Vent Thread/Advice Needed on Regretting Lateral Move Forum

[Anonymous User]

I’m finishing up my second year of practice and recently lateraled from my mid-sized firm to one of the satellite offices of a much bigger firm thinking there would be better work flow and management. I’m in a niche litigation practice area which isn’t even that difficult, but can, and almost always is, high volume depending on the client so if a partner is disorganized it can make the associate’s life hell.

Unfortunately, I’ve been at my new firm for about five months and I increasingly hate it. There is terrible work flow, terrible management, and the partners seem so spread so thin they can’t decide whether they truly want to be hands-off or still be involved in every-day decision making. So, I have to deal with drive-by micromanagers who will ignore a file for days/weeks/months and then come in with demands/recommendations that make no sense, waste time, or add little to no value to the file because they have no idea what the fuck is going on, the issues at hand, or what the client wants.

I have one partner who I really enjoy working with but unfortunately have only a few matters with her. The other partner, as I said, is incredibly spread thin and has a seemingly malpractice-level amount of matters he is “handling.” The firm has a high turnover rate. The partners seem to have matters in various states of disarray because they are almost always prioritizing other matters that either are going trial or are particularly contentious. This coupled with the shitty retention rates means a matter will go through two to three juniors because the firm is apparently a revolving fucking door.

The main (equity) partner I deal with is increasingly getting on my last nerve and makes me fantasize about quitting on a daily basis. He’s inefficient, doesn’t know what’s going on with matters that either don’t have pending trial deadlines or demanding clients to keep him on his toes, can’t take five minutes to think logically about a file, and will ignore assignments I send to him for review. I sent over one assignment with a hard-filing deadline a month and a half before it was due and then sent multiple email and text reminders throughout the month. It did not get looked at until the day before the filing and was filed the day of. This is constant with him. Meanwhile he will send me patronizing reminders for assignments that aren’t critical while 4564334564 assignments I DID send over to him are sitting in his inbox.

Not to be petty, but he’s also breathtakingly mediocre. I wouldn’t say he’s necessarily dumb or doesn't know what he is doing, but he has reverse imposter syndrome. Thinks he can handle the work load he has when he can’t but is too egotistical, greedy, or prideful to turn down work from the MPs, will ignore matters for weeks/months, not staff an associate on them at times because he can’t be bothered or can’t get any associate, and then once he does get an associate, will expect the associate to do anywhere from 6 to 9 months worth of lit work in 3 months because he shat the bed and now we’re running up against trial deadlines. There were mistakes and omissions I found on his files that either he or the associate he was “supervising” at the time made that a high school intern wouldn’t have fucked up.

All in all, I’ve become increasingly disenchanted with litigation, particularly in defense firms. I lateraled thinking things would be tangentially better only to deal with the same shit I dealt with at my prior firm. That being said, the money isn’t worth the stress, the high billables, and having to deal with subpar partners with egos when, on any metric, they are not competent enough to handle their matters with the proper time and attention needed.

At this point, I want out. I came into law school with the goal of doing public interest/gov. work but then I graduated into a pandemic. Obviously, I was not about to turn down the offer from my first firm when millions of people became unemployed overnight and there were indefinite hiring freezes in the PI/gov. sector.

That being said, I don’t really know how to market my skills to PI/gov./or even JD preferred jobs because my practice area is so niche. I do have great lit experience and did branch out and do some L&E work, but nearly not enough. I feel kind of stuck and don’t really know where to go from here. I just know that I don’t think I can deal with this for much longer and need to come up with some feasible options and am open to literally anything that isn’t a traditional defense firm.

[Anonymous User]

Oof, OP. I feel for you. I've worked with partners like that, and it always the most stressful type of partner to work for. (There are some partners who might spread themselves thin, but respect the associates handling things enough that they will once or twice a week be like "I have a few minutes to talk, what's going on with X Y Z and what do you need from me?)

If your area is niche, if you last for a year or so, and then try to lateral, the partners that you are interviewing with might understand without you saying so why you want to leave since I suspect your terrible partner has a reputation.

[attorney589753]

Do you still have good relationships at your first firm and would you consider going back there? I think you could also consider connecting with a recruiter. You've now done two years of practice, so while you're still "junior" you're not like a first year or anything — in the right place you should be able to add value immediately. I think you need to scour for openings and opportunities. Would you be able to relocate for the right job? I don't think you can really afford to quit this job, but I also don't think you can afford to stay put and wait - you should be actively looking for new opportunities.