Reply to Big Law - HR meeting out of the blue

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'd update your resume and put out some feelers to recruiters, OP.

How were your billables? [/quote]

[b]Low billables.[/b] But the market has been slow for our group in general. [/quote]
I wouldn’t keep riding on the good performance review from last year.

How does your firm normally handle performance issues? Is it multiple warnings/a PIP? Or immediate separation?[/quote]

Law firms aren't like this.  If there isn't enough work to support the associates on staff, they will fire some until there is a better matching of supply/demand.  You can be totally competent, even well liked associate. But if there's not enough work, and the firm predicts the downturn will last, then you still have a high chance of layoff.  Firms took too long in 2008 to react to the sudden downturn, and figured out they needed to be quicker - so now assume they will make firing decisions within 3 months of a slowdown.  They'll do this even if you're a good lawyer - but they'll pick the least busy associate to lay off, because that is just a general indication of how much partners need/like the associate.

If you're a bad associate, you also don't get a warning - they will just let you go with severance.

[b]OP - i would be surprised that they wouldn't give you more of a 3 month runway to come back after leave and get your feet back on the ground. It's very normal to take a while for work to pick back up. And it's not good optics to fire new moms.  [/b]But how were your hours before leave?  Had you been cruising a bit and already seen as one of the lesser focused associates?

BUt with all that said, in my 17 years in biglaw, I have never heard of an associate or non-equity partner having a meeting asked for by HR where it wasn't to be let go.  [/quote]
Like you said, if there’s not enough work, they’ll fire people. If OP is not meeting their target, then they’ll be in the pool to be fired. Coming back from leave doesn’t exempt you from billing targets unless you have an accommodation that could reduce the target.[/quote]

No, that's not true. Unless you want a reputation, you have to give associates coming back from parental leave time to ramp back up. [/quote]
Nope, this is a fantasy. No one cares about “reputations”. Look at the last downturn in law. As soon as the economy picked up, people were clamoring to work at all the big firms that had just treated their associates like crap.

It’s pretty black and white when you’re talking about billing targets.[/quote]

You clearly don't work in a law firm. I'm glad you think that you know how it works. Maybe it's time to get back to your 1L reading.[/quote]

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