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3L here with a question for current associates. I'll be starting NYC BigLaw in the fall. Like a lot of SAs, I had a lot of "down time" last summer. However, one thing that stuck with me that I was wondering how to approach was the situation in which you've given a draft of a document to a partner, and are waiting for a partner to review that document, but, assuming you have no other assignments, it is also a reasonable hour for you to leave the office.

Granted, I understand that I may not have this problem nearly as much when I start "real work," since I will be swamped like everyone else. However, I was wondering whether it's normal to ask the partner politely if s/he needs you to stay in the office. I know this might seem like a silly question, but given how busy partners are, s/he may not know when s/he can review your work, and may not let you know when s/he can. You don't want to walk out ten minutes before the partner gets the document back to you, nor do you want to stay at work when the partner won't get to it until tomorrow.

Obviously this will compound when I start in the fall, since there may be times I find myself in this "limbo" situation with many assignments. So in this situation do you just send an e-mail? Do you call eventually if the partner doesn't get back to you on if s/he needs you? Do you just go home unless the partner has given signs s/he wants you to stay? I found myself e-mailing about this a lot last summer, but only because the specific people I was working with were very amicable. I was wondering if it's normal practice generally, whether it's really something you have to feel out attorney by attorney, or whether you should just leave the office unless it's something you know has an immediate deadline (which also might be idiosyncratic, since some partners may run on deadlines that are not client specific).

You are going to have feel this out on a partner by partner basis. My partner doesn't give a shit where I work. If he asks me to do something, I can do it from home, from Chicago, or from Bejing for all he cares. You'll also quickly learn how things typically work. My boss won't turn around something I send very quickly at all.

my firm actually has a non-billable code for this situation though i don't think anyone uses it

you will typically have around 3 or so matters at a minimum, and at least as a first year, one of those will likely involve a long-term tedious project (doc review, QA doc review, finding documents for depositions, etc). The situation you described will be somewhat rare.

Situation is pretty commonplace in corporate. You'll typically have three types of partners:

(1) Partners who don't care either way, so do what you want as long as you get it done.

(2) Partners who care that you actually go home at a reasonable hour and will proactively tell you not to wait at your desk if you're just going to do nothing.

(3) Partners who don't care, but don't know you well enough to believe that you'll complete the work at home. For these people, you have to build trust.

(4) Partners who do care and will judge even if you ask.

As Dessert Fox said above, you have to feel it out from your interactions with the partner and from any helpful information on the partner that you can get from other associates.

In my experience, the more micro-managing the partner is, the more likely he or she will be a (4).

Thanks to all of you, especially Zweitbester -- that was very helpful. Yes, I'll be doing corporate, so I'm not sure long-term billable projects (i.e. projects that I would feel pressured to stay to complete) are necessarily as common as in lit (although I know there is diligence, etc.).

I would ask one of the younger associates at the firm who has been there a few years. They will know your firm's culture better than any of thus and will have dealt with this situation before. But I wouldn't worry too much about it. You'll probably always have diligence work that you can fall back on

As a brand new associate that is probably the time in which you should be gunning for moar work

Depends.

If you leave early, make sure anyone involved in your projects have your cell number and know that you're perfectly fine with them calling you.

Look, for me i work at a smaller firm. I just started here a couple weeks ago and I am having problems meeting my billables because I do not have enough work

I have asked almost everyone, 10/15 attorneys and 3/3 paralegals if they have work for me, and so far, nothing I can get started on until next week. But, I still stay here until after the boss leaves reading state statutes or going on the internet. I am here and that is my commitment. When he asked I said i have been asking for work I dont know what else to do really.

Yes, by "reasonable hour to leave the office" I was thinking of 6, rather than 3.

I also have no ambitions of making partner or even staying in BigLaw very long, so outside of double checking that I've completed assignments, I don't really see myself "gunning for more work" at that hour on a regular basis unless my billables look noticeably bad or something.

- OP