Return to the Firm - The Second Year

When we left off at the end of my first year, my client service team had just experienced a major shake up, but we were still heads down working hard, exceeding our hours target and earning our bonus.

My second year back in a law firm setting involved much of the same. Unsurprisingly, the spurned senior associate decided to leave the client service team, effectively cutting off communication with the internal team and the client. In many ways, this was a relief because the internal team's day-to-day interactions had become very tense. Unfortunately, the transition took effect just a few days prior to my planned summer vacation, so I--as the sole remaining associate with knowledge of the client team personnel and client activities over the prior year--had to cancel my vacation (which also the first vacation I had planned in the 1.5 years I'd been at the firm).

As a result of all that had happened, the equity partner on the file then decided to distribute the client's work across a broader group of associates so he wasn't too reliant on any one associate. This meant that my role, which had been to dedicate all my billable time to this one client, would change significantly. I was now back in the general associate pool competing for one-off deals staffed by partners out of other offices. This was not the job I'd accepted and certainly not an arrangement I would have left my in-house job for, but I made the best out of the situation and could see there was a benefit to getting to know the other partners in the group.

I found new work, completed a few deals for the old client, exceeded my annual hours target, earned my bonus and got great feedback at my end of year review, but my morale plummeted. I did not enjoy my new role, which mainly involved providing coverage for partners/associates out on parental leave, and I knew my prospects for advancement as a senior associate without an equity partner sponsor were dim. 

To be clear, I blame myself. I took a big risk when I agreed to a class year cut, to work with just one client and to work with just one senior associate (she was and continues to be a hugely talented and effective lawyer, but this was frankly betting too much on the equity partner's non-binding succession plan and the relationship between the equity partner and the spurned associate). What transpired was a scenario I had considered prior to accepting my offer, but had written off as the absolute worst case scenario because I was too enamoured with the best case scenario.