More Posts
Does anyone stake API3?
This cracked me up!
I have technical skills....
Living her best life
Additional Posts in Law
Brand recommendations for a solid standing desk?
Has anyone considered going back to school?
Thoughts on Adams and Reese?
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
For context if I ask her to simply write a letter to the sheriff to get a summons served, even though other assistants and I have shown her multiple times in the 2.5 months she’s been here, she will knock on the door 4 times with questions because she lacks confidence in herself and is so eager to please. I appreciate the enthusiasm and have tried and failed to teach her. A paralegal taught me all those things when I started at the firm right out of law school. I even got that same paralegal who’s a great teacher to show her, and she can’t grasp it. I’ve spent 2 hours at a time showing her things like what to mail or what to put in an affidavit of service or mailing, and she’s still not getting it. So if I ask her to do a small task like that I’ll spend 30 minutes showing her, get constantly interrupted by knocks on the door (on the exact same document)with questions when I’m trying to write a brief. It’s faster to just do it myself so I don’t ask her anymore. Now her feelings are hurt, and my work is snowballing
I’m currently in the exact same boat. Mine is somewhat starting to get the hang of it after a month or so, but only on the smallest tasks.
What’s worked for me is to tell her to take as much time as she needs because she’s learning and get it as good as she can before bringing it to me, then I redline and send back and later circle back on the “why”. Also, I try to give her multiple examples of what I want, using old versions from previous cases. I’ve also focused on only giving her not-so-legal tasks such as drafting letters and the like, so she can get a feel for how things are supposed to be done before getting her into more complicated things. Hopefully this helps
I just did this! I hope it works 🥰
Paralegal here. What would be helpful is showing her past examples of similar things. Forms and templates help, so the person is absolutely not writing from scratch. If she does something wrong, tell her the reason “why” you corrected it so she can understand the thinking for next time. After a few more months, when she comes to you with a question that you’re pretty sure she should have the answer to already, do not feed the answer but ask her to recommend a few courses of action to you to have her think through it. In the beginning though, start with simple routine things and as she masters and gains confidence, move on to more substantive things. If possible, have her take CLE classes geared at legal assistants and paralegals to build a foundational knowledge.
Now that I think of it, I was like that (lots of small errors and typos) my first 3 months because I so wanted the partner to know I could handle it. I’d give him what I’d call “rough drafts.”
One day he sat me down and told me not to get him anything that wasn’t already in as final as possible before his review.
He no longer reviews my work unless I’m working on a very complex case.
I sometimes give the assistant things I’ve written to proof, but she likes to go a bit too above and beyond. I just want to catch things like missing commas, putting the wrong case number or the wrong judge’s name on a document, maybe consistency of formatting style. She likes to “correct” my word choice, even though I’ve asked her not to. She’ll correct common phrases that I used because they come directly from case law, and put her “spin” on them not realizing their significance. I’ve asked her not to do this, but she keeps doing it, I guess to impress me. I’ve started giving her documents I don’t need proofed to proof just to keep her occupied that I have no intention of using. It’s also to expose her to the language and types of documents that get filed in a case. It stops her asking me 10 times a day if I have anything to do. I don’t use her edits unless she catches a genuine mistake
It’s not an exciting answer but id look at it as where do you want her to be in a year (from a selfish perspective). Like a 1st year associate, most things you tell her to do you could do much faster yourself but without the reps she won’t improve. My prior assistant was honestly awful and made my closings take 2x as long but now I can truly pull her aside at any minute and say I need her to get this closing package done ASAP and she gets it done right. Think about how bad you were your first year and just be ready to be frustrated and repeat yourself. Personally I repeatedly made the same mistakes until one day it clicked, and thankfully my supervisors didn’t give up on me the third time I made the same mistake. Just hope that your firm doesn’t wait until your assistant is competent before assigning her to a partner and a new assistant to you.
Have her proofread and spellcheck you work and ask her to keep her eye out for anything that seems off and track her changes or mark up with comments. Could also have her do consistency checks (addresses/names/signatories/extra spacing)
Rising Star
Your firm is not helping by giving you someone with no training. Set up a call with the Office Manager or Manager of the Assistants to discuss what help you need and how to train the assistant. It is your job to teach assistant how to work _with you_ but not how to do the job. That should fall on an experienced assistant. If the other assistants won't train, escalate.
The other advice you've gotten her is correct--provide examples, lead with praise, correct gently.
It OK if you have to advise that this assistant should go bc it was a bad hire. You do need to invest some time and give her a chance to grow into the role.
Get her proofreading your stuff so she can look at your work product. Have her organize your files so she can learn the parts. Then start on having her draft a basic letter and form discovery that you revise and show her your redlines so she can see what you’re looking for. Train an assistant right and she’ll become invaluable to you!