How to Survive Two Years in BigLaw? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Apologies if this is somewhat incoherent. I got the first vaccine dose recently and it kind of messed me up.

So I started at a Biglaw firm in a major Texas city in early December, hired to replace someone who had recently left. I had a clerkship before this, so I guess I'm a second year, although no one has really clarified that for me. I am currently the only junior associate in my group, and about two months into my time here, a large chunk of the litigation partners left the office.

I had someone tell me a couple months ago to complain if I was still low on hours in March. Ramping up was slow for me, but I've mostly reached a point where I'd be on pace to barely hit the hours expectation (2000)... if I hadn't been so slow those first couple months. Basically, I'm struggling hard to bill 40 hours a week, and not able to address the deficit in hours from those first slow months. I can't build up any kind of cushion of time for things like being sick or going to a dental appointment. The head partner of the litigation group brought up my hours on an unrelated call and told me I was about 70 hours behind where I should be. I'd love to fix that, but I honestly don't know how.

I ask for work when my plate is getting empty, but most of the work I get is quick research or drafting, and then I'm looking for work again. I ask how long I should spend on each assignment, but often don't get a real answer (e.g. "it takes as long as it takes, just don't waste time."). This is a problem because I've always tended to work faster than others, and I don't have enough experience to estimate how long a given action should "normally" take. I could slow down a bit and go through things a bit more thoroughly (and have been doing this to the extent I think reasonable), but I'm terrified of doing this on the wrong project and getting a sit-down about it.

I don't know what else I can do to try to raise my hours, except keep asking for work, but I'm also scared of annoying people. Is there ever a point at which this becomes not my fault? I've been told by someone in the office that they've never seen someone fail to hit hours and get fired that same year (which I took to mean that you'd have to fall short a couple years in a row to really be in trouble), but I'm not really interested in gambling on that. There's also another junior in my group starting in the fall, and I'm sort of mystified by this-- if there isn't enough work to keep me busy, how will they keep this person busy? Will they cut into the work I am getting? I LIKE being busy, but at no point recently have I had a list of tasks long enough to last me more than a couple days of work.

I am also utterly convinced my senior associate "mentor" hates me. They are often really nasty if I ask a question of any kind, although I only see this behavior privately. This person mostly acts like I can't do anything well and my existence is a waste of their time-- which it might be, but I don't have anyone else to whom I can direct questions, and I try really hard only to ask necessary questions. We have regular mentor check-in meetings, but I feel so uncomfortable with this person that I dread talking to them in any capacity. I try to be friendly and as little of an irritant as possible, but I don't think it's working. I desperately want to ask this person what I did to offend them and how I might fix it, but I also feel like that would make things even worse.

In general, I just feel like a bull in a china shop. I can't do anything right, I don't know the proper way to go about even something as simple as asking for more work, and even though I haven't gotten any outright bad feedback from anyone other than the aforementioned mentor, I worry that I'm not doing a good job and no one has bothered telling me. With the office still on work-from-home, I feel incredibly isolated and have no one I can talk to about any of this. I have a performance review in June and have absolutely no clue how that's going to go, considering we'll only have been back in the office less than a month under our current back-to-work plan.

I have already decided that I'm not interested in staying at this job long-term if this is representative of what it's going to be like, but have also been told that to be in the best position to go somewhere else, I should try to make it at least two years. I don't even know if I'm going to make it that long. I'm already focusing on paying down debt and building up savings with the paychecks. I guess I'm just looking for advice in general on how to make the best of this, and if there's anything additional I should be doing to make things easier on myself.

[CanadianWolf]

Can you reach out to another litigation associate ?

[Anonymous User]

Can you reach out to another litigation associate ?

So there's only one other associate in the group in the office, and they're also very senior to me. I have reached out to this person, and even though they are more outwardly friendly, they've already directed me to ask (Mentor Associate) general questions. I thought it was best not to push that. Therefore, I'm asking strangers on the internet.

[CanadianWolf]

Although not directly helpful to your concern about a lack of work at your firm, it may help to speak to a former law school classmate or two who are working in biglaw just for psychological comfort.

[Anonymous User]

Although not directly helpful to your concern about a lack of work at your firm, it may help to speak to a former law school classmate or two who are working in biglaw just for psychological comfort.

I don't have many classmates that are in Biglaw now, but I'll consider it. Any advice for my current situation?

[texas1100]

Can you reach out to other offices?

