My senior associate takes 1 week to get back to me with comments and then tells me that I need to turn the document asap. This has happened several times already and I’ve had to pull all nighters to meet these insane deadlines when it’s clear that they just waited until the very last minute to get back to me… any advice? Feel like I’m burning out

likesmart
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They probably are swamped and got to it as soon as they could knowing the deadlines and haven’t gotten good at managing down yet (ie, knowing that they can’t keep doing this to people below them bc it sucks and it will not make people happy to work with them). It’s a growing pains thing for many seniors. You may already be doing this, but, if not, follow up on what you submitted to ask for their comments - the nudges are helpful and may get them to prioritize the review sooner.

likesmart

Exactly - and if you do not want to be murdered in the imagination of someone do not write „Please review my email, I need to get back to the client.“

likefunny

There are two possibilities. Either the senior is swamped or just procrastinating. If the latter, avoid like the plague.

I know a lot of others have said the senior may be swamped and can’t help it. Just a little additional insight. I’m a senior and no matter how swamped I get (and I really do - I’ve had 400+ hr months) I always find a few minutes to give the doc a skim over to see if I have high level comments that would take a while to input. If I have those, I offer them up right away so the junior is not swamped at the last minute.

Honestly, so much of this job is time management and just giving a little thought to others. No matter how busy a senior is, they should always be thinking about how they can continue your workflow (hopefully to their benefit) while juggling their own. I wish more people thought this way, but unfortunately they don’t.

likehelpful

Agree! As a senior, it’s really important to me to at least try not to do the things that bugged me so much when I was a junior. And added benefit, I think, is that when people like to work for you, you can get better help. Everyone wins.

like

Most of the time, the senior is under water. I’m sorry but there is no good solution. If you like them, send follow ups. If you don’t, avoid them next time

like

Ask to be copied on all emails so you can see when the work flows in. When they give you a deadline ask when the product is going to the client. Do the work on your own timeline. Sometimes if they get bitten in the ass because you turned in things a bit later than their unrealistic deadline they will learn and give you a heads up earlier on what needs to be done.

like

Don’t think that’s true, I’m only a mid right now so I’m on both sides of the delegation coin. As Counsel mentioned below, no matter how slammed I am, I have 3 minutes I can use to at least give my juniors a heads up that they need to handle a particular doc when the assignment first gets in from the client. I copy all my juniors on emails so they’re aware of what’s happening. When I first started managing juniors, I was terrible. I had juniors who pushed back telling me that I can’t expect them to work through the night because I had something sitting in my inbox that I knew about but forgot until 3 days later when it was due. Now if it’s a closing the expectation is you’re up until whenever the deal gets done but otherwise you have 3 minutes to get yourself and others organized.

like

Try getting busy with someone else's work so you dont have to work with this person.

like

It really can’t be helped sometimes bc partners are doing the same to us. Sorry though

I remember those days….but please don’t use possessives…”MY senior associate”….especially going up the chain. 😂

Could you elaborate as to why? It’s certainly easier to talk this way

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It's super frustrating to be "time poor".

That's seemingly just the nature of working in Biglaw.

But every day you have the option to buy back your time.

How do you buy back time?

It's simple—by saving and investing.

And you don't need to be uber wealthy to regain control of your time.

Consider this…

likesmart

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