Thanks for the reply I appreciate it!anon168 wrote:Again, everything here is anecdotal ...roranoa wrote:Ok, other than that, was there any other problem? For example, maybe, did they lack physical endurance to burn the oil? Or maybe they couldn't fit in conversations with their younger peers?anon168 wrote:Not the OP, but let me take a stab.roranoa wrote:Did you have really old (like, 31-35 maybe 36) peers when you started at your firm?
How many have stuck around and are they doing well despite their "old" age?
At my previous biglaw firm, the older first year associates were generally treated no different by the partners, or their other peer associates. The biggest issue with older associates was with the older associates themselves -- they often had a difficult time taking supervision from midlevel associates who were sometimes younger than they were.
Other than having an attitude for taking orders from someone way younger than you what problems do you think the older guys had problems with?
Also can you tell me about how they fared at your firm? Did they perform well? Did they get good reviews? Are at least some of them on partner track? These kind of things.
No problem with the hours (although I remember one person had a kid at home and that sometimes presented a problem, but I don't think that's unique to "older" associates).
Sometimes the older associates would have a hard time fitting in, esp. if they were something like 5-10 years older than your typical first year K-JD associate. We make Seinfeld references, you make Jersey Shore references -- that kind of thing.
I don't know if they got good reviews because, y'know, those things are generally confidential, but I don't their age necessarily was a factor in their reviews -- either good or bad.
Are they on partnership track? I've been out of my V5 firm for long now, I honestly don't know what happened to them, and I left before it was really an issue we talked about. But I don't think our firm viewed age (within certain reasonable limits of course) as an impediment to partnership. I mean, if you're a 50 year first year, obviously things are going to be a bit different.
Hope that helps. PM me if you want to discuss something in more detail.
Good luck.
OP, can you tell us what it's like with the old associates at your firm?