Difference between associate and senior associate?
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My client is gift-giving me things that are definitely over the ethical limit. It started with a nice bottle of wine, but today a high-end designer watch showed up as a thank you for a successful motion. I haven't opened the box because I know the second I do, I’m in a massive conflict-of-interest gray zone. My firm doesn't have a formal gift policy, but my gut says this is a play for special treatment on their next bill. What would you do?
I left my associate attorney position to do a federal clerkship for a year. How do I explain to friends and family that it’s not like a demotion even though I won’t be practicing as an attorney? All the non-law people I tell seem confused as to why I would take a lower paying, temporary, non-attorney job for a year.
My firm is tracking our office attendance via badge-swipes and sending automated warnings. It doesn't matter if my billables are through the roof or if I’m working until midnight from home. If my physical badge doesn't click into the lobby by 9:00 AM three days a week, I get an automated email from HR. It is the most patronizing, low-trust environment I’ve ever experienced in my professional life. Are your firms tracking you like inventory?
I need out of being an attorney, at least for a little while. I can’t continue at my current job the way things are going: I think when I got licensed (3.5 years ago) and started at my firm, I was a bit burned out from law school and having to study for and take the bar multiple times. Circumstances at my job only made my feeling of burnout worse from the beginning, and my feeling has only grown exponentially since. (continued in reply)
Seniority.
Logged on just to say this when I saw the OP notification. Looks like there’s a smarter a** already here! Love it.
My title gives the firm the ability to bill me out at a higher rate because when clients see my absurd rate my title says “senior” next to it.
It is actually the firm’s reason. I asked when I got “promoted”
Access to early bird dinning specials.
Awesome!
Responsibility. Usually senior associates are responsable for the junior associate’s work and we have administrative work.
I’m a *senior* associate. At my firm, I got the title once they hired a junior associate. The big difference is billing. They couldn’t bill the just passed the bar junior associate at the same hourly rate as the more experienced senior associates, so I got promoted. I also got a raise. But I also have more administrative work. I have to review the juniors work, and I do a lot more consultations and billing review. I have to edit all the time for the junior associate and paralegals before it goes to the partner.
Increased responsibilities e.g. training juniors / client management. Also likely to be expected to undertake more business development to grow practice. Greater autonomy
Do that many firms distinguish? I see grad years on case acceptance letters but I’ve don’t really see Junior vs senior specifically as a title much except on here.
I was at a regional ID firm with 300 attorneys and only 2 partners that had senior department managing associates
Word count in the footer
At my regional firm, senior associates were distinguished from associates in that they were authorized to bill clients directly (along with some other minor benefits).
At my firm it’s so they can bill more
I’m going with training wheels vs. not
Hopefully it means there are younger associates the senior can delegate the basic shitty work to. Otherwise what’s the point!