Sometimes I feel like a right idiot working at this law firm. Specifically, when I mess something up without even knowing it because I’m not a paralegal. Fortunately, Mr. BIL’s rage is pretty mild, but I could tell last night that he was upset with me because I didn’t show him a document that came in a few days ago (I didn’t think he needed to see it and simply put it in the file). Turns out, he DID want to see it. And once he saw it he saw that the document was not notarized before it was sent to him. So now there is a couple days’ delay because 1) I didn’t show it to him and 2) it now has to be redone and notarized by the other party.
This morning I got the old “why don’t you close the door” as he called me into his office. I hate that. He was kind about it, and said he’d try to be better about explaining the process to me as we go along (this particular case is a lawsuit as opposed to the typical trusts/estates stuff he works on – I don’t have ANY experience in litigation and thus don’t really know what I’m supposed to do half the time).
So we’re back on track, which is great, but sometimes I wonder if I should just leave the legal field altogether. I love working for Mr. BIL but sometimes he and I get into this mode where we’re not working in sync AT ALL, and it results in mistakes. Not just mine, his too. But mistakes nonetheless. Stupid mistakes that could have been avoided.
He told me he is a lousy proofreader and has asked me to begin proofing everything before he even sees it, so I can correct any obvious mistakes or highlight things I’m not sure about. With any luck this will alleviate some of the issues we’re having.
It’s a low morale day today.