Topics

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

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.

4

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.

5

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*

6

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.

7

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.

8

What my boss did today... / Admin Staff

« on: September 10, 2011, 12:57:53 PM »

So boss finally got approval from the Main Office to hire an Executive Assistant/Office Manager/Admin Person [I don't know if any of us actually know what her official title is].

She's very nice, very experienced.

I'm told to hand off my bullshit marketing duties to her. I explain, show, etc. We're all good. These duties basically require me to write summaries of all new bankruptcies which get filed in our jurisdiction. It's not hard work, just boring, tedious, time-consuming, and non-billable.

And then she starts getting handed, by boss, who constantly bitches about paras not meeting billing requirements, actual billable work. Without even checking with the paras to make sure we aren't too busy to take it.

Meanwhile, that bullshit marketing is not done. Hasn't been done. It's backlogging at this point. I know I'll get blamed for not getting it done. While, simultaneously, at my scheduled Monday morning meeting, I will be told I need to get my billable up.

9

Whine Here / Arguing for the Sake of Arguing

« on: August 19, 2011, 07:16:25 PM »

Does anyone else have cases where it seems that attorneys are now arguing every tiny point in a case simply because they can no longer stand each other?

I get arguing over substance. I work the case, I've been heavily involved in the drafting of motions/briefs, so I know most of the arguments of both sides pretty well.

But when we get to

opposing counsel files a substitution of counsel a couple days back-> we file an opposition an hour later -> they file a vitriolic reply in support today

that it feels a little like we're arguing for the sake of arguing now. 

It seems a little frustrating, especially when we're doing our best to just end the damn case.

10

Share Good Things Here / Advocacy

« on: August 14, 2011, 12:19:52 PM »

It's no secret to anyone at the office (boss and his wife excluded) that everyone (boss and his wife excluded) are looking for a new job, including me. Everyone knows I've been on two interviews and didn't get either job. I have another coming up this week.

Cool Attorney has joked that my leaving will hurt his practice (because I work almost all his cases). At the same time, he has gone to extraordinary measures to make sure I don't miss my interviews (in one case, pulling me out of a staff meeting on an "urgent errand").

Then he started hinting about how he didn't really want to leave the firm, just this particular office, and that if our firm were to build a corporate team, he wanted to be a part of it, and work in one of our other offices. He asked me when my lease was up, and then asked me to bring it in for him to look at. He flips through it, hits on the provision that if my same company relocates me to another office that's in excess of 30 miles from here, I can break my lease quicker. He googles the distances from my apartment to the other city...it's 30.8. He hands my lease papers back to me and doesn't say another word about it.

And just last week, he and the other attorney went out for lunch with one of the Main Office attorneys. A couple of days later, he prefaces a sentence with, "I don't want to stop you searching for a new job, but", and goes on to tell me that he's trying to bargain with Main Office to segregate one paralegal (me) from boss, his wife, and their cases, to solely do his and the other attorney's work.

No promises, I know, and if I get the job I'm interviewing for this week, CA will have to make me a solid offer to keep me at the firm.

All the same, it's nice to know you're valued enough that your attorney is trying to find ways to keep you there.

11

Whine Here / Intra-attorney disputes

« on: August 02, 2011, 08:54:04 PM »

So,

I work at a firm that has a number of offices. We're a small branch. We have five attorneys at our office - boss (a partner), his wife, Cool Attorney (a partner), another attorney, and an associate.

Cool Attorney and Boss are barely on speaking terms. Literally.

I do 95% of Cool Attorney's paralegal work.

Boss has systematically been taking the cases of his which I work from me and giving them to the newest paralegal who, though I'm sure is perfectly capable, is totally new.

A large part of his vindictiveness in taking away my billing is - I suspect - because I do Cool Attorney's work (which I actually really enjoy doing - he gives me almost-attorney drafting jobs and involves me in substantive aspects of a lot of his cases)

But Cool Attorney has no fear in going up against boss - he has friends at the Main Office and is very-well-liked by Important People there; yet there are occasions when he attempts to (I don't know if it's purposeful or if he just isn't in my shoes - my suspicion is the latter because he's a great guy) make me an accomplice in making Boss look bad.

[Mind you - Cool Attorney is awesome: More often that not, I address him as "dude"; I can, and have, told him to take a deep f&%king breath and calm down; have told him he's an idiot; and that he'd be lost without me - and I've had agreement from him on all counts -when I get out from this hell, I don't think I'll ever work for a cooler guy.]

I just can't be in the frikking middle of their battles.

