You Did the Right Thing. The Relationship Cooled Anyway.
June 5, 2026
Early in my time with a new office, I was doing what every associate does when they arrive somewhere unfamiliar: building relationships. I had existing
Early in my time with a new office, I was doing what every associate does when they arrive somewhere unfamiliar: building relationships. I had existing
I spent 22 years defending employers against employment claims. That means I sat across the table from employees who genuinely believed they had been wronged,
Last week, I told you about a client who lost twelve years of origination credit to a colleague who did not wait for anyone to
My client found out at the retirement party. Not in a one-on-one meeting. Not in a formal conversation with the practice group leader. Not in
What I Watched From the Other Side of the Table I spent 22 years practicing employment defense. That means I was not the attorney advising
At some point in the last six years, a lot of people who look like me had the same realization. No one is coming to
Erika R. Royal, Esq. is the founder of Royal Influence® and creator of Strategic Radical Acceptance™. She spent 22 years as an employment attorney and Partner at an AmLaw 100 firm. She works with underrepresented senior associates and newly minted partners navigating BigLaw, and with organizations ready to give their people real tools for the real environment they’re operating in.
A Strategic Diagnostic for Senior Associates, Counsel, and Newly Promoted Partners in BigLaw
Excellent legal work builds credibility. Partnership and long-term influence require a clear understanding of the relationships, visibility, economics, and informal systems that shape advancement.
The Partner Influence Toolkit helps you assess where you actually stand by separating evidence from assumption, mapping the people who influence your trajectory, examining how visible and correctly attributed your contributions are, reading the informal systems inside your firm, and identifying the strategic moves that deserve your attention now.
Use the Toolkit as a strategic mirror to understand your current position, uncover gaps in relationships, visibility, business development, institutional intelligence, or agency, and decide where to focus next.