Big Law - HR meeting out of the blue

[Anonymous]

Good luck OP.

[Anonymous]

This op with an update for the group. The meeting was for a PIP (performance improvement plan) for 60 days. In other words I should find a new job and I have 60 days to do it. They guised the meeting as “wanting to help me so I don’t hit a wall when I’m up for partner in 2 years” and said “wanting to make partner is a nice ambition” and “you billing rate as a senior associate is high and it almost makes more sense for our group to use a junior and train up” when I said I’m shocked by this given that I’ve had great reviews for the past few years including this last year they said “law firms are notoriously bad about giving reviews” and “your evaluations are fine, everyone gets an A we’re not good at giving evaluations” and “let’s not focus on reviews”

[Anonymous]

OP sorry that you are in this situation, but I am glad you are through it and agree that finding a new job ASAP is in your best interests. Best of luck to you!!

[Anonymous]

OP, you on a PIP alright - Paid Interview Prep. You're going to kill it!

[Anonymous]

What they are actually saying is that you are a fine associate, hence the good reviews on the work you were doing, but not partner material, which is the next step. Now you are too expensive to use on the matters you are qualified to cover. Your good reviews will help you find a new position, but keep in mind they will know you were considered not partner material, so don't try to bluff that.

[Anonymous]

That sucks op I’m sorry.

[Anonymous]

I'm very sorry, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What they are actually saying is that you are a fine associate, hence the good reviews on the work you were doing, but not partner material, which is the next step. Now you are too expensive to use on the matters you are qualified to cover. Your good reviews will help you find a new position, but keep in mind they will know you were considered not partner material, so don't try to bluff that.

NP- if her whole team is low billables do they all get the axe? Do they have to be rainmaking as senior associates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What they are actually saying is that you are a fine associate, hence the good reviews on the work you were doing, but not partner material, which is the next step. Now you are too expensive to use on the matters you are qualified to cover. Your good reviews will help you find a new position, but keep in mind they will know you were considered not partner material, so don't try to bluff that.

NP- if her whole team is low billables do they all get the axe? Do they have to be rainmaking as senior associates?

Some groups are needed because big law is expected to cover certain areas even if the work is light. OP is a highly paid senior associate- they get the ax first

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one good thing about BigLaw is that they hate to fire anyone and are really risk averse on litigation so will typically give a pretty long runway for you to look for something and/or decent severance for a release.

But I’d be pretty surprised if this is “that conversation” if there were no previous indications that things weren’t going well. Unless there was a major screwup (client insulted, filing deadline missed, etc.).

If you are recently back from maternity leave and want to negotiate more severence don't be afraid to raise the timing of this discussion as suspect. I might not say the word retaliation but you can infer it.

Yes, it's at least the leverage you need to negotiate severance, not that they'll ever admit that the leave had anything to do with the alleged performance issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What they are actually saying is that you are a fine associate, hence the good reviews on the work you were doing, but not partner material, which is the next step. Now you are too expensive to use on the matters you are qualified to cover. Your good reviews will help you find a new position, but keep in mind they will know you were considered not partner material, so don't try to bluff that.

NP- if her whole team is low billables do they all get the axe? Do they have to be rainmaking as senior associates?

Not all of them, as consolidation will raise the hours of those left. And yes, in my experience, to become a partner you need to be developing business and showing rainmaking potential as a senior associate. I had 30 clients by the time I made partner as a 7th year associate. My business development hours were huge, and it took a ton of hustle. No one made partner without at least a small book. You can't survive without it under most firms' compensation models. Some firms used to have a layer of 'working partners,' but even many of those have done away with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What they are actually saying is that you are a fine associate, hence the good reviews on the work you were doing, but not partner material, which is the next step. Now you are too expensive to use on the matters you are qualified to cover. Your good reviews will help you find a new position, but keep in mind they will know you were considered not partner material, so don't try to bluff that.

NP- if her whole team is low billables do they all get the axe? Do they have to be rainmaking as senior associates?

Not all of them, as consolidation will raise the hours of those left. And yes, in my experience, to become a partner you need to be developing business and showing rainmaking potential as a senior associate. I had 30 clients by the time I made partner as a 7th year associate. My business development hours were huge, and it took a ton of hustle. No one made partner without at least a small book. You can't survive without it under most firms' compensation models. Some firms used to have a layer of 'working partners,' but even many of those have done away with them.

How much in collectible billings were the 30 clients bringing in as a 7th year associate? I guess I'm curious whether it's the volume of clients that matters or if it's the amount of collectible billings. In looking at most partners that I know, most of them seem to have 1 or 2 really big clients and then a bunch of much, much smaller clients, hence why the "30 clients" is a little surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one good thing about BigLaw is that they hate to fire anyone and are really risk averse on litigation so will typically give a pretty long runway for you to look for something and/or decent severance for a release.

But I’d be pretty surprised if this is “that conversation” if there were no previous indications that things weren’t going well. Unless there was a major screwup (client insulted, filing deadline missed, etc.).

If you are recently back from maternity leave and want to negotiate more severence don't be afraid to raise the timing of this discussion as suspect. I might not say the word retaliation but you can infer it.

Yes, it's at least the leverage you need to negotiate severance, not that they'll ever admit that the leave had anything to do with the alleged performance issues.

That's why they want to steer away from reviews. OP has hard evidence of positive reviews and then is getting pushed out following a return from maternity leave. It's most likely cost cutting unrelated to the leave, but there is enough there to get more severance

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the update OP. That's arguably better than 60 days of severance/ website time, etc. If you can swing an offer in 60 days (v doable), you'll never have to answer "yes" to the question "were you ever fired?". Great outcome, glad that firms are being humane. Onward and upward, OP!

[Anonymous]

Let’s coach OP on whether she can take clients with her?