First year being frozen out? Forum

[Anonymous User]

First year and am generally busy. In fact, busier than other first years. But there is one matter that I’m on, and my work for that matter has gradually decreased. I’m on this team with one midlevel and one senior. I have stopped getting cc’d on some emails, and I barely have work for it. The midlevel and senior seem busy for this matter. Am I getting frozen out? Or am I being paranoid?

[SFSpartan]

You're almost certainly being paranoid. In all likelihood, the deal/matter is moving too quickly for the mid and/or senior to solicit first year help.

[objctnyrhnr]

First year and am generally busy. In fact, busier than other first years. But there is one matter that I’m on, and my work for that matter has gradually decreased. I’m on this team with one midlevel and one senior. I have stopped getting cc’d on some emails, and I barely have work for it. The midlevel and senior seem busy for this matter. Am I getting frozen out? Or am I being paranoid?

So I’m a mid/senior in biglaw white collar/civil lit. on a given case (assume there’s a partner, me, and a junior), tasks/deliverables can be divided into four categories in my own mind:

1. Things I absolutely need to do/figure out entirely by myself (though if I have time I may ask the junior to peruse it when I’m done)

2. Things I should probably handle but if I’m absolutely slammed, I could have the junior take the first stab and then I know I’m going to just need to dive in and handle when they’re done but hopefully it’ll take me fewer hours than if I had done it from scratch

3. Things I definitely COULD do, and that I’d probably do more quickly than the junior, but again if I’m anything short of very light work wise, I’ll probably have the junior take the stab

4. Things a competent junior should absolutely be able to handle to the point it makes me a bit uneasy billing client for me to do it.

#1 is always me, #4 is always junior. But for 2 and 3, it really depends on my personal circumstances in terms of other work.

And then there’s the other unknown of what specific tasks are coming down when you’re at a certain point in a certain matter. Are there even going to be any tasks that fall into categories 4 and 3?

I took the time to explain this for the purpose of illustrating how circumstances totally beyond your control can result in fewer deliverables on a given matter...and that it’s in no way a reflection on you. Rather, it’s a reflection on the mid/senior’s general plate, and also on what’s happening in that matter.

Hope this puts your mind at ease a bit.

[Anonymous User]

Thank you! It made me feel SO much better. You are all the best!