Building a book as a biglaw associate Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi, struck out at OCI but was fortunate to get an offer at a small firm practicing for six years in a corporate niche, making low six figures. Have just accepted an offer at a V50 and, even after taking a class year hit, have essentially doubled my salary (came on as an early midlevel). Since coming on here, ive essentially been totally buried.

Since leaving my old firm, due to the niche style of my prior practice, ive had many old (small) clients reaching out asking to move over to my new firm so that I can continue servicing them. I would say that my "book" is about $50k-75k (mostly small companies), but I anticipate that with attention and hard work, I would be able to grow that to $100-200 in a year or two.

However, I am completely slammed with my partners' book. My firm (likely like many biglaw shops) doesnt provide origination to associates, and every client must be signed on to a partner.

Just wanted to get general advice from the fora here and see if anyone has succesfully been able to build up their own business inside their law firm and what that process was like; were you able to succesfully push back on other work demands? Any stories/anecdotes? Finally, is it worth it, or should I tell old clients to go away and just put my head down and grind (I'm obviously new at the firm, and don't want to make a bad impression by turning down work)? I also see my partners super busy, so don't want to be like "hey I have some new clients I want to bring on so I cant help you, but please supervise me here."

[wwwcol]

Sounds like you’ve already realized (probably correctly) that it’s not viable. One important question: is the firm going to generate more (esp per hour) from your work then partner work? If not, and that seems likely, then full stop, firm probably isn’t aboard.

Also, If you were at a small firm, seems like there’s a decent chance you charged less than what the firm would permit even after discounting the work (assuming the firm would even agree to a discount, which is a suspect assumption here).

[Anonymous User]

Sounds like you’ve already realized (probably correctly) that it’s not viable. One important question: is the firm going to generate more (esp per hour) from your work then partner work? If not, and that seems likely, then full stop, firm probably isn’t aboard.

Also, If you were at a small firm, seems like there’s a decent chance you charged less than what the firm would permit even after discounting the work (assuming the firm would even agree to a discount, which is a suspect assumption here).

Anon from above; well thats discouraging. The fees would actually not be substantially more here (though of course would be higher). I'm curious what is better for me long term - developing my own clients (so that I'm not relying on the firm, and have a portable book of business to jump around with to lower V100s or boutiques), or just grinding at the firm (so that I am reliant on the firm with no portable book of business, but have better internal relationships). Curious which path to take, and I guess there is no way to tell.

[Person1111]

You should do everything you can to bring these clients aboard. It is absolutely worth it - it's a huge feather in your cap if you plan to make a run at being a partner, it serves as a source of referrals for potentially more lucrative work, and they are clients you will be able to take with you if and when you leave. The difficulty is that you can't really blow off partners' work to work for these clients, and there is a good chance that some partner will try to poach these clients from you, but in my experience biglaw firms are pretty keen on having associates bring in paying clients even if they don't give you origination credit for it.

ETA: This is hlsperson1111, didn't mean to post anonymously.

[LaChusa2020]

You should do everything you can to bring these clients aboard. It is absolutely worth it - it's a huge feather in your cap if you plan to make a run at being a partner, it serves as a source of referrals for potentially more lucrative work, and they are clients you will be able to take with you if and when you leave. The difficulty is that you can't really blow off partners' work to work for these clients, and there is a good chance that some partner will try to poach these clients from you, but in my experience biglaw firms are pretty keen on having associates bring in paying clients even if they don't give you origination credit for it.

ETA: This is hlsperson1111, didn't mean to post anonymously.

The world is filled with good associates some make partner and some don’t because of needs in their area, or the economy, or firm politics. A good associate doesn’t usually have the option to make partner elsewhere if that happens. But having business is the power to control your own destiny. If you have the ability to develop that as a fairly junior associate don’t give that up unless you literally will lose your job and can’t find a similar one. Don’t be overly confrontational but fight to make it work.

[Anonymous User]

OP here... thanks for the opinions... going to be more assertive and push for myself here. Will let you guys know how it pans out, but welcome any additional comments/feedbacks and anecdotes from other associates who have brought in their own clients.