Getting different work as a junior in biglaw Forum

[Anonymous User]

I just started working at my firm a couple months ago, and work in litigation. My firm doesn't have us specialize for the first year and they just give us random assignments. The bulk of my assignments have been patent cases, and I have no science background or interest in patent law. I feel like I've been doing crappy work because it takes me like hours to figure out how to interpret literature about a new molecule or read a patent. I'm just really not enjoying the work or feeling like I'm adding value. However, I have been given some assignments from the white collar team and have really enjoyed it and gotten great feedback from the work I've done for them. I really want more white collar work (or honestly any other work at all that's not IP/patent) and less IP work. Is there a way to voice this without seeming ungrateful or uninterested in the work I've been doing? I don't want to form a bad reputation with the people on the IP teams I'm on (in the sense of I feel like I'm not doing the best work I can be because I can't understand the subject of what I'm working on), but I just have no interest in this whatsoever. I don't mind long hours, hard work, figuring out new things, etc., but I would like to feel somewhat interested in the subject matter I'm working on.

[Elston Gunn]

It’s too early to turn down work or affirmatively tell partners you’re not interested in what they do. But what you can do is to make clear to the white collar lawyers you’ve worked with that you want to do more. Keep doing good work for them and hopefully you’ll be so busy with the type of work you want that you can start turning down the patent work because you don’t have the bandwidth.

[dyemond]

You should absolutely ask the midlevel/senior associate for any guidance they can offer about getting a better handle on the technical material for IP law. Unless they're a complete clown they'll realize that the material has a steep learning curve without a science background.

[papermateflair]

Like others have said, talk to the white collar folks about how much you love the work, ask them for more work or if you can help out on nonbillable matters, make a special point to reach out to the associates in that group, etc. Don't ever ever ever tell the IP folks you hate their work - but once you are busy enough with other work you can tell them things like you're in the middle of a major investigation and can't get them their documents for three days, or whatever you need to do. And reach out to other groups if you aren't getting enough white collar to keep you busy so that your plate is too full for IP/patent. May be worth talking to your mentors (if you have them) about how to navigate this (but only if you trust that they won't tell IP you hate it).