[cam1992]

Wow, I feel like I could have written this exact post.

I do not have much to add, except to say I know other first years at big law firms in my major Texas market are also hurting for hours. For me it’s really inconsistent, but I would say I consistently fall below 40/week. I’ve basically been told that when courts reopen around the country the work will pick up and I’ll be able to make it all up in the fall. There are three new associates starting in my group next fall, so I just assume the firm knows what it is doing? I wish I had more tips to give, just thought I would say this situation seems to be fairly common.

[Anonymous User]

Can you reach out to other offices?

A not-insignificant chunk of my work currently comes from partners in other offices, for which I'm thankful, but it's been made clear to me that their first priority is their own associates, as I suppose it should be.

[Anonymous User]

Wow, I feel like I could have written this exact post.

I do not have much to add, except to say I know other first years at big law firms in my major Texas market are also hurting for hours. For me it’s really inconsistent, but I would say I consistently fall below 40/week. I’ve basically been told that when courts reopen around the country the work will pick up and I’ll be able to make it all up in the fall. There are three new associates starting in my group next fall, so I just assume the firm knows what it is doing? I wish I had more tips to give, just thought I would say this situation seems to be fairly common.

This is pretty comforting, actually. Not that I'm looking forward to a million hours a month, but I'm glad it might not be just me. I'm making sure that when I ask for work, I do it via email if possible, so I have a record in case I need to defend myself later, but if things pick back up I may not have to.

[nealric]

To some extent, it sounds like the office is just a bit slow and there is not that much work to go around. Your associate mentor is probably a bit stressed by that, and the prospect of being low with their own hours because they are being given to you. The good news is that it doesn't really matter much what this person thinks of you. What's important is the partners think well of you. They don't necessarily need to like you personally- just think you do good work.

Best advice I can give is to do absolutely bang up work when you do get assignments, especially for a new partner. There's a certain market for associate talent, and the work that exists tends to go to the ones the partners like the most.

Finally, I'd note that coming in under 2,000 hours is not a death knell at most firms. In fact, the dirty little secret is that at many firms- even those with 2,000 hour "requirements"- the median associate bills under 2,000 (especially when you get past the v10 and local market leader firms). Obviously, it's better to hit hours for bonus and retention purposes, but few firms are going to fire a new associate after one year because they only billed 1,800 hours.

[hdr]

I don't think anyone gets fired for billing 1800. To me it seems that 15-1800 is a gray area and under 1500 is when you should be prepared to be fired or given the talk (but I still know multiple associates who have survived a year with extremely low hours).

[CanadianWolf]

In the first post, OP wrote:

"The head partner of the litigation group brought up my hours on an unrelated call and told me I was about 70 hours behind where I should be."

[objctnyrhnr]

In the first post, OP wrote:

"The head partner of the litigation group brought up my hours on an unrelated call and told me I was about 70 hours behind where I should be."

This sounds kind of crazy to me, to be honest.

[papermateflair]

The head of litigation wants you to make up those hours, and seems to have been tasked with "fixing" the problem. I would check in with them about how to get more work - tell them you want to hit your targets, that you need 5-10 more hours a week to get back on target over the next few months, and ask them for advice on how to get more work. And you should definitely slow down - double check everything so that it's perfect before it goes out. Don't like, spend 10 hours on a 2 hour project, but if a project takes you 5 hours to complete, it's not unreasonable to spend a couple of additional hours reviewing, revising, formatting, editing, etc. Being fast is great but it's not the most important quality in a first year. And ask the partners you work for how they would like you to spend your extra time (I don't think you actually have any because you're busy now but since they want you to overcome the deficit then you should act like your work schedule requires another 5-10 hours a week for now) - do they want you to pick up a pro bono case? If you get to count pro bono towards billables (most firms let you do that), then pick up a couple of projects and see if you can make up some of the deficit that way. That way in June you can say "My hours for the past 5 months have been on target, and I have taken on two pro bono cases and also asked for work every week in an effort to make sure my hours for the year hit the target" and unless the firm is really hurting or your group is toxic, that should be sufficient.

[Elston Gunn]

In the first post, OP wrote:

"The head partner of the litigation group brought up my hours on an unrelated call and told me I was about 70 hours behind where I should be."

This sounds kind of crazy to me, to be honest.

Agreed. There may more context we’re not privy to, but partners micromanaging a first year’s hours like this sounds like a potentially toxic environment.

