1st year corp. associates: Share your stories Forum

[Anonymous User]

Thank you for your suggestions. This senior associate when demanding me that I do his work, copied the partner. But also started a separate email chain un cc'ing the partner and giving me directions. My opinion is he copied the partner on one email chain demanding me to do the work, so that he can scare/force me into doing it and giving me no way to push back. Our normal protocol at the firm is that senior associates un cc the partner when delegating, so that juniors can discuss workload/timing with the senior and can push back if they need to. I had been billing 10+ hours awhile, and I barely was sleeping (if at all). So, I was not in a position to take on his work. But he cc'd the partner, so that I would not have a way to say no. It is all very toxic behavior and very difficult.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

[jotarokujo]

Thank you for your suggestions. This senior associate when demanding me that I do his work, copied the partner. But also started a separate email chain un cc'ing the partner and giving me directions. My opinion is he copied the partner on one email chain demanding me to do the work, so that he can scare/force me into doing it and giving me no way to push back. Our normal protocol at the firm is that senior associates un cc the partner when delegating, so that juniors can discuss workload/timing with the senior and can push back if they need to. I had been billing 10+ hours awhile, and I barely was sleeping (if at all). So, I was not in a position to take on his work. But he cc'd the partner, so that I would not have a way to say no. It is all very toxic behavior and very difficult.

i'm not sure that the partner being copied means you have to say yes. if necessary, you could copy the partners that you have outstanding work for

[basketofbread]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

What an absolutely shit firm.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

Also at a v10 that is doing this, but not in the litigation department. I drafted docs for 14+ hours on a day this week until I started crying at hour 14 because I couldn't get this stupid aspect of the doc's formatting to conform to my needs. It was genuinely an awful experience, one that I will now be hoping to avoid repeating at all costs.

I do love the group (normally quite busy) that I actually work for at the firm, but if I was expected to work corporate/CapM/M&A etc. for longer than this year I would absolutely and seriously consider quitting during my second year (and indeed probably would).

My only consolation, and how I'm choosing to view this (take it or leave it for other first years in my position right now), is knowing that if I were not helping on all of the deals that I'm cross staffed on, another corporate first year (could even be a friend for all I know) would be at least 50% more exposed to these deals and have to do all of the work that I'm doing and that would make me feel sad. The corporate first years that I'm friends with right now are really suffering mentally with the massive amounts of work they've been hit with. At least for now, I can hang in to help them, because that's really what I'm doing: helping relieve other first-years who would get this work.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

Also at a v10 that is doing this, but not in the litigation department. I drafted docs for 14+ hours on a day this week until I started crying at hour 14 because I couldn't get this stupid aspect of the doc's formatting to conform to my needs. It was genuinely an awful experience, one that I will now be hoping to avoid repeating at all costs.

I do love the group (normally quite busy) that I actually work for at the firm, but if I was expected to work corporate/CapM/M&A etc. for longer than this year I would absolutely and seriously consider quitting during my second year (and indeed probably would). I have no formal training in any of the things I am expected to be doing and the worst part is that few of the people assigning the work care that I'm not in their group and have not been exposed to their language/work. I really have no hecking idea what the heck I'm doing. It doesn't help that the intra-department associate communications regarding work/training/assignments have been abysmal. People in Corp expect you to be responsible for things you've never been emailed about, only come to find you were dropped from the email chain assigning the work by accident or someone was put on the email that wasn't supposed to be in your stead. It's a really messy, painful, aggravating WFH experience, but at least I don't have to deal with any of these people in real life.

My only consolation, and how I'm choosing to view this (take it or leave it for other first years in my position right now), is knowing that if I were not helping on all of the deals that I'm cross staffed on, another corporate first year (could even be a friend for all I know) would be like at least 50% (a semi-joking guesstimate) more exposed to these deals and have to do all of the work that I'm doing and that would make me feel sad. The corporate first years that I'm friends with right now are really suffering mentally with the massive amounts of work they've been hit with. At least for now, I can hang in to help them, because that's really what I'm doing: helping relieve other first-years who would get this work.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

People in Corp expect you to be responsible for things you've never been emailed about, only come to find you were dropped from the email chain assigning the work by accident or someone was put on the email that wasn't supposed to be in your stead. It's a really messy, painful, aggravating WFH experience, but at least I don't have to deal with any of these people in real life.

