Messages

1

Whine Here / Office shakeup

« on: February 14, 2012, 08:05:49 PM »

Cool Attorney is leaving.

He gave me 90-95% of my billable. As his departure is progressing in an exceedingly swift manner, no replacement for him has yet been hired.

And I don't know 100% where my future lies.

2

Whine Here / Expedited Litigation

« on: January 19, 2012, 11:08:36 PM »

Swear it'll kill me.

For the past week, I've worked 10-14 hour days (and by past week, I mean both days of the weekend, too). That will likely continue for the next couple of weeks.

My eyes are bleary from doc review. My head hurts trying to keep the facts straight and the thousands of pages of documents organized.

And fortunately, the other attorney I work for was on vacation this week, so he couldn't demand I work his cases. But he'll be back shortly and since the fallback paralegal for his cases is also working the expedited case, I expect unpretty things.

I just relish the day I get home before 10pm.

3

General Stuff / Re: Remeber that nice break before/after the holidays?

« on: January 11, 2012, 06:12:04 PM »

Let's see...

super-expedited matter going from complaint to trial (essentially) in about two months. Except maybe less.

case we thought was going to trial in August now going to trial in April, and we still need to finish discovery and depositions, the former which is barely started (through no fault of our own) and the latter which we have not started at all. And still have almost half a dozen subpoenas out there not being answered.

oooh, maybe are we filing a case in our jurisdiction? Nope? Yes! Maybe...who knows (that one's been fun so far)

seven cases of a type I've never done before being started simultaneously (not big, but as I don't know how to do them, it matters).

Nah. My year's a piece of cake.

4

Share Good Things Here / Re: First Time Going to Court

« on: December 10, 2011, 09:00:10 PM »

Yay. I get to go to another argument on Monday.

And then another one on the fifth of January (this one is the one I'm really looking forward to. Almost a quarter of my yearly billable hours in 2010 were billed to this case. I know every last detail of this case. And this hearing might or might not be our crowning victory.)

This legal thing is kinda fun.

5

Share Good Things Here / Re: An Attorney Acts Appropriately

« on: November 30, 2011, 04:52:17 PM »

Sounds like that attorneys is part of the 1% that makes the other 99% look bad.  Or maybe he was just having an off day and forgot to take the "asshole" pill that morning.

He is absolutely part of the 1%. Damn good lawyer, damn good human being.

6

Share Good Things Here / An Attorney Acts Appropriately

« on: November 29, 2011, 09:13:14 PM »

My first time filing in this particular court. No idea how to do it, what docs are required, flying blind. Attorney hasn't filed in this court in years, thus can't even pretend to give guidance (and is smart enough to not pretend to be able to give guidance)

So we wing it. We're pretty sure we have everything we need.

Filing gets rejected. For a pretty good reason (we didn't include a requisite document that I didn't even know existed)

Attorney has left for the day. I call him on his cell, tell him the filing was rejected, and why.

His reaction?

"Okay, go to the website, pull the form, I'll walk you through it. Don't sweat it. We'll just re-file."

*blink*

No "wtf, lost, you totally effed this up"? No "lost, we're going to lose this case because of your f-up"?

Just a "here's how we fix it, let's fix it".

Huh.

7

Share Good Things Here / Re: The Heavens Have Opened

« on: November 17, 2011, 06:28:38 PM »

Things are going great so far. I have done interesting legal research, read cases as to pertinent arguments, met with attorney to discuss said research, had an hour-long strategy session, and walked away tasked to do a rough draft of a complaint for the attorney to play with.

Oh yeah, and been thanked for putting in the time to read the cases and given the opportunity to do something challenging for an attorney I respect.

It appears I forgot to mention that 'boss' is no longer managing shareholder of the office, but has been given a new title to salve his ego. Thus, he's no longer my boss. Best of all? When 'boss' tried to rope me into doing bs work on one of his cases, N (a partner who is now on equal footing with 'boss') said that if it continued, he'd be having words either with 'boss' or the new managing shareholder. T, late today, said to me "We're going to fix this" (as in, boss's attempt to use me just because I happen to be there late doing other work).

8

Share Good Things Here / The Heavens Have Opened

« on: November 14, 2011, 07:34:32 PM »

So, it turns out that my office is reorganizing. Not the whole firm, just my particular office.

We're going to have, essentially, a bankruptcy group and a litigation-and-other-stuff group.  This makes sense, per the Main Office's edict that they'd like this office to branch out and develop substantive practices that are not bankruptcy.

We're going to be hiring a new bankruptcy para who has some experience. This will be a first for the office. My office loves to hire young kids out of college to whom they can pay beans (*waves*) and expects them to learn the job instantly.  Our existing para, plus 'boss' and wife's personal assistant, will comprise the bankruptcy group.

