u/Brilliant_Patient302

Junior 1-3

Mid-level 4-6

Senior 7+ assuming no NEP or EP promotion?

With work product, sometimes I cook and other times I get cooked. Feel really bad for mid-levels that have to answer my questions and review my work, especially draft motions, research qs, and other stuff.

Any ideas on how to get more consistent w/o making folks frustrated?

How many extra hours of doc review would I need to perform to qualify for extra bonus to pay my sports gambling losses? House is already gone and looks like my kidney is next up.

Is the business case a firm’s evaluation of an associate’s ability to generate an independent book of business, inherit a book of business, or some other aspect of business generation?

Hi all,

Title basically sums up my request. I notice that I can write fairly clearly, but oftentimes, I will include details that, while essential to my reasoning, are ultimately unhelpful to the client.

How can I better calibrate my judgment to discern what to include and what to cut, especially during the revision process?

From an hours stand point, Pro Bono can really help you max things out, or stay afloat, while things are slow. I understand that our firms have different caps for PB, but for a junior, it is super helpful for rounding things out.

I’m relatively junior in my career, and I’m curious whether other people have experienced a disconnect between direct feedback and broader “reputation” feedback. For example, someone may still be getting work, receiving positive comments on assignments, and building solid relationships, while also hearing vague statements that “people think” they are struggling or viewed negatively in some way.

Obviously juniors make mistakes and need to improve. I definitely do. But I’m more interested in the dynamic itself. In your experience, how much of this kind of feedback actually reflects reality versus personality conflicts, selective interactions, office politics, or negativity spreading more easily than positive feedback?

And how should juniors process that kind of commentary in a healthy and productive way without either dismissing it completely or becoming overly anxious about it?

Debt free in 2029 (I’ll be mid way through fourth year). I would like to stay a few more years after to really pad my coffers. Any general advice on how to make it?

Hi everyone, I’m somewhat new to the big law/corporate environment, so the types of office dynamics and psychological profiles of certain colleagues isn’t intuitive for me.

For context, I am a junior in a litigation practice group at a fairly respected firm (big law). I enjoy opportunities to sharpen my skills and have, within the last few months, really taken it upon myself to proactively reach out to broaden my experiences.

In terms of how I relate to others, I typically don’t talk to people often, but when I do interact to get things done, I am professional, responsive, and cordial.

However, it has come to my attention that my practice group tends to be gossipy, and I don’t want to participate in that. Is it possible that there are those within the gossipy group who would be willing to gaslight me about where I stand within the group?

Someone told me (person A) recently that they had an experience where they were told (by person B) that several people complained about person A’s work to Person B, and that they were in jeopardy of developing a negative reputation within the practice group.

Yet, when Person A received their evaluations, they were all positive, and several people (seniors and partners) complimented them directly for their work.

Is gaslighting like this common in our profession?

I was told by an associate via undisclosed sources and gossip that I have a very bad reputation within the practice group. However, at my evaluation, all of my reviews were extremely positive.

What gives?

Have you ever during the course of your career submitted something absolutely terrible? How did you grow from that experience?

We all know that one person that we don’t enjoy working with and they constantly find fault and/or complain about us, or our work quality, behind our backs.

I’m curious if you have a person in mind and how you handled it and whether your professional relationship improved.

I didn’t realize why people flamed first years for giving their opinions on here until I just received my mid year evaluation. Can confirm, we don’t know jack sh*t, and should listen more than we talk.

I’m a junior litigation associate at a large firm, and about two weeks ago I had a conversation with a colleague who told me I’m supposedly starting to build a very negative reputation among associates. The strange part is that this doesn’t match anything I’ve actually heard from the people who have supervised my work. The direct feedback I’ve gotten from partners and associates has been positive, and I’ve turned everything in on time. There haven’t been any issues raised in the actual matters I’ve worked on.

I’m not denying the possibility that someone had a bad experience with me, but the scale of what I was told doesn’t line up with the amount of work I’ve done or the number of people I’ve worked with. It made me wonder whether sometimes people take a small negative comment or bit of gossip and blow it up into something bigger to make a point or to sound more authoritative than the underlying facts support.

Since that conversation I’ve been tightening up my processes and making sure I’m not letting anything slip, but I’m still not sure how seriously to take what I was told. Curious if anyone else has run into something like this.

Is it common for more senior associates (particularly mid levels) to think that first years are dumb/stupid/slow?

Just curious about what some of the common perceptions are.