Surely you’ve overheard this conversation:
Partner: “Do you have time?”
Associate: “What’s the project?”
Partner: “There’s no reason for me to waste time explaining the project if you don’t have time to do it.”
Associate: “I may be able to squeeze in something, but I just need a few details. What’s the project?”
Here’s the translation of that evasion:
Partner: “Do you have time?”
Associate: “It depends on whether the project is a good one. If you need me to argue a case in the Supreme Court, then I have time. If you need me to review documents, then I don’t have time. I’m not going to commit until I know what the project is.”
Here’s a conversation you’ll overhear in-house:
“Can you take a look at what I’ve drafted?”
“What is it? What are you planning to do with it?”
“Why does that matter? I’m just asking you to review something, if you have time.”
Here’s the translation of that evasion:
“Can you take a look at what I’ve drafted?”
“Shoot! If this really matters, and I should help, then of course I can take a look. But it’s more likely this is some silly project that will never see the light of day, and I’d be wasting my time. Not only that, if I take a couple of minutes and look at the damn thing, then this person will later say, ‘But I had Jarndyce look at the draft; Jarndyce said this was perfect.’ Then I’ll get blamed for any mistakes in the thing, even though it’s meaningless, I didn’t spend much time on it, and I didn’t want to look at it in the first place.”
Here’s something you can infer:
Under ordinary circumstances, if you’ve been working at your law firm for a couple of years or more, and you routinely don’t have enough work to do, then you’re a bad lawyer.
That’s terribly unfair! Why infer that?
Under ordinary circumstances –- if we’re not in the midst of a Great Recession, and there’s no pandemic that keeps people from taking depositions — the firm has plenty of work. If you’ve been at your firm for a couple of years, then you have a reputation; people in the firm know whether you’re good or bad. If partners at the firm thought you were good, you’d be swamped with work. There are never enough good associates. If partners are not seeking you out to do work, it’s because everyone knows that you’re no good. Thus: If the times are ordinary, and if you’ve been at the firm for a while, and if you still have no work, then you’re a bad lawyer.
I know that you’re outraged; you think you’re good!
Don’t be deceived.
Everyone thinks they’re good. Most people are wrong. If you’re working at a reasonably good law firm, then the firm is forming a relatively accurate judgment: If you’re good, you’re terribly busy. If you’re always scrambling to find work, then you’re no good. (I’m sorry about that, but someone had to tell you.)
Here’s the corollary to my rule: As a partner, when you’re looking for associate help, never call the head of another office and ask for help. The head of the office will be looking for an associate who has time to spare, to occupy that time and improve the office’s numbers. From your perspective, that’s bureaucratic nonsense. You don’t care about whether some distant office has decent numbers; you want an associate who’s worth a damn. The associates with time to spare are terrible; the good associates are frantically busy. Thus: Call a partner you trust in the relevant office and ask for the names of good associates. Call one of those good associates directly and explain that you have a great project that the associate would love to help with. (The associate, after all, doesn’t have time to review documents for you, but the associate does have time to do a Supreme Court argument for you.) That’s how you get good lawyers — and not the bad lawyers who have extra time — to work on your matters.
(Yeah, yeah: This breaks all of the firm’s rules. The firm requires you to talk to the head of the office, who will then ensure that all associates in the office are equally busy. Follow those rules — if you want to spend your time rewriting briefs and don’t care about the quality of your client’s representation.)
Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.