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I like most of the partners I work for, and they’re pretty humane to work for (by biglaw standards).

But a new partner joined the office... and he’s a nightmare to work for. Dozens of calls per day, each with time-consuming but mundane assignments, lots of shouting, and everything is an “emergency” that supposedly requires me to drop everything. The calls and emails often don’t stop til 2/3am.

In fact, none of the work is ever an emergency, and half of it is pro bono anyways. I’ve fallen way behind on billable work because of him. But my billable work comes from a couple different people so I don’t really have one partner who can “protect” me at the moment.

Other than consistently turning in shitty work (already doing that), what other strategies can I use to get out of working for him?

Edit: he’s calling now. TLS, please tell me how to burn this bridge without getting fired

Anonymous User wrote:I like most of the partners I work for, and they’re pretty humane to work for (by biglaw standards).

But a new partner joined the office... and he’s a nightmare to work for. Dozens of calls per day, each with time-consuming but mundane assignments, lots of shouting, and everything is an “emergency” that supposedly requires me to drop everything. The calls and emails often don’t stop til 2/3am.

In fact, none of the work is ever an emergency, and half of it is pro bono anyways. I’ve fallen way behind on billable work because of him. But my billable work comes from a couple different people so I don’t really have one partner who can “protect” me at the moment.

Other than consistently turning in shitty work (already doing that), what other strategies can I use to get out of working for him?

Edit: he’s calling now. TLS, please tell me how to burn this bridge without getting fired

how much sway in the firm does the screamer have? if you do you do any billable work with folks that have more, i'd talk to that person and see if they have any suggestions (so long as you know you can have a frank conversation - office politics are tough). good luck

He’s a new partner, so I doubt his opinion of you will be make or break at the firm. Just tell him you’re happy to work on his assignment but don’t have capacity until a few days later. Do this consistently and he should get the hint. Keep doing good work for other partners and always prioritize their assignments over this guy’s.

Dealing with someone like this sucks OP, I'm sorry. In my experience dealing with these types of people, they do this because they were burned a couple of times by giving a junior person too much slack on an assignment and don't have the EI to deal with it appropriately so they just give everyone who works for them exploding deadlines. They also likely don't want to put a lot of thought into delegating which is why they are just very pushy about it/a lot of the assignments are busy work. Often partners like this like to pick on junior associates since they feel they are less likely to say no.

You do need to develop the skill of gently pushing back since it will help immensely in your career. When they ask you to do something, say that you will turn to it after your other assignments for other people. If they persist, say that you would be happy to do it but you need to check with your other teams first because you have deadlines (which will also alert others to the issue). Eventually, it will require too much mental effort to come to you for work and not enough payoff, and he will find someone else. What you don't want to do is challenge directly the assignment timelines or say that you don't want to prioritize the work because it is pro bono.

If your firm has a central assignment coordinator and a strong policy that things need to go through the coordinator, say you need to run things through them first so they are aware of all the matters you are working on. This person may not be used to that type of system or be trying to circumvent it by hounding you directly, so this should scare them off a bit.

EDIT: Also, I am sure you would not do this, but don't let the partner say they'll work things out with your other partners and senior associates themselves. That's a great way to find yourself on the end of a couple of blown deadlines in a couple of days when that partner hasn't bothered to reach out to the other people on your matters. Take control/responsibility for your own schedule, and things will be a lot easier.

I also had this issue come up. Put up some boundaries, because if you keep answering your phone at 2am, he will keep calling at 2am. The hardest thing for me to accept was that I did not have to answer. I was sure I would get fired, but that simply was not true. Also I agree with both posters above that prioritizing the other partners' work, doing a great job for them, and politely getting the point across that you are busy with other partners' work, is your best bet.

I would just try to ghost him, as others have said. Say you're happy to work on his stuff but you're tied up on other matters until tomorrow. Do that repeatedly. It's important not to be late on assignments - don't say tomorrow and then give it to him in 2 days. Just say 2 days and give it to him in that timeframe.

