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Hi all,

I'm in the midst of my stub year as a lit associate. V20 NYC firm, coming off of a clerkship. I had a good amount of work when I first got here and by all accounts did a good job but have had almost nothing going on for weeks now. I've reached out to the administrative team that gives stubs/1st years most of the work and they've basically just told me to sit tight. More or less the same with a couple of partners in groups I'd like to work for.

Im wondering (1) whether I should be worried and (2) whether I should be going even further out of my way to take on work (i.e., pick up a due diligence project if the firm issues a mass mailer to junior associates). My gut tells me it's fine to wait (at least for now) but it's awfully strange going to the office, seeing many of my peers busy, and doing nothing.

Some people are very slow halfway through their actual first year. You're probably fine.

Bump

Good chance I will have literally 0 billables between now and the new year, hoping for some extra input.

Enjoy it. You've got three bonus months under your belt in biglaw. (Also stub who has swung from 15 hour days to like one hour days.)

Transactional stub-year here. As I understand it, no one is counting your hours as a stub year. Just be available. And do stellar/timely work when it does come, no matter how small.

I've flipped from multiple week-long dry spells to now billing 90 hours the past week, including 10+ hours today on a Sunday. None of these hours will be counted for anything, until the new year hits. You're not missing out.

Just make sure people know you have availability. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy your holidays. It'll surely be the only time at a bigfirm where you will have zero billables for the last two weeks of December.