Help! I'm Drowning! What to Do When You've Got Too Much Legal Work (or Too Little)

1. Why does overload happen? It's usually a compliment!
 
It’s important to avoid assuming that they’re out to get you if they’re loading you down with work! The “too-much-work” syndrome has several sources.

 
a. If your work product is perceived as great, they’ll ladle on more.
 
As one attorney explains, “If you are cursed with the ability to work well and hard, that’s like waving a red cape in front of a bull. They’ll charge forward and give you more. Anyone who does well and keeps saying ‘Yes’ to more work is a person partners will keep going back to.” The solution isn’t to tank your work quality or snap ‘no’ at new projects (we’ll discuss what you should do in a minute). But the fact is, being overloaded tells you that superiors want to work with you, and that’s a compliment!
 
b. It’s an occupational hazard. Everybody belongs to the circus. Everybody has to juggle.
 
In this one respect, work is something like law school. In school, you don’t take one class at a time and concentrate on it exclusively (instead, as a third year, you take five classes, blow them all off and go to Happy Hour). At work, whether you’re a public interest lawyer or a private lawyer, you’ll have lots of plates in the air, and, as one Washington, DC attorney points out, it can be very frustrating. “It’s important to accept the fact that you’ll always have a lot of work to do, and be comfortable with that feeling,” say lawyers at Akin Gump. “Just as you learn substantive legal skills, developing the ability to juggle a large volume of work is part of your professional development. It does get easier!”
 
c. You’re not the focus of your superiors’ world.

Your superiors often honestly don’t know how much work you have on your plate. It’s true that some law firms, corporations and government employers have people who control the flow of assignments to new lawyers. Even in those situations, lawyers will often skirt the system and assign work to new lawyers, particularly ones they like. No matter whether your employer has a formal assignment system or not, remember: “Senior lawyers usually don’t know what others have given you,” says one law school recruiting coordinator. “They don’t know what the demands of your other projects are,” adds a lawyer from Los Angeles. Your superiors are typically very busy and won’t know without hearing it from you that you’re overloaded. So don’t feel incompetent because you’re loaded to the gills when new work is offered to you. It’s often a misunderstanding about exactly how much work you already have on your plate!
 
d. Senior attorneys often forget how long it takes to complete projects when you’re at the front end of the learning curve.
 
Sometimes it’s been a while—occasionally a long while—since the people who give you work were beginners themselves. As lawyers at Morrison & Forester point out, “In most cases, it takes new associates much longer to complete a project than a more senior lawyer would require.” If an assigner isn’t thinking about it, they won’t remember that what would take them one hour will take you four. That quickly leads to overloads.
 
e. If you’re making huge green, it’ll come out in the workload.
 
To put it bluntly, if they pay you more, they’ll work you harder. The more money you make the more of an overload you need to expect. You still shouldn’t kill yourself, and you still need to turn down work when you’re truly overloaded (and we’ll talk about how to do that in just a minute). But as the senior partner at one firm bluntly points out, “With these salaries, all I want to hear when I assign work to a new associate is overjoyed gratefulness.” Turning down work when you’re hauling in megabucks is a true exercise in diplomacy. But as a baseline, you’ve got to expect to be busier if you’re making lots o’ dough as a newcomer.
 
2. Don’t kill yourself! A dead associate is not a source of revenue... and other reasons to avoid taking on too much work.
 
When you’re new, you want to be seen as super-competent, and you figure if they’re giving you work, they must think you have time for it. As I’ve already explained, that’s not true. And it’s also dangerous. Here’s why:
 
a. You get evaluated on the basis of the work you complete, not what you don't do.
 
Taking on more work than you can handle and screwing it up as a result will trash your reputation. Everybody agrees on this. One Los Angeles attorney says, “The most important thing is being able to turn in quality work!” Lawyers at Sidley & Austin point out that “It’s better to have one great review and one slightly disappointed lawyer who doesn’t put out a review form than to have two bad reviews.” Lawyers at Winston & Strawn add that “No one will ever remember that you said you were too busy to take on a new assignment... they’ll always remember that you said you could take it on and then were too busy to do a good job.” And one Detroit attorney points out that “Written work lives on!”
 
