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I used to be the associate who was on top of everything and ran things smoothly so that the partners I worked with could focus on bigger issues on our deals together. I had great mentors but they still relied on me to keep the train on the tracks and remind them of where things stood. That’s because they trusted me to get it done right and raise for them the issues that mattered while they focused elsewhere.
When I made partner, I thought it’d be more of the same. Turns out, it was just more. A lot more. I’m now on 3 internal committees dealing with things ranging from CLEs to AI technology at the firm, I’m helping run two major BD initiatives across practice groups, I’m chasing down my own BD opportunities and trying to bring in work (and when I’m successful, dealing with the administrative stuff associated with bringing in new work), I end up getting involved in personnel issues (like if someone leaves or wants to leave), and I’m helping lock down summer recruits, all while trying to manage the work that I have to make sure it gets done well and timely. All of that is important, so as you can probably imagine, when I have a good associate who I trust running one of my matters, I rely on them to keep me apprised as to what’s going on.
Not saying I’m doing it well or right, but just offering some perspective.
💯. I can with good confidence say I was one of the most organized associates there were and while I still think I’m an organized partner, 4 years into equity and the number of things on your plate is astounding. Firstly, my days are almost back to back calls so doing actual work is hard to keep track of, not to mention keeping track of emails. I’m copied on virtually every email even if a SME or associate is really running with it and I often assume they will and involve me when appropriate. Committees, billing, budgets, hiring, interviewing laterals, etc. , the list of management and administrative stuff goes on and then pile on top of that the fact that my kids are 9 and 8 and we are at the busiest stage of kid lives, plus starting to have to deal with issues with our parents. Trust me, it probably isn’t true for all partners, but if they are a successful partner, it means they were once as successful as you are as an associate in terms of organization. There’s so much associates don’t see or with a ton of respect cannot appreciate about what partners have on their plates.
Pro
Partners are dealing with a lot. Big things and little things in their day to day. To answer your questions, it’s likely both. I’m working for a partner who’s handling a trial. The matters he’s given me to work on are small potatoes and aren’t on his todo list at all. Take my comment with a grain of salt though. My partners aren’t good mentors, so I’m dealing with the latter part of your question more so than the former.
when you get so busy you rely entirely on your checklists and systems, you will have no recollection of completing significant tasks, and then this will all make more sense.
Pro
This is so spot on. I have seen so many misunderstandings happen because the associate tried to pick up something where they left off with the partner.
Framing the convo with “so on X we discussed Y and now Z has happened, and therefore” is huge.
Girl I was before a Judge today who had no recollection that we started trial on a case. Everyone has a lot going on. Take it easy on others.
They come in all different forms. Some partners are great at communicating about cases but are substantively clueless about cases that are not high priority. Other partners are willing to do weekly or monthly meetings to review cases, and they stay relatively plugged in. Most fall somewhere in between, but very few remember details about cases that are not pressing. As your case list grows and/or you start supervising junior attorneys, you will see this becomes true for you as well.
When I was an associate emailing a partner, I always started off emails with 1-3 short sentence recapping case status the last 30-60 days. Partners really appreciated that. I echo all the comments from partners here. Just too much going on. An associate’s job is to treat their partner like a client.
Certainly there are places with older partners with poor organizational skills, at least in part because when they were associated they relied heavily on secretaries for those tasks.
Now they’re partners and they rely on associates for those tasks.
Dementia
There are different types of partners. Some partners are more engaged than others. When I was an associate, I was highly organized and kept track of various matters.
I’ve now been a partner for a while and, over time, as I’ve gone busier with partner responsibilities, that has changed. I rely relatively heavily on associates to track various matters and keep in the weeds.
There are a lot of things going on with partners in terms of committees, biz dev, firm initiatives, managing clients, building and managing a practice, and so on. There are some partners who are just simply disorganized or checked out, but most used to be organized as an associate when that was their role.
In my experience many from the early 2000s or earlier lucked their way into partner and would never make it now. Often inherited a book (that is somehow smaller than when they inherited despite outrageous rate increases)