For many lawyers, management is a large part of daily life: management of time, risk, expectations and even others. Although everyone can recognize that effective management of more junior attorneys is vital to the success of any particular matter, it can be less obvious to manage upward, too. In fact, managing upward is something many attorneys already do with frequency when they organize the work of their team while simultaneously ensuring the team’s work remains aligned with the goals of the client. The concept of managing upward, however, can be confusing to junior attorneys who are hesitant to overstep their bounds.

Managing upward can be helpful at all stages of a lawyer’s career, including at junior levels. Imagine the following scenario. It is Friday evening, and a junior attorney receives an email asking for follow-up on work turned in to the more senior attorney several days ago. Because the supervising attorney did not have time to review the original work product until just an hour ago, they now need their follow-up questions answered on an urgent basis. The junior attorney realizes their plans for Friday night may be going for a toss. The supervising attorney feels unable to trust the work product of the junior attorney without clarifying answers from the associate. What does managing upward look like in day-to-day situations like this one, and could it have helped to prevent frustration on both sides?