Assignments being delegated upwards Forum

[Anonymous User]

Lately something weird at my firm has been happening. Or maybe I'm just too traditional, so I wanted to check in on others' views if it is actually weird. On two mandates I'm working on, the same, more junior associate is also on. I'm used to it all being quite hierarchical, so the work being passed down downwards. However, there have been a few instances now where the more junior associate has asked me if I can take care of an assignment that was passed down from the partner on the mandate, because he is too busy.

Now, I have no issue helping out. However, and maybe I'm being too old school here, but it's a bit new to me that a more junior associate is delegating assignments upwards. I'm wondering if this is anything to be perturbed about or not, and if so, how to handle it. Again, I'm happy to help this associate out, and I'm happy they feel comfortable enough to indicate that he's too busy, but also, I feel like it's just weird that a more junior associate is apparently indicating they don't have enough time but a more senior should have the time.

[Prudent_Jurist]

I’m unsure if it’s something to be perturbed about. The tension here, I think, exists between not wanting a junior to overburden themselves, thereby able to decline work, and how the junior is, in this case, not simply returning the work but asking a senior to do that work, which seems presumptuous, perhaps.

I wonder if the best power move is to pass that “upstream” work back down to a different associate and inform that migrating salmon of an associate that another comparably junior associate is now handling that work. The underlying message is that it’s okay to decline work, but you, the senior, manage the workflow, not the other way around.

[hangtime813]

I would feel weird about this. Unless this is a one off where the junior is asking you for a favor, the junior should be telling the partner/senior associate/etc. he/she is too busy instead of delegating up. The partner/senior associate/etc. themselves would then reassign to you if needed.

If this keeps happening I would gently bring it up to the junior's supervisor and let them know the junior has a full plate and you are happy to help out, but it should be coming from him/her and not the junior.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

I feel like it's just weird that a more junior associate is apparently indicating they don't have enough time but a more senior should have the time.

Well...do you or do you not have the time?

[papermateflair]

I wouldn't feel weird about this. In my group, we try and help each other out where we can, because it doesn't do any good for someone to be overloaded and ultimately doing shoddy work while another associate happily bills 160 hours a month. So it wouldn't be unusual for a junior to ask a senior for help or to take on a project they don't have time for, assuming that the budget etc. can handle it. Now, if it's a junior who is purposely trying to avoid work, then that's different - they should be telling the partner they're at capacity, if the partner is managing the workstream. But if you're the senior associate on the matter, I assume you're the one managing the workstream, and you can decide if you want to do it yourself, push the junior to do it, or find someone else. That's not the same as delegating up, in my opinion, but not sure what the actual dynamics are here. (As a side note, I'm a pushover so if a junior actually delegates something to me I would definitely do it.)

[Res Ipsa Loquitter]

I think your instinct is right. The guy could say he is slammed and cannot physically do it, but he shouldn't be deciding that you will be the one to do it.

Tell him that you're a team and if he's truly overwhelmed he should speak up, but he doesn't need to reassign his work to you or to anybody else

[bretby]

I feel like it's just weird that a more junior associate is apparently indicating they don't have enough time but a more senior should have the time.

Well...do you or do you not have the time?

This thread exemplifies a lot of what is shitty about big law. The above comment is, to me, the only one that makes sense. If you don't have time to do it, find another junior who can do it. If you do have time, do it yourself. If you think this junior is slacking or are not as busy as they say, that's a different story, and I'm sure you know how to deal with that, but that doesn't sound like the issue here. Obsessing about hierarchies is a waste of time and energy when ideally you are working as a team. It is not always the case that all juniors are less busy than all seniors -- of course there will be times when you have more time than a given junior, and when that happens, I think the most natural and coherent thing to do would be to just do the work yourself and move on rather than being offended that someone junior to you asked if you would do an assignment.

[NoLongerALurker]

I feel like it's just weird that a more junior associate is apparently indicating they don't have enough time but a more senior should have the time.

Well...do you or do you not have the time?

