Biglaw, Small Law Firms

Being A Good Law Firm Associate Can Be A Bad Thing

For instance, being good as a law firm associate might mean that an attorney has more work than other associates with little upside.

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Most people assume that if they are good at their jobs as law firm associates, they will reap a number of vocational and financial rewards. Indeed, the work product and drive of law firm associates is usually used to evaluate attorneys for partnership, bonuses, and other employment incentives. However, due to the dysfunctional nature of some law firms, being good as a law firm associate can actually be bad for an attorney.

For instance, being good as a law firm associate might mean that an attorney has more work than other associates with little upside. Of course, for law firms that give bonuses according to billable hours recorded, this might be a good thing since the attorney will have more opportunities to bill time and increase their bonus. However, for many law firms that provide a similar level of compensation to individuals with similar backgrounds, being good at your job can mean that you have more work than peers without any increase in pay.

I once worked at a law firm that paid everyone similar compensation depending on their background. We were all assigned a certain amount of cases to manage. When I started, I was responsible for 25 or so cases. By the time I left the shop, I was responsible for around 40 cases. Of course, it makes sense that managers will provide more work to individuals once they get more experienced and can handle an increased workload.

However, there was one lawyer at our firm that was extremely good at being a “street lawyer” and many of us even called him “The Godfather” because we respected his experience and competence. This attorney had far more cases than any of us. I believe it could have been as high as 60. This was not necessarily a good thing for this associate. The attorney was far busier than other attorneys, and he had more stress since he needed to juggle all of his files and make sure that he was on top of his cases. This attorney made less money than a number of associates since he came to the firm before the job market got more competitive and many of us received pay raises. I felt bad for this attorney, and in solidarity with him (and to get more experience) I once took an appeal off his plate so that he had less work to manage. Because our firm did not provide compensation to attorneys who completed more work, being good at his job actually hurt my friend.

Another way that being good at your job as a law firm associate can hurt is because of interoffice politics. Sometimes, more-senior lawyers might feel threatened by junior associates who excel at their jobs because they may see them as competitors for partnership or counsel positions. As a result, they may freeze out such associates from certain projects at a firm and leave them out of efforts to develop business.

I once had a friend who was an amazing associate when we worked together at a shop. He ended up leaving the firm we both worked at and started working at another shop. Within a few years at the other firm, my friend got laid off, which was extremely confounding to me since I knew this attorney was extremely competent.

Take this with a grain of salt, but my friend told me that because of interoffice politics, and maybe because more-senior attorneys felt threatened by my friend, this person was locked out of working on certain projects. Without the ability to bill too many hours, my friend was a target for being laid off. In my own experience, I have witnessed lawyers gripe about interoffice politics, and even leave law firms because they were seemingly good at their jobs and people felt threatened that they might be competitors for promotions and other incentives.

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Law firms can take some steps to ensure that associates do not have any barriers for providing top-quality work. Perhaps most importantly, law firms both big and small should provide bonuses based on the number of hours an associate bills. This seems like a no-brainer since law firms seemingly make more money from high-billing attorneys, but few law firms provide bonuses based on billable hours even though this provides an incentive for quality work. In addition, law firms should eliminate the power that midlevel attorneys have over junior attorneys to prevent situations in which attorneys who feel they are competing for promotions foil the efforts of other attorneys. A law firm’s first priority should be providing top-rate legal services to clients, and they should not let inefficiencies and office politics get in the way of performing legal work.

Of course, being a good law firm associate more often than not means that any attorney might be benefited financially and vocationally. However, law firms should take steps to eliminate those situations in which being good as an associate can actually hurt an attorney.

Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

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