Firm Holiday Gifts Forum

[Anonymous User]

How much do you guys think a first-year associate who joined the firm 1 month ago should give his/her secretary? A conventional $100?

[Anonymous User]

Really liking how this is escalating so fast

[Dcc617]

How much do you guys think a first-year associate who joined the firm 1 month ago should give his/her secretary? A conventional $100?

That's how much I paid my stub year.

[Auxilio]

I'm in my stub year and have never communicated with my designated secretary. Not trying to stiff her or anything but really not sure how/what to give.

If you're a stub year then you mean haven't used her YET. You have no idea what sort of relationship you'll need to develop over the next few years, I don't think you should start your relationship by stiffing her.

Also, you should definitely reach out to your secretary.

Are you a boomer? Secretaries barely do anything nowadays, FYI.

I'm certainly not and use my secretary a lot. She enters my time, submits my expenses, books me rooms at the firm, proofreads stuff for me, puts together binders for my personal use, handles all my travel arrangements (less applicable now), and is my first call whenever I don't know who to ask something about at the firm. If you're not using your secretary effectively, that's on you.

As someone who has never used my secretary, I don't get most of this.

Entering time, how is it easier to write down your time and then give to her instead of just entering it yourself as it comes up? Does your firm use some horrible arcane software?

I basically never need a room, but the rare time I do I just email the reception contractors, which is just as much effort as emailing my secretary.

I almost bever want binders, but if I did I email the document processors in the office not my secretary.

I have yet to travel on firm business.

The only thing I can see having value is proofreading, so I'll admit I could use her for that I guess but as a junior I'm rarely writing up large documents.

Maybe this all is just a transactional vs. litigation thing. For what it's worth I asked 3 other associates in my group and none of us ever use the secretaries so I'm not alone.

[JusticeSquee]

By the way folks, we have this thread every single year and every year without fail it devolves into this back and forth.

Love that it hasn’t changed even in these crazy times. Never change TLS.

[polareagle]

I'm in my stub year and have never communicated with my designated secretary. Not trying to stiff her or anything but really not sure how/what to give.

If you're a stub year then you mean haven't used her YET. You have no idea what sort of relationship you'll need to develop over the next few years, I don't think you should start your relationship by stiffing her.

Also, you should definitely reach out to your secretary.

Are you a boomer? Secretaries barely do anything nowadays, FYI.

I'm certainly not and use my secretary a lot. She enters my time, submits my expenses, books me rooms at the firm, proofreads stuff for me, puts together binders for my personal use, handles all my travel arrangements (less applicable now), and is my first call whenever I don't know who to ask something about at the firm. If you're not using your secretary effectively, that's on you.

As someone who has never used my secretary, I don't get most of this.

Entering time, how is it easier to write down your time and then give to her instead of just entering it yourself as it comes up? Does your firm use some horrible arcane software?

I basically never need a room, but the rare time I do I just email the reception contractors, which is just as much effort as emailing my secretary.

I almost bever want binders, but if I did I email the document processors in the office not my secretary.

I have yet to travel on firm business.

The only thing I can see having value is proofreading, so I'll admit I could use her for that I guess but as a junior I'm rarely writing up large documents.

Maybe this all is just a transactional vs. litigation thing. For what it's worth I asked 3 other associates in my group and none of us ever use the secretaries so I'm not alone.

Totally fair and this is going to firm dependent. I'm a litigator, so I (at least used to) travel a fair bit for cases and draft lots of documents.

Re: time, I find it easier just to jot it down in an email on the go and send it to her every Monday. Perhaps it'd be easier for me to just enter it in our software, but I honestly don't know because I've never used the software. Also, she figures out those awful task codes for me.

To be clear, there are other people I could reach out to for all of theses tasks (except expenses, I think those have to go through my secretary). But for me, it's a heck of a lot easier to just have a single person who I know I can email about anything that comes up and she'll either solve it for me or pass it along to the appropriate people. (With the added benefit that because she is used to fielding requests from me and a few other attorneys as opposed to the whole firm, she knows how I like my binders, where I like to sit on the plane, what sorts of silly typos I tend to make--including which client billing codes I sometimes enter wrong, etc.).

Basically, I outsource all the non-legal, non-billable tasks in my work life to her to the extent possible, which frees me up to focus on the legal stuff. I don't *need* her for anything but god does she make my life easier.

[Whatislaw]

Let's all take a breather and chill. $100/class year for lock-step is fair. For folks not in lock-step, that is a good question of what is an appropriate amount.

As to use of legal secretary, I'm in lit and I rely on my secretary all the time. I do all my own billing, but like others, I rely on her for court filings, creating shells for discovery responses, proofing (because she's an experienced secretary), tentative rulings, expense reports, traveling, and a host of other admin functions. For me, I am able to handle a lot more of my case work because I can trust her to execute on tasks and we function as a team.

[JusticeSquee]

How does one give cash to a secretary as a holiday gift during WFH?

[Dcc617]

I just venmoed mine (with a nice email/letter). Imagine you could have mailed too, but pretty late now.

[Whatislaw]

I just sent a AMEX gift card. I think VISA also offers online gift card transmissions.