I keep being staffed on arbitrations, which I hate. Do you think it would be appropriate to tell the assigning partners that I’m not interested in that type of work? And if so, how should I do so? I don’t want the seem like a problematic unreasonable associate.
Appropriate to bring up, but I would approach differently. Crush the work you are staffed on and follow up along the lines of “I’ve learned a lot on these past arbitrations and was hoping to get some new experiences in X. Do you have any work in X or advice about how I could get staffed on X to start to diversify my experience?”
You could always try! Partners always say we should speak up on matters that interest us so they can assign work accordingly. I mean it never worked for me (because I'm a girl so I get document-heavy assignments go figure), but it seemed to work for the male lawyers so you never know
I would frame it positively: “I’d love the opportunity to work on a case in court so I can get experience in that type of matter”
Conversation Starter
Why do you hate them?