Preparing for a (Bad) Meeting Forum

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Preparing for a (Bad) Meeting

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:19 am

Hi everyone, I’d greatly appreciate any feedback you could provide.

I have a meeting early next week (I am a corp second year) with a corporate partner (“Partner Y”) as I’ve asked to change practice groups. Switching groups certainly isn’t atypical here, but one particular partner I’ve worked for in my current group (“Partner Z”) gave me a very bad review (I won’t go into it now but I obviously think it wasn’t justified), and Partner Y was in the room. Partner Z has since gone on like nothing has happened, but I’m terrified that when I have my meeting with Partner Y, s/he will just fire me instead of letting me move to a different group. I haven’t had any real interaction (thus far) with Partner Y.

I believe there are numerous reasons why I’d be able to succeed in a diff practice group, but part of me feels like it’ll come off as badmouthing the practice or structure of my current group (as well as coming of as defensive, and possibly worse, an attempt at passing the blame to Partner Z). Also I’m sure there’s some level of he said-she said and they’d obviously take the partner’s word over mine.

Please help. I’d be quite grateful.

mvp99

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Re: Preparing for a (Bad) Meeting

Post by mvp99 » Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:29 am

You should be looking to Lateral asap. You won’t overcome a bad partner review. Also bad idea to say anything remotely negative about your former group. Have at least your resume ready before the next meeting so it’s easier to process
Last edited by QContinuum on Thu Feb 21, 2019 4:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Outed for anon abuse.

jarofsoup

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Re: Preparing for a (Bad) Meeting

Post by jarofsoup » Wed Feb 20, 2019 7:13 am

Anonymous User wrote:You should be looking to Lateral asap. You won’t overcome a bad partner review. Also bad idea to say anything remotely negative about your former group. Have at least your resume ready before the next meeting so it’s easier to process
Great to see what happens when partner Y and Z talk about you. If you set up this meeting then it was a wreckless and bad idea. You are not special. You are a second year. If you are a problem and they think you suck, they will fire you.

I would have kept my mouth shut and started the lateral search.

To salavage this, just say you have heard great things about the group and say you want some experience. Ask for a few assignments.

cheaptilts

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Re: Preparing for a (Bad) Meeting

Post by cheaptilts » Wed Feb 20, 2019 8:32 am

You should be looking to lateral yesterday. The good news is that there’s still time, and the economy is good.

With respect to the meeting, you should just try and explain why you think you’d succeed in a new group without belittling the structure,substance, or personalities in yorur current group.


Good luck, OP!

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Guchster

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Re: Preparing for a (Bad) Meeting

Post by Guchster » Wed Feb 20, 2019 2:00 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Hi everyone, I’d greatly appreciate any feedback you could provide.

I have a meeting early next week (I am a corp second year) with a corporate partner (“Partner Y”) as I’ve asked to change practice groups. Switching groups certainly isn’t atypical here, but one particular partner I’ve worked for in my current group (“Partner Z”) gave me a very bad review (I won’t go into it now but I obviously think it wasn’t justified), and Partner Y was in the room. Partner Z has since gone on like nothing has happened, but I’m terrified that when I have my meeting with Partner Y, s/he will just fire me instead of letting me move to a different group. I haven’t had any real interaction (thus far) with Partner Y.

I believe there are numerous reasons why I’d be able to succeed in a diff practice group, but part of me feels like it’ll come off as badmouthing the practice or structure of my current group (as well as coming of as defensive, and possibly worse, an attempt at passing the blame to Partner Z). Also I’m sure there’s some level of he said-she said and they’d obviously take the partner’s word over mine.

Please help. I’d be quite grateful.
Who called this meeting? Was it called by Partner Y to expressly discuss changing your practice group after your request?

I would come prepared with a list of substantive reasons why you are interested in the other specific group and try to steer the conversation about why your interests and abilities are a better fit with the new practice group (and avoid focusing the convo on why you want to leave your current group--f they don't let you switch, or you have to interact with this group and Partner Z moving forward, you don't want egg on your face). If you show material, solid reasoning and that you've spent serious time thinking about this, then they're more likely to think you're running toward an opportunity (and will be a better match with this group) than just running from a mess to buy yourself more time to collect checks.

I don't know how different the practice groups are, but it would also be helpful for the partner for you to come with a transition plan on how you envision your move over--identifying similar skill sets you can leverage to help smooth over the transition, how you plan to catch up on substantive holes you've missed and integrate into the team, layout professional milestones/benchmarks for developing substantive skills.

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objctnyrhnr

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Re: Preparing for a (Bad) Meeting

Post by objctnyrhnr » Wed Feb 20, 2019 2:19 pm

Probably not what you want to hear (and to the extent that it’s not directly on topic with the initial original post, I suppose I apologize), but you should be looking to straight up switch firms. I acknowledge that reasonable minds could differ on this point, but I don’t really understand why people try to fix things at current firm with expressly bad feedback. Lateraling isn’t hard right now. This seems like it would be easier and you could start fresh in a practice group that’s more in line with what you want, without having bad feedback or bad feelings hanging over your head.

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Re: Preparing for a (Bad) Meeting

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Feb 20, 2019 2:24 pm

I recently went through a similar situation that you are going through - detailed in this thread: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=298996

Just like here, everyone told me to lateral. I really liked my firm and just pictured myself staying here in the long term. I don't know why I felt that way, maybe just my personality. I started the process and was very lucky to find something that is a definite step up from my current firm. This bad review may be a blessing in disguise for you as well.

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