We’ll talk in a minute about how to say “no” without torqueing anybody off. The point here is: Don’t take on more than you can handle. Your enthusiasm won’t compensate for half-assed work.
 
b. Missed deadlines will make you look bad.
 
When you’ve got too much to do, something’s got to give. If it’s not quality, it’s timeliness. It’s easy to think, “I’ll hand it in a little late. At least I’m getting it done.” Often there are “outside” time pressures, from clients and courts, that make deadlines real. If you take on too much and can’t finish in time, as lawyers at Stites & Harbison point out, “While you may be trying to make a good impression, it’s detrimental to your reputation if you can’t deliver work product in a timely manner.”
 
c. Nobody's interested in the quality of your life as much as you are.
 
As one associate in a major New York firm points out, “They expect you to respect your time, your life, your balance!” You’re ultimately the one who benefits the most if you keep your workload sane.
 
3. How to avoid getting overloaded—before you get the assignment that breaks the camel's back!
 
Before you get too much work in the first place, there are a few things you can do to stave off an overload. They include:
 
a. Give your supervisor a weekly memo outlining what you’re doing.
 
If you keep your supervisor informed of your workload, you’ll go a long way to preventing a deluge. Even without your saying a word, your supervisor can pass along to others at the office the fact that you’ve got all you can handle right now. That way, you can avoid being in the awkward position of having to turn down work.
 
b. Keep an updated list of everything you’re working on.
 
Make a point of having an updated list, every day; of the projects you’re working on, who they’re for, and when they’re due (also include a realistic time estimate, if you have one). Not only does it help you if you can visualize what you’ve got to do, but if an attorney stops by your office (or calls you to theirs) to give you an assignment, you can say, “I’d love to do it. Here’s what I’m working on now”—and hand over your list. “Can you tell me how to prioritize your work?” If you’re loaded down, you’re showing them rather than telling them! Lawyers prefer to draw their own conclusions. You’ll avoid overloads without having to say “No” to work.
 
c. Get organized!
 
Once you are organized, you’ll find you can get stuff done more quickly because you waste less time hunting around for what you need. It’ll help you avoid being overloaded, because you’ll be able to get more done in less time.
 
d. Find out who the six-hundred pound gorillas are: Lawyers whose work you can’t turn down.
 
At every office, there are some powerful lawyers whose work you cannot turn down no matter what. You need to know up front who they are! Ask your mentor (if you have one in-house), the recruiting coordinator, or associates more senior than you. As a rule of thumb, “The biggest partner gets their work done first,” advises one New York attorney. If the head of your department comes to you with an assignment, you probably can’t turn it down.
 
One partner talked about an experience where, as a junior associate, he turned down an assignment from the head of his department, a guy named Mike, because he was too busy to handle it. Right after that, he was talking to a junior associate in the department, who told him: “Here’s something you need to know: Don’t say no to Mike. Don’t ever say no to Mike.” The partner says, “I immediately went back to Mike, and said, I’ve reshuffled things. I can do whatever you need me to do.’” The partner comments, “There are people you need to put on a pedestal. If they need it, you do it. That’s it.”
 
On the other hand, there are people you can afford to push back, and you have to be subtle about finding out who they are. One associate talked about being loaded down with work, back-to-back hearings and traveling. A partner came in and assigned him something on Friday that he needed completed by the following Wednesday. The associate tried to explain about his busy schedule instead of saying an out-and-out “no.” The partner got exasperated and said, “Can you do it by Wednesday or not?” The associate said, “No.” The partner stormed out and the associate was worried about honking him off. The associate mentioned it to a colleague, asking “What should I have done?” The colleague shrugged and said, “Don’t worry. Nobody cares about that guy. He’s a jerk. Some people you can piss of and nobody cares.”
 
CAREER LIMITING MOVE
 
New associate at a large firm. He's so busy he "can't see daylight." The managing partner of the firm walks into his office and says, "Can you do a project for me?" The associate, at the end of his rope, responds, "Honestly? No." The managing partner turns on his heel and walks out.
 
