I just finished the show Partner Track on Netflix, which is a show
about an ambitious overachieving type.
A six year associate in a New York City law firm named Ingrid, who is competing
for junior partner at her law firm, which is not a thing, by the way, but as someone
who has been an overachieving, ambitious type, a six year associate at a law firm
in New York City, I thought I would share with you guys my thoughts on the parts
of the show that are accurate and the parts of the show that are not quite so.
I love laws in physics and in life, so I became a lawyer.
And why mergers and acquisitions?
Because I've always wanted to be the best, the toughest, smartest corporate lawyers
do M and a and a girl like me really needs to stay tough in a city like this.
See exhibit A, so right out of the gate, I love the answer that Ingrid
gives for why she wants to work in mergers and acquisitions, otherwise
known as m and a, which is a practice group under the larger umbrella of
corporate law or transactional law.
And the reason she gives is because the toughest, smartest corporate lawyers work
in m and a and as small a thing as this might seem, this is actually a really
good answer for wanting to work in a part.
Practice area.
And the reason this is worth pointing out is because the question of why
do you wanna work here or why do you wanna work in this type of law comes
up all the time in law firm interviews.
And for most of us, the answer for why we wanna work in a law firm and
specifically a big law firm, is because they're gonna pay us a lot of money.
But as it stands right now in our society, that's a really
taboo answer because wanting to make money, especially a lot of.
Is viewed as bad or selfish or superficial.
And so we don't wanna put the interviewer off right away by
saying something like that, ever.
And the flip side of that answer that I've heard so many law
students say in interviews is because I want to help people.
And even though most of us went to law school because we had that desire
to help people or to make an impact, when you use that answer in a law
firm interview setting, Especially with a big law firm, it really shows
a level of naivete of the type of work that law firms do, and also an
understanding or a lack of understanding for the law firm as a business model
that is designed to make a profit.
And so it becomes a real balancing act to come up with an answer
that doesn't stray too far into.
To the social taboo, sort of self-serving, I wanna make money.
And it also doesn't venture too far into sort of the altruistic public
interest type answer that shows that you don't really know what a law firm does.
And so the answer that she gives or the reason she gives.
Is actually a really strong one.
And I wouldn't say it exactly like that, but I would say something pretty close.
Something along the lines of, I wanna work in this area of the law because
I know that this type of law demands a really high level of excellence,
which is also something that I demand of myself in everything that I do, or.
I know that this firm, or I know that this type of law deals with really
sophisticated cases and a really high caliber level of attorney, and
that's exactly the type of environment that I want to contribute to because
I'm looking to go all in, become an expert in my field, and really make
a difference in any team that I join.
And now if I work harder than anyone else, apply more.
I'll make partner.
They say being on the partner track is how you find out who you really are
when you start working at a law firm.
There's a belief that pretty much all of us have that if we work
hard enough, we'll make partner.
And this is probably the result of having worked so hard our entire lives
and going after the things we want and getting them a lot of the time.
But when it comes to partnership decisions in law firms, it's not
as simple as who works the hardest.
It's a lot more complex than that, and there are more moving.
And so I actually made a video here if you guys wanna check it out about
the different steps of making partner and what that process looks like.
But the number one thing that law firms are thinking about and looking
for in deciding which associates make partner is which associates can
actually bring business to the law firm.
So not only who is doing good legal work, but who has client relationships or the
potential for client relationships down the road to be able to actually sign.
And bringing a book of business into the firm.
Another important factor is the partners that you have worked for along the way,
because when it comes to a partnership, vote on who gets promoted to partner.
It really matters that you have somebody at that table who can not only
vouch for you, but can essentially.
Sponsor you who can really go to bat for you with the other partners and
let them know that you are a value, that you are an asset, and that the
partnership would really benefit from having you among the ranks.
And not every partner is as powerful or holds as much weight as another.
And so who you have worked for along the way and the relationships you've
built with partners along the.
Really makes a big impact in this decision.
And another big factor in terms of making partner is the needs of the law firm,
either on an office by office basis, meaning what are the needs of the New York
office versus the Dallas office versus the DC office or on a practice group basis.
So what are the needs of the bankruptcy practice group versus the mergers and
acquisitions practice group versus the IP practice group and how many associates
are quote unquote, up for partner?
Because if you have a practice group that's really.
An associates up for partner, the odds of everybody making it and being promoted
that year are gonna be pretty low.
But if you have a practice group that has a need for a partnership promotion,
and there's only one really standout associate, then the odds of that
associate making partner are much higher.
And so it really also has to do with the need of the firm on a firm-wide basis, an
office-wide basis, and a practice group.
Sorry, I'm coming up now.
Sorry, I'm, you're doing it again.
What?
Oh, hi guys.
Never apologize.
Sorry.
You know what else guys?
Never do apologize for a apologizing.
It's waffle Wednesday.
So I feel really strongly about this one, and I totally agree with Rachel.
Do not apologize.
And for a lot of us, that's really hard to do or not to do because we have been
go-getter people pleasers our entire.
Especially those of us who are women are socialized as women, and this is our
default response when something doesn't go well or if we do something imperfectly.
But as a young associate at a law firm, you are not supposed
to do everything perfectly.
There's no way you're gonna practice law without making a mistake or
with knowing all of the information.
Ahead of time.
