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He’s not wrong!
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Relax. Go back and see what edits they have made to your work. Never make those mistakes again. From now on, print the work out and read it slowly on paper. If you have time, finish something, sleep on it, read it the next morning and then submit it. Details in this industry are important, not just for the client but for your own credibility. That isn’t meant to scare you, just be better- you can and will be better. It’s called the “practice” of law, we are all learning along the way and any attorney who claims to have never screwed up is a liar. Just make different mistakes, then never repeat those mistakes.
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On the same token though A2, not all edits are “mistakes.” A lot of edits are matters of style, and people can be particular. A case in point: one person I used to work for always had this annoying habit of writing blatantly incorrect things such as “nationally-known” when the hyphen is just wrong in that context (Chicago Manual of Style—easily looked up). If I see stuff like this hyphenated it really gets to me and I lecture people about it whenever I see it, and this person I used to work for and I almost didn’t co-write an article over it (sad how we lawyers get over some points—but there was more to it than the incorrect hyphen!) Point: write to your audience. Not all so-called “typos” are actually mistakes. Incorrect grammar and punctuation and misspellings are one thing, but a lot of edits are matters of style as opposed to mistakes.
Every summer associate gets this comment. Don’t worry about it.
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Go forth and sin no more.
What! This person sounds very strange. I’m sorry you had to endure this conversation, but I know there’s a better place out there for you. As for his comments about your skills, do not listen to that garbage. You’re in law school, therefore just beginning to develop your skills! Not getting an offer from this place may be a blessing in disguise.
At my firm, we always appreciate a summer associate who recognizes a mistake or who shows a willingness to learn and do better. Why not go to supervising attorneys, tell them you’re seeking constructive feedback on your this far this summer? Maybe even mention that, upon re-reading work product, you realize you didn’t do as thorough of a job at proofreading as you would have liked, and ask for any tips they might have on critically reviewing your own writing and making sure you spot typos, etc. It’s a way to bring it up and take ownership but also show a willingness to learn and improve, as well as take feedback.
It sounds like you are handling the issue perfectly. Not fun to go through, but a good firm will appreciate you being accountable and wanting to improve.
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Word has a feature where it’ll read the doc out loud to you. Saved my ass on a few occasions
This. Read along with it, slowly, and it forces you to put eyes on every. single. word.
No need to make a mountain out of a hill. But it’s common sensical to proofread literally everything. Whether that’s assignments to associates, to partners, internal emails (slightly less for more informal emails), or emails to clients.
Nah I never roofread amd I’m doing just fin
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I’m terrible about proofreading my my own work. The first thing is to have a good assistant proofread it for you. Being junior, you may not have this luxury. One thing I still do is change the font (from times new Roman to say, courier new, for example), just for proofreading purposes. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll catch. Odd, I know, but try it, and you’ll see what I mean.
I print for the first run through and then change the font for the next run through!
I assure you these people make typos too. My supervisor loved pointing out any tiny typo in an internal email, but she made them on company wide emails, and on product packaging!
One of the partners who commented on my need to proofread said that’s why she has a paralegal because she makes typos all the time.
Every young lawyer or clerk has/had this problem (including me). I think it's the rush of deadlines hitting us for the first time in our professional life. Try to finish a project a bit early (a day? an hour? a week? - depends on the project) and set it aside and then read it again (HARD COPY if possible!) with a fresh mind. That will help you catch those things you can't believe you missed when pointed out to you.
Maybe the partner was looking out for you by giving you this feedback. Proofreading is important and it’s better to hear the feedback now and know this is something you have to work on rather than later when you’re an associate at this or another firm.
I know when I give feedback to summer associates, my goal is to give them constructive feedback that will help them develop their skills. Maybe the same is true for the partner you’re working with!
Try to show yourself some compassion! You are just starting out on your legal career and are learning so much right now! The fact that you’re posting here shows that you care and want to improve. You are on the right track!
Everyone is human
Proof reading — not proof skimming — is always necessary. No exceptions. Misspellings put the author/signer in a potentially bad light with judges and clients. Once you get a reputation as sloppy or not paying attention to detail, it is hard (not impossible) to erase that. True proof reading is monotonous to say the least. And if you want to assure you don’t skip past correctly spelled mistakes (like “passed” instead of “past”) you actually need to read each paragraph backwards. That way you are not captured by the story and breezing past words; instead you are actually visualizing each word. That is how proofreading professionals do it.
Thank you for the tip!! Yeah, one partner said the same thing about sloppy work. Part of me is glad it was brought to my attention now before any official work product associated with their name came out but I wish I didn’t give the partner sloppy work to begin with/learned how important it was sooner.
Lawyers write for a living. So it’s essential to write well. That means reviewing and editing many times over. You must have a sound knowledge in grammar and punctuation. Run spell check. It will catch the glaring errors. Think about every period, comma, semi-colon, etc. Read it out loud. Good writing is hard work and has rules. It’s the tool of your trade as a lawyer and deserves your full attention.
Reading backwards also helps me with proofing if I’ve looked at a document 1000 times already. Don’t take it to heart, just do better.
I should note that my supervising partner mentioned that I should proofread because he's a stickler about writing about a week or two ago. I tried to remember since then but the two assignments I didn't proofread on were ones where the assigning partner kept adding more info to close to deadline and I had already asked for an extension before.
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When you make a mistake don’t fight back, but you don’t need to grovel either. Treat it as a learning opportunity, thank people for their constructive criticism and ask for tips/guidance (even if you think they’re wrong/morons).
This will go a long way to improve your skills, get people to like you, and differentiate yourself from some of the entitled incompetent Gen Z’s. (I’m not saying every Gen Z is one, I’m just saying holy hell what happened since Covid? I’ve never seen summers/juniors so oblivious)
Wondering why you are not utilizing your secretary/admin. I've worked for numerous summer associates, and they regularly gave me their work product to proof before forwarding to the assigning partner. We're here to help you succeed!
In fact - the partner who gave me the feedback I posted about directly told me to proof it myself because that’s what he does.
100% you have to proofread everything - like 100%. Just apologize and move on - and do so going forward. Based on your subsequent comment below, it sounds like you were not doing so with every assignment. Going forward, if you ARE doing so, and you still get that comment, make sure you don't have some underlying ADHD (I do, and proofreading was a problem for me). I'm diagnosed and treated now, and it's much better.
Agree with senior counsel 1 - me suggesting ADHD doesn’t mean you can ever use it as an excuse, especially not an excuse for not proofreading (though, believe me, I get it!). You can learn how to manage by utilizing other tactics - have an assistant help you proofread, print out and read out loud, etc. And if you’re not treating your ADHD, get on it.
When I was a summer we realized it was great to have other summer associates look at your work - other students can be super picky and can help find errors, and you can return the favor. Once my summer class figured that out, I think our collective work product improved greatly
I would 1,000% take advantage of this, however, I am the only summer.