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print it out and get a red pen. do it the morning after your final draft if there’s time. if you need to finish by end of day, take a 15 minute break before so your brain has a rest between typing and proofreading. read through and mark it up.
Some of the best advice I was given years ago was to never turn in an assignment unless it reflects your best effort and is client-ready to the best of your abilities. Each assignment is (a) work product (obviously) and (b) an advertisement for your skills and character.
As a counterpoint, you will sometimes (and I guess this should be qualified that it may depend on your firm, your group/firm’s collective capacity, and your practice area) be required to many things at once with very short turnaround. Deadlines matter and it is critical that you know going into an assignment what the urgency is. Particularly if you are working on a deal or in restructuring, things happen quickly and help/work that comes too late is no help at all. Associates are often told things like “don’t turn in work unless you’re 100% confident it’s perfect” but also “don’t ever miss a deadline, in fact always finish a day before it’s due” but also “when a partner gives you work, the answer is always yes.” The key is learning to proactively and wisely balance all of these important priorities and communicating effectively when it is really, truly not physically possible to meet them all (e.g., when a committee is appointed on Tuesday and the objection deadline is Friday, so you have less than 24 hours to research, write, and turn a draft). If you are forced by circumstance to turn something you know is (or may be) imperfect, I think the best approach is communication and transparency (to a point). This may not fly with all partners, but if the reason your work is imperfect is legitimate (and especially if the entire team is pushed to the hilt), I’ve found that it is acceptable and appreciated to say in a cover email that you are continuing to review for nits but know there is a tight timeframe and are sending the draft in the interest of expediency. I’ve also found that “never turning in an assignment” is far more unacceptable than a hanging heading or an italicized comma.
The same advice goes for research and substance. Be transparent about what you are confident about and what may need more work. It shows the partner where to focus and identifies areas that may need additional attention by others. It will always be better that they know about it when you turn it in than finding a typo after something is filed or being blindsided by a weak spot in an argument when they are standing before the judge.
But also, proofread. Never settle for anything than the absolute best work you can do. And don’t make excuses for not doing everything in your power to perfect your work product. You need to sleep (at least a little bit, at least most nights) and consume nutrition and drink water. If you have time for anything else, you have time to proofread your work. When I’m under pressure, I keep a running list of ctrl+f searches I need to do before sending a draft. You can catch a lot of typos and form holdovers this way even if you’ve been up for two days and have nothing left to give.
And sometimes people are going to yell. Accept that. Partners are people too—usually type A, neurotic, hardworking people who may not always cope with stress and frustration in healthy or productive ways. They also have a great deal of power and a captive audience of people (you) who they rely on to get things done correctly. So yeah, you might be on the wrong side of a temper tantrum about a comma. Try to avoid that, and do what you can to keep your partners happy. But you also need to have thick skin. Think really hard about what you could have done differently to avoid ever making the same mistake twice—but distinguish actual feedback from being used as a punching bag.
Proofread
This. ^. Typos are within your control. Own the mistakes and do better.
Send it to your assistant or paralegal to proofread and then proofread one more time. We all make typos but have a plan in place to minimize
Do not wait until the last day to finish. Read a printed version. Edit. Then read another printed version. Edit. Convert it to a PDF and read a final time. Then send it and repeat for every assignment.
Reread, reread, reread.
Read right to left, or in a different position (eg, standing). Anything to change your perspective will help you catch typos.
I love the people who say stop making typos. Nobody makes ZERO typos. Make an effort to minimize typos as much as possible and then let it go. It is a skill. You will get better over time.
I don’t think typos are the enemy. Sloppy work is the enemy. You can tell when somebody put the effort into their work product versus just slapping it together. The latter goes hand in hand with typos.
Quit making typos.
Lol
Sorry sir. It won’t happen again.
Then don’t let it happen again.
Simple.
But it will. Because people make typos, even lawyers. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
A better approach is to say you will be more careful. Hopefully the partner is not an @$$ and you can ask for tips on how to improve.
Maybe the partner will share some secrets that he/she uses to proof effectively and efficiently. This shows that you are willing to learn and want to improve.
Better than saying you won’t ever make a typo again...
Is there anyone here who can honestly claim to have never made a typo? Give OP some honest advice not the biglaw perfectionist kool-aid!
When I clerked we went through line by line first on your co-clerk’s work (so, try and get your assistant to proof at first) and then we read outloud to each other, and then we read with court staff who’d never seen it before. The last read was usually perfect but not always. Point being, proof your work because you own typos. Take other feedback well, if constructive, but unfortunately sometimes typos are a hard No for some people.
Despite reading this message this morning, I turned in a motion today with a signature line as atty for the wrong client :D
We need a typo app
Redline (using workshare or the like) and proofread using the redline; use the “read aloud” feature in Word.
Good luck! We’re all on the same boat.
Get over it
Ehhh, almost every document I've ever read has at least one typo (including those that I know to have been drafted by excellent lawyers). Is this about the occasional typo, or is it about attention to detail generally?
Yes, proofread your work.
Avoid making typos
Have word read the document aloud to you.
If you get a reputation for sloppy writing, people will start to wonder what else you’re missing. You don’t want that.
(I proofread this message twice and corrected four typos.)