Some of my friends from law school work in so-called sweatshop firms where they re unable to attend family functions and continuously work weekends and late hours, she says. The state of the associate depends entirely on whether you ve found a mentor to latch onto. The hours at most firms are pretty close. The difference between a sweatshop and a positive experience depends entirely on your mentor. But this is no easy fix.
Partners are so busy.
If the premium is on billing hours and they re helping an associate, then they re not billing that time and yet it s not considered pro bono work, says Rush. I think partners often mean well, but some have forgotten how important the small things are to an associate. It doesn t take that much time to suggest sitting down and going over problems with a brief instead of berating an associate, Rush says. We find that the associates who can t wait to leave the firm are the ones who are constantly being belittled. The issues go way beyond partner and associate relations, says Wilkins.