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I am a 6th year associate in a leanly staffed group with only a few other senior associates. The practice is very busy and I've gotten great experience and knowledge of the deals (many of which are repeat deals or get regularly amended, etc.). The issue, though, is that partners always staff me (and a couple other seniors) on as many deals as they can, before they turn to anyone else. Some midlevels and juniors in the group complain that they do not have enough work. My workload, on the other hand, keeps increasing. The deals I previously worked on keep getting amended or turn into repeat deals, and I of course get staffed on new deals, which also end up adding to amendments and repeat deals. The partners won't let me delegate anything other than the most menial tasks, so I still end up with at least 80% of the work on every deal, and it keeps piling up. I am now forced to work late nights most days of the week, along with most weekends and most holidays. There is always a new urgent deal cropping up on Friday night, and seems like I always get first dibs. Needless to say, it has taken a major toll on my health and my relationships.

Does this just come with the territory for senior associates in big law, or is it just me? What would you do in my position? I am considering lateraling to a place where I can start fresh and set lower expectations for partners, but am worried that I may end up with just the same amount of work.

Are you me? I don't know if there's much to do other than quit, threaten to quit, say you're overworked or similar... ultimately, whatever portion you don't do, someone else has to, so there's some incentive for the partners not to churn and burn you (just to get you as close to the edge as possible).

I'm in a similar situation and keep trying to say no more often. This is one of the few situations where billing hours can be a benefit -- if you are hitting above 2k hours or your firms bonus target, just say no.

At the end of the day you are in this situation because people like working with you and never trust a biglaw partner to turn work down for you.

In practice I've not been successful but have taken 5 weeks of vacation for years which helps with overall hours billed.

I am in the exact same situation... I had to say "no" last week.. It was not well-received.