted me for a role, process was a lil messy and unprofessional. Still waiting for the “exploratory chat” she was supposed to set up with the MDP since 2 weeks ago. Texted on whatsapp but no response. Normal?

How do you professionally address a noticeable lack of diversity on your team? More than 85% of my team is white or white passing, and of the remaining individuals none are Black, Indigenous, or AAPI.

I am looking for the post made by the junior associate with the voicemail from the female partner on a Friday night telling her how stupid she is. I didn’t bookmark the voicemail and I wanted to show it to a colleague to show her there are worse bosses than ours. Lol. It was circulating a couple of months ago. I believe it was a New York firm.

As a junior, how do you deal with the anxiety that the advice you provide to a partner based on your research (that is being sent to client without much supervision) could be wrong or incomplete?

I recently had a specialist partner send me a fairly nasty email after I (a transactional first year) was told to ask them to review something ASAP that had clearly been on my partner’s radar for over a week. Why am I taking the (honestly justified) blame for this? Surely it should be obvious that I’m just the messenger here.

How does one go about resignation in the remote setting?

Should i email my boss then follow up with a call? Or the other way around?

The "confrontation" is really difficult for me lol. I actually like my current boss and she's been helpful and made me feel like she looks out for me too. But the new opportunity is too good to pass up on (huge increase to pay. No concerns on the team since ive worked with those people in the past in a different company)

Any advice on how to deal with a partner/boss who is shifting all responsibility to me with zero guidance, no mentoring, and an unwillingness to discuss the issues? (Small firm, only associate under this partner and have been working at the firm for 2 years). There are an increasing number of passive aggressive comments from the partner who expects to be completely hands off once the case lands on my desk. Wants me to figure it all out despite cases being from different areas of law.

Aww, bummed to see this is a dead bowl. Anyone still around?? Getting ready for our first internal off-site and I haven't seen the rest of my team in person for almost 3 years now. I'm more nervous about the new folks that I have only met via Teams, including my 1st-ever direct report. I feel fine in my own skin most of the time but when I am in new and unfamiliar situations I get crazy body dysmorphia and super concious of my physicality. Any ideas on what I can I do to temper those feelings?

Since we returned to office in October, is it appropriate to give holiday gifts to team members?

Entering 3rd year at mid size firm in SE doing ID. I like my firm but really dont like the partner i exclusively work with and am going to put in notice. Do i tell the partner i work with first or the managing partner?

Feeling like it's only a matter of time before I have to tell the new marketing dept head that the snazzy jargon just makes him sound like a tryhard and alienates our customer base

Same responsibilities, higher expectations, and lower pay than my peer group but I’m told that I’m the future... Not sure how to approach ... should I raise with HR or my boss?

Yay; my hire got approved by HC 🎉. I’m in serious need for comp negotiation coaching now. How to best approach this? I’m utterly clueless about my market worth+approach and don’t want to leave any money on the table.

Friend is hosting a party where I will only know the host. Presumably host will be busy with others. How do I mingle and make conversation with a bunch of people who know each other?

My parents are coming to US for 5 months. Any recommendations for health insurance ?

Visited Deloitte Towers today. Huge queue in cafeteria. Looks like every one is working on Tuesday and Thursday

How do I crack MSys Tech hacker rank test for python automation QA ? Any tips or question examples please

I have 2 earlier companies where I absconded.
Now i dont want to show those 2 companies on my resume, i have 1 years of experience with all documents and i am only using that on my resume. So will it be a problem during bgv?

Why can’t my exes leave me alone

Anyone know which management consulting firms have the best office culture in San Diego?

Moving to LDN hopefully by November. Can anyone please suggest muslim concentrated residential areas? I would really like to stay well connected with the community.

Anyone from the McKinsey Los Angeles office willing to refer me and help with a couple of case prep and possibly fixing my resume?

1yr Accenture
8 yrs Oil and Gas Engineering and project controls
MBA from Texas A&M

I will buy you a tomahawk steak covered in gold or a dope surfboard if I get hired!

