Anonymous
11/26/2025 15:54
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
Anonymous wrote:I am ex-Harvard, ex-big-law. I think this is a troll. A senior partner might think this but
they would never say it.
People lose their filter at ~ 70.
Anonymous
11/26/2025 15:42
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
Anonymous wrote:I am ex-Harvard, ex-big-law. I think this is a troll. A senior partner might think this but they would never say it.
Op here. I can’t prove it of course but I’m not a troll. This partner is retiring so has loose lips, and I’m also not at his firm.
Anonymous
11/25/2025 22:19
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am ex-Harvard, ex-big-law. I think this is a troll. A senior partner might think this but they would never say it.
What? This is a mild thing for a partner to say.
I wouldn't call it a "mild thing." But it doesn't surprise me that an 70 yr old partner would say it out loud.
Anonymous
11/25/2025 19:57
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:He's a jerk, but also if he had a lot of business the firm would get pressuring him to train somebody. So it may be that he doesn't have a great practice and can't keep associates for that reason.
The culture at most firms is that partners train multiple people and grow them into senior associates who can eventually take over their book or find their own business for the firm. And though people may leave, they may be back or may reach out to you when they need co-counsel. It's a small world.
Where it really fell down, IMO, was partners who trained senior associates and promised they'd inherit the book but then never retired. A whole generation of senior associates / junior partners had to move firms about 15 years ago, in a way lawyers didn't used to, because of stagnation and lack of space at the top.
I wonder how many of those guys who didn’t move on was because of second wives and families. I saw this a lot with guys on their 70s putting kids from a second marriage through college and unwilling to let go of the income stream.
When I was in big law I worked for two partners, both in their early 60s. One had a toddler with his young wife. The other had no kids. Both are still listed on the firm website, 15 years after I quit as a mid-level.
Anonymous
11/25/2025 19:54
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
Anonymous wrote:I am ex-Harvard, ex-big-law. I think this is a troll. A senior partner might think this but they would never say it.
What? This is a mild thing for a partner to say.
Anonymous
11/25/2025 19:49
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
Anonymous wrote:I am ex-Harvard, ex-big-law. I think this is a troll. A senior partner might think this but they would never say it.
Agreed that most wouldn’t but I’ve worked for one or two complete a-holes that just might at that age.
Anonymous
11/25/2025 19:32
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
I am ex-Harvard, ex-big-law. I think this is a troll. A senior partner might think this but they would never say it.
Anonymous
11/25/2025 19:08
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is very true - the boomers took a huge step back from work but wouldn't share credits, stayed till mid-70s and also wouldn't train and often didn't want juniors staffed on their matters due to write offs, this is just starting to change in the last year
This happened in corporate America too.
Too late for Gen-Xers to rise in quantity where I am.
I worked at a company where the joke was it was the nearly deads and the newlyweds. Not a lot of 40-55 year olds.
Anonymous
11/25/2025 19:07
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:He's a jerk, but also if he had a lot of business the firm would get pressuring him to train somebody. So it may be that he doesn't have a great practice and can't keep associates for that reason.
The culture at most firms is that partners train multiple people and grow them into senior associates who can eventually take over their book or find their own business for the firm. And though people may leave, they may be back or may reach out to you when they need co-counsel. It's a small world.
Where it really fell down, IMO, was partners who trained senior associates and promised they'd inherit the book but then never retired. A whole generation of senior associates / junior partners had to move firms about 15 years ago, in a way lawyers didn't used to, because of stagnation and lack of space at the top.
I wonder how many of those guys who didn’t move on was because of second wives and families. I saw this a lot with guys on their 70s putting kids from a second marriage through college and unwilling to let go of the income stream.
I never thought of this but yes, I’ve known many law partners and business execs that are “second family” guys with two sets of kids.
Anonymous
11/25/2025 19:06
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
Anonymous wrote:This is very true - the boomers took a huge step back from work but wouldn't share credits, stayed till mid-70s and also wouldn't train and often didn't want juniors staffed on their matters due to write offs, this is just starting to change in the last year
This happened in corporate America too.
Too late for Gen-Xers to rise in quantity where I am.
Anonymous
11/25/2025 19:04
Subject: Senior law partner said that associates aren't worth investing in to mentor and train
Anonymous wrote:He's a jerk, but also if he had a lot of business the firm would get pressuring him to train somebody. So it may be that he doesn't have a great practice and can't keep associates for that reason.
The culture at most firms is that partners train multiple people and grow them into senior associates who can eventually take over their book or find their own business for the firm. And though people may leave, they may be back or may reach out to you when they need co-counsel. It's a small world.
Where it really fell down, IMO, was partners who trained senior associates and promised they'd inherit the book but then never retired. A whole generation of senior associates / junior partners had to move firms about 15 years ago, in a way lawyers didn't used to, because of stagnation and lack of space at the top.
Why didn’t they retire?