Career Clinic: Should my firm have involved me in recruiting my new colleague?

You need some spine

I would not say 'aggrieved'. I think that this should come as a rude awakening for you.

You make yourself out to be an integral part of the machine but if you mean as much to the firm as they do to you (i.e. giving up your holiday etc) then surely they would at least tell you their plans for the department, even if the conversation was limited to saying that they wanted to expand. This is especially so, if you are the only specialist in a particular field!

Also, again, if you are as much of a star as you make out, then why do they even feel the need to bring in a partner? Obviously they see you as limited in terms of bringing in business and clients. If you are so great, why are you not being made partner? Being the only specialist, maybe you have not taken the bull by the horns here?

It sounds to me like you are another victim of the transactional sausage factory. They dangled the carrot so that you would give up holiday, family and who knows what else. And for what? A good pay cheque? Great, so you can buy lots of goodies that you will not own in three years anyway. When you die, you can not take that stuff with you - all you have is memories. What will you remember? Spending the best years of your life lining the pockets of greedy partners who only got where they are because their parents were rich? You are the only specialist in a certain area and they will not even tell you their plans for that area!

With all due respect, they saw you coming a mile off! How naive are you?

The truth is, the partners just view you as a billing machine that helps top up their credit card to enable them to buy an Aston Martin. When they step off their first class flight to Cyprus so that they can check out one of their holiday homes, they are effectively laughing at you. And when you leave the firm? It is no skin off their nose. They will just bring in some other mug to line their pockets.

It is tragic that you probably could have chosen to do anything with your life and you chose to sacrifice so much of it to be a billing statistic on a spreadsheet and fund partners who have such little respect for you. Tell them to sling it and then go some place where you are valued!

Van der vaart -21 Oct 2010 | 12:43

Sounds like you need to quit and move on to a firm that values and recognises your efforts. Don't waste any more time at your current firm.

Anon -21 Oct 2010 | 13:29

Van der vaart - harsh, but fair.

Van Basten -21 Oct 2010 | 14:19

You Have Been Shafted

I think Van der vaart is being a bit harsh, but what he or she says is essentially correct.

You have been shafted and I imagine that new partner is working hard to convert your clients into his or hers.

You need either to obtain a cast iron guarantee about partnership, or get out while you can still command some loyalty from your clients. Either way, you need to act quickly. Clients will assume from the outside looking in that the partner leads the team and is there to manage the relationship, so you can't blame them.

Get moving - now!

FTSE 250 Legal Director -21 Oct 2010 | 16:31

Probably - if your firm wanted a partner in your area of work, they should have offered you the opportunity to apply for partnership first (and then potentially recruit a less senior lateral hire to assist you). However, that approach would be crediting law firms with a degree of courtesy and empathy which they simply do not possess. Go to a better firm and take your clients and experience with you.

anon 2 -21 Oct 2010 | 16:34

You do not say how many PQE you are - is it appropriate you are made partner? Have you applied for partnership?

Anonymous -21 Oct 2010 | 17:29

I'm sorry your firm has not shown you even the bare minimum of courtesy. On the info provided I'd say they don't see you as partner material.

You can love you job above anything else, but it will never love you back. It might even slap you in the face from time to time. I'd find something else to do.

Big Dave -22 Oct 2010 | 12:42

An old story

Partners will treat you as a workhorse if you let them. If you want a long-term career that is something other than being their serf, you need to engineer it. Talent and goodwill won't get it for you out of 90% of partners who are utterly self-serving.

These guys have basically shafted you.

You don't owe them anything - take care of yourself and maybe treat others better than you were treated when you are a partner somewhere (if that is what you want).

Magic Circle Associate -22 Oct 2010 | 13:21

Presumably...

...there is now a partner vacancy in the firm that your new boss left?

Might be worth having a look there - as well as speaking to your current firm to see whether the partner appointment is part of a serious pitch to grow your practice area (and therefore in need of more partners).

Scep Tick -22 Oct 2010 | 13:31

What matters

Interesting that you say you would cancel holidays to help the "firm's" reputation, and left your husband on his own when he really needed your support, again all for "the firm".
I know bosses can be bas****s but it seems you've been a willing particpant in all this.

Rather than career advice you may want to do two things:

1 - sit down and talk to hubby
2 - consider getting some counselling about why you're a workaholic and how that is affecting your relationships.

Rhubarb & Custard -22 Oct 2010 | 13:41

Nope

If they were recruiting someone to work for you, then you would be perfectly entitled to have a grievance. Recruiting people more senior than you is not necessarily something you ought to be consulted on – especially as your interest would be putting yourself forward. As a senior associate there will always be some decisions which are above your pay grade, that’s how partnerships work. Presumably the decision to bring in a lateral hire was made after considering whether you were able to fill that gap. The conclusion was that you weren’t.

