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The most embarrassing moment of your professional life, so far.
There will be. But don’t sweat it. What matters is you have one funny story to share and will add several more.
Plus, in a few billion years the sun will absorb the earth as it dies and there will be no evidence of your screw up left in the universe.
Subject Expert
I’ve posted about this before, but I once replied to opposing counsel with “Best retards” instead of “Best regards”… I’m still here!
Subject Expert
Thanks for making my day.
Wow, that is mortifying. Has the client said anything about this to your partners or to you? I would be pretty livid if an associate did this. Was it in person or on zoom?
Two lessons:
1. For in person meetings, may I implore you to never message anyone about anything? Clients don’t want to see you looking at your phone or using your computer for other non-meeting-related things.
2. When you screen share, share only the program/screen you need at a time. This will prevent other things on your computer from popping up, and you can even click around on your screen without others seeing what you’re doing.
A19 - it was kinda crazy. Happened on two separate deals in a year. Both were front page deals with huge working groups. The poor associates sending out the calendar invites were undoubtedly exhausted and running on no sleep.
One sent out an email that said “don’t use that number!!!!” - and the other a simple note saying “updated dial in below”. Of course everyone on the deal dialed up the number in the first case and virtually no one in the second case.
I did spend a solid year literally dialing the number from my own calendar invites before sending until I realized I could just save it. This was in the late oughts and we weren’t as smart then….. 😊
Enthusiast
Ugh I am sorry. I had a hearing on Teams in 2020, and co-counsel was sharing his screen. I messaged him and said “Wow David (opposing counsel) is being a major jerk today!!! What a stupid objection!” 😬 everyone saw it, including the judge. The judge handled it appropriately, and said he would “give opposing counsel the courtesy of a reply,” and he let us have at it… it is so so embarrassing when these things happen, but they do happen. This for me was 2 years ago and it’s just a blip on the radar now! Hang in there!
Enthusiast
Lol… opposing counsel was clearly pissing everyone off because the judge seemed entertained. He did admonish me about being courteous to fellow bar members tho. Opposing counsel went off on me, all red in the face, and also said I “smirked” at him in a deposition (that was like 2 years prior). Such a tool. I did disclose to my management so they wouldn’t hear it from someone else, and they didn’t think it was cool, and told me to be more careful and apologize to the client for disrupting the hearing. I can now say I NEVER message or email etc when on video calls
Coach
If it makes you feel better...my super buttoned-down partner was looking at my screen while we looked up some statutes. I got a pop-up notification from my girlfriend that said, in all caps, "YOU'RE A DICK" (she was joking). I swear it stayed on my screen for a good 30 seconds while we both stared at my monitor in awkward silence.
Subject Expert
Develop a habit of keeping those thoughts (which we all have) to yourself. If you feel inclined to share your thoughts, I recommend limiting it to non-coworkers.
Subject Expert
Agree with this and don’t put anything in writing you might not want someone to see x days, months or years from now.
Enthusiast
I’ve seen this happen twice. Each time it was a partner sending a disparaging comment to the associate that was sharing their screen. The first time it was a comment about opposing counsel (on a call with opposing counsel) and the second time was a comment about the client on a call with the client! Of course, since it was a partner that did it, no one got yelled at (that we know of) and in the second instance the associate merely got told to only share the relevant application (and not entire screen) in the future.
Totally get why you’re embarrassed, but we all make stupid mistakes as a first year. File this one in the “lesson learned” category and people will quickly forget. Don’t be too hard on yourself!
You will crawl out of the hole!! It’s an embarrassing oops, but even very smart associates are dumb sometimes. Five years from now, you’ll tell a first year about this after they are mortified from a mistake.
Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories - that really helped make me feel better. I’m sure I’ll make plenty more mistakes but certainly not that one.
Lol this will just be a funny story to share if you don’t do it again and do good work.
Mentor
Crrrrriiiinnnnnnggggeeee.
It'll be okay
Embarrassing, but you’ll look back and laugh one day. I’ve heard stories of people spilling hot coffee on clients, thinking they’re on mute and saying embarrassing things… they all still have jobs and are well respected. Chin up
Mentor
LMFAO
Coach
What year level are you?
Subject Expert
Hahahah