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Long story short, I switched practice groups in my firm recently (and in the process had to go to a lower class level). I’ve been doing deal work (this is my third deal) and I’m always just given the assignment and some bare bones sample the second year associate gives me. Then, after I finish what I have to do, he takes it and changes it and sends me a redline with no explanation whatsoever.

A lot of it is stuff that I wouldn’t have even gathered from the sample he provided to me.

I’ve never been trained by a junior, so it’s pretty frustrating.

Is this the normal experience in busy corporate groups? Am I just expected to learn all of this through trial and error? I feel like it’ll take me years to understand what is going on at this rate.

My old practice was smaller and I was trained by a partner who would sit down with me and explain things, so maybe I am just spoiled.

From my own experience as a junior, this sounds "normal" to me. I think ideally we want the whole "will sit down with you and walk through the concepts of why they marked up the draft this way, why the deal is structured that way, and hey why don't you sit in while I call the client so you can hear what their concerns are," but in reality, with the busy deals, I just get the redline back, fix XYZ and make notes on things I want to research later or research as I go. If I know something is really important for me to understand, I just bite the bullet and try to ask a friendly partner on the deal or a senior/mid-level on the deal why something is the way it is. If they brush me off, so be it. In other words, most of my "training" has been learning by drinking from a fire hose while also drowning in the middle of the ocean, with my occasional initiative to seek out guidance.

What is the nature of the comments/corrections you're receiving? Are they mostly or entirely self-explanatory? If so, the other associate probably doesn't feel the need to sit down and explain why they made those corrections. If it isn't self-explanatory, you should ask the associate what the reason for the change was.

As a general rule, you should really understand every change that was made my someone more senior. If you don't, then you should try to track down an explanation. If you try do that and can't get one, then you've at least done everything you could do.