Realized I like to sit cross legged while I work and my current chair doesn’t have enough room for that. Anyone have chair recommendations? Flexible on price

Does anyone feel like they don’t want to go back to normal? On the one hand, absolutely I want to. I miss seeing friends, dressing up, going out, and traveling for work. On the other hand I have saved so much money over the past year, spent a lot more time with family than I would have ever been able to, and actually rested and been able to focus on my wellness (started therapy and treatment for a chronic condition.)

Good morning! I work in Medicare sales and I’m just getting tired of sales because I have to change these elderly people on their insurance very frequently, and it’s frustrating most of the time. I eventually want to be a Christian counselor and I just stared school but that’ll take awhile to get where I want to be. I just want to be happy right now without taking a major pay cut leaving sales. I’m making 80k now, I don’t need to keep making that but a decent amount while still helping people. 🙏

Is 628 actually the area code for SF? Or people don’t know it and won’t answer a phone number that starts with this area code?

Thinking about getting a MBA, partly for personal enrichment but also for professional reasons. I know schools all have different “cognates” but do people have recommendations that pair well with corporate/securities/financial legal practice fields?

Best divorce lawyer in NYC?

Any thoughts/opinions on Hogan Lovells and their Capital Markets practice (especially any insight into the culture, associate-partner relations, quality of work, work/life balance, etc.)?

How do you properly vet a law firm? I feel the associates I speak with talk up the firm and aren’t always candid.

Any insight on Gordon Rees pay for 2-3 year associate in a non-major market? I know they don’t pay market, but there are no BigLaw firms in my city

How terrible is workers comp defense? Got laid off and I’m assessing what jobs I want to go after and which ones are backups if I get desperate.

Firm announced flexible come and go as you see fit approach to coming back to office. Partner I work for said I need to be in office 4-5 days a week anyway. Thoughts?

Workout before (4:30 am) or after (6:30ish) work?

What is the expectation at your firms about coming into work after making your billable hours requirement? Asking especially for those who do not get a bonus per extra hour billed over the minimum.

Layoffs. Most big firms say they're sitting on a conservative pile of cash - which I believe is true - but work will obviously not return to pre-COVID levels in the short term, probably not even in the medium term. Are Biglaw layoffs coming?

Those who are voluntarily returning to the office — how often are you going and what days seem to work for you? Looking to slowly incorporate a few days here and there for change of scenery etc. — will add there is no pressure to do so (yet).

California 🐟 does your vacation payout when you leave your job get taxed at regular wage, or bonus, levels? Does your employer have discretion to choose?

Tips on discussing reimbursement for travel expenses during the “interview” process? I was invited to travel to a different state to discuss joining a firm. Should I even bring up the topic of expenses , or just pay my own way?

What is the scoop on med mal defense vs. plaintiff work? Is defense more respected by other practice areas if I were to switch somewhere else later?

I applied to a position that brands itself as civil litigation and apparently the role is med mal defense. Not sure what to go by but would like to do a little research before I call them back.

Anyone suiting up for the office?

I’m in Chicago, and I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot more suits in the loop.

Does anyone enjoy lender work? If so, what about it did you find appealing? I’ve somehow been saddled with all the lender work at my firm (despite never having expressed an interest in it and having no experience with it) and it’s miserable. Having said that, our other practice areas are slowing down significantly and I don’t know if I want to rock the boat. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Have a call on Friday with the CEO of an environmental entrepreneurship non-profit. It could lead to a professional opportunity and maybe even billable work I can refer to my firm down the line. I’m going in with an open mind but little concrete information on his entity and goals and ways I could get involved. What questions would you ask such a person?

Thoughts on sending out assignments over the weekend? I work a lot on weekends, but I don’t expect associates too. But, because I work on weekends, I often will send out assignments by email with a clear indication in subject line and body that it does not need to be completed or worked on over the weekend. A friend recently mentioned this isn’t the best since seeing the assignment may create unnecessary stress and anxiety. So, what say you? Am I terrible partner?

Brand new baby lawyer dumb question - I am tasked with drafting response to request to produce. How long should this take? And follow up… how do I bill this?

What are your outlook organization tips?

Trying to organize my email in a way that makes stuff easy to find. I have folders but how do I make emails both sent and receive easily save to their respective folders (as opposed to dragging each one)

Or any other organization tips for better productivity Iike I just have things organized by matters. Any other categorical suggestions?