[cavalier1138]

In the first post, OP wrote:

"The head partner of the litigation group brought up my hours on an unrelated call and told me I was about 70 hours behind where I should be."

This sounds kind of crazy to me, to be honest.

Agreed. There may more context we’re not privy to, but partners micromanaging a first year’s hours like this sounds like a potentially toxic environment.

Yeah. This isn't just micromanaging; it's nuts. We're only 3 months into the year. There will be plenty of opportunities to "make up" for the 70-hour deficit before December.

[nealric]

In the first post, OP wrote:

"The head partner of the litigation group brought up my hours on an unrelated call and told me I was about 70 hours behind where I should be."

This sounds kind of crazy to me, to be honest.

Agreed. There may more context we’re not privy to, but partners micromanaging a first year’s hours like this sounds like a potentially toxic environment.

Yeah. This isn't just micromanaging; it's nuts. We're only 3 months into the year. There will be plenty of opportunities to "make up" for the 70-hour deficit before December.

Yeah, very few associates are lucky enough to bill 2,000 hours in perfect 40hr/wk increments. Some people will bill 600 hours in the first 1/2 of the year and then bill 1400 in the back half (and vise versa). You'd think someone who has been in biglaw long enough to make partner would know and appreciate that.

[objctnyrhnr]

In the first post, OP wrote:

"The head partner of the litigation group brought up my hours on an unrelated call and told me I was about 70 hours behind where I should be."

This sounds kind of crazy to me, to be honest.

Agreed. There may more context we’re not privy to, but partners micromanaging a first year’s hours like this sounds like a potentially toxic environment.

Yeah. This isn't just micromanaging; it's nuts. We're only 3 months into the year. There will be plenty of opportunities to "make up" for the 70-hour deficit before December.

Yeah it’s insane for a few reasons. I’ll name some of them:

1. Partner micromanaging first year associate to this degree.

2. 70 hours isn’t even far off!

3. Partners suggesting somehow that this is all on the associate, rather than acknowledge the obvious truth that it’s the partners job to get him those hours to work.

4. Having this type of convo with anybody (partner or whatever) after only a few months. I had only heard of this occurring after a year, maybe 6 months at absolute earliest.

[Anonymous User]

In the first post, OP wrote:

"The head partner of the litigation group brought up my hours on an unrelated call and told me I was about 70 hours behind where I should be."

This sounds kind of crazy to me, to be honest.

Agreed. There may more context we’re not privy to, but partners micromanaging a first year’s hours like this sounds like a potentially toxic environment.

Yeah. This isn't just micromanaging; it's nuts. We're only 3 months into the year. There will be plenty of opportunities to "make up" for the 70-hour deficit before December.

Yeah, very few associates are lucky enough to bill 2,000 hours in perfect 40hr/wk increments. Some people will bill 600 hours in the first 1/2 of the year and then bill 1400 in the back half (and vise versa). You'd think someone who has been in biglaw long enough to make partner would know and appreciate that.

In the last two year span I had a three month period where I billed 950 hours and three months span where I billed about 250. Granted, there was corona weirdness in there, but it just illustrates your point. I'm biding my time to get out of the biglaw M&A game, but I'd do this job till retirement if I had semi-stable 40hr/wk. I feel light as air those weeks, like I'm normal people.

[Anonymous User]

In the first post, OP wrote:

"The head partner of the litigation group brought up my hours on an unrelated call and told me I was about 70 hours behind where I should be."

This sounds kind of crazy to me, to be honest.

Agreed. There may more context we’re not privy to, but partners micromanaging a first year’s hours like this sounds like a potentially toxic environment.

Yeah. This isn't just micromanaging; it's nuts. We're only 3 months into the year. There will be plenty of opportunities to "make up" for the 70-hour deficit before December.

Yeah it’s insane for a few reasons. I’ll name some of them:

1. Partner micromanaging first year associate to this degree.

2. 70 hours isn’t even far off!

3. Partners suggesting somehow that this is all on the associate, rather than acknowledge the obvious truth that it’s the partners job to get him those hours to work.

4. Having this type of convo with anybody (partner or whatever) after only a few months. I had only heard of this occurring after a year, maybe 6 months at absolute earliest.

