Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you are being iced out but it also sounds like you aren't working hard enough to make yourself valuable. You need to make yourself irreplaceable, your hours need to be stellar, you need to have a clear connection with several partners who will go to bat for you. If you haven't figured this out and haven't done it by the 6th year, it isn't good. But it sounds like you don't want it anyway. Be honest. If you aren't trying for partnership track then why are you there? To be the world's oldest associate? You need to bill enough and have enough receivables to make yourself profitable. They aren't just going to hand you a promotion and you can't just stay forever in limbo as an associate.

At this level perhaps you can go in house for a client. Talk to a partner you trust to see if there are any openings at clients or other connections. You could also consider moving to the government

At my BIGLAW, in lieu of lay offs often partners stop giving work to associates they want to leave. Totally passive aggressive but the theory is the associate will get the hint and get a new job. This could be happening to you. It is easier to get a new job when you already have one. Good luck.

I don't understand this comment. "Average" hours are insufficient to make someone valuable? They have to be "stellar?" How do average hours translate into getting "iced out?" Someone has to be in the middle . . . is the entire middle of the pack getting fired?

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you are being iced out but it also sounds like you aren't working hard enough to make yourself valuable. You need to make yourself irreplaceable, your hours need to be stellar, you need to have a clear connection with several partners who will go to bat for you. If you haven't figured this out and haven't done it by the 6th year, it isn't good. But it sounds like you don't want it anyway. Be honest. If you aren't trying for partnership track then why are you there? To be the world's oldest associate? You need to bill enough and have enough receivables to make yourself profitable. They aren't just going to hand you a promotion and you can't just stay forever in limbo as an associate.

At this level perhaps you can go in house for a client. Talk to a partner you trust to see if there are any openings at clients or other connections. You could also consider moving to the government

At my BIGLAW, in lieu of lay offs often partners stop giving work to associates they want to leave. Totally passive aggressive but the theory is the associate will get the hint and get a new job. This could be happening to you. It is easier to get a new job when you already have one. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I left BigLaw for the USAO when I was a sixth year, but for those of you still at firms, is there some reason why the PP shouldn't approach management about a counsel-type position? I know a few people who I used to work with who have that title, and it seems to be a non-partner track, permanent position. Sounds like that might be good for OP. How do people end up in those positions?

This is a very difficult position to obtain at a large law firm - especially one with an equity-only partnership where they rarely promote. It's one of the many problems with law firms. If you're not on partner track you're eventually told to leave.

Anonymous wrote:I left BigLaw for the USAO when I was a sixth year, but for those of you still at firms, is there some reason why the PP shouldn't approach management about a counsel-type position? I know a few people who I used to work with who have that title, and it seems to be a non-partner track, permanent position. Sounds like that might be good for OP. How do people end up in those positions?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:agree with 22:36. No later than your 3rd year (and even that's a bit late), you should be firmly entrenched with a partner.

I was let go from big law, but it was part of the big 2010 bloodbaths. I didn't see it coming because I was a very high biller; however, I really should have known because I had just gotten back from taking 3 weeks FMLA leave to recover from surgery. That ended up not going over well.

That is awful. I knew people who were let go or held back a year for taking maternity leave, which is also rotten, but that is 4-6 months. 3 weeks doesn't seem like much for an otherwise high biller.

Anyway, I would agree that your chances probably aren't great if you aren't in with a partner. I was the go-to person for a partner from the end of my 1st year until I left 3 years later. I wanted to leave anyway, and when I heard partner was making plans to leave within a few years (that is, before I would have been up for partner), I knew that would have been the end. Once my work source left, I wouldn't have had a chance. Or I would've been stuck with awful assignments. Neither sounded appealing.

OP, I would seriously start looking elsewhere. Even if you don't want to leave until forced to, at least you will have laid the groundwork and have some options or ideas of options.

Anonymous wrote:agree with 22:36. No later than your 3rd year (and even that's a bit late), you should be firmly entrenched with a partner.

I was let go from big law, but it was part of the big 2010 bloodbaths. I didn't see it coming because I was a very high biller; however, I really should have known because I had just gotten back from taking 3 weeks FMLA leave to recover from surgery. That ended up not going over well.