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The most obnoxious people in the world I have ever met in my entire life are current and former litigation partners. Those who switched jobs into a different field (not law) have the exactly same traits. Those whom I met are extremely self-centered, close-minded, procedural, have obsessive needs to win the argument, even when it is not necessary, impatient, normal conversation seems like yelling at people, etc. Is it just me? How do you deal with them? What should I do NOT to work with them as a summer associate?

These seem like traits common to all biglaw partners

Some of them, sure. Some are fine.

Don't do lit, is the way to avoid them. Easy.

Meh, I've always found that 10% of every group of people are pretty alright -- 90% of most groups of people are kinda terrible, but there's usually 10%.

dixiecupdrinking wrote:Some of them, sure. Some are fine.

Don't do lit, is the way to avoid them. Easy.

How can I say no to the project given by lit partners? I will never do lit, of course, but during the summer, what should I do?

Anonymous User wrote:The most obnoxious people in the world I have ever met in my entire life are current and former litigation partners. Those who switched jobs into a different field (not law) have the exactly same traits.

I know this is flame because no one in lit could successfully transition to a different career.

rpupkin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:The most obnoxious people in the world I have ever met in my entire life are current and former litigation partners. Those who switched jobs into a different field (not law) have the exactly same traits.

I know this is flame because no one in lit could successfully transition to a different career.

Never say never. You live in a small world. Career office, business consulting, entrepreneurship, etc. I met several.

I noticed this too, but a lot of them are very smart and very nice. They're people who have succeeded while doing all the things most would regard as being obnoxious, and have largely succeeded because they do these obnoxious things and can be obnoxious in a classy way, which is the most obnoxious way of being obnoxious. This doesn't mean they're obnoxious people. Most are very nice.

Anonymous User wrote:

rpupkin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:The most obnoxious people in the world I have ever met in my entire life are current and former litigation partners. Those who switched jobs into a different field (not law) have the exactly same traits.

I know this is flame because no one in lit could successfully transition to a different career.

Never say never. You live in a small world. Career office, business consulting, entrepreneurship, etc. I met several.

Confirmed flame. Lit partners can't make it outside of the field of law. Sorry.

Anonymous User wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:Some of them, sure. Some are fine.

Don't do lit, is the way to avoid them. Easy.

How can I say no to the project given by lit partners? I will never do lit, of course, but during the summer, what should I do?

Take your own advice: keep an open mind and do the assignment. There's a possibility that you may even like it. I don't really see an alternative, unless you have enough work to ask the partner what should be your priority, but I'd be surprised if that's the case as a SA. You can tell whoever handles assignments that you'd prefer to focus on transactional work or whatever specialty your interested in, if possible, but if you've already been approached, you're probably SOL. Just do assignment--it likely will not be as bad as you think it is.

rpupkin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

rpupkin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:The most obnoxious people in the world I have ever met in my entire life are current and former litigation partners. Those who switched jobs into a different field (not law) have the exactly same traits.

I know this is flame because no one in lit could successfully transition to a different career.

Never say never. You live in a small world. Career office, business consulting, entrepreneurship, etc. I met several.

Confirmed flame. Lit partners can't make it outside of the field of law. Sorry.

How come you can be that illogical? You just repeated what you said and stated just confirmed. You must be in lit or troll. Please stop posting unnecessary stuff here. Your posting is not appreciated - OP

Anonymous User wrote:How come you can be that illogical? You just repeated what you said and stated just confirmed. You must be in lit or troll. Please stop posting unnecessary stuff here. Your posting is not appreciated - OP

Sorry, OP. Your post has been outed as flame and now a thread lock is imminent. Sad. Very, very sad.

rpupkin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:How come you can be that illogical? You just repeated what you said and stated just confirmed. You must be in lit or troll. Please stop posting unnecessary stuff here. Your posting is not appreciated - OP

Sorry, OP. Your post has been outed as flame and now a thread lock is imminent. Sad. Very, very sad.

Just go away.

Rlabo wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:Some of them, sure. Some are fine.

Don't do lit, is the way to avoid them. Easy.