This thread exemplifies a lot of what is shitty about big law. The above comment is, to me, the only one that makes sense. If you don't have time to do it, find another junior who can do it. If you do have time, do it yourself. If you think this junior is slacking or are not as busy as they say, that's a different story, and I'm sure you know how to deal with that, but that doesn't sound like the issue here. Obsessing about hierarchies is a waste of time and energy when ideally you are working as a team. It is not always the case that all juniors are less busy than all seniors -- of course there will be times when you have more time than a given junior, and when that happens, I think the most natural and coherent thing to do would be to just do the work yourself and move on rather than being offended that someone junior to you asked if you would do an assignment.

There've been times when I was junior (like, 3rd year-ish) and been like on a subway or something and had a partner shoot me an email like "can you run this redline asap?" and I've literally forwarded it directly to the senior associate/counsel I work with and been like "hey I'm afk, can you run and shoot it over?". It helps that literally 100% of my matters are with the same partner and counsel though (super small specialist group), so we do have more of a friendly/team vibe than the hierarchical-by-necessity vibe that larger groups have.

[texas1100]

Yes you’re right, that’s odd and would frustrate me. You should put him or her in place immediately (not being sarcastic). If they can’t handle the task, they shouldn’t be on it and should go tell the partner to take them off. Your job is not to do their lower level work. Client wouldn’t want that either at your billing rate. I would put my foot down on this ASAP.

[gregfootball2001]

Is there anyone more senior cc'ed on the request? It's not unusual for me to get a request from a junior to do some work or answer a question, but it's actually the partner or senior going, hey, can you ask XXX to take a look at this agreement.

If, however, it's literally work that the junior is supposed to be doing and they are just delegating to you, yes, I agree that is strange.

[Anonymous User]

Depends on the nature of the work and the gap in seniority between OP and other associate. If we are talking about a 4th year and a 3rd year, not the same as a 7th and a 2nd.

[Anonymous User]

Feel like this is super group and firm dependent, but I could be wrong since I am myself a junior, specifically a first year in a relatively large specialist regulatory group. My seniors always ask me if I have enough time to do work/can help out on something and if I’m at capacity, I say no and then they usually do it themselves or find someone else. I have also had partners assign me stuff and say that if I need help on certain sections or parts, then to just let them know and they can handle it. I’ve done so and have faced zero negative consequences to rep or workflow.

[Anonymous User]

Feel like this is super group and firm dependent, but I could be wrong since I am myself a junior, specifically a first year in a relatively large specialist regulatory group. My seniors always ask me if I have enough time to do work/can help out on something and if I’m at capacity, I say no and then they usually do it themselves or find someone else. I have also had partners assign me stuff and say that if I need help on certain sections or parts, then to just let them know and they can handle it. I’ve done so and have faced zero negative consequences to rep or workflow.

That’s normal but there’s a difference between telling the assigning attorney you’re too busy to accept an assignment and offloading work you’ve already been assigned to more senior attorney on your team.

[Anonymous User]

that's really weird

most I would do is let a senior know that I'm really jammed and ask if I can send it in later or if we can loop in another junior to handle. would not ever tell them to do it themselves.

[unclejackkellyesq]

Yes you’re right, that’s odd and would frustrate me. You should put him or her in place immediately (not being sarcastic). If they can’t handle the task, they shouldn’t be on it and should go tell the partner to take them off. Your job is not to do their lower level work. Client wouldn’t want that either at your billing rate. I would put my foot down on this ASAP.

What a nightmare post. If a junior I worked with asked for help because they were over-burdened, I would help to the fullest extent I could, and otherwise I would just staff another junior associate to the team.

[DukeMountain]

Yes you’re right, that’s odd and would frustrate me. You should put him or her in place immediately (not being sarcastic). If they can’t handle the task, they shouldn’t be on it and should go tell the partner to take them off. Your job is not to do their lower level work. Client wouldn’t want that either at your billing rate. I would put my foot down on this ASAP.

What a nightmare post. If a junior I worked with asked for help because they were over-burdened, I would help to the fullest extent I could, and otherwise I would just staff another junior associate to the team.

Big law is sick. I’ve certainly met this type of associate before.

