Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for? Forum

[Anonymous User]

You name the -ism, you can bet it's happening in the group. People are miSERABLE. I mean, it is so disheartening to be hired at a job for 1950 then told "umm actually the target is 250/month and if you don't do it you're fired." Should be illegal the way we are being treated, but fact of the matter is we have no advocates or allies because the group is profitable for the firm. All we can do is put our time in the 10th ring and be done. For me, this will be my last stop in big law, and as an attorney. I will leave the law because I simply have no self esteem after these jobs. I feel so unworthy of good things (I know it's not true, but the constant negativity from these partners when you try so hard is soul crushing).

Consider being each others' advocates and allies, then. It might not be illegal to treat you the way you're being treated, but it is illegal to further mistreat you for acting together to push back:

You have the right to act with co-workers to address work-related issues in many ways. Examples include: . . . circulating a petition asking for better hours, participating in a concerted refusal to work in unsafe conditions, . . . and joining with co-workers to talk directly to your employer, to a government agency, or to the media about problems in your workplace. Your employer cannot discharge, discipline, or threaten you for, or coercively question you about, this "protected concerted" activity. A single employee may also engage in protected concerted activity if he or she is acting on the authority of other employees, bringing group complaints to the employer's attention, trying to induce group action, or seeking to prepare for group action.
https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights- ... d-activity

[Anonymous User]

Consider being each others' advocates and allies, then. It might not be illegal to treat you the way you're being treated, but it is illegal to further mistreat you for acting together to push back

My Labor Law professor told all of his classes that he would represent, pro bono, any of us who tried to unionize the associates at our future biglaw firms and suffered adverse employment consequences as a result. In his decades of teaching (he is retired, and this was a T-14, so plenty of biglaw alumni), he got zero takers.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

You name the -ism, you can bet it's happening in the group. People are miSERABLE. I mean, it is so disheartening to be hired at a job for 1950 then told "umm actually the target is 250/month and if you don't do it you're fired." Should be illegal the way we are being treated, but fact of the matter is we have no advocates or allies because the group is profitable for the firm. All we can do is put our time in the 10th ring and be done. For me, this will be my last stop in big law, and as an attorney. I will leave the law because I simply have no self esteem after these jobs. I feel so unworthy of good things (I know it's not true, but the constant negativity from these partners when you try so hard is soul crushing).

Consider being each others' advocates and allies, then. It might not be illegal to treat you the way you're being treated, but it is illegal to further mistreat you for acting together to push back:

You have the right to act with co-workers to address work-related issues in many ways. Examples include: . . . circulating a petition asking for better hours, participating in a concerted refusal to work in unsafe conditions, . . . and joining with co-workers to talk directly to your employer, to a government agency, or to the media about problems in your workplace. Your employer cannot discharge, discipline, or threaten you for, or coercively question you about, this "protected concerted" activity. A single employee may also engage in protected concerted activity if he or she is acting on the authority of other employees, bringing group complaints to the employer's attention, trying to induce group action, or seeking to prepare for group action.
https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights- ... d-activity

A Biglaw associate union would be extremely lulzy because even if you somehow managed to convince your colleagues to give a shit about your well-being and everyone who joined your union wasn't suddenly and mysteriously determined to be a bad cultural fit with sloppy work product, every demand you made would be laughed at by even the minnows of Biglaw and you'd never wind up doing a goddamn thing about it.

[Anonymous User]

Reviving this thread to throw a name in the mix… anyone ever work with James Lee? Currently at Proskauer, formerly at Goodwin, K&L and SRZ. Extremely rude, screams at associates, verbally abusive, pure asshole in every sense of the word. Associates try their best to avoid him.

He’s known for throwing his chair through the wall over a board consent at one of these firms. Legendary psychopath

[Anonymous User]

You have the right to act with co-workers to address work-related issues in many ways. Examples include: . . . circulating a petition asking for better hours, participating in a concerted refusal to work in unsafe conditions, . . . and joining with co-workers to talk directly to your employer, to a government agency, or to the media about problems in your workplace. Your employer cannot discharge, discipline, or threaten you for, or coercively question you about, this "protected concerted" activity. A single employee may also engage in protected concerted activity if he or she is acting on the authority of other employees, bringing group complaints to the employer's attention, trying to induce group action, or seeking to prepare for group action.
https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights- ... d-activity

A Biglaw associate union would be extremely lulzy because even if you somehow managed to convince your colleagues to give a shit about your well-being and everyone who joined your union wasn't suddenly and mysteriously determined to be a bad cultural fit with sloppy work product, every demand you made would be laughed at by even the minnows of Biglaw and you'd never wind up doing a goddamn thing about it.

