Junior associate here. Most important factors in making partner in litigation?

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Being good at your job #competence

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An underrated element is team leadership / delegation abilities. You basically need to be able to run a team / project that is ongoing for years

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1. Be really good at the technical aspects of your job.
2. If a bunch of your cases are in a specific industry, learn that industry in and out from a business perspective.
3. Learn finance and accounting—your clients are business people and want to know at the end of the day how your making them or saving them money.
4. Don’t quit. Seriously. I’ve seen so many great associates quit who were on partner track because they thought there was no way they would make it with the amount of partners in their group. Well, that was my case and two equity partners took GC roles within 1 year of another and all of sudden there was room (and I had two new clients). Not true everywhere, but patience is a skill too.
5. Have a book of business or be the #2 to a lawyer with a big book of business that s/he wouldn’t be able to handle without you. However you need to be strategic. Get close to someone who is 5-10 years from retirement so you can place yourself in a position to take over the book. Let’s all be honest that there are plenty of partners in our firms who are given books instead of building them. I don’t hate on them though because you still have to “keep” the book.
6. Be genuinely liked by your colleagues.

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All of this. Also, if you do work for one particular client more than others, and it’s a big client to the firm, make yourself indispensable to the client. You may not get the credit as the relationship attorney if it’s an institutional client, but being vital to the client in YOUR area of the law will help get you to partnership.

1. Don’t be an idiot.
2. Don’t quit.
3. Work 2000+ hours every year for 9 years

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Jheez

OP are you asking what you should be working on now to get yourself on the partner track?

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1. Relentlessly seek out work from partners who do what you want to do, and provide them with consistently timely and excellent work.

2. Invest your own time by getting better at skills that matter for your job.

3. Start meticulously building a network of mentors, advisers, and professional contacts.

4. Be a good teammate and colleague to superiors, peers, subordinates, and staff members.

If you do those four things diligently as a first/second year you will put yourself in the right track.

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Having a book of business.

I’ve heard specifically sole client development; having your clients vouch for your partnership run is important too.

Non equity? Competence and being able to manage multiple associates across multiple cases. Equity- book of business. Or being vitally important to a large client.

Participating in firm culture in a meaningful way. Sure, we work all the time and files can be crazy and unpredictable, but use your down time to mentor others and sit on some committees.

Survival

You should check out some of the NITA skills programs too

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