Requesting all my learned friends to come forward and share instances of insecure behaviour they have faced from partners. The idea is not to name and shame, but to serve as a ready guide for us gullible associates who operare with little to no information until it is too late. The other reason i want to start this converstion is to get sense of how common such behaviour is.

Please only share incident - not names as it will get moderated and defeat the purpose of this thread.

I was motivated to write this post, as I saw my immediate senior get passed over this year for promotion despite him being really good at what he does. My partner was really nice to him until he was a Counsel (he started his career with her) and then she started doing shady things like: (a) she wouldnt let him post legal updates etc on Linkedin or write articles/blogs without her being a co-author; (b) actively stopped him from getting staffed on matters with other partners or close supervision of managing partner; (c) she publicly berated him for not doing BD, but on the other hand would not give him any internal BD opportunities, claim prior relationship with anyone he proposed meeting, refused matters he sourced citing low fees and yet accepted similar matters at lower rates.

We are in a niche practice so its not like leaving for elsewhere is an immediate choice. Now I fear that same will happen to me - is my fear valid? Was this just an equation thing between her and my senior. Surely i wont be treated the way?

I had worked with this partner for a Boutique Law Firm started by him and I think he is one of the most insecure partners I have come across.

He liked to write for newspapers and give quotes but never bothered to write himself. He would not give credit to associates who wrote for him even in office for the fear that they will be recognized by other firms and leave the firm.

He also would get upset if associates hang out without him for the fear that they are getting along and would talk about him. In fact he would actively try to get associates to distrust each other.

He would also keep an eye on all the associates during practitioners meet to ensure they do not talk or approach any other partners and if an associate left to join a competitor he would go out of his way to spread stories of how they stole data, shared clients info and all.

Thank you for sharing this. I work in a team where my boss actively discourages juniors hanging out after work. She wants to be informed if people are planning to hang out and gets mad if people hang out without her/ informing her. She has taken things to a level where if a partner from another team is throwing a party/get together, then we can’t go without informing her (she is rarely invited to these because of her inability to make friends). Once she made a senior member of the team apologise to her publicly for attending another partner’s party where she wasn’t invited.

I made salaried partner this year. A client was congratulating me on call, both me and my senior equity partner (him for promoting me). My senior equity partner became so insecure (his face shrinked to the size of a lemon) that he started explaining the difference between an equity partner and salaried partner. He was stammering and nervously (and pointlessly) explaining so badly that the client had to stop him in between and change topic.