100% this.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

PW is doing this too.

[Anonymous User]

Is it always this miserable to be an associate? Seems like the wfh and most booming market in recent times have made it tough to be a first year.

[Anonymous User]

WFH makes it way less miserable for me.

[Anonymous User]

WFH makes it far more miserable for me- poor communication of expectations, missing all the tips and tricks, being thrown stuff and told “do this” without an explanation of what it is. There’s only one mid level in my group that walks you through anything, and honestly, I’d seriously consider leaving at this point if it weren’t for her.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone else dealing with a ton of attrition in their group? We've had multiple mid-levels leave, and we don't have many left. It's very demoralizing when you are starting somewhere and it seems everyone is trying to get out.

[avenuem]

Anyone else dealing with a ton of attrition in their group? We've had multiple mid-levels leave, and we don't have many left. It's very demoralizing when you are starting somewhere and it seems everyone is trying to get out.

In 2020 140/200 top firms let midlevels leave without replacing them. I don't know if this is a covid cost strategy and if it is extending into 2021 but decreasing headcount while increasing workload (which is happening at my V5) is disastrous for work life balance. My only solace is it makes others drop like flies and clear the way to my path to partnership.

https://www.leopardsolutions.com/index. ... -industry/

[dyemond]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

What an absolutely shit firm.

Hard to predict in summer 2019 that in fall 2020/spring 2021 demand for lit would've fallen off hardcore in part due to COVID and that corporate would gun the engine even harder than its already then-crazy volume.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

What an absolutely shit firm.

Hard to predict in summer 2019 that in fall 2020/spring 2021 demand for lit would've fallen off hardcore in part due to COVID and that corporate would gun the engine even harder than its already then-crazy volume.

Current first year lit at V50. If it were me, I would be absolutely livid and look to lateral right away while doing the bare minimum not to get fired and I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. I think that’s about the worst a firm can do to someone. Not getting your practice group choice is one thing, but lit to Corp is awful for someone who wants to litigate.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

What an absolutely shit firm.

Hard to predict in summer 2019 that in fall 2020/spring 2021 demand for lit would've fallen off hardcore in part due to COVID and that corporate would gun the engine even harder than its already then-crazy volume.

Current first year lit at V50. If it were me, I would be absolutely livid and look to lateral right away while doing the bare minimum not to get fired and I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. I think that’s about the worst a firm can do to someone. Not getting your practice group choice is one thing, but lit to Corp is awful for someone who wants to litigate.

Agreed. Sounds like a nightmare. I’m fortunate that my firm’s lit groups are busy. I would be furious if that were me.

[Anonymous User]

xstaffed on Capital Markets and Corporate deals right now and every day is a living nightmare. I cannot understate that enough. This work is fucking awful. It's so boring and I don't know how to do any of it! The partners are fucking awful. They don't even ask if you have other (necessary) things to do in your free time before telling you that you have to work on their deals all weekend, or apologize and acknowledge that they're asking you to do something annoying. Zero ability to say no, even if you do they tell you to fuck off and send you punishment in the form of 8-10 more email chains with you cc'd and referenced somewhere between email 5-9, just incognito enough for you to totally miss it.

Billing 10-14 hrs/day. I don't know how I'm going to survive this. Mentally in a low place. Feel like Chris McCandless after he ate those fucking seeds right before he died in that Alaskan bus but at least he got to look out a fucking window instead of at some PC. Could use advice on how to persevere through the abuse.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

What an absolutely shit firm.

Hard to predict in summer 2019 that in fall 2020/spring 2021 demand for lit would've fallen off hardcore in part due to COVID and that corporate would gun the engine even harder than its already then-crazy volume.

I know Skadden did this to at least some associates at the end of their summer (gave them an offer in corporate rather than lit despite their interests), so that was in 2019.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

What an absolutely shit firm.

Hard to predict in summer 2019 that in fall 2020/spring 2021 demand for lit would've fallen off hardcore in part due to COVID and that corporate would gun the engine even harder than its already then-crazy volume.

I know Skadden did this to at least some associates at the end of their summer (gave them an offer in corporate rather than lit despite their interests), so that was in 2019.