Several hours later, the managing partner summons the associate to his office. When the associate walks in, the managing partner is shaking with anger. He's bright red. He says, "Young man, let me give you a piece of advice. Don't you ever say no to me. Ever."
 
e. Ask your colleagues about the best way to turn down work from individual lawyers.
 
Although I’m going to give you general strategies for turning down work, it always pays to learn the quirks of people who assign work to you. One Milwaukee attorney advises you to “Ask about people’s styles, how to approach them.” Do some people prefer you to be blunt and say, “No, I can’t do it right now... ”? Or do you have to be more subtle? Determining people’s styles ahead of time can save you from making a misstep. And figuring out where you’re likely to be tagged with more projects when you’re loaded down can help you avoid those situations.
 
SMART HUMAN TRICK
 
Mid-level associate, large firm: "At my firm, we used to have a 'First Friday of the Month' party at work, in the late afternoon. They had to change it to Wednesday, because partners knew that if associates went to that party, they had time and the partners would jump on the associates to do work for them over the weekend. So associates started not showing up!"
 
f. Find out if your organization has a ‘gatekeeper' to keep an eye on your workload.
 
Depending on where you work, you may have a work allocator or mentor to help control your workload. If so, always keep that person informed of what you’re doing, especially if someone outside your “chain of command” gives you work to do. There’s no point in stressing yourself out if someone’s built into the system to help you sort out your workload.
 
g. Fine-tune your own time estimates.
 
One of the most difficult things you need to do as a new lawyer is to figure out how long projects will really take you to complete. Senior attorneys don’t remember what it’s like to be you, and their estimates can be way off. The reason it’s important to learn how to estimate more accurately is that without that skill, you don’t really know whether you’re overloaded or not. One clue you have is your pre-work pace. As Brooklyn’s Joan King says, “You may not have done work assignments before, but you have done research assignments in school, and you know your work pace from those. Are you fast, or slow and meticulous, or somewhere in between? Whatever your pace is, it’s OK. It’s you. But it helps you plan accordingly.”
 
Once you have a few assignments under your belt, you’ll quickly learn how to gauge how long projects will take you—and have a better grasp of your workload as a result!
 
4. It’s not whether yon turn down work—it’s how you do it: How to turn down work without saying the dreaded “no.”
 
Here’s the thing. You can’t take on assignments you’re too busy to handle. But at the same time, you don’t want to develop a reputation for turning down work. How do you negotiate between the Scylla and Charybdis? It has everything to do with what you say to the attorney who’s trying to assign you work. As one attorney from Miami says, “Saying no isn’t the kiss of death—if it’s done responsibly!” Here are some successful strategies to try:
 
a. Come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
 
That is, profess a willingness to do the work at the outset, and move on from there. Say, “Yes, when do you need it?” It may be that the deadline is far enough away that you really can squeeze it in. If not, say “I’d love to help out. Here’s what I’m working on now.” As I mentioned before, if you hand over a list of your current assignments, the assigning attorney may figure out from that alone that you can’t do the new assignment. Or you can say, “I’m happy to take your assignment, but I have assignments for X, Y and Z, and I don’t know if I can make your deadline.” You may find that the attorney will talk to X, Y and Z to rearrange your schedule, and that by itself gets you off the hook. “Let them duke it out between themselves,” as Milbank Tweed’s Kathleen Brady advises.
 
b. Suggest that the assigning attorney talk directly with the person you’re doing work for now.
 
For instance, you can say, “I’d love to help you out, but I’m working on this project for Partner Porky. If you need me to help out, perhaps you could talk to Porky and see if he’d be willing to switch.”
 
c. Have the assigning attorney help organize your priorities.
 
As one Boulder, Colorado attorney says, “It’s hard at first to judge how much time projects take.” If an attorney approaches you with new work and you just don’t have the experience to tell you how long it will take to finish off what’s already on your plate, tell them what you’re doing. Say, “Yes, I’d love to do the work for you. Right now I have these four assignments with these deadlines. You know more about how long these things take than I do. Can I fit in your work? They’ll probably decide for you.” The attorney adds, “Asking for advice about organizing your priorities shows sensitivity, not a lack of competence.”
 
d. Don't prioritize your own assignments. Defer to people who assign your work.
 
