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I just noticed in the WATY status that my realization ration is around 55%. I'm still getting work from the partners though. However, for quite a few projects my hours were cut. I'm a first-year associate. I just had my mid-year review. The comments were mostly regarding my organization of the memos. Should I be worried?

I wouldn't worry until someone tells you you need to get your shit together -- inefficiency is expected from first-years, and people aren't going to mind (within reason) unless you're actually making their lives harder somehow.

There are also a lot of extrinsic reasons your time might be getting written down.

Not going to pretend like I'm senior enough to opine on this - but don't a lot of clients refuse to pay for first years' work as a matter of course?

Many clients also have rules about paying for things like internal memos, proofreading and cite-checking hours, and all the random shit work that gets piled onto 1st years.

Doc review is something I think clients understand they're gonna have to pay for, which is how most junior associates get super high hours.

Thank you, everyone. A senior associate told me my realization rate should not be lower than 75%. That's why I was a little worried. Thank you for the clarification.

Anonymous User wrote:Thank you, everyone. A senior associate told me my realization rate should not be lower than 75%. That's why I was a little worried. Thank you for the clarification.

Why not ask the senior associate this question?! I get that there is a lot of neuroses on these forums (a question like "Should I be worried" is one of the prototypical examples of this manifesting) but sometimes you really can just ask people in real life and they will be honest.