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Lexie_girl
Member
07-30-2004
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 12:19 pm
Roxip, the baby attorney that would think of me as "staff," would get his documents back EXACTLY as he wanted them - then when the partner would throw them back at him bitching that his billable time was wasted - I would tell the partner that the baby attorney wouldn't listen to me because I "was just a secretary," and he had a law degree (even if he was just sworn in three weeks earlier). Whereas, the baby attorney that listened to his professor that a great secretary can make or break him, would get his stuff back looking fabulous because he would ask me to please help him and do what needed to be done because he trusted me to know what the partner wanted. I may have to google David. I'm curious to see if he has worked any high profile cases and if he is a sole practitioner or with a big firm.
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Roxip
Member
01-29-2004
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 12:31 pm
That's exactly how it works around here...except that these days many of the baby attorneys do their own documents...to the detriment of how they are produced. They have decided that they can do them better than the people who are paid to do them (one of my senior partners gets so frustrated...she said that at what their billable rates are they should not be doing their own documents...they aren't paid to be doing secretarial work...and she does not mean that in a derogatory way). I have offered to my baby associate that I will be happy to take a look at her documents before she sends them off to her partners to do some minor cleanup work on them and when she has time she lets me do that...I always find something that I can tweak that makes the documents look and read better. Not tooting my own horn, but I've been doing this for a long time and that's what I do (my friends who are going to college always send me their documents...LOL).
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 1:08 pm
I've never understood people who don't use the staff available to them. I can't believe how many top executives I've seen struggling with things that are outside of their area of expertise. I've seen Vice-Presidents doing clerical work. It's nice that they are willing to pitch in but it is an enormous waste of resources.
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Bonbonlover
Member
07-13-2000
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 1:46 pm
Well I am not sure if I am in the right thread or not... but to follow the flow I will add that way back when... when I was a baby attorney everyone did not carry their computer with them. We did things long hand and gave it to our secretaries who cleaned it up and formatted it. Things were ultimately mailed to clients. As the electronic age progressed, things were FedExed and now they are sent instantaneously by e-mail. The world in the law offices are "right now" not as much time as in the good 'ole days. I think today's world has everyone creating their own documents which are then e-mail to the partners and ultimately e-mailed to the clients.
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Konamouse
Member
07-15-2001
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 6:23 pm
BTW, not all attorneys go before juries. Many do paperwork law, like contracts, business documents, wills, etc.

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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 8:06 pm
my friend called and talked to Phil today. He was great! Chatting with her like old friends. She told him we loved him and were rooting for him and he thanked us and said he was glad we were enjoying show and to remember everything is not what it seems. I assumed he meant editing. She said she would call him again I think she made a love connection LOL
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Biscottiii
Member
05-29-2004
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 8:41 pm
Roxip said: If they only knew just how helpful/destructive a good secretary can be to them. Now, THAT is the absolute truth! Last year our lawyer (with excellent, clearly well treated staff!!!) had to get another lawyer to set up an Estate for my Dad. Our lawyer hired a baby lawyer from a large lawfirm that appeared to have excellent credentials, trying him out. Estate required to be set up before we could proceed any further with our case. I do NOT believe my Dad is the first person in his state to die without a will. That uncontested estate took nearly 4 MONTHS to get set up! First excuses were that his secretary was "too busy, too busy", then he took off on vacation. Every time they couriered the documents to file with the court, rejected. My Sisters had to go 3 times to his office to re-sign the corrected paperwork. Our lawyer really had to raise heck, still took another month. The last time the documents arrived to each of us, to be notarized & returned - EVERY single one of us siblings discovered the return envelope with lawyer's address was pre-licked - so we had to tear it open and scotchtape in the documents. Unprofessional. My impression was that his secretary must have some serious issues with the guy. Our lawyer certainly won't be using his services again or passing baby lawyer's business card to any of his lawyer friends.
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 10:01 pm
I thought ppl would think it was kinda cool we talked to Phil today.
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Rosie
Member
11-12-2003
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 10:04 pm
Way cool, Pamy.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 10:06 pm
Uber-cool! 
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Panda
Member
07-15-2005
| Tuesday, April 05, 2011 - 10:30 pm
Love that Philip mentioned the editing!!!! Super cool, Pamy, thanks for sharing! I worked for a real estate attorney and she gave me waaaay more work than the other attorney at the office!
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Roxip
Member
01-29-2004
| Wednesday, April 06, 2011 - 7:09 am
Pamy, cool that you got to talk to Phil...meeting someone "personally" always seems to change your perspective, doesn't it?
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Wednesday, April 06, 2011 - 8:14 am
Pamy, I think Philip is a kind and caring, but eccentric fellow who is extremely naive about how he portrays himself (pompous) and how he is perceived (nuts). Anyhow, I would be his friend in a New York minute. I think he'd be loyal and fun.
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Brenda1966
Member
07-02-2002
| Wednesday, April 06, 2011 - 11:54 am
It's really cool Pamy. How do you know Philip to be able to call him?
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Wednesday, April 06, 2011 - 8:40 pm
I actually think Phil is playing a character...it lists actor as one of his jobs on FB. I betcha he gets the last laugh 
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Wednesday, April 06, 2011 - 8:41 pm
Brenda, he had his # visable to public so my friend was calling to tell him about it so he could delete it before crzy ppl like herself started calling him all the time LOL
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Kookliebird
Member
08-04-2005
| Wednesday, April 06, 2011 - 8:57 pm
I like how Dave said that was genius. Who knows, he may flip.
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