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Hi All, I am Java developer having 7 yoe. Recently I gave interview for this Landmark group
Is Landmark Group or @Landmark digital a product based company?
How good is job security? How good is work life balance?
I am looking for permanent opportunity where I can stay for longer duration. Is this the right company?
How are hikes in this company?
How do you get more dopamine?
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document everything in emails, including current assignments and ETAs for completion whenever you’re assigned something else.
This. It is much harder for those in your chain of command to blame you if you are advising them regularly of what’s on your plate and how you plan to triage it.
Lawyers are not trained to be managers - and most are terrible at it. But if you are very clear about what is and is not being worked on at the moment, and how long the work in your queue will have to wait before you can get it done, it gives those above you concrete issues they can recognize and address (by re-assigning some tasks, seeking extensions, or managing client expectations, for example). Just knowing you are “overloaded” is probably not enough to get them to take action, or figure out what action to take. These people are likely to have survived being an overloaded junior themselves by chronic overwork, loss of sleep and sacrifice of most personal time to get it all done - and thus expect you to do the same. But that’s a terrible solution and unsustainable. Do what you can to break that cycle.
Believe me, you get no extra credit for sacrificing yourself to get everything done. To the contrary, it only seems to invite more criticism when you can’t in fact perform miracles. Save heroic efforts for true emergencies - there ARE occasions when extraordinary effort is warranted, and you should step up accordingly - but you can’t keep that level of effort up indefinitely, and should not try.
Over the long haul, being clear about what you can deliver without sacrificing quality is better for both you and your firm - assuming that you’re at least meeting your billable hours goals regularly. (You won’t last long if you’re underperforming on hours, no matter how good your work is.). But above that threshold, you should be pacing yourself to avoid burnout as much as possible - while dependability delivering on what you promise.
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There’s never enough time or resources to get every single thing done on a lawsuit. Ever. And I say that as someone who for years led teams with unlimited resources handling bet the company cases. The target isn’t doing every little thing. It’s differentiating between levels of importance and doing a great job on the most important tasks.
So, spend a day with the midlevel listing tasks, prioritizing them, and allocating them between you. Send that list to the senior with a cc to the partner saying “senior, we put together this list of tasks and priorities. As we discussed we are concerned that we may not have time and resources to cover every base but we will focus on the high priority work and get as much done as we can. If you have any thoughts about additional tasks or changed priorities, let us know. Also let us know if more help is available. Otherwise this will be our plan of attack starting tomorrow.”
Then stop “documenting” and get busy applying your plan. Low and even medium priority tasks rarely move the needle so don’t sweat them until all of the important work is done well. If the $hit hits the fan for lack of resources it won’t be your fault.
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Hey Skilled Laborer. I was a framing carpenter before law school. Are you really a skilled laborer or are you a practicing lawyer with a hilarious Fishbowl handle?
Make a detailed list of everything that needs to be done and the purported deadlines, and then share that with the higher ups and say this is what needs to be done in X time but each of these will take me Y, which is more than X. Put it on them to make the unreasonable demands very explicit so they can't blame you for not speaking up.
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Definitely cc the partner so they’re aware.
Do you have an associate staffing coordinator? I was in a similar situation once (also in litigation) and later found out many juniors had been available and could have helped. It’s one of the benefits of Big Law — huge teams of competent associates, staff attorneys, and paralegals who can step in to provide emergency assistance.
I think the senior and partner on my team wanted to project competence. They let their egos prevent them from asking for help. This may also be going on here.
Lateral to another firm that offers more support?