Most people will stop working with you after a few periods of that.

Set boundaries with your actions, and not words

-don't answer at 2am, set a firm time where you won't answer phone or email (say like 9pm-7am).
-when he calls during work time, if possible try not to answer and call him back later (like in 30mins-2 hrs). You are telling him he is not your priority and you are busy with other things.
-when he comes to your office, act extremely busy and have docs all over your desk.
-when he gives you something, if true, say that you have other priorities and cc the other partner in the email and say you will start working in a couple a days (partners like the ones you describe hate this because they are entitled)
-do not discuss personal matters with him, only work
-don't act too too nice, act like he should respect you even though you are only an associate
-show him that your family and personal things matter (like having dinner with your family at 6pm for example) and thus you won't answer during certain periods
-if you do some or all of these, he will disappear gradually
-also never tell him anything directly, try to do above indirectly, while providing high quality work but with understanding that he should respect you and respect your boundaries.

Once you start pushing back like this, he will gradually leave you because these partners like the attention they get when you answer at 2am and put everything behind for them, it's like a rush for them. Its counter intuitive but that's how they operate

Anonymous User wrote:I like most of the partners I work for, and they’re pretty humane to work for (by biglaw standards).

But a new partner joined the office... and he’s a nightmare to work for. Dozens of calls per day, each with time-consuming but mundane assignments, lots of shouting, and everything is an “emergency” that supposedly requires me to drop everything. The calls and emails often don’t stop til 2/3am.

In fact, none of the work is ever an emergency, and half of it is pro bono anyways. I’ve fallen way behind on billable work because of him. But my billable work comes from a couple different people so I don’t really have one partner who can “protect” me at the moment.

Other than consistently turning in shitty work (already doing that), what other strategies can I use to get out of working for him?

Edit: he’s calling now. TLS, please tell me how to burn this bridge without getting fired

I've dealt with this before. As others have said put up boundaries and start building a wall between you and him. When he asks for things that you're busy with other stuff. Build your political and social capital by continuing to do good work with the other partners you're working with, and as long as he's not the managing partner of the firm, stay focused on extricating yourself from working with him.

In my case, a total nutjob partner was so out of control, she decided I was going to be her punching bag. Constant screaming and personal cutdowns that were misplaced and, in hindsight, flat at incorrect and inaccurate. Unreasonable and fake deadlines. Unreasonable standards. Total psychopath. She developed a reputation quickly, and I was happy to contribute to the whisper campaign about her with people I trusted to accelerate this.

It took a huge toll on my self esteem and self-worth and screwed with my ability to develop and take smart risks and be uncomfortable trying new thing, because I began to question my substantive abilities and value as an associate.

It got bad enough that I started to track her shit to bring to HR or one of the senior partners responsible for associates. Never brought it to them--I snapped one day and unloaded on her, and pulled up the list in my argument with her. It was unprofessional on my part and I don't recommend this, but things turned out fine. She's ignored me ever since (like for 2 years now), and never brought up anything my reviews. I assume this is because she spoke about this with other partners, and her story doesn't match their interaction with me and my quality of work and personality, and realized the problem would probably be attributed to her instead of me.

Sorry to hijack this thread, could someone maybe explain, specifically, to a lowly 2L how to gracefully “push back” on an unrealistic deadline? I tried to practice this skill last summer at my 1L internship because it was a problem I had at my pre-LS job, but I often got the impression that the assigning attorney was annoyed that I was prioritizing another attorneys work over their own when I asked them for a longer deadline.

Anonymous User wrote:Sorry to hijack this thread, could someone maybe explain, specifically, to a lowly 2L how to gracefully “push back” on an unrealistic deadline? I tried to practice this skill last summer at my 1L internship because it was a problem I had at my pre-LS job, but I often got the impression that the assigning attorney was annoyed that I was prioritizing another attorneys work over their own when I asked them for a longer deadline.

Best way is to have other work and inform the partner that gave you the unrealistic deadline that you have other things do in the meantime and if possible cc the other partner(s) in the email so they back you up.