[Anonymous User]

Perspective as a junior. We get a lot of conflicting feedback. Seniors will say "let me know if you need anything at all" which is nice, but then there's a lot of "just figure it out yourself". "It's OK to take time to yourself when you need to" / "make sure you're responsive and always on call". It takes time to understand the balance. Compounding this is remote training, which sucks. So bottom line is, we suck and we know it. So as a senior, when you see a junior commit a faux pas, just tell us, explain kindly "next time, do x" instead of keeping it bottled and/or lashing out.

[Anonymous User]

OP here with an update:
My issue is not that I don't want to do the work. My mentality is generally that "we are in this together" and I've offered the junior associate my assistance multiple times on different work streams.

My issue is more the tone to which the work is delegated to me. It's not a "Hey, I'm really busy on X. I was hoping you could maybe look at this, if you have some time? If not, let me know, and I'll do so later tonight!" It's a straight up "Hey, can you take care of this? I'm busy with X." Lately it has even been more of a "Hey, can you take care of this? Thanks!"

Again, my issue is not that I want him to drown in work. But it's his apparent assumption that I apparently have spades of free time/should make time whenever he tells me to. I can handle that from a senior associate or a partner, but I think it's a bit odd coming from someone more junior.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah, I’m not sure why so many people here aren’t recognizing that distinction

People that lord hierarchy over people just cause they can are obviously assholes, but a chain of command on deals + typical flow of delegation are a thing for a reason, and I’m saying that as a junior

[Anonymous User]

Again, my issue is not that I want him to drown in work. But it's his apparent assumption that I apparently have spades of free time/should make time whenever he tells me to. I can handle that from a senior associate or a partner, but I think it's a bit odd coming from someone more junior.

Most of this seems to be your offense at the "assumption," since this situation is incredibly easy to resolve.

"Dear Associate X,

Thanks for letting me know that you do not have the time. Because of our workflow and my own commitments, in the future, just let me know that you do not have time for the assignment. I will, as applicable, reroute it to another junior [/follow whatever the group's process is] or take it on myself."

Frankly, this seems like a non-issue outside of you being butthurt (not saying unreasonably) that they are "assuming" you have time.

[Anonymous User]

This is kind of culture dependent, and agreed it depends on the gap in seniority. If a 1st year is asking a 7th year to split diligence, that doesn't feel OK no matter how busy the 1st year is (might be OK to ask for additional staffing, though, right?). If a 3rd year is asking this of a 4th/5th year as a one-off, that's probably fine.

At my old NYC firm, we were very hierarchical and while we/I tried to be as accommodating as possible, I feel like it was viewed as doing you a "favor" if a senior/mid-level pitched in on diligence, etc. (e.g., the junior was objectively slammed, had a good rep and is clearly trying very hard). At the same time, juniors (and I as well when I was a junior) were very hesitant to "delegate upwards" because it was seen as almost a failing on your part to manage your time/efficiency (which can create a bit of a toxic atmosphere).

Given where I "grew up", I'm less sympathetic to the whole "let's share the work" attitude especially when there's a big gap in seniority/role. If you start down that slippery slope as a senior and don't properly enforce boundaries, you're going to end up doing both diligence AND your high level work - what are you going to do, try to then push some this up to the partner? So for your own sanity/self-interest, sometimes it's not always practical to be "kind".

But I also remember the good mids/seniors who pitched in when I truly truly needed help, so it's a little hypocritical to be too strict. For me, it's all about how you get asked this question and whether the junior has credibility when making the ask. A "can you do this? thanks!" would rub me the wrong way, but "hey, I'm drowning on X, Y, Z, and I know that we have the diligence memo due tomorrow. any chance you can help out on section A or loop in another pair of hands" is totally fine.

[bretby]

Again, my issue is not that I want him to drown in work. But it's his apparent assumption that I apparently have spades of free time/should make time whenever he tells me to. I can handle that from a senior associate or a partner, but I think it's a bit odd coming from someone more junior.

Most of this seems to be your offense at the "assumption," since this situation is incredibly easy to resolve.

"Dear Associate X,

Thanks for letting me know that you do not have the time. Because of our workflow and my own commitments, in the future, just let me know that you do not have time for the assignment. I will, as applicable, reroute it to another junior [/follow whatever the group's process is] or take it on myself."

