Top Law Schools

Worked on a case with a partner with whom I have a very good relationship (pseudo-mentor I suppose I’d say). We came across an interesting and unsettled issue in my state that does have some broad practical application. I published a few law review articles while I clerked, so I definitely haveexperience writing them. Was thinking publishing on this topic (albeit maybe a little less formally than law review article style) would help to drum up business down the line or help my rep or whatever...also I just happen to like writing articles for some reason.

Question is whether I should suggest to the partner that we write it together, in which case it’s super likely I’d end up writing it all myself regardless based on how working with this partner has gone before, or whether I should just go ahead and write the thing myself. Obviously keeping good relationship with partner is very important, but also am I shooting myself in the foot by offering somebody else primary credit for my work? Assume the partner doesn’t have any substantive knowledge or experience that I lack in this specific area of law.

So really this boils down to a firm politics/associate strategy question and in looking for advice. Would anybody even take an article written only by an associate seriously? Would it affect my reputation negatively in my firm by the associate who just went out and did that? Would the partner be annoyed that I didn’t pay my dues or whatever and give him credit where we did come across the issue in a case he supervised me on?

you wrote two paragraphs of cons for taking sole credit and not a single pro for having just you on the byline. Haven’t you answered your own question?

ps everyone understands that an article written by big law partner and associate team was actually written by the associate, with the partner adding a comma here or there to make it his own (if the partner even read it before signing off)

I’m in the complete opposite camp on this. I’ve never published an article because I’m super lazy, it if you like the partner why not offer to give he/she credit for the article your going to write anyway? It doesn’t hurt you, everyone will know you wrote it. You will still be published and check a small box that some, but most ppl don’t care about. Partner will like you more because you’ve done partner a solid on the bus dev marketing front. And the partner will likely throw you even more work and will likely refer anywork, which is likely none, that comes from the article you wrote. That’s how you yourself make partner. Making lives of partners easier/better. What’s the downside?

Do you want to make partner at this firm? If so, a piece of advice - nobody makes partner in a biglaw firm without the support of the existing partners. Contrary to what many associates believe, partnership is not gained through drumming up a ton of business as an associate (this doesn't happen in biglaw 99% of the time - meaningful relationships with large clients never belong to associates for good reason). Do whatever you can to make your partners be supportive of your candidacy when the time comes.

Yes, you should involve the partner, and yes, you should assume that you'll be doing all the work. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Nobody is going to call you up for legal work because you had a hot take on a legal issue. Building a book is really about getting your name out there (both internally at the firm and in the legal community generally) over a period of many years. People are much more likely to click on an article if its written by someone with some prominence in the legal community, and if they start to associate your name with those people (whether on briefs, articles, at panels, whatever) then that is how you get your name out there.

There's also a practical CYA reason for this - when you publish an article you are implicitly putting your firm's name on it and thus implicitly writing the article on behalf of the firm even if you are "just an associate". You need to be careful that you are not taking a position in the article that might cause another partner some embarrassment (maybe because your position is adverse to positions current clients might want to take, even in matters where your firm does not represent them, or it involves a case in which a current client lost). Having a partner sign off on the article insulates you from that kind of unintentional blowback.

OP here. This has all been really great advice. I think that the correct path is clear. Thanks, TLS.