Partnership chances after negative feedback? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I’m wondering if getting negative feedback from one junior partner will tank ones chances at partnership in a couple years.

Have done a few isolated assignments for a jr partner. She gave me negative feedback on one (told me I did not provide her with enough updates then lectured me on he importance of keeping partners apprised of my progress). In my defense, I’d asked her for a deadline when she handed me the assignment but she didn’t give me one and kept it open ended, so I spent the next week working on it intermittently.

I have a pretty good rep at my firm but am worried about what she’ll say. I get the sense she set me up for failure since her reaction seemed really unreasonable - why not just give me a deadline in the first instance rather than micromanage my schedule?

Has anyone made partner after getting a negative review from a single partner?

I am a jr/mid level (more of a mid level by now).

[esther0123]

Sounds like constructive criticism to me, not a partnership-ending move. The latter of which I suspect happens more insidiously, but what do I know... Are you expected to have 100% positive feedback/comments at all times for a realistic partnership? How is one supposed to learn? Sorry, more rhetorical questions than helpful insight. Waiting for other more senior folks to jump in.

[jbagelboy]

I doubt this will impact your partnership prospects. If you were a fifth year and had a notable fuck up with a significant partner, that might stick in the firm’s memory. As a junior associate, receiving some constructive criticism about your work habits from a junior partner on one assignment will not doom you.

If several or most of the people you work with point out the same flaws, and your review casts those criticisms as across-the-board issues, you might have a more serious problem.

[hdivschool]

Could be a problem if she remembers it and holds a grudge. It has happened at my firm. Generally, people are looking for reasons to NOT make you partner. And other partners that want some other associate to make it will seize on negative comments about you. That being said, you can still make partner if some people don't like you--you just need a better business case or to have powerful partners supporting you.

[Anonymous User]

As a junior partner, here are my thoughts:

First of all, if you are a midlevel in biglaw (and I know you didn't say biglaw so I'm not sure), you are probably more than a "couple years" out from partnership. And the type of work you are describing - "isolated assignments" with no set deadline for a junior partner, seemingly divorced from the context of a larger case or matter or oversight of a senior partner - sounds much more like something that a junior or lower-mid associate would handle than would a senior associate a couple years out from partner. That's intended by way of encouragement: you are probably far enough out from partnership that memories of this incident will fade well before you are under serious consideration.

Second, the negative feedback here seems pretty limited. You say you've done several assignments for her but only got negative feedback on one, and that feedback dealt with the idea that she wanted more updates on your progress than you gave. That doesn't sound like partnership-ending feedback. If I gave that feedback, I'd want course correction, nothing more. I wouldn't be thinking, "I can't wait until this person goes up for partner and then I can NAIL THEM with feedback on how they didn't meet my unspoken expectations this one time a few years ago regarding checking in on my project without a deadline." I get it - some people in biglaw can hold grudges. But this one seems unlikely to be held. And even if this partner held a grudge, if you had enough backing from the partnership to go up for partner years from now, a transgression this minor from several years ago would be discounted appropriately by any reasonable partnership. Frankly, unless you had a much longer track record by then of dropping the ball, or this incident was much more egregious than the way you are describing it, the junior partner would probably be deemed unreasonable if she brought this up years later.