Tuesday, September 07, 2004

 
I have a senior associate who's after me for dirt about her chances of making partner. It's gotten pretty irritating. She's always been very upfront about her desire to make partner. Once word got out over the grapevine that a particular associate was in line to make partner, she'd be first in line at his or her office, trying to ingratiate herself, sometimes in ways that went beyond simply helping out on a case. It became a running joke among some of the partnership: "John's next in line; how long until [she]'s sleeping with him?" But now she's started asking directly about her chances, and it's very uncomfortable. She does decent work. But we've made a lot of women partners recently, and aren't specifically looking for any new ones. And even if her work is decent, it doesn't stand out, and most people don't particularly like her as a person. She won't get my support. But I have no desire to tell her that: the longer we can keep her here, billing hours at the rate a senior associate bills out at, and training people below her, the better for us. Plus, she's not bad to look at, especially when she dolls herself up for the associates-turning-partners she has her eyes on.

Comments:
Ingratiating yourself with potential partners doesn't seem to be the best way of winning people over, more than anything, it repulses people. She should be more strategic in her approach...and not overcook her chances.

M~
 
"But we've made a lot of women partners recently, and aren't specifically looking for any new ones."

AL - You make it sound like you've got a quota as to how many women you'll let in the boardroom...
 
And AL, keeping her around as an office fixture for aesthetic reasons seems like a good idea...chuckles

M~
 
How many women partners is a "lot"? One?
 
"But we've made a lot of women partners recently, and aren't specifically looking for any new ones."

Nice! Sort of an unspoken quota -- enough to keep clients who want female partners happy, and no more.
 
Your perspective is interesting from that "privileged chair" in the center of the room.
 
she needs to sleep with more partners.
 
I don't think the comment, "we've made a lot of women partners recently, and aren't specifically looking for any new ones" means they have a limit. I think it means that they don't need to bring her on as a partner because the current number of women is low so instead she has to make it in on her own merit which in this case isn't good.
 
Oh yeah, those partners are real impressed by women that have been passed around to everyone else. This sounds like one of those women who may have been smart enough to get the grades (ie., the job) but just doesn't have a clue. At least AL's firm must have some women with merit.
 
AL, why not just tell her to stop hounding you about this? Tell her that you can't discuss it with her and that when she is a partner herself she will understand the reasons why.

Q: do you have some male eye candy there for your female and/or gay clients and partners?
 
Shouldn't she be chasing the lawyers who are already partners instead of wasting her time and her internal organs on those who aren't?
 


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