How can I say no to the project given by lit partners? I will never do lit, of course, but during the summer, what should I do?

Take your own advice: keep an open mind and do the assignment. There's a possibility that you may even like it. I don't really see an alternative, unless you have enough work to ask the partner what should be your priority, but I'd be surprised if that's the case as a SA. You can tell whoever handles assignments that you'd prefer to focus on transactional work or whatever specialty your interested in, if possible, but if you've already been approached, you're probably SOL. Just do assignment--it likely will not be as bad as you think it is.

I already took one, which was bad. I want to avoid future assignments from lit partners because I am worried about my offer. I am pretty sure they/he/she will not make a good recommendation about me.

Anonymous User wrote:I already took one, which was bad. I want to avoid future assignments from lit partners because I am worried about my offer. I am pretty sure they/he/she will not make a good recommendation about me.

So, based on one bad experience with a lit partner while working as a summer associate, along with the odd prejudices you've formed about lit partners through your non-law-firm experiences, you've decided to just avoid all lit partners forever? Not smart.

If you're at a firm that expects its summers to work with a mix of transactional and lit attorneys (and it sounds like you are at such a firm), you should chill out and remain open to the possibility that the one partner you worked with is not representative of all lit partners.

Anonymous User wrote:

Rlabo wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:Some of them, sure. Some are fine.

Don't do lit, is the way to avoid them. Easy.

How can I say no to the project given by lit partners? I will never do lit, of course, but during the summer, what should I do?

Take your own advice: keep an open mind and do the assignment. There's a possibility that you may even like it. I don't really see an alternative, unless you have enough work to ask the partner what should be your priority, but I'd be surprised if that's the case as a SA. You can tell whoever handles assignments that you'd prefer to focus on transactional work or whatever specialty your interested in, if possible, but if you've already been approached, you're probably SOL. Just do assignment--it likely will not be as bad as you think it is.

I already took one, which was bad. I want to avoid future assignments from lit partners because I am worried about my offer. I am pretty sure they/he/she will not make a good recommendation about me.

I don't know what firm you're at but a lot of firms have some system or partner who doles out work to associates. You can tell them that you're very interested in transactional work and would like to get more experience with the various groups if possible.

Keep in mind though that firms are businesses and they will likely need to slot SA's into groups at the end of the summer (not every but most firms do this), and not every associate gets slotted in the group that they prefer. If it were me, I'd be first worried about getting an offer, and second be worried about getting an offer in a specific practice area -- ie if they have more slots in lit than they do trans, I'd take the lit position over nothing. Generally, lit has been down and trans has been up this year so this may not even be the case.

That being said, if you're really worried you did a bad job on the lit assignment, the partner's not likely going to want to ask you to do more work for them anyway.

What I think is most important though is attitude. It's fine to have a preference and voice it, but as a summer, you really want to have as much of a "can do" attitude as possible. Worse comes to worst, you get an offer in lit and you take a shot at 3L OCI and mass mail. You really do not want to be in a position though where you do not have an offer cuz you pissed off a lit partner cuz you wanted nothing to do with his/her practice. Could that happen? I honestly have no idea, but I wouldn't be interested in finding out the hard way.

rpupkin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:How come you can be that illogical? You just repeated what you said and stated just confirmed. You must be in lit or troll. Please stop posting unnecessary stuff here. Your posting is not appreciated - OP

Sorry, OP. Your post has been outed as flame and now a thread lock is imminent. Sad. Very, very sad.

Rpupkin:
What's your Avvo score?

kellyfrost wrote:

rpupkin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:How come you can be that illogical? You just repeated what you said and stated just confirmed. You must be in lit or troll. Please stop posting unnecessary stuff here. Your posting is not appreciated - OP

Sorry, OP. Your post has been outed as flame and now a thread lock is imminent. Sad. Very, very sad.

Rpupkin:
What's your Avvo score?

Why do you think I would have an Avvo score?

Anonymous User wrote:

Rlabo wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:Some of them, sure. Some are fine.

Don't do lit, is the way to avoid them. Easy.

How can I say no to the project given by lit partners? I will never do lit, of course, but during the summer, what should I do?