If you are the only specialist in a specific area, then it’s obviously one that’s either not a priority for your firm or which has been identified as ripe for expansion – under someone else. Have you looked at why you don’t have any assistants or colleagues? Are you perhaps a technical expert who is useful but unable to grow a team with acceptable profit levels? Being an expert working in a team of one is not a sustainable business model for anything other than a niche consultancy-type practice.

The sacrifices you have made in your personal life seem more than any firm could reasonably ask but you made those choices and if you regret it now I’m not surprised. You wouldn’t be the first and you wouldn’t be the last.

Young Fogey -22 Oct 2010 | 14:26

Seen it all before...

I'm afraid this is typical of the behaviour of partners in modern law firms.

The fact that they have brought in a lateral hire over your head in your practice area means that either

(a) they didn't realise you have partnership ambitions. Have you ever explicitly discussed this with them, e.g. at an appraisal?

or (b) more probably they have decided amongst themselves that you are not partnership material for whatever reasons (not necessarily good reasons) but have failed to communicate this to you, or you have failed to pick up on the subtle hints. Once their minds have been made up on your prospects you will have an uphill battle ever to change this, especially now the slot for a new partner has been filled.

Sadly partners can often be seduced by the idea of a shiny new lateral hire and will appoint them over someone internal, however diligent, whose faults they already know. Chances are that the lateral is far from perfect either but they don't know that yet.

Unless you want to continue being humiliated by your senior colleagues, I suggest you look for a job elsewhere. They have given you the strongest possible message that you have no future at their firm other than as a workhorse doing thankless drudgery.

Weary -22 Oct 2010 | 17:38

I think I can even guess the firm...

You're entitled to feel aggrieved.

You should go somewhere else now. Do not train the new member of staff. Do not let them build relationships with clients you have worked so hard to cultivate.

This is a low trick. It's one I've seen before. Partners like to "draw the ladder up behind themselves" and one way to do this is to stifle others.

Grouch -23 Oct 2010 | 09:32

Book a holiday

Book a three-week holiday with your family, and use the time to think through what you really want from life and work. Maybe this firm is not worth it. Find somewhere which treats you with respect, including respect for your home life.

Anon -25 Oct 2010 | 16:36

I am so sorry to hear what has happened to you. I'm not going to rub your nose in it by saying again that you have been shafted. I think you knew that already.

Anon's advice is very good. Consider if it is the law you want in life. We're already clear that it is a cruel profession and that this treatment is par for the course.

And if you are determined to carry on, have you considered receiving private coaching in assertiveness? I know firms have reputations to uphold, business to pursue etc. but there are limits. Assertiveness training will assist you in setting those boundaries in a non-confrontational way. It will also help you get the respect and recognition you deserve.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

high street solicitor -25 Oct 2010 | 19:08

Move now; you will be fired within months.

ars badgerius -26 Oct 2010 | 15:28

To be cold-blooded...

You are naive. You need to realise that law firms are businesses - it's the bottom line ($$) which counts. Loyalty has no commercial value.

So, keeping $$ in mind, the key to making partner these days is either (i) increased revenue by making you partner or (ii) loss of revenue by not making you partner. This is where you lose.

They don't need to make you partner because:

1. Your clients are already the firm's clients. Making you partner brings in no new revenue for the firm, plus then each existing partner's equity is diminished.

2. They are not frightened by loss of revenue by not promoting you. Maybe because this is because you have never given any indication that you'd leave if not promoted - after all, you seem to have sacrificed your personal life and relationships willingly to the firm. Maybe it's because they're not afraid you'll take the clients, even if you do leave - especially if you are in a "support" practice and the clients you service are institutional clients.

Observer -27 Oct 2010 | 07:18

It is not that bad!

Crikey, lot of drastic advice on this!

The recruitment process goes up the chain of command not down. Why would they disclose this to you? Think about it logically. If they had told you and then not recruited a partner, then you may have left leaving them stranded.

The point is that they have to protect their interests and I would not necessarily consider this appointment to be a snub. Perhaps this new partner is a heavy weight and considerably more experienced. No doubt they will have a following.

Assess the situation and decide what is your rightful place within the team. I'd get on with it, work your backside off to be number 2 and get promotion to partnership that way. In the longer term, your career is likely to be longer than the incoming partner's (in all probability) and then you can take your place at head of the team.

If you are feeling overwhelmingly aggrieved, then you should leave, but for me, this position was never something you would or should have been consulted on and my advice would be to get on with the task at hand, if mentally, you are able to address that.

Best of luck.

Me

Me -27 Oct 2010 | 10:27

It's just so common to see exactly that sort of story. Colleagues who obtain their sense of self-worth through being constantly "really busy", working long hours and giving everything to the firm with the foolish idea that they are really important to the firm and that they are something other than a tiny replaceable cog in a big wheel of pointlessness.

And this applies equally to partners, by the way. They may be getting paid more for it, but that doesn't ease the pain when they get pushed out quietly by the firm they thought they were so central to.