If you don’t have that much work but it is still an unrealistic deadline, once the deadline approaches you inform the partner of your progress but that you need a little bit more time because XYZ (ie your research is still not complete) and then keep working on it.

OP here - thanks guys. This is all helpful. From now on, I’ll probably just turn off my phone around 11/12 and push back politely but more firmly.

One question about an earlier comment: is it faux pas to make it clear to partner that I am prioritizing billable work and will continue to prioritize it? I don’t think any of the senior partners would have any qualms about me explicitly saying (if push comes to shove) that I’ll turn to the pro bono stuff once I finish my billable work. The current and former managing partners for lit in my office have reminded associates more than once that billable > pro bono.

Anonymous User wrote:I like most of the partners I work for, and they’re pretty humane to work for (by biglaw standards).

But a new partner joined the office... and he’s a nightmare to work for. Dozens of calls per day, each with time-consuming but mundane assignments, lots of shouting, and everything is an “emergency” that supposedly requires me to drop everything. The calls and emails often don’t stop til 2/3am.

In fact, none of the work is ever an emergency, and half of it is pro bono anyways. I’ve fallen way behind on billable work because of him. But my billable work comes from a couple different people so I don’t really have one partner who can “protect” me at the moment.

Other than consistently turning in shitty work (already doing that), what other strategies can I use to get out of working for him?

Edit: he’s calling now. TLS, please tell me how to burn this bridge without getting fired

This is a very touchy subject and will take some feeling around. This is the nuclear option! If you work for a partner that is sort of tied to the management of the firm think about explaining to them that this guy is loading you with probono work when you have a ton of billable shit to do.

IME partners, as a group, mostly could a shit about probono. Finding out one of their new peer is now taking from their checks by loading an associate w/ pro-bono will piss them off.

If things are bad now, and bad to the point where this partner is ruining your life, hit them while they're new.

Anonymous User wrote:OP here - thanks guys. This is all helpful. From now on, I’ll probably just turn off my phone around 11/12 and push back politely but more firmly.

One question about an earlier comment: is it faux pas to make it clear to partner that I am prioritizing billable work and will continue to prioritize it? I don’t think any of the senior partners would have any qualms about me explicitly saying (if push comes to shove) that I’ll turn to the pro bono stuff once I finish my billable work. The current and former managing partners for lit in my office have reminded associates more than once that billable > pro bono.

I think it is faux paus to mention it to this guy, but not faux paus to mention it to another senior partner. Of course, this is a different story if you somehow volunteered for a probono project vs this guys just giving you pro-bono shit. The thing you have going for you is this is a new partner versus someone established at the firm.

Anonymous User wrote:OP here - thanks guys. This is all helpful. From now on, I’ll probably just turn off my phone around 11/12 and push back politely but more firmly.

One question about an earlier comment: is it faux pas to make it clear to partner that I am prioritizing billable work and will continue to prioritize it? I don’t think any of the senior partners would have any qualms about me explicitly saying (if push comes to shove) that I’ll turn to the pro bono stuff once I finish my billable work. The current and former managing partners for lit in my office have reminded associates more than once that billable > pro bono.

I would really stay away from that aspect of things. I agree with the above poster that as a whole the partnership probably prioritizes billable work over pro bono (obviously, it is a profit making enterprise). IME, some partners are intensely devoted to their pro bono projects (especially in litigation, where pro bono work is more common) and would react very negatively to an associate that voiced the opinion that billable > pro bono. And, after all, pro bono clients are firm clients and are entitled to exactly the same representation you give a paying client. That sometimes means pro bono gets prioritized over billable work.

I can imagine you are at a firm where pro bono is mandatory. If it is a situation where the nightmare partner is cajoling you/arguing you into doing their pro bono work, you need to take a hard stance. Don't take on any more pro bono until you have dug yourself out of the current backlog of work you are in, and limit yourself only to one matter at a time going forward.

Right now you really should be prioritizing making your relationship with the partners who run the group as airtight as possible.