And so apologizing really just kind of takes your legitimacy and power
from you and really reinforces this unreasonable expectation that you're
going to do everything perfectly.
And as an associate at a law firm, this usually happens in
one of two common scenarios.
Either you've made a mistake or an oversight.
Or you have missed a call or an email from a partner or senior associate.
And in the first one, it's really important to understand that especially
in a big law firm, there is a hierarchy.
Meaning every time you turn in work product, that is not what's
actually going to go to the client.
There are senior associates and there are partners that are going to review and
revise your work before it gets sent out.
And so there is no real expectation that what you're doing is going
to be perfect or without mistakes.
And in the second scenario, This expectation that you should always
be at your desk or immediately answer phone calls and emails is also equally
unreasonable because you could be away from your desk to go to the
bathroom to get lunch, to go to a doctor's appointment, or to be asleep.
And so we never want to start off a phone call or an email with.
I'm sorry I didn't see your message, or I'm sorry I missed
your call, or I'm sorry that I made this oversight or this mistake.
A much better approach is to just find out what it is they need, find out
what the next steps are, and do them.
You don't need to start off with an apology just.
Send them the information they need, redo whatever work
product they need and move on.
I need a new case staff.
What?
I just brought the whaling deal.
I need a staff asap.
You have seriously worked nonstop for six years.
It's in the back, so this isn't very far off at all.
And what Ingress talking about is needing to find work, essentially needing to get.
Staffed on a deal with a partner at the firm.
And so when you're working for a law firm, especially a bigger law firm,
as a first year associate, that very first assignment that you get generally
does come from someone whose job it is to staff cases and to staff deals.
So that means this person is going to the partners in your practice
group and seeing what work they have and what associate needs they
have in assigning people according.
But once that first assignment happens, those training wheels really come
off, and now it is your responsibility to start finding work for yourself.
So working in a big law firm, or any law firm for that matter, is a lot
more entrepreneurial than we think it is because it is no longer this.
Person's job to help us find work.
It really is up to us, meaning we need to do really good work so that partners
want to work with us and we need to be strategic about reaching out to partners
who we wanna work with, or cases or deals that are interesting to us or clients.
That we wanna work for.
And this is really important for a couple of reasons.
And the first one is billable hours.
And so in a bigger law firm, you're gonna be responsible for hitting
a certain number of billable hours each month and each year.
And I created a video here if you guys wanna check it out for exactly what
that looks like and how many hours you can expect to bill in a year.
But it's important because that's your responsibility to meet those,
and so if you are not meeting billable hours, you need to go out and find
work and find cases and deals to be on in order to hit those hours.
The second important reason is for what we talked about earlier,
which is if you are interested in potentially making partner one day.
Who you work for actually matters.
And so you wanna make sure that you're being strategic about the partners, that
you're reaching out to, the cases and deals that you're getting on so that
you're getting really good exposure from partners that you want in your
corner or that you want to be able to vouch for you when and if you decide
to go after that partnership, vote.
I just need one more heavyweight to lock it in.
You're not gonna lose your and your partner, just cuz
you're not staff for one day.
I've been for two weeks.
Objection, motive.
You want to coast?
Mm-hmm.
. Okay.
So coasting at a law firm is definitely a thing and basically what you're doing.
It's trying to lay low under the radar and meet just the bare minimum
of billable hour requirements so that you don't get fired.
And I definitely worked with associates who seem to have this as their goal.
And being on a team with those kind of people is really frustrating and really
annoying because as you can imagine, they sort of kick the can down the road.
They don't turn work over in time, or they kind of give B
work instead of a plus work.
And so if you're on a team with sort of a go-getter, overachiever, then
that person is really going to go out of their way to pick up the slack.
And so that's what happened to me a lot of times when I was on teams
with that kind of associate and.
So there was resentment for sure that was there, but if I look at it
from another perspective, there was definitely a part of me that was weirdly
envious of them because I wanted to be able to have a little more of that.
I don't give a mentality so that I could work less or just get by
or not have to kind of turn over.
17th draft of a brief or something like that.
And so it's kind of interesting because maybe if there were more big law
associates who had this sort of coasting mentality, maybe that would require
big law firms to hire more associated.
There would be less burnout and there would be less attrition and turnover.
But I think that because big law firms know.
The type of person who would go after those roles tends to be a people
pleaser, tends to be an overachiever.
They can really take advantage of those characteristics and ask things
of you that you won't say no to.
And so I know that for me personally, it always felt more comfortable
overbilling in a month than it did under billing in a month.
And so that sort of gave me the cushion and sort of the mental
comfort to feel like I could make my billables by the end of the year.
So I wish I had the vibe that Rachel has and the ability to.
But I personally didn't.
Although I do know associates who absolutely.
So those are my hot takes on Partner Track as an accurate reflection of the
experience of a mid-level associate at a law firm in New York City.
So if you guys liked it and want to see more, let me know in the comments
below and maybe I can make a few more of these videos if that's helpful to y'all.
And if you are considering becoming a lawyer, meaning you are thinking.
Starting that path to law school, then definitely check out the Free
Law School Network Facebook group.
It's filled with over 3000 people heading to law school, in law
school, and really making that step into becoming a lawyer themselves.
And so I hope to see you guys in there very soon.
And yeah, I'll see y'all in the next video.