The bottom line is: work hard if that is what you love to do, but otherwise just get your work done and get a life.

Anonymous -27 Oct 2010 | 18:05

Take your time....

Sounds like you need to figure out your worth in the market before coming to any concrete conclusions, and what has happened could end up going for or against you depending on how you play it. Sit tight but have a joker up your sleeve.

perseus -28 Oct 2010 | 16:46

Relax

Before you act on any of the paranoia in the above comments, ask your boss or a senior colleague in the know why this hire was made. Most firms want to expand successful areas of the firm, and would be glad to hire 20 new partners in the area if they thought they had the work. It may be no reflection on you other than that they perceive that your area is important and that they need more lawyers to do the work.

In any case, you need to get some answers from your senior people about what this means for you. Will the new partners bring new clients that you'll be working on? Will the new partner now be a part of a two-person marketing team you both can use to your advantage? Will the new person give you the vacation time you've been lacking? This could be really good for you, and I suspect that it will be.

I'm a managing partner of a large firm, and we bring in new partners to bring in new work - not to replace associates we've invested years in developing. Talk to someone you trust.

Cicero -28 Oct 2010 | 20:20

You need to start preparing Plan B

Cicero calls some of the above comments 'paranoid'. I disagree in part. Posters who comment would (hopefully) base their advice on their own bad experiences. There's no harm in having a plan B. I don't know of a similar situation as the OP describes it, where that person would not be consulted.

As for 'talk to someone you trust', my view is that of the circle of relevant people there doesn't seem to be someone to trust. Also, isn't this an element of paranoia? Why should the OP have to presume that anyone with power in her situation is not trustworthy. Talking about it with anyone else outside this circle seems irrelevant.

If this sounds 'paranoid' then fine.

Legal Trainer -29 Oct 2010 | 12:04

Depressingly familiar

"I was also unable to support my husband through the sudden death of his brother as my presence - as the only person available to do the work - was required at work on a project that involved working through the night to meet a completion target."

Oh my days! You did NOT need to do that.

Take a break right now. Turn the smart timer off. Repeat after me "my personal life is more important than my work life, my husband is more important to me than my boss."

Now go to the bathroom. Splash some water on your face, and realise that you do not need to validate yourself through constantly saying yes, through billable hours, or indeed through your job. Realise that people will respect you more if you don't always say yes. Who you are as a person is so much more than what you do at work.

And then, as the poster above says, book some time off. When you get some bs about how you can't take a long break, as they "need you to help integrate the new hire" or whatever other reason they give, remind them calmly that you have made sacrifices in the past and that you need this time. Remember, they do not have any valid reason to deny you this leave.

Take the time (min 2 weeks, but better 3), leave the BlackBerry at home, and rest. After about 3 days of decent lying around not doing much and sleeping, you will be getting close to being in the right place for getting some perspective on things. If you're working as hard as it sounds like you are, you may find that when you stop and rest you fall ill. It will pass. You do not need to ring in to check on how things are going, and you do not need to leave them a number so they can contact you. Resist the urge. Then start thinking about what you want from life and talk to your husband about it. Then just spend some time together enjoying each other's company.

I suspect the right answer will be to leave your present firm as the perception of you is too firmly embedded there, but you need to make that call yourself. If you do leave, make sure you go into your next place with some boundaries. E.g. why not have 1 night a week where you never work late? By which I mean weeknight.

Also, remember, most client demands are in fact requests, and can be adjusted. I say that as a client. No one outside of your firm wants you to burn out, but your bosses will let you burn yourself out as a "human resource" if it makes them money, because they can hire a new resource (as you've just seen).

Please take the advice. I can see how you have ended up in this situation, but in my view, you are heading down the wrong road. Even your original post suggests this - it reads like you get your self-worth from being the "always needed" specialist, and you are upset about the person being brought in above you. Yet what the post reveals is bigger issues than this person being brought in.

Maybe I'm wrong - but all I would say as a final note is that I feel personally more highly valued both at work and in my personal life since I left private practice (and I work about 3/4 of the hours I used to, if not 1/2), and this has not come at the expense of my salary.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Stupot -29 Oct 2010 | 13:08

TBF

To be fair to your firm, many partnerships do not feel that a senior associate cum partner is best placed to grow a practice. You don't say how senior this lateral partner is. If this partner is 7 or more years a partner, has brand new clients to bring in, and has a full strategy that you could not come up with on your own to grow the practice this may be great news for you. The partner will do the hiring of associates without the rest of the partners needing to think about it, and a space will become available for you in the next year or so to be the junior partner in this practice.

You do need clarity, and if you have any real idea about what being a partner involves, you will find the balls to call a meeting and request some clarity from them now, rather than doing that very female thing of sitting like a church mouse and working hard and hoping the benevolent God of partnership will somehow shine upon you. Call a meeting, and then if you don't like the outcome, sod off.

B. Reasonable -31 Oct 2010 | 12:17