N and T (the other cool attorney) will be the everything-else group. With one dedicated paralegal. Me. I will not only be their paralegal, I will be their everything (paralegal/admin/secretarial). That's fine by me.

The process has already begun of the bankruptcy cases I work on being reassigned. I'm beyond cool about that.

My job from hell has now become tolerable. Probably. We'll see how things go. All I'm saying is that working for N and T will be great. They're brilliant attorneys, ridiculously fun to be around, have interesting cases and respect me as a person and employee.

9

What my boss did today... / Re: "Task Lists"

« on: October 27, 2011, 07:01:07 PM »

My day tomorrow is ridiculously busy tomorrow with billable work - but don't worry, I'll magically invent half an hour to come up with my task list.

Or maybe I'll just start living in the office. Clearly, that would be for the best.

10

What my boss did today... / "Task Lists"

« on: October 26, 2011, 10:51:26 PM »

So, we now apparently have a new procedure.

By noon on Friday, we have to submit to the boss a list of everything we'll be working on the next week, as well as a proposed deadline for completion of said work.

In principle, that sounds look a good idea.

In practice? I can name the big projects I'll be working on, no sweat.

But the day-to-day stuff no one tells me about until the day of? That's going to be a little tougher to psychically put onto my to-do list. Nor will said day-to-day stuff be taken into account when I "blow" deadlines on my task list.

I feel like this is more CYA by boss to make sure that when I "blow" a deadline, he has written proof of when I said I'd get it done.

*sigh*

11

Whine Here / Why I Allegedly Suck

« on: October 14, 2011, 11:45:21 PM »

A couple weeks ago, I spent approximately 15 hours preparing exhibits/documents for an attorney's  hearing. I attended the hearing; I was thanked after the fact for the fact that I stayed until almost midnight the night before the hearing helping out.

Two days ago, I spent the better part of the day preparing exhibits/documents for a hearing. I did not attend the hearing, but afterwards, was thanked by the attorney for having everything so well organized and neat.

Over the past three/four days, I have drafted a 30-page response to a summary judgment motion, including caselaw research and preparation of the necessary affidavits. The past two or three evenings, I brought the brief home with me after hours to work on it so I could do it uninterrupted. I was not asked by the attorney to do this, nor did he even hint that I should do that.

_____________________

Boss recently acquired a personal assistant. We were suspicious of her from the start, but we (me and other paralegal) opened up to her a little. Mistake. It went straight to boss. Now she and I are both total screwups. I allegedly spend too much time in the other paralegal's and in N's offices. Never mind that while, yes, I go to both offices to bitch, 90% of the time, it's actually work-related. Now I'm basically not allowed to enter either office.

The other paralegal and N are my work-friends. We all get each other. Now I've been chained to my desk. Now, I'm getting thrown under the bus left and right. There are emails indicating the quality of my work is sub-par, or that I'm simply not doing the work. I have it on good authority that no, that is not the case. There's a reason that N says 'here's the opening brief in support of summary judgment. Get me a draft of the response so I can look at it'.

And I am working late every frikkin night. I get in at 9, 9:30. I rarely leave before 7 or 8. A lot of nights I stay later. If any attorney has a late-night filing, I'm there. Always.

And guess what? I have to work tomorrow. Did I complain? Not to the boss. I said 'okay, sure'. Because I'm good at my job, I'm a good paralegal and, while I get thanked by all the other attorneys in the office, the only one who matters thinks I'm a total screw-up.

12

Ask the IT guy / Re: ADOBE and Redactions

« on: October 12, 2011, 07:45:26 PM »

We use pro as well at my firm.

When I go to combine pdfs, I get a window that opens up with the list of files that I'm combining, and I can move them around there.

Do you not get that window?

13

What my boss did today... / Re: Billing Requirements

« on: October 05, 2011, 08:43:24 PM »

Boss asked me how my hours are doing. I met the billing requirement last month. He indicated that that was the bare minimum.

I did the math. If I meet my billing requirement, I make the firm almost ten times what they pay me in a month.

God, I'm a slacker.

14

What my boss did today... / Re: Billing Requirements

« on: September 29, 2011, 07:27:44 PM »

Astonishingly, and despite me having been on vacation for the first two days of the month, I am a stone's-throw away from actually hitting the requirement. I won't actually hit it unless I have a ridiculous day tomorrow, but I'll be close.

(good thing, given that staff employment is....tenuous)

15

Share Good Things Here / First Time Going to Court

« on: September 29, 2011, 06:42:32 PM »

[Full disclosure: I did go to a bankruptcy hearing once before, but it was over and done with no argument whatsoever, in about 30 minutes]

Okay, so I'm sure most of you have plenty of experience doing that, but one of the attorneys at the office said that if I spent a couple days helping him get everything prepped for his argument, I could tag along (and hand him exhibits at appropriate moments). So I did, and then I went to Court.

It was fun.