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Sacred Games 🙏🏻 #ProudDesi
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What were signs of layoffs in 2008?
How long does it take to draft a complaint
Sacred Games 🙏🏻 #ProudDesi
Bowl Leader
What were signs of layoffs in 2008?
How long does it take to draft a complaint
Not sure why people are saying to avoid that.
I’d prefer be the go-to for a couple of people that I like working with rather than getting stuck with whatever matter some random tries to staff you on.
Subject Expert
#1 is literally just be responsive
#2 is present your work product with an eye towards what the senior / partner need and set up your cover email with that in mind. Make it clear and helpful rather than doing the bare minimum, attaching it, and saying “here”
#3 have a good attitude and want to learn
Oh also check the system and past emails for a couple minutes before asking a question. I’m happy to answer questions but if you’re asking me to find a doc for you that’s clearly saved in the correct folder on the system I’ll be annoyed if you’ve been working for longer than 3 months
Subject Expert
You don't quit. That one simple trick beats 3/4 of the field.
Exactly right. It's working hard and grinding and saying yes to crappy stuff, but it's also "ownership" and following up and closing out issues to confirm someone is handling even if it's not "your thing."
Don’t!
Subject Expert
But why do you WANT to be that associate
Coach
Didn’t quit. Met deadlines or warned seniors when not possible.
What do you mean by make the senior look good? Can you provide examples please?
Look at what a typical Gen Z junior associate does and do the opposite 😂
Enthusiast
Yea 2020 is not gen z lol but something people forget is that classes of 2020 and 2021 got fucked in training and mentorship and typical culture / team building. We were used to sitting at home alone working at all hours with no human interaction bc of the pandemic then getting yelled at for not knowing how to do things they could do by our year. First 5 months of the pandemic alone I barely could get work at my firm.
It’s hard to see the upside of adding extra hours to go into the office when we aren’t getting that junior skill development in person and missed out on exploring different types of work at firms.
Mentor
You don’t want to be the day to day go to associate dumped with unwanted work - you want to be the long-term go-to when there’s a need for someone reliable and capable. Set boundaries and hold back a bit of capacity so that when something or someone actually important asks, you have the time and energy to deliver good work product. Make the most of any of those opportunities, communicate, and be proactive. Delegate as much as possible for other matters and run them effectively and you’ll be able to avoid seniors or partners getting weird about it
Making your superiors’ lives as easy as possible, being painfully attentive to detail and organized, having a great attitude (and being very teachable), and being responsive. Great communication does wonders too.
Didn’t try to be one, but somehow ended up being one. I’m not sure if my work product is actually better than the other associates in my group. I’m very responsive and reliable. I work hard and take ownership…but aren’t most associates like this? So I don’t really understand how I became to be known as the go-to associate.
They are not
The winner of the excrement pie eating contest wins more excrement pie.
Visual Storyteller
Issue spot blind spots / volunteer to handle seniors’ work when they are busy from the get go. Building trust early on gives you a reputation of being reliable and people will gravitate towards you for junior level work rather than taking a chance with someone new.
Don’t care about your physical or mental well being for about five years straight
Coach
It's a lot of work, concerted relationship building, and organization, but it can be worth it.
Start by figuring out what needs to be done on a case next, identifying how to deal with it, and offering to do it (or to help manage/task out the project). That progresses to being the day to day person on a particular case or matter, and knowing what everyone was up to. At least for me, once I did that for 2-3 years I got a lot of leeway on stepping away when I needed to and turning down work. By that point, it was understood that I'd work hard and if I was handling something, it was going to be done well.
Mentor
I think a lot of it has to do with just using your brain a little. Like how would you want others to approach you —
Try to stick to your deadlines and give people updates on progress. If given a deadline you realistically can’t meet, give people a heads up so they can triage early on.
Have respect to those with more seniority—whether you like it or not, law is hierarchical and if you give people above you respect, more often than not I find you get respect back. If you act like a know-it-all from the start it’s really off-putting to people.
Be a team player and volunteer—there are better and worse assignments to be staffed on, but ultimately they need to get done. If you volunteer once in a while to handle something without being told, people really appreciate that.
Be responsive. Biggest gripe I hear from partners about new associates is that they sign off at 5pm and you literally can’t get ahold of them. It’s mind-blowing. As a junior and mid-level you are making a name for yourself. You can set boundaries but also be responsive at the same time. For example, if you get a late night email you can acknowledge you got the email and say I’ll turn to this in the morning.
It’s really not rocket science, but you do need to realize you entered a demanding profession.
It was luck. When I was a first year a rainmaker at the firm confused me with a lateral and gave me senior work. He didn’t find out I was a junior until after I’d taken six depositions or so. After that everyone wanted to work with me.
The star juniors in my firm just billed the most and worked with the shittiest (but best) partners on high profile deals that nobody else wanted to do.
They ended up billing 300 hour months and were completely miserable though. Hey at least the managing partners know them by first name. Also hit their targets by November but had to keep working.
Mentor
thank you for being a gunner, so I can slack off! I appreciate it!
For the first 2 years, I maintained a good attitude, was consistently uber responsive and billed way more than any human should ever expect to bill. At start of year three I cut back to normal in all these areas and am still considered a go-to for those people who considered me a go-to my first 2 years.
Tbh being generally likable goes a long way. Senior attorneys notice who is disliked by their colleagues, who can’t work well with others, who sucks up to partners but screws over contemporaries and juniors. And it negatively impacts them when they can’t rely on you to help manage a team bc everyone else on it dislikes / distrusts you!