Take your own advice: keep an open mind and do the assignment. There's a possibility that you may even like it. I don't really see an alternative, unless you have enough work to ask the partner what should be your priority, but I'd be surprised if that's the case as a SA. You can tell whoever handles assignments that you'd prefer to focus on transactional work or whatever specialty your interested in, if possible, but if you've already been approached, you're probably SOL. Just do assignment--it likely will not be as bad as you think it is.

I already took one, which was bad. I want to avoid future assignments from lit partners because I am worried about my offer. I am pretty sure they/he/she will not make a good recommendation about me.

That's a good way to avoid future lit work...do poorly.

Anonymous User wrote:The most obnoxious people in the world I have ever met in my entire life are current and former litigation partners. Those who switched jobs into a different field (not law) have the exactly same traits. Those whom I met are extremely self-centered, close-minded, procedural, have obsessive needs to win the argument, even when it is not necessary, impatient, normal conversation seems like yelling at people, etc. Is it just me? How do you deal with them? What should I do NOT to work with them as a summer associate?

litigation tends to bring out some bad character traits. especially those that are already naturally self-centered and impatient. but if you're interested in litigation, the problem is that many of these traits can be very beneficial in big law litigation, and many people can't turn if off.

my advice is that if you want to litigate, you should: (1) grow thicker skin; and (2) make friends with these people. I'm totally serious, you can't be easily offended in this game. and the most aggressive partner that I've ever met turned out to be a huge softy once I got to know him. he's also been a great mentor at work and even a friend outside of work on a personal level.

it's like the Hound -- they act the way they do because it makes them extremely effective at their job, but you shouldn't take it personally and ought to give them a chance.

rpupkin wrote:

kellyfrost wrote:

rpupkin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:How come you can be that illogical? You just repeated what you said and stated just confirmed. You must be in lit or troll. Please stop posting unnecessary stuff here. Your posting is not appreciated - OP

Sorry, OP. Your post has been outed as flame and now a thread lock is imminent. Sad. Very, very sad.

Rpupkin:
What's your Avvo score?

Why do you think I would have an Avvo score?

I just have this strange suspicion that you do and your score is printed on your business card. What's your score?

kellyfrost wrote:I just have this strange suspicion that you do and your score is printed on your business card. What's your score?

It turns out I do have an Avvo rating: 3.7. I believe that's well above median!

Anonymous User wrote:

Rlabo wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:Some of them, sure. Some are fine.

Don't do lit, is the way to avoid them. Easy.

How can I say no to the project given by lit partners? I will never do lit, of course, but during the summer, what should I do?

Take your own advice: keep an open mind and do the assignment. There's a possibility that you may even like it. I don't really see an alternative, unless you have enough work to ask the partner what should be your priority, but I'd be surprised if that's the case as a SA. You can tell whoever handles assignments that you'd prefer to focus on transactional work or whatever specialty your interested in, if possible, but if you've already been approached, you're probably SOL. Just do assignment--it likely will not be as bad as you think it is.

I already took one, which was bad. I want to avoid future assignments from lit partners because I am worried about my offer. I am pretty sure they/he/she will not make a good recommendation about me.

so you screwed it up and are going to blame all lit partners and want to duck work?

Anonymous User wrote:

rpupkin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

rpupkin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:The most obnoxious people in the world I have ever met in my entire life are current and former litigation partners. Those who switched jobs into a different field (not law) have the exactly same traits.

I know this is flame because no one in lit could successfully transition to a different career.

Never say never. You live in a small world. Career office, business consulting, entrepreneurship, etc. I met several.

Confirmed flame. Lit partners can't make it outside of the field of law. Sorry.

How come you can be that illogical? You just repeated what you said and stated just confirmed. You must be in lit or troll. Please stop posting unnecessary stuff here. Your posting is not appreciated - OP

You sound like a lit partner I know!

rpupkin wrote:

kellyfrost wrote:I just have this strange suspicion that you do and your score is printed on your business card. What's your score?

It turns out I do have an Avvo rating: 3.7. I believe that's well above median!

Lol! Love the response.