Should I take more initiative? It’s my stub year and I’m getting worried. My hours have been super low the past two months, I’m talking like maybe billing 3-4 hours a day and billing no hours on multiple days. I ask for work but the tasks I get don’t require a lot of time. Should I be reaching out more?

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Lol no, just chill while you can

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Short answer: yes, you should take more initiative. Bring these concerns to your partner(s) and ask for more substantive assignments. At least that way, you can’t be blamed for trying.

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Yes. Also, review your tasks again before turning them in and again do a compare after they have gone out. Try to make the most out of every single one.

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It’s totally fine as long as you’re asking for work, stubs often start extremely slow

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It kind of depends on what you want. You won't be fired for low billables in your first few months, so you can take this opportunity to chill. That said, in my experience, the first few months is a good time to set yourself apart from other associates. If you take on work early, you can set yourself up to get better work sooner. But this isn't always the case, of course. Sometimes you're going to get stuck with garbage work regardless.

I'm a stub and currently at 175ish billable since November and consider myself behind so probably.

What kind of law are you practicing?

Just here to say I'm in the same position as OP. NYC v10 where the rest of the group is slammed.

When I was a stub the only real
Substantive work I got was because a third year left and the partner just needed an extra body on a couple deals. You’re group is most likely just swamped in the middle of closing a ton of projects with nothing really new starting up til the new year at this point. They just don’t have time to get you up to speed for most deals.

agreed with A8, also people are trying to hit their hours and so are delegating less

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