OP here. I thought it was kind of ridiculous, especially since this early on, there's only so much I can do about getting more work. I can ask until I'm blue in the face and it won't make work magically appear. If they're expecting things to pick up enough that they can bring on another associate this fall, and my deficit isn't getting WORSE, I have to wonder what the deal is. I've heard from people that the firm is "entrepreneurial," but what that seems to mean is that whether you get work is seen as 100% your problem.

[Anonymous User]

The head of litigation wants you to make up those hours, and seems to have been tasked with "fixing" the problem. I would check in with them about how to get more work - tell them you want to hit your targets, that you need 5-10 more hours a week to get back on target over the next few months, and ask them for advice on how to get more work. And you should definitely slow down - double check everything so that it's perfect before it goes out. Don't like, spend 10 hours on a 2 hour project, but if a project takes you 5 hours to complete, it's not unreasonable to spend a couple of additional hours reviewing, revising, formatting, editing, etc. Being fast is great but it's not the most important quality in a first year. And ask the partners you work for how they would like you to spend your extra time (I don't think you actually have any because you're busy now but since they want you to overcome the deficit then you should act like your work schedule requires another 5-10 hours a week for now) - do they want you to pick up a pro bono case? If you get to count pro bono towards billables (most firms let you do that), then pick up a couple of projects and see if you can make up some of the deficit that way. That way in June you can say "My hours for the past 5 months have been on target, and I have taken on two pro bono cases and also asked for work every week in an effort to make sure my hours for the year hit the target" and unless the firm is really hurting or your group is toxic, that should be sufficient.

I've asked about pro bono and been told there really isn't anything for me right now, but I do plan to circle back on that.

As for slowing down, again, my biggest problem is that I don't want to be called up on the carpet for taking TOO long to do something. I ask about how long I should spend on things when I get assigned them, but I often get a non-answer, and I have absolutely no way to estimate how long X document SHOULD take because I've never done it before. Most of the work I'm doing is honestly more administrative or research than drafting, although I've done *some* of that. It seems like there's less wiggle room there. I don't even know how fast I should be going for document review. Do I only find these things out when I get chastised for them?

[papermateflair]

The head of litigation wants you to make up those hours, and seems to have been tasked with "fixing" the problem. I would check in with them about how to get more work - tell them you want to hit your targets, that you need 5-10 more hours a week to get back on target over the next few months, and ask them for advice on how to get more work. And you should definitely slow down - double check everything so that it's perfect before it goes out. Don't like, spend 10 hours on a 2 hour project, but if a project takes you 5 hours to complete, it's not unreasonable to spend a couple of additional hours reviewing, revising, formatting, editing, etc. Being fast is great but it's not the most important quality in a first year. And ask the partners you work for how they would like you to spend your extra time (I don't think you actually have any because you're busy now but since they want you to overcome the deficit then you should act like your work schedule requires another 5-10 hours a week for now) - do they want you to pick up a pro bono case? If you get to count pro bono towards billables (most firms let you do that), then pick up a couple of projects and see if you can make up some of the deficit that way. That way in June you can say "My hours for the past 5 months have been on target, and I have taken on two pro bono cases and also asked for work every week in an effort to make sure my hours for the year hit the target" and unless the firm is really hurting or your group is toxic, that should be sufficient.

I've asked about pro bono and been told there really isn't anything for me right now, but I do plan to circle back on that.

As for slowing down, again, my biggest problem is that I don't want to be called up on the carpet for taking TOO long to do something. I ask about how long I should spend on things when I get assigned them, but I often get a non-answer, and I have absolutely no way to estimate how long X document SHOULD take because I've never done it before. Most of the work I'm doing is honestly more administrative or research than drafting, although I've done *some* of that. It seems like there's less wiggle room there. I don't even know how fast I should be going for document review. Do I only find these things out when I get chastised for them?

Unfortunately yes, big law training is often just people only telling you when you did something wrong, and not otherwise providing feedback. It sucks. Perhaps your group will be better at giving feedback, but when it comes to billing no news is good news. There's an extreme end of things where you will definitely get in trouble for taking too long - because either you blow deadlines, or you end up billing 90 hours to a 5 hour project (yes, I worked with a first year who did that...), but if you're on a big litigation matter where lawyers are spending a ton of time on it, no one is going to come after you because it takes you an extra hour or two to make sure you really nail down all the details etc. And when I was a first year I definitely felt like everything I did was stuff a non-lawyer could do, and yeah, that was probably right! But use it as a time to slow down and make sure you're understanding what you're working on and building the foundation you need for later.