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You’ll eventually figure out that there are not too many mistakes that can’t be fixed. Own your mistakes quickly and move on. Perfect can be the enemy as well.
Good because I'm having a week where I fucked up and things are not easily fixed. Needed to hear this.
I’m sorry. What a lousy week. I hope your personal situations improve. When you’re old and gray those matter much more than any aspect of work.
Concerning errors and your reputation, I suspect that your reputation remains as it was - a reliable lawyer who is human. I could tell you hundreds of stories of errors that felt like the end of the world when they happened but ended up working out. Just last summer one of my colleagues made a serious mistake right before the trial of a 9 figure case that had the potential to cost our client $20m, but only if we lost. It also embarrassed the CFO of a notable public company and triggered notification to our carrier and a self report to the client. That was a bad day at the office. But we survived. We won a jury verdict, wrote off time devoted to addressing the error, and moved on.
You’ve already fallen on your sword. And you’ve no doubt learned from the errors. Pick yourself up, brush off the dust, and get back in the game. You will be just fine.
In litigation, it is often our own unrelenting narcissism that makes us think what we are doing is important. I know this isn’t the attitude you’re supposed to have, but most stuff we do just needs to “get done” and it really doesn’t have to be perfect. The clients usually don’t really care about how well you wrote something. They care about the cost and how much time you spent on it. In state court, the judge probably didn’t even read what you filed, and if you practice in the northeast the plaintiff is getting whatever they want anyway. Also - Most of your superiors are such perfectionists that they don’t actually like anyone’s work product but their own (even if it objectively sucks). Just focus on productivity and do the best you realistically can, get stuff done in advance so your likely OCD boss can make meaningless changes to it, and move onto the next. Don’t think too much, just live. At the end of the day nobody really cares about what we do.
I need to make time to do that somehow - been meaning to get back to helping veterans and it keeps getting back burner like everything else I want to do
Work at a solo firm w/ one other attorney. My work needs to be perfect every time. It’s incredibly frustrating, but silver lining I guess is that I’m learning more than I think 😩
I had a bad week recently in which a few documents, some of which got filed, were not perfect. Everything was minor and easily fixed, but still gut wrenching. I spent several hours that weekend reading everything I could find to come up with ways to fix the problem. I implemented several things and feel much better knowing that I am doing everything I can to ensure perfection.
Agree with Partner 1. Usually mistakes can be fixed. It gets easier the more time passes. Unfortunately, although it’s kinda hard pill to swallow, no one is perfect.
This thread helped me through the worst of today. Thanks guys. This is a good community.
I feel like expectations of ourselves are extremely high (something that is evident throughout law school too). Of course I understand we’re still learning as a junior, but does anyone have experience in dealing effectively with the pressure inflicted both by others and on oneself?