Frankly, this seems like a non-issue outside of you being butthurt (not saying unreasonably) that they are "assuming" you have time.

This seems like a good solution, and that the question has prompted so much hand-wringing illustrates what was said in another thread about lawyers being bad managers. Unless you have reason to believe otherwise (which makes this a different issue), proceed from the position that the junior doesn't know that what they are doing is wildly inappropriate at your firm. So you could even add a line to the effect of - "In general, when work is assigned, it is done with an understanding of the capacity and ability of everyone on the team, and it's helpful for everyone on the team to respect that where at all possible. Of course when it's not possible, I will as applicable blah blah blah." And I agree that I would be careful about assuming that the junior has thought at all about your availability (how would they possibly know, assuming you are not staffed on all the same cases and he has a window into what you are doing on those cases), let alone that you have "spades of free time."

[Anonymous User]

But I also remember the good mids/seniors who pitched in when I truly truly needed help, so it's a little hypocritical to be too strict. For me, it's all about how you get asked this question and whether the junior has credibility when making the ask. A "can you do this? thanks!" would rub me the wrong way, but "hey, I'm drowning on X, Y, Z, and I know that we have the diligence memo due tomorrow. any chance you can help out on section A or loop in another pair of hands" is totally fine.

this puts it really well. heck, even if asking someone my year, I wouldn't ask that way if something had been assigned to me originally, and even moreso if it was someone I was legitimately friendly/close with, barring something like running a blackline or sending a one off email that takes 20 seconds. everyone is busy because biglaw lol. unless ur in a default position of telling someone what to do based on seniority ala partner to an associate, it's just thoughtless to request help that way if it's something that will actually take time.

[Anonymous User]

Again, my issue is not that I want him to drown in work. But it's his apparent assumption that I apparently have spades of free time/should make time whenever he tells me to. I can handle that from a senior associate or a partner, but I think it's a bit odd coming from someone more junior.

Most of this seems to be your offense at the "assumption," since this situation is incredibly easy to resolve.

"Dear Associate X,

Thanks for letting me know that you do not have the time. Because of our workflow and my own commitments, in the future, just let me know that you do not have time for the assignment. I will, as applicable, reroute it to another junior [/follow whatever the group's process is] or take it on myself."

Frankly, this seems like a non-issue outside of you being butthurt (not saying unreasonably) that they are "assuming" you have time.

This seems like a good solution, and that the question has prompted so much hand-wringing illustrates what was said in another thread about lawyers being bad managers. Unless you have reason to believe otherwise (which makes this a different issue), proceed from the position that the junior doesn't know that what they are doing is wildly inappropriate at your firm. So you could even add a line to the effect of - "In general, when work is assigned, it is done with an understanding of the capacity and ability of everyone on the team, and it's helpful for everyone on the team to respect that where at all possible. Of course when it's not possible, I will as applicable blah blah blah." And I agree that I would be careful about assuming that the junior has thought at all about your availability (how would they possibly know, assuming you are not staffed on all the same cases and he has a window into what you are doing on those cases), let alone that you have "spades of free time."

I don't know if I'd call this an example of bad management. At my firm we do kinda have a very collegial atmosphere. If I started getting/sending e-mails like "it is done with an understanding of the capacity and ability," internally, you'd know shit has absolutely hit the fan. All we send around is "happy to help!" and "let me know if any questions!" In that environment it is kind of hard to bring someone to attention that they are not operating the right way. I myself can't imagine sending an e-mail out like that, as it sounds so harsh. Luckily, I can't imagine getting in this situation, because, again, we have the environment that you just do your own work and really check in with each other if you can't make something happen and try to work something out together. I think OP's firm probably has something similar, where there is a very positive, help wherever you can environment, and pushing back against stuff, especially with something as serious as the example you're illustrating, is a bit out of order.

I myself think it's very odd. I'm still quite junior and I would never be sending anyone more senior a "hey take care of this, kthxbye!" I think that would illustrate me having zero respect for them. I'm the junior, so I should take on most of the work that gets assigned to me, period.