How do you get off of a case you're assigned to? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Like the title says. Midsize firm, junior associate (lit dep't is about 30 lawyers).

All I'm doing on this one case is document review and no one has really explained to me any of the facts of the case nor really care that I'm there. The material is complex enough that I wouldn't understand it unless someone explained it to me. I've sacrificed several holidays (worked through Christmas, NYE, etc.) for this case, mostly because the partners involved with the case are incredibly disorganized. The document review is drawing to a close and I really don't want to be working on the case any longer, nor am I of much use at this point. It is going to trial in two months but I'm really of no use in that respect, and I have absolutely no desire to be involved in the shitshow that the trial will be. Because of this case, I've learned virtually nothing in the first 8 months of my employment at my firm and have considered quitting. Also, I am a terrible fit personality-wise with the group working on the case and it is a rather toxic environment (yelling partners, passive aggressiveness, all that jazz). For the record, I do work well with everyone else in the office. At the same time, I don't want to look like a dilettante or lazy for not wanting to continue working on the matter.

On the other hand - I have other interesting cases that offer me substantive work, and I really want to focus on those to improve my actual skills. I get along great with the managing partner on the case, and he actually makes an effort to teach me. I don't want to quit over this one case, but unfortunately one of the managing partners (the yeller) is also involved in the case so I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

[crouton62]

You gotta suck this one up to the extent they ask you to be a part of the trial team. In fact, you'd be a fool to beg off it if you're asked. Being on a case going to trial does crank up everyone's emotions, so the yeller will probably only become more that way, etc. but it should still be a great learning experience for you. You also get to bill almost every minute of the day when you're in hard core trial prep/on trial. Take the hit now so you can enjoy more time off around the holidays. But since you wouldn't be much a value-add on the team, they may not as you to do so, in which case, the problem will resolve itself.

Doc review sucks but you could be working 20 hours days in a gold mine in Africa, so suck it up as best you can, and, going forward, gravitate towards the partners who do the work you like and treat you better.

[tyroneslothrop1]

Suck it up!

[Anonymous User]

Unfortunately, this is the lot of a junior lawyer doing any sort of complex commercial litigation. I will give you a couple pieces of advice.

First, doc review is often inefficient because the midlevel or senior supervising the project has no idea what is in the documents before they batch them out to you. As a result, you spend a lot of time looking at obviously non-responsive stuff. There are a ton of ways to save yourself time on the doc review that the senior won’t tell you about (because they don’t have time to find out) and may not be apparent to you initially but as you get more familiar with the review will work in your favor (batch coding, weeding out junk documents, etc.) leaving more time for other matters. E-discovery specialists can be really helpful here if your firm has them.

Second, the choice between “bill 7 hours a day on one case that I hate and go home at a reasonable hour” or “take on a second case that will allow me to develop skills that I want but bill 12 hours total” is a common quandary in litigation. It gets worse as you get more senior. Institutional clients you need to keep happy or senior partners who you don’t want to work for will drop something on your desk and suddenly that four months of your life you wanted to spend working on different matters or developing a different skill set is gone. Being able to balance that is just a learning experience and you get better/more tolerant of it with experience.

Third, senior associates are notoriously terrible at keeping juniors informed about the facts of a case, especially a big case (I say this as a senior who as a junior complained about this and then as a senior had people turn around and complain that I did the same behavior). There are two ways to deal with this. You can insist that the senior associates answer your questions about the case (is this relevant, who is Y, etc.). Be polite about it, aggreggate your questions, but do not be afraid to reach out to them if you are at all confused about anything. The other way to do this is to try and shadow the case so that you keep tabs on what is going on even if it is not part of your day to day assignment. Most cases really, at the end of the day, turn on a handful of legal issues and factual questions. Major pleadings and deposition transcripts can be especially useful in understanding what the main issues are and why the documents you are pulling are relevant to them.

I will also stress that if there is one thing you absolutely need to understand about the case it is who the lawyers are at your client and their outside counsel are so you don’t accidentially miss a priv call. My practice was is that if there is any question at all, mark priv. It is much easier for a more senior person to do a pass through a limited universe of priv docs and make those calls rather than going back through a massive production to try and fish out the privileged communications and documents.

[jd20132013]

Too late to get off this one, if it was ever possible.