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Do you shoe check others at the office?
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Do you shoe check others at the office?
Bowl Leader
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Chief
My happy pothos. 1 yr growth.
Conversation Starter
AirPods Pro or Bose in ear
Best/worst experiences as a law clerk?
Chief
I'm no longer junior, but when I was, I delegated very little. Reasons:
1 - if a partner asked you to do it, it's because he wants it done quickly (and that includes running a redline). Doesn't really matter who they asked to do the thing, everyone's an employee.
2 - you --could-- in theory delegate these tasks, but these paralegals and assistants have been there since the dawn of time and trust me they do not like to be bossed around
3 - yes it's not cost efficient but it's the partner's firm and not yours. Also you're not above running redlines, no one at the firm is.
There's no written rule against delegation, but I'd rather save it for tasks that actually take a lot of time to not burn bridges with paralegals and assistants and make it seem like you "don't do" certain work. Or if you're able to circumvent this issue altogether.
What the Chief said
I never do. Not a single thing. If I'm being asked to do it, it's because I'm supposed to be doing it. It's not a junior's place to delegate work that was asked to be done by them specifically.
On running redlines specifically - why would you pass up easy billables? It takes a couple minutes to actually run the redline and then it needs reviewed. That process is .1 to .5 or more of comparatively easy work, and you might actually catch something that is important (kind of the point of a redline, ya know?). If you find something, you've found a way to make yourself more valuable by either fixing it or alerting senior/partner that there's something that needs attention.
No, I'm billing .1 for running the redline and reviewing it (i.e. scanning it for relevant changes, if any, and making sure the formatting isn't f-ed up). If things in the redline don't make sense or bring up questions, then I track down some answers (or try) and that can start to accrue more time.
I hardly ever get a request to just run a redline on a draft I have already seen and worked on. It's almost always in the context of there having been revisions made to the document from other groups or OC that we need to review and perhaps address.
Always. If its ministerial, that's exactly the type of thing to delegate. When partners ask me to do something, they're asking me to make sure it gets done. I don't think that is a direct command to do it myself. That's a waste of my time and the client's time. And more importantly, my assistant knows how to do these things better than me and knows the nuances if something gets mucked up. She'll do it right every time.
If it's a rush job, I call my assistant and confirm she can do it quickly. If not, I'll do it. I will say I have a great relationship with my assistant and she is the most competent person on the team. So I'd rather her do it.
For those who think it's not ok to delegate if you've been asked to do something, have you confirmed that with the partner? Often, if I'm asked to do redlines, I also provide a summary or analysis. So it doesn't make sense for the partner to send the request to the assistant then the partner sends the results to me for analysis. If they send it to me, I do all that coordinating.
Agreed! The paralegal I work with is amazing and I really don’t know what I’d do without her help
Not running redlines since that just takes a few seconds. But if it’s something administrative and time consuming then 100% yes.
Somehow my assistant would still f up a redline
Sometimes I would farm out big batches of redlines to doc processing if there wasn’t an immediate need for turn out. I’d say my general rule was that if it was needed right away, I would do it, but if it was something that could take a day or two, I’d pass it off to my assistant or doc processing if it really was fully admin.
Every comment above has its merits. It’s a case by case basis for me. I’m a first year but there isn’t a prohibition or a problem with delegating. Either for my partners or the paralegals. I’d just say you should develop a good relationship with your assistants. Treat them well. Ask them if they have time to help instead of just pawning it off. Show them that you’re not above the work and you’ll take care of it if they can’t get to it, but that you’d appreciate their help. Also, if it’s a close call, ask the partner if it’s okay. My partners have invited me and expect me to delegate some work so we have an open dialogue about this. Just bring it up in a very respectful manner.
I delegate as much as I can if it’s not urgent. I am responsible for the task getting done and the quality of the result, but not for how it gets done. The partner expects me to make a judgment on how to manage the team’s time, including more junior associates and paralegals. I’m a 3rd year btw.
Believe me I have heard enough complaints about the bill being too high that I’m not looking to earn easy hours by doing ministerial tasks myself. Delegation to the most cost effective level is the rule.
I don’t abuse the paralegals though. I make a big effort to respect their evening and weekend time, more than my own (because I’m getting paid for my evenings and weekends...). And I make a big effort to thank them and show them how valued they are.
Unfortunately, that’s the life of a junior associate. You should be doing all of the grunt work you can and only delegate when necessary. This is how you develop credibility and reliability with more senior attorneys who will begin to assign you more important tasks.
Almost never. I use assistants to help mail things and paralegals to run lien & litigation searches and do filings and that’s it
Rising Star
If you’re busy and it’s redlines, delegate it. The partners I work for would ask me to do something like that because they’ve either just spoken to me about the same matter or they trust my judgment to delegate something simple and prioritize the important tasks
I delegate all of the time if it’s something that’s faster for me to simply check after it’s done by a paralegal, word processing, LAA, librarian