12

Share Good Things Here / Near Miss...

« on: July 26, 2011, 05:30:15 PM »

Today was one of the regular you're-a-fuck-up meetings, scheduled for 11:00.

At 10:30, boss starts the cattle call.

Then Cool Attorney calls. He's at one of the other offices today, trying to get some docs out the door for a buddy attorney up there.  He says he needs me to help on my end prepping some of them.

I tell him I can't, that I have to go to the meeting.

He tells me to tell boss I'm not going. Cool Attorney is another partner. He doesn't get that I, a lowly paralegal, don't have the same fuck-you privileges that he does.

"Fine. Transfer me to the conference room"

30 seconds later?

I don't have to go to the meeting. 

13

Share Good Things Here / Getting away

« on: July 21, 2011, 07:45:35 PM »

I have an interview tomorrow.  Somewhere that won't require me to move, and is only a couple of blocks further walk to work than my current firm.

I don't want to get my hopes up.

But...

today, I got back from lunch, to a postit on my computer from one of the other paralegals, telling me to call the boss about a case. As soon as I saw it, I knew what the call would revolve around, and that I'd be accused of fucking something up that I couldn't possibly have had any control over whatsoever. I go to call boss, and he's on the phone with one of the other paras about some stupid marketing shit.

So I start venting...I work myself up basically to tears over the hell it's going to be. Without actually having even spoken to him.

When you get to that point, it's time to go.

On a comforting note, two attorneys have promised reference letters, and Cool Attorney, when told, said 'as a professional, I want to say don't leave. As a friend, I say get the hell out' - and that he's thought about looking/leaving, but that he doesn't want to leave us (the staff) here, so he'd only go if he got a package deal.

14

Share Good Things Here / Love 'em, hate 'em

« on: July 16, 2011, 09:52:46 AM »

From my experiences here and discussions elsewhere, I have come to the conclusion that Cool Attorney is a tad unique. He actually cares about the paralegals, and is generally the office therapist (if boss makes someone cry or gets them upset, he brings them into his office and makes it okay - he's told me more than once that if boss attempts to fire me, he'll step in, and he is a partner with friends at the Main Office, so it has weight behind it). He's fun to be around and generally makes our office bearable. (That his practice is largely tax/transactional is a sin I suppose we must forgive).

Anyway, one day last week I had a couple of CNOs to file and serve on a 70-something service list. It hits 4, and I loiter around, because it isn't my case, I'm covering for a paralegal who's away this week, and because I always feel that if I file at 4:01, at 4:03, the objection gets filed and I'll be a dumbass. (I've also got other stuff on my own cases to do).

I drop into CA's office to ask him a question, and that devolves into us chatting about tv. He tells me he couldn't sleep last night and was downstairs watching tv at 3am, watching animal planet and saw the funniest show about Bigfoot hunters. He attempts to find a video to show me, I assist him in the Ways of Youtube (seriously, attorneys are helpless with technology), and we find an episode of the show.

We watch it. All 28 minutes of it. To be fair, it was hilarious and CA was almost in tears by the end of it.

Unfortunately, that was 28 minutes out of my day. He walked out after the video was done.

I still had my CNOs to file. And run 70-some copies of, delaying my exit by...well, that 28 minutes I could have been doing shit.

15

What my boss did today... / The Oncoming Storm

« on: July 09, 2011, 04:45:29 PM »

To give some preface...

since I started at my job (8 months ago-ish), in a small office, we have lost 2 attorneys and two paralegals.

As of about a month ago, we had 5 attorneys and three paralegals, one of whom was new and training-resistant.

About a month ago, we got a Big Case (relatively big for our office).

About two weeks ago, newest paralegal let us know she'd be leaving. Myself and the other paralegal conferred and prayed for a paralegal experienced in Debtor work (bankruptcy).

About a week ago, we learned a new paralegal had been hired. While I won't besmirch his intelligence, because I don't know much about him, he's never worked in a law office before.

This past week, the outgoing paralegal's last week and the incoming paralegal's first, was me and other paralegal quietly exploding over how badly the office is going to function.

Why?

Because the other paralegal (the only one with any experience worth a damn) is on vacation next week.

Leaving me, and him, to help the whole office. He doesn't know a damn thing.

Our first fee application is due on Monday.

We have a big (giant - although we're not really a part of it, we'll be attending) hearing on Wednesday.

This would be manageable if I didn't know that the new paralegal won't be coming to me five times an hour asking 'hey, what's this?'. [Not that I blame him. I don't.]

This coming week is going to be 18-hour disaster days. I can feel it.