Biglaw, Job Survey

Associate Life Survey: Welcome To The Firm! Or Not.

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We have some bad news for this year’s incoming associates. Based on last Wednesday’s ATL / Lateral Link survey, attorneys at your new firm like you even less than they liked summer associates.

We received 765 responses, and the number of practicing attorneys who said “First-year associates, hate ’em” beat the number of practicing attorneys who said “First-year associates, love ’em,” by a margin of 25.55% to 21.88%. In comparison, summer associates had managed a more even 25.06% to 24.82% love-hate response in an earlier survey.

Like ’em or not, respondents sure did think there were a lot of ’em.

  • Overall, 58% of practicing respondents said that their firms had hired too many new associates, with 29% saying “way too many.”
  • Only 10% thought their firms had hired too few.
  • And just under a third of respondents, 32%, thought their firms had hired just the right number.

In comparison, about 53% of practicing attorneys thought that their firms’ summer programs were too big this year, with 21% calling them “way too big.”

Alarmingly, the people most likely to think there are too many first-years were also the people most likely to be making hire-and-fire decisions. While 57% of second-year associates thought their firms had hired too many new associates, that number exploded to 74% among attorneys who had been practicing since before 2000.

So, if you think that partner you’re working with right now might really want to fire you, you’re probably right. Have fun at work today!

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Similarly, the more seasoned the respondents, the more likely they were to actually dislike their newest colleagues. 30% of second-year associates actually said “love ’em” to the new first-years, and only 15% said “hate ’em.” But among attorneys who had been practicing since before 2000, only 11% said they liked first-years, while a whopping 48% declared, “hate ’em.”

So, if you think that partner you’re working with right now might really want to fire you, you’re probably right. Seriously, have fun at work today!

Read more, below the fold.


Much like the image to the right (from LOLpalin), the arrival of new associates on the scene can spark a mixed but spirited reaction.

Many respondents greet the new arrivals warmly, finding their enthusiasm particularly endearing:

Sponsored

They bring energy and enthusiasm to the firm.

So excited and positive!

Others find their energy and enthusiasm delightful for somewhat less uplifting reasons:

Their energy, naiveity and optimism is refreshing.

They are hilariously clueless

They will never be happier again than they were on their first day of work. Schadenfreude!

Ah yes, the schadenfreude of watching hilariously clueless “naiveity” stumble. Here’s hoping you get to share an office.

Others like their new colleagues’ work ethic and modesty:

Hard working and not arrogant.

They don’t have delusions of adequacy like the loser mid-levels.

But most of all, current associates are glad to have somebody new to, um, share with:

Delegation, baby.

Shit rolls downhill . . . damn it feels good to be a mid-level.

I’m a second year now! there’s someone to kick boring work to.

I can’t wait to start giving them the boring diligence I had to do last year.

Doc review, doc review, doc review.

salt mine workers!

Warm bodies to do the stuff I don’t want to do.

easy prey

Actually, those last two might have been from one of Hope Winters’ old firms. So, if you think that the senior associate who seems so enthusiastic about your enthusiasm is just a wee bit creepy, you’re probably right. Again, have fun at work today!

One commenter summed it up on a healthier note:

We were all summers or first years once and only a insecure loser is afraid of an untrained, junior associate taking hours or work away.

But then, in the wake of events at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, WaMu, Cadwalader, Thacher Proffitt, Thelen, and Heller, there might be just a few more insecure people out there right now. So, not surprisingly, for every respondent who said “love ’em”, there were also about 1.17 respondents who said “hate ’em.” For some, this was an allergic reaction to the newbies’ infectious optimism:

too optimistic

They aren’t bitter yet.

But have no fear, after a year or two, today’s new associate may start to sound like this:

Too high maintenance.

They all have a sense of entitlement

Annoying little whiners

Arrogant, know-nothing (but think they know everything) little pricks.

arrogant and stupid

Obnoxious little twits who think they know it all but in reality know nothing.

their stoopid

For the most part, though, the “haters” fall into two camps. There are the associates who are too busy to train rookies:

Heads too big and useless.

They’re useless and actually take more time to review than they are worth.

No grasp of bigger pucture; get hung up on minor tasks.

They take too much time and I lose hours I could be billing

I’m too busy to correct their work.

And the associates who are too not busy to appreciate new colleagues:

Too many new people in the office at once. They get all the work.

They are just more of the bloodsucking vultures I have to compete with.

In a downturn, the last thing I need is labor cheaper than my own.

I’m still considered interchangeable with them for some assignments and I need the hours.

Taking what few billable hours there are left

they take away work from me, and fuck it up in the process

They are taking the work that I need to make my billables and their hours don’t start counting until December but they’re all such goody-two-shoe go-getters that they think they have to bill 200+ hours/month starting now.

As a senior-level associate in a grim economy with partners who are looking to cut costs, I find I am being passed over for work and that work is going straight to those shiny-faced little bastards.

Don’t need ’em. Let someone else train them. And most importantly, we associates are struggling to get enough work to make our hours. First years arriving doesn’t help. I don’t hate ’em, I just don’t want ’em here.

Or, as one commenter summed it up:

There is no work for me now. There will likely be no more of me to make room for them.

So, really, have fun at work today?

—

Justin Bernold is a Director at Lateral Link, the sponsor of this Associate Life Survey.

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