Check out top-law-schools.com Forum

[Anonymous User]

.

[Anonymous User]

So how do your assignment reviews go? All of mine have gone into some depth... I'm wondering if it's because I'm that bad or is that the norm.

[Anonymous User]

So how do your assignment reviews go? All of mine have gone into some depth... I'm wondering if it's because I'm that bad or is that the norm.

"Keep doing what you're doing. Also, do you need any different types of assignments that you haven't gotten yet?" "No" "okay cool, see you at the event tonight"

[rpupkin]

So how do your assignment reviews go? All of mine have gone into some depth... I'm wondering if it's because I'm that bad or is that the norm.

It's the norm at some firms but not others. I wouldn't read anything into it.

[Desert Fox]

fobstory.jpeg

[smaug]

also just an anecdote from my summer—some folks within the firm had a lot of feedback/were told things they could work on

other people went out for a meal

both groups got offers

so even within the firm it could be that you have an enthusiastic mentor or you have one who is too busy to think about you, or many other things

[Anonymous User]

So how do your assignment reviews go? All of mine have gone into some depth... I'm wondering if it's because I'm that bad or is that the norm.

"Keep doing what you're doing. Also, do you need any different types of assignments that you haven't gotten yet?" "No" "okay cool, see you at the event tonight"

Yeah basically this

[rpupkin]

also just an anecdote from my summer—some folks within the firm had a lot of feedback/were told things they could work on

other people went out for a meal

both groups got offers

so even within the firm it could be that you have an enthusiastic mentor or you have one who is too busy to think about you, or many other things

This is credited. I'm often too busy/lazy to give a summer critical feedback. My feedback usually consists of the following email: "Looks great! Thanks!"

If I have some time and if I like the summer, I'll actually bother to give constructive feedback. Come to think of it, the stronger summer associates are more likely to get critical feedback from me because I think they're engaged enough to actually benefit from it.

[Anonymous User]

Just had a mid-summer review that was a bit of a shock. Am really only interested in X practice area and have pursued as many as X practice area assignments as possible. All of my reviews from that practice area were glowing. When people from the other main practice area have asked my interests when I've been assigned to work with them I've been honest about my preference for X practice area but have also expressed interest in the specific assignments. I've only had 2 assignments from outside of X practice area. One received good feedback. The other was really really bad and basically said that I said I basically refused the assignment he gave me, and said I wasn't interested. What actually happened was that I had been assigned to another time sensitive project that needed to be finished by the end of the day when the associate who gave the negative feedback called me and asked if I could do follow-up research to an earlier assignment before the end of the day. I told him that I couldn't with my schedule given that there was a closing for my other assignment and I had active work between now and his deadline (his deadline was within the next 3 hours).

I'm freaking out about the negative comments from this one associate and am not really sure how to handle things going forward. My feeling is that a negative review from someone outside the group I want when the group I want likes my work won't be an issue. But I feel like I need to do something to fix this somehow but also feel like any attempt to fix this will just draw more attention to it. I don't want to be seen as someone unwilling to take on assignments I don't like (and am not) so any advice would be appreciated.

[rpupkin]

I'm freaking out about the negative comments from this one associate and am not really sure how to handle things going forward. My feeling is that a negative review from someone outside the group I want when the group I want likes my work won't be an issue. But I feel like I need to do something to fix this somehow but also feel like any attempt to fix this will just draw more attention to it. I don't want to be seen as someone unwilling to take on assignments I don't like (and am not) so any advice would be appreciated.

Who conducted your mid-summer review? Was it a partner mentor? If so, is there a reason you didn't just talk to him/her about the negative review and what you should do about it?

You're probably fine, but we don't know anything about the culture of the firm you're at. Firms assign you mentors so that you can have someone to talk to about this sort of thing.

[Anonymous User]

You're probably fine, but we don't know anything about the culture of the firm you're at. Firms assign you mentors so that you can have someone to talk to about this sort of thing.

That doesn't necessarily mean the partner has any interest in talking to you about it.

[rpupkin]

You're probably fine, but we don't know anything about the culture of the firm you're at. Firms assign you mentors so that you can have someone to talk to about this sort of thing.

That doesn't necessarily mean the partner has any interest in talking to you about it.

I don't even know what that means.

