I’m a 4th year at a midsized regional firm. I lateraled into this firm from another midsize regional, and I’m learning how to manage and work with new partners at this firm.
There’s one partner I work with who is very difficult to get ahold of. I’m not bagging on the guy, he has a huge book and he’s a solid dude, he’s gone out of his way to get me experiences beyond my skillset to help me grow. I am in no way bitching, I just need advice because my current method isn’t working.
Best explanation I can give is an example. A new litigation matter came in, client was served with a complaint, this partner staffed me on it. I did my usual opener. Spent some time with the complaint, drafted a cause of action outline, reached out to the client and got some documents. Went over the docs, assessed the complaint, sent the partner an email outlining what I see as our options.
I told him, we have enough to compel arbitration, remove to federal court, or move to dismiss on all but one claim. We can obviously answer but I think that would be a mistake. I then added: if it was me, I would remove and then compel arbitration, and then let the arbitrator decide the MTD. It’s expensive but it’s most likely for a favorable outcome. Partner responded great work, thanks, I’ll see what the client wants.
For a week I heard nothing. I forwarded my assessment to him again with a note “need marching orders, let me know.” Nothing. Started forwarding the assessments every 2-3 days, and including the filing deadline. Nothing. When we were down to 5 days I started texting when I sent the email, which I was sending every day, and reminding him I have to M&C with O/C on any motion before filing.
Deadline to remove passed. Nothing. I reached out to o/c and got him to agree to a 2 week extension. Updated the client, notified the partner, filed a stipulated extension.
Our new deadline after the extend is now tomorrow. Partner called me last night to tell me he wants me to notify opposing counsel we’re seeking another extension, and that we will file the request contested if we need to. Seems a bit ridiculous to me, we’ve had this complaint for 5-6 weeks at this point, but also I didn’t want to start billing on an MTD that the client might not want filed, so while our due date is tomorrow, what I currently have is… a master pleading template and some law I can paste in from my outline.
What is a better way to handle this? Spamming the partner obviously doesn’t work. For those of your who are partners, what would you prefer an associate do in this circumstance? This isn’t a one off, this happens with this particular partner very, very often.