Point is you don't need a union. It can be a one-time or one-issue thing, as long as it's concerted. Though if you never wind up doing a goddamn thing about the retaliation, then you're...not going to have done anything about the retaliation? So do something about it.

[Anonymous User]

Consider being each others' advocates and allies, then. It might not be illegal to treat you the way you're being treated, but it is illegal to further mistreat you for acting together to push back

My Labor Law professor told all of his classes that he would represent, pro bono, any of us who tried to unionize the associates at our future biglaw firms and suffered adverse employment consequences as a result. In his decades of teaching (he is retired, and this was a T-14, so plenty of biglaw alumni), he got zero takers.

Could you post his name? It's Misery OP. Would love to talk to him...in a $1 damages kind of mindset

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

A Biglaw associate union would be extremely lulzy because even if you somehow managed to convince your colleagues to give a shit about your well-being and everyone who joined your union wasn't suddenly and mysteriously determined to be a bad cultural fit with sloppy work product, every demand you made would be laughed at by even the minnows of Biglaw and you'd never wind up doing a goddamn thing about it.

Point is you don't need a union. It can be a one-time or one-issue thing, as long as it's concerted. Though if you never wind up doing a goddamn thing about the retaliation, then you're...not going to have done anything about the retaliation? So do something about it.

Do what? Round up the troops and go to the partners collectively and firmly tell them to stop being assholes? Go on a collective strike?

Everything you attempt to do will backfire. Trying to "do something" about a problem because you feel ineffective about the idea of doing nothing is a bad approach to life.

[Anonymous User]

Question for people who are yelled at, at work: Do you ever say "Don't yell at me" to these people?

Or when people say they were "yelled at" does that mean someone's email didn't say "Thanks!" at the end?

I asked a partner to stop cursing me out when he was frustrated by the other side. After a 30 minute rant of "that's how real lawyers talk" I started actively looking for another job. This was smalllaw though.

[Anonymous User]

Are there any difficult partners to work with in Credit or Real Estate at STB?

[Anonymous User]

DPW?

Bumping this since I’m also curious

[Anonymous User]

DPW?

Bumping this since I’m also curious

At least for lit at DPW, more of a senior/mid-level associate issue of who is terrible to work for. Partners are pretty nice and personable but the asks are usually coming from more senior associates.

[Anonymous User]

Consider being each others' advocates and allies, then. It might not be illegal to treat you the way you're being treated, but it is illegal to further mistreat you for acting together to push back

My Labor Law professor told all of his classes that he would represent, pro bono, any of us who tried to unionize the associates at our future biglaw firms and suffered adverse employment consequences as a result. In his decades of teaching (he is retired, and this was a T-14, so plenty of biglaw alumni), he got zero takers.

Who is the professor? I'll drop a line.

[Anonymous User]

Consider being each others' advocates and allies, then. It might not be illegal to treat you the way you're being treated, but it is illegal to further mistreat you for acting together to push back

My Labor Law professor told all of his classes that he would represent, pro bono, any of us who tried to unionize the associates at our future biglaw firms and suffered adverse employment consequences as a result. In his decades of teaching (he is retired, and this was a T-14, so plenty of biglaw alumni), he got zero takers.

Who is the professor? I'll drop a line.

He retired a year ago, but I bet he'd still take a biglaw associate up on the offer if you can get in touch with him. Dan Bowling, who was at Duke.

[Anonymous User]

DPW?

Bumping this since I’m also curious

At least for lit at DPW, more of a senior/mid-level associate issue of who is terrible to work for. Partners are pretty nice and personable but the asks are usually coming from more senior associates.

Any deets on DPW corp? I feel like I’ve heard nothing about some of the bigger groups and have only heard of a few rough personalities in their funds group.