procedural guides

Associates Counseled To Avoid Firms with Dueling Partners and Practices

In an entry posted on March 16, 2009, Technolawyer reported the following story:

“At the interview, Doug asked a senior associate, “Kara,” to elaborate on the difference between the two groups and whether they worked in tandem on matters. Kara got up, shut the door to her office, and returned to her chair.  According to firm legend, she explained, there was once a single Executive Compensation/Employee Benefits/Labor/ERISA group. However, the group’s two senior partners so hated each other that they split the kingdom and forged separate fiefdoms that continue to perform very similar work. So no, they didn’t work in tandem. Associates work for one group or the other; dual citizenship is not permitted.  Doug then asked whether she found the dueling practice group system odd or problematic.  Kara morbidly analogized the situation to a treatment for epilepsy in which the brain tissue that connects the right and left hemispheres is severed. The Executive Comp people never know what the Labor people are working on, and vice versa. This disconnect results in the groups occasionally duplicating each others’ efforts. But duplicating efforts is the least of dueling groups’ problems.”

Obviously, having dueling practice groups is not ideal for the firm, but would the existence of dueling practice groups have any effect on an associate’s life? The answer is a resounding:  Yes.  And it doesn’t even have to be dueling practice groups.  Anytime there is animosity between partners, there is danger for associates.  I know an associate who lasted less than a year at a major firm because she unwittingly got in the middle of a partner war. By the time she figured it out, (finally a kind secretary filled her in and all the puzzle pieces fell into place), it was too late and she had offended one of the partners to such an extent that it was impossible to salvage the relationship.  The inevitable negative review went out, and she was soon gone.  How to avoid such an outcome? Here’s the advice my friend wished she had had:  if you are new, take the time to ask people who have been there awhile, including attorneys and staff, who is with who and who is against who. It is always easier to navigate a volatile situation is you are fully informed.  But the truth is, sometimes nothing can be done. In the case of my friend, it was later learned that she had been forced on a partner who was looking for a much different candidate, and so the relationship was doomed from the start.

If you have a story to share about navigating relationships between partners, please do so by commenting on this piece.