Looking for advice on how to handle a seemingly difficult work environment:

For background, I have nearly 3 years of experience in law, mainly in contentious practice areas. Recently, I started a 6 month seat in a transactional practice (M&A). Up to this point, I have rarely received negative feedback about my work and never received any negative feedback about my attitude (quite the opposite). (cont.)

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I think you’re making things difficult on yourself. For example, if a senior associate asks you to research something or check with colleagues, that’s what you should do. Nobody wants to hear a junior associate new to the practice area say “oh I know this.”

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Ah well then it sounds like you just need to kiss some butt for a few months. Because if what you are saying is true, these sound like unreasonable guys who think they are too important. So sucking up is their language. Sorry you have to deal with it.

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1. I got off to a bit of a rough start. I was given a big assignment, during a particularly busy period, and was asked to turn it around quickly. The concepts were new to me and coupled with the time constraint, I made some admittedly silly mistakes (in hindsight). The client gave me a hard time and I am pretty sure he complained to my partner. Since then, I have been cut off from that matter, but the partner never really tried to discuss the issues with me. Instead, in his periodical feedback, said I lacked attention to detail, without reference to that matter.

2. There is an expectation that I attend the office everyday, eventhough there are long periods where nobody else attends. During one of those weeks, I decided to work from home (seeing as I was the only person in the office). I am not exactly sure how the partners found out (I suspect they asked the sec) but, in my periodical review, it was noted that I did not coordinate my working from home days with the rest of the team (this only happened once).

3. There is only one senior associate (SA) in the team. I personally find him disorganised and often condescending. I have a folder of over 10 emails that he has not responded to (despite follow ups). He delegates work erratically but provides limited instructions and is unavailable to answer questions. He practiced outside my jurisdiction, so I often find that he lacks knowledge about some basic concepts. Sometimes, he will ask me to research basic points of law or will ask that I raise it with other colleagues. In response, I will try (politely) to explain that I am familiar with that point and that I could guide him to the right resources. His reaction is to completely dismiss my input and insist that I ask other colleagues or check online. He never copies me in any emails for matters I am involved in and for pieces of work that I personally prepared.

4. One time I was working late on a transaction and I ended up coming to the office late (approximately 45mins to an hour late from our contracted starting time). I was immediately told off about it by the SA, who later told the partners. It was eventually included my periodical review. I admitted to being late as soon as I was confronted about it, but honestly I felt it was a little unfair. I think it was the partners place to raise this issue and not the SA. We have all been working long hours, including weekends, so I did not think the hour I missed that morning was consequential. It did not compromise my deadlines.

5. The overall team dynamic is strange. Socialisation is minimal. I have gone weeks without having a casual conversation with my colleagues. I struggle to get feedback on individual tasks and the senior team members rarely check in on me. I feel unsupervised, despite being in the early stages of my career and being held to a high standard.

Apologies for the rant, but they have made me feel incompetent, eventhough I deeply care about my work. It is especially a shame because, speaking objectively, I found a lot of the work interesting. I desperately want to change the narrative for the remainder of my seat. Any advice? Maybe I am overreacting or in need of a reality check, which I would also welcome.

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A2 thanks alot. Walking on eggshells is the perfect way to describe it. I recognise it is probably not the best environment to grow as a junior and ultimately, I will only spend 6 months with this team. I just really want to change the narrative before the end of the 6 months, because the review will ultimately have a big impact on what positions will be available upon completing my training.

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Is this a satellite office of a US firm? Seems strange for there to be only 1 SA in a M&A team.

Culture just seems very off especially requiring you to be in the office while no one else is there. At my firm, unless there is a critical mass of people in, there is no pressure for trainees to come in. If anything, people would say our culture is far too relaxed.

I had a similar seat with a pretty difficult supervisor and the best thing to do is just pander to them for the six months and then leave. One benefit of only having to sit in a team for 4-6 months.

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I think it being your third seat is in your favour to an extent. Surely, it means you have two good reviews in the bank already? This means your firm is likely to consider this review as a one off or you won’t be judged too harshly on it.

If you really like your current seat, I’d probably look externally as I can imagine that partner and senior associate trying to veto you joining the team given what you’ve said.

And yeah, Covid has been a real spanner in the works. I’m a second year and my training contract has just been a hot mess because of it.

Seems like a legitimately bad situation, or at very least a bad match. But a fun fact in general: once they decide they don’t like you, it’s essentially impossible to flip it and everything that follows is more about that than anything else. Not saying it applies here, but sometimes it does.

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Showing great effort, deference, and character will keep you alive. But based on above it’s time to start looking, actively.

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As a fellow UK solicitor who went through the TC, the point of it is that you get a "taster" of different departments and areas of law so that when you qualify, you can choose what area you want to start practicing and also if you remain in the same firm, which team you want to apply. I would, therefore, agree with all of the above comments that it is not your fault; learn from it, note things for future reference in order to avoid, and say goodbye to the seat and team without regrets at the end of your rotation. Finally, I would build up relationships with partners and SA you like so that any negative feedback from that team does not minimise your chances of getting an associate position at the firm after TC ends (assuming that's what you want). Good luck, and don't beat yourself for bad management, learn from it!

You/Your. Attention to detail... :D

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