I was a Dist. Court clerk and they did it to me. No joke

[Anonymous User]

Anyone else dealing with a ton of attrition in their group? We've had multiple mid-levels leave, and we don't have many left. It's very demoralizing when you are starting somewhere and it seems everyone is trying to get out.

In 2020 140/200 top firms let midlevels leave without replacing them. I don't know if this is a covid cost strategy and if it is extending into 2021 but decreasing headcount while increasing workload (which is happening at my V5) is disastrous for work life balance. My only solace is it makes others drop like flies and clear the way to my path to partnership.

https://www.leopardsolutions.com/index. ... -industry/

Can't speak for others, but my V5 office and group (corporate) is hiring a ton right now. People were toast after last year, so the left in the last several months. I do think they were holding off on hiring to see if the COVID upswing/market was real. Turns out it is. So now they are willing to hire all levels because we are dying. Too little too late, IMO. People are just wiped.

[Anonymous User]

Crossed staffed in a corporate practice group(I'm in litigation). I'm on 4 transactional teams on top of a medium amount of lit work and have spent very little time editing documents or anything I'd consider legal work from a litigation perspective. A lot of my time in corporate is eaten up with monitoring or organizational tasks that, in lit, would be part of and necessary to some actual deliverable like a brief or would be leverages down to a paralegal. How am I supposed to even bill most of these tasks? Is most of corporate really just reading emails and organizing deal docs?

[Anonymous User]

Crossed staffed in a corporate practice group(I'm in litigation). I'm on 4 transactional teams on top of a medium amount of lit work and have spent very little time editing documents or anything I'd consider legal work from a litigation perspective. A lot of my time in corporate is eaten up with monitoring or organizational tasks that, in lit, would be part of and necessary to some actual deliverable like a brief or would be leverages down to a paralegal. How am I supposed to even bill most of these tasks? Is most of corporate really just reading emails and organizing deal docs?

yea ngl, especially for groups like m&a, a lot of the junior work is menial like that. insane you have to juggle so many matters

[Anonymous User]

Crossed staffed in a corporate practice group(I'm in litigation). I'm on 4 transactional teams on top of a medium amount of lit work and have spent very little time editing documents or anything I'd consider legal work from a litigation perspective. A lot of my time in corporate is eaten up with monitoring or organizational tasks that, in lit, would be part of and necessary to some actual deliverable like a brief or would be leverages down to a paralegal. How am I supposed to even bill most of these tasks? Is most of corporate really just reading emails and organizing deal docs?

"Attention to [deal]" or something like that is usually fine for a narrative unless your client is anal about it, if the deal is churning enough that they're pulling in lit associates I don't think their going to fuss to much about the billing descriptions.

[jotarokujo]

Has anyone heard of a firm making a large number of its first year lit associates work corporate for several months?

Skadden is doing this.

If I was a lit associate getting forced into that meatgrinder, I'd lateral asap. I feel bad for them.

What an absolutely shit firm.

Hard to predict in summer 2019 that in fall 2020/spring 2021 demand for lit would've fallen off hardcore in part due to COVID and that corporate would gun the engine even harder than its already then-crazy volume.

I know Skadden did this to at least some associates at the end of their summer (gave them an offer in corporate rather than lit despite their interests), so that was in 2019.

I was a Dist. Court clerk and they did it to me. No joke

that's sheer insanity to me, pulling a fed clerk out of lit into corp

[Anonymous User]

Anyone else dealing with a ton of attrition in their group? We've had multiple mid-levels leave, and we don't have many left. It's very demoralizing when you are starting somewhere and it seems everyone is trying to get out.

In 2020 140/200 top firms let midlevels leave without replacing them. I don't know if this is a covid cost strategy and if it is extending into 2021 but decreasing headcount while increasing workload (which is happening at my V5) is disastrous for work life balance. My only solace is it makes others drop like flies and clear the way to my path to partnership.

https://www.leopardsolutions.com/index. ... -industry/

Can't speak for others, but my V5 office and group (corporate) is hiring a ton right now. People were toast after last year, so the left in the last several months. I do think they were holding off on hiring to see if the COVID upswing/market was real. Turns out it is. So now they are willing to hire all levels because we are dying. Too little too late, IMO. People are just wiped.

Would you mind anonymously sharing the firm and group? I am sure our mods would not out that, right? Thanks. I’m considering applying and not sure where to look/start.