To all of my fellow biglaw attorneys: how many times have you received comments/ feedback during your reviews or otherwise that you’ve disagreed with? How do you differentiate between constructive criticism and comments based in individual perspective that may/may not be accurate? How do you incorporate it and improve from there?

The only time I’ve ever questioned criticism was when I literally had no idea what it was referring to. For instance, I once had a review where an unnamed one-of-several partners I was working with on a large case team said I had left work early one day without communicating my whereabouts such that he had had to finish something the client needed on a deadline, and I had absolutely no idea what episode that was supposed to be referring to. I had a pretty good guess who had said that about me though. I asked a partner on the case who I assumed had not been the one who said that about whether he knew what that was referring to, and he said no, and that he couldn’t recall anything happening like what had been described. But the lesson here as it might apply to you is that he then told me “you know, I wouldn’t bring it up with [name of partner he suspected had said it in my review]. The basic point is he probably felt you weren’t as available as you need to be.” Sucks, because I genuinely don’t think that happened, but the partner I was talking to is right. It’s not like cross-examining someone about what he said in my review is going to make him like me more—which, at the end of the day, is probably the bigger issue.

Probably not the answer you’re looking for but ultimately treat every comment/ review as constructive criticism you can learn from. You may think it’s wrong or not accurate, but there’s a reason someone is giving it to you. I’ve learned that the less “defensive” you are and the more you appear to try to better yourself based on any feedback, the better for you. You’re going to run into some unfair bad apples who are just miserable people, but do you really think they’re going to want to hear from you why they’re inaccurate? Try to surround yourself with and work with those who are reasonable so in case you run across a bad apple or two you’ll have others in your corner.

My reviews always have wildly contradicting statements: e.g., “Good attention to detail” v. “Attention to detail needs work”; “asks good questions” v. “Needs to be mindful of asking seniors questions.” Ultimately, I accept all reviews as accurate for the person that reviewed me and take it with a grain of salt. What works for one supervisor won’t fly with another and next time I’ll do better.

Generally yes everyone should be open to constructive criticism. But vague criticism is often not constructive and can actually be indicative of the reviewer’s biases. Real life examples: 1) partner saying they don’t like your work product because “you don’t appear to get it.” When pressed, they cannot explain what that means or point to a specific thing and cuts the convo off quickly; 2) criticism in review that you’re not a cultural fit. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say this happens more to BIPOC.

Can you give us more color on the criticism and why you disagree? How to deal with this sort of thing depends on the specifics.

a partner was once annoyed that I had "left so early" - not that I was unavailable to work, just unavailable to work in the office to handle logistical nonsense that night secretaries are for - at 930 PM, because he'd flown to the west coast and that feels like an early time to leave the office if you subtract three hours.