My work flow is extremely slow & Idk what to do about it.
1st year lit associate at satellite office in v20. My office lost 20 attorneys since I started last September. Ive had less than 25 hours of billable work per week since March. Ive asked for more work to a partner in charge of lit work, but never heard back. Ive asked other partners for work & get biz dev projects. Asked other associates & was told everyone in office is slow, but now I'm hearing some ppl have work & am nervous. Advice?

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Is it too early in your career for you to lateral within the market you're in? I was in a similar position (satellite office of a V50 that was hemorrhaging attorneys) and was having issues getting enough work. Even traveled to some of our bigger offices to try and meet some new partners in my practice group, but those offices were empty due to everyone being WFH so I never made any connections.


I lateraled to a regional firm (just outside of the V100) that was prominent in my city/market. I now have plenty of work and multiple partners to draw work from. Sometimes a medium to large office of regional firm can be much better than a small office of a national or international firm.

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Also, I just got a pay raise and am at $240 so I dont want to leave...

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Have you looked for work in other offices? I survived the reaping in 2008 and 2009 by working for partners wherever the work was. The associates that didn’t were let go and a press release said it was for poor performance and the firm had tons of work (not true).

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Leave. This happened to me. I tried to remedy it by moving to another group. Was amazing for 8 months. Then we lost my biggest client. Work wasn’t there. My last day is coming up and I am SO happy I’m leaving

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Sorry you are going through this. Have you tried asking your supervisory partner and/or associate “buddy/mentor” for work? If not, I would do that. Even if you don’t get work, it lets them know that you are trying your best. When I was in Big Law, my supervisory partner said it was her and the practice group’s job to keep associates busy. As a CYA, keep copies of your emails asking for work so you can bring them out during review time. Good luck and keep your head up—it gets better (usually)!

By supervisor I mean senior associate mentor

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Lateral out

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