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It’s better to ignore these types of e-mails and/or run it up the ladder to your supervisor.
Let it roll off. Has nothing to do with you, and your real boss knows it which is what matters. Maybe this is too much swagger for a first year, but I like to retweet this kind of snark. Once had a partner tell me to “write like a human being” (wtf?) in feedback on a team draft, so I quoted it in notes I circulated to the team with other benign comments with something like “I will implement Partner’s oral feedback (below) in the next draft.”
A-1, this is why: you intentionally tried to embarrass a colleague. Doesn’t matter if it is the janitor or the senior partner, or if that person hurt your feelings first. Some would view your stunt as displaying bad judgement. Sometimes people
make mistakes and professionals would keep it to themselves.
Chief
OP, law is a profession that involves tension, conflict, and occasional (at least) hostility. You will be blamed for things, sometimes unfairly. You will be yelled at, sometimes unfairly. This is lesson 1. There will be many more. Toughen up. Don’t reach out to specialist or raise with your partner. In a week or less neither will remember this moment.
But learn what you can from it. Check your email for tone. It should have said “Specialist, Partner asked me to run the attached document by you. Unfortunately we have a very compressed timeline and need your feedback ASAP. I apologize to interrupting your weekend but we would really appreciate receiving your response by deadline. Please let me know if that’s not possible.” If it wasn’t written in that tone, do better next time. And remember how you feel when a partner drops a new demand on you with an immediate turnaround that requires you to drop everything. That’s how the specialist felt.
I assume it was a more senior partner who asked you to remind the specialist. If that’s right, how is your relationship with that partner? If it’s decent, I would either 1) forward the nasty email to the senior partner with something like “FYI, here is the response from [specialist] regarding the reminder you asked me to send. I wanted to run this by you to make sure I didn’t misstep” or 2) reply directly to the specialist, cc’ing the senior partner, with something reasonably passive-aggressive like “as mentioned, I wrote at the behest of [senior partner]. I am copying him/her here in case further information would be helpful.”
If it was a senior associate who asked you to remind the specialist, just forward the email to him/her and take this as an opportunity to commiserate and bond with someone else who had been in the same position.
Do A2’s number one suggestion above. That way, your partner can decide whether to let the specialist know what’s going on. There may be dynamics at play you are unaware of.
Stay away from passive aggressiveness. It will circle back to you and then you will be in a vicious cycle with your superior. Guess who typically often loses that game?
This is a matter of 1) how you worded it (did you apologize in advance or just say “can you run this urgent request for me ASAP thx”? and 2) this partner knows you’re the messenger, of course. Convey the message to your partner.
This one time I got scolded for over 30 minutes by the firm’s CFO over a $100,000 or so filing fee the client had not paid (what do I have to do with this?). I cried back to my partner and they told me it would be addressed. It happens
Lots of great comments. Two things. It drives me crazy when people use “ASAP.” Say what the situation and timing is. I don’t know if you did that but FYI. Second, as people mentioned, the tone and wording is important. Specialist do understand that we need to be responsive to the corporate associates running the transaction but we would prefer that associates be respectful based on our seniority.
Also, stress does get to all of us at some point and we may not act the best way.
As a side note, getting last minute review request asap is indeed annoying for us folks on the specialist side because we’re juggling so many other deals. That partner probably did that copying his associates so as to prevent that from happening again. Obviously everyone knows that the first yr wasn’t giving out assignment so I wouldnt worry about it and I wouldn’t bother forwarding that email to your partner either. I assume theres someone in between you and the partner who would be able to ease the tension
As a specialist who has received these emails from a 1st year, I’ve certainly been stern / aggressive in my response that I’d appreciate not having a fire drill when it isn’t my fault, particularly when things are extremely busy or we’ve followed up with the deal team multiple times on the deal. Everyone knows the 1st year isn’t calling the shots (hopefully) but the messenger is also always going to bear the brunt of it sometimes. It also really depends on how things were worded - was it a kind request or was it a stern instruction (and everything in between). Running back to your senior associate or partner may just leave a bad taste in the specialists mouth. I’d just ignore it or tell the specialist partner you’re sorry for the rush but are limited by time constraints (and Cc the original deal partner).
Lots of feedback here. In your case I would call the specialist after they sent an email like that to hear them out. Maybe there tone in email came off wrong. You’ll be able to explain the situation and ask them what you should do next time instead. I’ve had emails that “you did this wrong” and when I got the partner on the phone he realized I knew it better than he did and backed off. Bottom line, talk it out. But if I have send an urgent reminder like that I try to reply all to the chain with “Hey X- just checking on this. Partner Y asked me to see if this was all set. Do you need anything from me?” Etc. Puts it on their radar. If they email you back like wtf then there is clearly something wrong but talk to them on the phone.
Chief
Everything is a learning experience. Not saying this was your fault at all. But what can you do differently next time, now that you know first hand specialists get so cranky about last minute requests? I’m assuming you’re in a practice area where you’ll have to deal with them a lot.
When you get a turn of the doc from the other side, it’s always good to prioritize in there anything that want or need to delegate to other people - e.g., in your first review you figure out each of sections x and y need to go to the respective specialists, section z needs some administrative extra research that you could delegate to a paralegal. If you start with that and then dig in for a more in depth review, you are making your own and their lives easier. Now you know that. You can start trying to pinpoint those reviews yourself (since you’re going to need to start doing them eventually anyway). e.g., partner, I see there’s comments to tax section, would you like me to run these by tax specialist? That way you’re reminding them and seeming proactive. Partner should have been on top of this but he’s also probably got 15 other deals he’s running so the deal with the great junior who is on top of usual requirements and reminds him of them is the one that gets done most smoothly.
Also, as TL1 helpfully drafted, acknowledging you’re making a last minute fire drill for someone, and being appropriately apologetic in your tone will go far.
Keep in mind you’re the first year today, but if you spend a reasonable amount of time at this firm, you’re going to become the midlevel and then senior and hopefully build your own good relationship with these specialists. Like anyone else at work, they have their favorites, and if you make yourself the always polite and considerate about timeframes associate over years, you build cache with them to get the fire drills done when they inevitably occur.
Speaking as both a specialist and someone who needs specialists.
This might be a good time to call the specialist and ask how much time this type of request typically takes to turn around so you know for the future, too. Use it as a growing experience. Because one day, that same question will be sitting on your desk and you’ll have to decide if your other matters are more important than getting it to the specialist right away. Knowing the work/time that goes into the other side helps you prioritize - and helps show the specialist that you care and don’t see them as merely a cog in a wheel.
Assuming specialist partner copied the deal partner on the email right? If he addressed it to you that's just bc he's replying to you but everyone understands it as being addressed to the partner. If you have a senior associate then they should be mediating ("apologies specialist partner...") If there's no buffer just ignore the partner.
He replied privately to me on a chain that the senior associate and partner were previously copied on, otherwise I’m pretty confident they would have spoken up
Really appreciate all of the advice. I’m not planning to escalate it to my partner/senior since I don’t see how that would be productive and we collectively dropped the ball on our side. Totally understand the specialist’s (general) frustration though and hope he doesn’t hold it against me personally.