Associate goes to partner mentor, explains the situation that precipitated the bad associate review, and asks if this is something to be concerned about. Why is this so complicated?

[El Pollito]

Anon, you probably should be able to tell if it matters based on what the partner conducting your review said (which you've given us no information about, so not sure how we can help you).

[Anonymous User]

What's the story on the Latham SA?

I suspect this is flame/false rumor.

I heard it from someone I trust, so I wasn't just making stuff up. But it could be a false rumor, of course.

[rpupkin]

What's the story on the Latham SA?

I suspect this is flame/false rumor.

I heard it from someone I trust, so I wasn't just making stuff up. But it could be a false rumor, of course.

Share the rumor! What's the point of the anon feature if we can't get good dirt on big law firms?

[Anonymous User]

What's the story on the Latham SA?

I suspect this is flame/false rumor.

I heard it from someone I trust, so I wasn't just making stuff up. But it could be a false rumor, of course.

Share the rumor! What's the point of the anon feature if we can't get good dirt on big law firms?

Story I heard involved billing a bunch of over the top stuff to the firm during whatever Latham calls their big summer associate retreat. Meh as far as scandals go, if it's even true.

Now, someone share the Skadden story that they mentioned earlier.

[Anonymous User]

What kind of over the top stuff? If for example it was hookers and blow, that's a story I wanna hear more about.

[Anonymous User]

What's the story on the Latham SA?

I suspect this is flame/false rumor.

I heard it from someone I trust, so I wasn't just making stuff up. But it could be a false rumor, of course.

Share the rumor! What's the point of the anon feature if we can't get good dirt on big law firms?

Story I heard involved billing a bunch of over the top stuff to the firm during whatever Latham calls their big summer associate retreat. Meh as far as scandals go, if it's even true.

Now, someone share the Skadden story that they mentioned earlier.

can confirm skadden rumor, dropped a summer before they even started

[Rahviveh]

What's the story on the Latham SA?

I suspect this is flame/false rumor.

I heard it from someone I trust, so I wasn't just making stuff up. But it could be a false rumor, of course.

Share the rumor! What's the point of the anon feature if we can't get good dirt on big law firms?

Come on guys stop being such damn cowards. Are you going to live in fear for the rest of your lives? Unless it's in one of lathams tiny offices they aren't gonna know its you

[Anonymous User]

What's the story on the Latham SA?

I suspect this is flame/false rumor.

I heard it from someone I trust, so I wasn't just making stuff up. But it could be a false rumor, of course.

Share the rumor! What's the point of the anon feature if we can't get good dirt on big law firms?

Story I heard involved billing a bunch of over the top stuff to the firm during whatever Latham calls their big summer associate retreat. Meh as far as scandals go, if it's even true.

Now, someone share the Skadden story that they mentioned earlier.

can confirm skadden rumor, dropped a summer before they even started

Do you have a story to it?

[Anonymous User]

can confirm the latham story actually is about hookers and blow.

[jbagelboy]

how do you bill cocaine to the firm

serious question - are dealers taking C/M numbers or providing receipts these days?

[PvblivsScipio]

how do you bill cocaine to the firm

serious question - are dealers taking C/M numbers or providing receipts these days?

lol what is this, pre-recession? Nobody does cocaine breh. It's adderall these days.

[Johann]

latham had a baller ass year. their biggest concern about the hookers and blow is prolly a lack of a receipt to get that deduction

[Anonymous User]

Looking for TLS help here. I'm not sure if I like the firm that I chose or even if I want to do Biglaw. My performance evaluation was not exactly positive - everyone had good things to say about my work product, but I blew one major deadline in a practice area I'm not interested in without relating the fact that I was going to miss it, and this pissed off a senior corporate associate (NB: I give zero fucks about ever doing corporate work). Most of the review time was spent telling me about how I need to communicate better about deadlines, but I don't even have the ability to know how long a discrete task is going to take me, let alone to give an accurate estimate of when I'll be done with an entire project.

So basically, all of the work that I busted my ass on the entire summer and got good reviews on seemed to be offset by this feedback in the performance review.

Is it worth toughing this thing out? Or should I do the absolute minimum and try to focus on hitting up 3L OCI / mass mail / etc? I did get extended 2L offers at a couple of other firms that I liked - is there a "fast track" procedure to make a switch, or will I have to re-interview?