Talk to me about making mistakes. I’m a midlevel associate working at a smallish NYC firm. We recently lost some attorneys and one other attorney is on Mat leave. My boss trusts me a lot and has me handling a lot of deals with little oversight and basically a couple of interns helping. I’m also a mom of two little kids and just made a big move for my husbands job. I’m definitely burnt out and I feel like it’s causing me to make a lot of little mistake and it’s making me feel incompetent

Mistakes happen. But, don’t let anyone rush you to send something in that you’re worried isn’t ready. Try to be present in the moment when you’re working, and do what you need to do to get that focus—headphones, supplements, etc.

You can’t learn how to not make mistakes, but you can learn how to fix them.

That’s a tough spot to be in, OP. I’m a SR transactional atty (BL, also NYC), but I’ve worked at smaller shops early in my career, and I know how tough it can be to have little support when you’re competent enough to run things yourself but still learning the ropes of both the practice and the firm (esp at a smaller shop - volume practice or not - where nobody wants to turn down new work from pipeline or potential pipeline clients…that tends to put the pressure on the worker bees the most). If the boss trusts you to work autonomously, that’s usually a good sign (and an opp to grow and prove your value).

First, a few suggestions on managing your time and deal flow, which can go a long way for avoiding errors:

*Unless your boss is disorganized, over-extended and/or unreachable, it may help to ask for a 1:1 re: workload or o strategize together on how to best divvy up and delegate deal to keep them moving smoothly while ensuring there is sufficient oversight. Identify specific legal tasks/docs with which you need the most help (whether that’s time, substance or both), and which can be delegated down or up. That’s not an unreasonable ask, esp for a midlevel (as delegating and supervising are both skills you’re expected to develop at this stage - so that shows growth and leadership, not weakness).

*Ask for more frequent team meetings (doesn’t have to be w/boss if it’s just for the deals you are comfortably running - can be with staff/interns) or status/strategy calls and check-ins to prioritize key deals, deadlines and tasks.

*If you have deals with pipeline clients, work on building relationships with their key contacts (esp if you are in corp/real estate and represent repeat banks, funds, sponsors, or boards) - these folks tend to be sophisticated enough to know pipeline business and key deal elements, and they can help you prioritize lead-time items or get insight on what can be put on the backburner or more easily delegated. Many of these folks are industry pros and used to frequent atty contract; and most clients appreciate direct check-ins and interim updates from counsel bc it’s good client service.

*calls can be way more efficient than emails when trying to talk thru any deal issue with anyone, esp if you’re seeing yourself take forever drafting emails/letters (always my issue bc I don’t like sending anything remotely unpolished). Calls allow key issues to be hashed out politely and proactively - where you can clear up confusion or pushback on the spot and explain your position and that you’re not trying to be a jerk (especially if you represent a client which has its own internal deal-related requirements/limitations). This is a great way to build rapport with clients, vendors and counterparties (who may all be repeat deal parties). Having good working relationships with all 3 can make future deals go more smoothly as we are a collaborative (not adversarial) field - our currency is negotiating, agreeing, and getting everyone to closing. If you’re new to the firm, this is also a great way to introduce yourself to frequent contacts.

*look into productivity programs/systems to aid you in billing, scheduling, checklist tracking, form drafting, and sig page/doc assembly, (unless you’re using those already and are still overwhelmed, which I know is another reality - there’s no real shortcut to juggling 16+ active deals other than being meticulously organized and keeping every deal checklist updated in real time).

If you’re able to spread the workload/give yourself more breathing room with the above suggestions, that may help you focus on complex tasks and avoid making small errors by working on fewer tasks at once. In terms of catching small errors, I had similar issues as a para, but was largely able to eliminate the problem by implementing the below strategies. Years later, as an atty, I still miss stuff here and there (we all do!), but generally, my work product is error-free:

*for every deal, keep a master summary sheet/intake chart/typing sheet of key terms (term sheet/K #s, dates, party names with exact verified spelling, sig blocks with exact formatting, addresses, etc.) that you can turn to when drafting pertinent docs for the deal. Work off that doc, update it as necessary (verify the details with key parties often, as things evolve on a deal), review your drafts against that doc (or ask a para/intern to do so). You can even copy and paste party names and addresses formatted to whatever standard docs you’re using to ensure they’re all correct and consistent.

*ctrl+F is your BFF. Same for “alt+e+e” (find/replace all). Look for blanks, brackets, quotes, names, addresses, defined/consistent terms, section cross-references, spelling, formatting, etc in every draft before you turn it. Make sure these key terms are consistent with your master deal sheet. And converting PDFs to recognizable text is similarly helpful. Delegate these tasks to staff too.

*print every draft and review it with a highlighter. Highlight and hand-correct every error you see and redo the draft (or ask staff to make the changes). Also version up and run redlines against the doc form or the prior draft (or have someone do them for you) to make sure that you made all the changes - and print and highlight/mark the redlines too as needed. Redlining is my fail-safe as I’ve moved away from the print/highlighter method.

*if you can’t recall if you fixed something or realize you may have an error somewhere but can’t immediately look at it, send yourself an email or calendar reminder with a note (for next time you’ll be at your computer) about it on the spot so that you don’t forget about it.

*if your errors are math-related (calculating closing costs, transfer/other taxes, allocations, etc.) make yourself a series of spreadsheets to track these things and build simple formulae (for closing costs specifically it helps to have 3 separate forms for buyers, sellers, and lenders as their #s will be set up differently) and rely on precedent deal calcs if you’re unsure about the formulae. Just make sure you are double checking the calculations to avoid rounding errors. When applicable for specifics, ask clients or counterparties with knowledge of the #s to confirm your math is correct.

Hope this helps - I have given similar advice to many friends and junior colleagues, and at least some of these strategies have worked for each of them. Best of luck to you and hang in there!

Just want to say hang in there.

I'll echo the advice others have given you, and I'll also add that at my firm, if you bill a ton of hours over the minimum, and your performance reviews are still fine, it's weighted in your favor because the firm understands how difficult it is to do good work when you're extremely busy. In other words, the busier you are, the more you're likely to be graded on a curve, so to speak. People understand that it's hard for anyone to do perfect work when they're drowning. So if you're really busy and you're making mistakes, just do your best.

Hormones and working out.