As one hiring partner advises, “There will always be many demands on your time from lots of different people, all of whom think their project is the most important.” Whatever you do, don't take it on yourself to decide whose work takes priority. As one lawyer told me, “There are likely to be politics you don’t know about. If you go to the partner whose work you’re doing and say, ‘X just asked me to do this project for him right now. Can I switch?’ You might hear, ‘What do you mean? You’re doing my work!’ You’re dealing with busy lawyers. It’s dangerous to throw them off schedule. Let others prioritize your work.” Don’t take the heat if you don’t have to!
 
e. Don't be a sap. Always say “yes” when you’re asked if you’re busy.
 
You don’t want to cultivate the image that you’re not busy. It will make people wonder, “Why doesn’t (s)he have a lot to do? Maybe (s)he’s not competent, and everybody knows it but me.” Obviously, if an assigning attorney walks up to you while you’re photocopying your body parts, it’s hard to say you’re busy—at least, not with a straight face. But if they come to your office or call you to theirs, and say, “Are you busy?” always say, “Yes, but I’d love to help you out.”
 
f. If your projects do get shuffled, apprise all your assigning attorneys of the shift
 
One associate at a prominent Phoenix firm advises that “If someone gets shoved to the back burner, give them a status report so they know where you are. That way they won’t be mad at you.”
 
g. If you do have to turn down work, state your enthusiasm for working with the assigning attorney imminently.
 
One law school career counselor in Chicago advises that “If you have to turn down work, say ‘I’m sorry I can’t work with you right now, but I’d really like the chance to work with you. I’m hoping next week I’ll be free, and I’ll come back to you.” And follow up— as soon as you’re free, go visit to see if they have projects for you. One Chicago attorney agrees, suggesting that you say “you’re working on a memo for John Doe which is due next week, and that you’d be pleased to work on the new project then.” Another way to accomplish this is with a reference to the client’s needs, saying “I can get my current work out of the way by Friday, and do this for you then. Would that meet with the client’s needs?”
 
5. If you’ve already taken on too much work—don’t be a martyr!
 
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you just get bogged down. As one Boston attorney points out, “It’s hard for new lawyers to balance their workload. Maybe you’re facing conflicting or constricting deadlines. You can’t be a martyr! Don’t tell yourself ‘I can figure this out.’ You need to communicate what’s going on.” “Go to a recruiting coordinator, practice group head, your mentor, or the assigning attorneys for help in prioritizing or redistributing your work,” advises a Pittsburgh attorney. Other people can help you figure out what really does need to be done right away, what can be offloaded, and which projects have more “wiggle room.” Don’t suffer in silence!
 
6. What if your problem isn’t too much work, but too little? It’s not the time to polish up your computer Solitaire skills!
 
Taking the initiative in getting the work you want is the biggest favor you can do for your career. Whether you’re under loaded because people are suspicious of your competence (Yikes! I hope not!) or they just don’t know that you’re not busy, the solution is the same. Be proactive! As a Kentucky attorney advises, “No matter where you work, there may be occasions when you’re not busy. If this happens, whatever you do, don’t stretch out the work you do have. Don’t take two weeks to perfect a two-page memo! Don’t spend your time on personal matters or on the phone complaining loudly to friends working elsewhere. And don’t hang out in the office library reading newspapers! Whether the lack of work is your fault or not, your employer won’t reward what they see as laziness or a lack of initiative. Drum up the work yourself. If there is someone in charge of your assignments, go to them and volunteer your time. If nobody is in charge of the work you get, go around and ask other lawyers if there’s something you can work on for them. If there’s a particular practice area that interests you, be sure to get to know the attorneys who work in that area and ask if you can help them. You may shake loose not just a memo or two but some work that really excites you! If you aren’t able at first to find any more work, hide that as best you can by boning up on your legal reading. Don’t let yourself be seen twiddling your thumbs!”

See the following articles for more information:

• Procrastination: A Foe Rather than a Friend
• Working Better Together