Top Law Schools

I'm at a major office of a V30 firm. I only work for 1 partner who has taken a strong interest in mentoring me. The partner that I work for is mentored by the number 1 or 2 rainmaker in my office. So the mentor line goes Me <-- Partner I work for <-- Big rainmaker partner.

The rainmaker partner also likes me by association and I've gone out to social events with just the two partners before (went golfing w/ them, and went to a nightclub and got trashed with them before, may or may not have done drugs with them before too).

I know I have a good thing going but I'm wondering if anybody knows whether one powerful partner is enough to get an associate into the partnership or if I need to make other connections in my office.

Why ask a board of mainly 1Ls, instead of asking your mentor?

The conventional wisdom seems to be that your kind of position is likely to lead to a career counsel/senior associate gig, but not partner.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm at a major office of a V30 firm. I only work for 1 partner who has taken a strong interest in mentoring me. The partner that I work for is mentored by the number 1 or 2 rainmaker in my office. So the mentor line goes Me <-- Partner I work for <-- Big rainmaker partner.

The rainmaker partner also likes me by association and I've gone out to social events with just the two partners before (went golfing w/ them, and went to a nightclub and got trashed with them before, may or may not have done drugs with them before too).

I know I have a good thing going but I'm wondering if anybody knows whether one powerful partner is enough to get an associate into the partnership or if I need to make other connections in my office.

It’s always best to have more connections. When partnership comes you want a bunch of people raising your hand saying that you should make it AND that one rainmaker who will say that you’re indispensable. That’s how it’s always been explained to
me. Sounds like you have one part down, but need to work on the other.

I’ve seen this exact situation at the firm I work at. Short answer, if the partner is powerful enough, they can make it happen. But your “one partner” needs to increasingly be the actual rainmaker, not the service partner. Working 100% with a single (or a few) service partners without direct contact with those who actually matter is a good way to make it to midlevel or senior and get squeezed out once your billing rate turns you from a helpful associate to competition for the service partner.

My guess would be it's not likely unless the rainmaker partner is going to generate enough client work to support an additional service partner or your service partner starts generating his own clients. But it sounds like the rainmaker is handling his work with one service partner and associates. The good news is if you have a solid rep with one rainmaker, you can probably expand a bit and do some work for other partners, just be strategic in who you work for.

You neeed other partners to back you. The firm is only going to make so many partners every year- you have to have more than one person backing you.
Also, rainmakers leave or you may want to leave. More connections the better.