Open Forum: Let's Talk About the Mistakes We've Made as Young Lawyers Forum

[kykiske]

There are probably too many to list for me.

But the most memorable one for me so far is marking the wrong date on Outlook for when a motion was due.

I read the Court Order as "March 25, 2016," when it was really "March 15, 2016." Thus, I did not start working on the motion until around March 14 or so. I re-read the Court Order as I am writing the motion and notice this blunder. I freak out. I immediately go to the partner and tell him the truth.

Surprisingly, he didn't chew me out or get super upset. He just told me to have a draft done by the next morning. We get it done, served, and filed by March 15. It was a nail-biter. I was lucky the partner was not out of the country, or something similar.

[zot1]

I'm always super worried about dates, so I have my paralegal double check them.

I sent a communication to a judge without specifying the case name and number. I felt pretty stupid for about an hour. Then I had a donut and all was well in the world again.

[Danny Mothers]

I went to law school

[Anonymous User]

I'm always super worried about dates, so I have my paralegal double check them.

I sent a communication to a judge without specifying the case name and number. I felt pretty stupid for about an hour. Then I had a donut and all was well in the world again.

Hahaha. Yeah, I know the feeling. You spend so much time thinking about the best way to phrase something, sharpen your legal analysis, etc. And then ***BAM*** it turns out you miss a very basic detail and you only realize it after it has already been sent--i.e., sending it to the wrong address, forgetting case caption, etc.

[Abbie Doobie]

I'm always super worried about dates, so I have my paralegal double check them.

sweet man i thought i was the only one who ran background checks on my dates

[84651846190]

I went to law school

[DELG]

Circulated a word doc instead of a PDF

[Anonymous User]

sent out a pro bono client's social in email.

[Anonymous User]

I didn't know what the star cites (e.g., *781) in westlaw were until I had been barred and practicing for 2-3 weeks. Not a mistake per se, but really embarassing that I kind of consciously avoided learning what they were all through law school.

[bwh8813]

I didn't know what the star cites (e.g., *781) in westlaw were until I had been barred and practicing for 2-3 weeks. Not a mistake per se, but really embarassing that I kind of consciously avoided learning what they were all through law school.

How did you pin-cite in any memo or brief during (at a minimum) Legal Writing? Did you always print out or read the official reporter version?

[El Pollito]

asked for work

[Anonymous User]

I didn't know what the star cites (e.g., *781) in westlaw were until I had been barred and practicing for 2-3 weeks. Not a mistake per se, but really embarassing that I kind of consciously avoided learning what they were all through law school.

How did you pin-cite in any memo or brief during (at a minimum) Legal Writing? Did you always print out or read the official reporter version?

copy with reference on westlaw, it made the cite for me

[zot1]

I didn't know what the star cites (e.g., *781) in westlaw were until I had been barred and practicing for 2-3 weeks. Not a mistake per se, but really embarassing that I kind of consciously avoided learning what they were all through law school.

How did you pin-cite in any memo or brief during (at a minimum) Legal Writing? Did you always print out or read the official reporter version?

copy with reference on westlaw, it made the cite for me

Those are not always accurate, so something to keep in mind.

[zot1]

asked for work

[El Pollito]

asked for work

[Anonymous User]

Those are not always accurate, so something to keep in mind.

Yeah, I realized that after I started practicing when I taught myself basic legal citation. I'm sure a lot of my cites in law school were wrong, probably in my writing samples even. Oh well.

[Anonymous User]

Those are not always accurate, so something to keep in mind.

Yeah, I realized that after I started practicing when I taught myself basic legal citation. I'm sure a lot of my cites in law school were wrong, probably in my writing samples even. Oh well.

Typos, purposely doing shitty work for someone eho
I didnt like working for, and probably typos still struggle to Produce perfect work every time.

[KMart]

I'm going to go ahead and tag this for the future.

[Johann]

Those are not always accurate, so something to keep in mind.

Yeah, I realized that after I started practicing when I taught myself basic legal citation. I'm sure a lot of my cites in law school were wrong, probably in my writing samples even. Oh well.

Typos, purposely doing shitty work for someone eho
I didnt like working for, and probably typos still struggle to Produce perfect work every time.

this is not a mistake. some of counsel kept giving me these projects i hated. i told him to find someone else and he wouldnt. so then i just started doing the assignments poorly. hasnt bothered me in months now.

[Anonymous User]

Those are not always accurate, so something to keep in mind.

Yeah, I realized that after I started practicing when I taught myself basic legal citation. I'm sure a lot of my cites in law school were wrong, probably in my writing samples even. Oh well.

Typos, purposely doing shitty work for someone eho
I didnt like working for, and probably typos still struggle to Produce perfect work every time.

this is not a mistake. some of counsel kept giving me these projects i hated. i told him to find someone else and he wouldnt. so then i just started doing the assignments poorly. hasnt bothered me in months now.

This was in my first couple weeks of starting. She was a second year. And of course she went around and told everyone that I do shit work. Even though I've done good work for other people, my reputation took a hit. I'm a URM too, so I don't think that I should have pulled this move.

[Anonymous User]

Those are not always accurate, so something to keep in mind.

Yeah, I realized that after I started practicing when I taught myself basic legal citation. I'm sure a lot of my cites in law school were wrong, probably in my writing samples even. Oh well.

Typos, purposely doing shitty work for someone eho
I didnt like working for, and probably typos still struggle to Produce perfect work every time.

this is not a mistake. some of counsel kept giving me these projects i hated. i told him to find someone else and he wouldnt. so then i just started doing the assignments poorly. hasnt bothered me in months now.

This was in my first couple weeks of starting. She was a second year. And of course she went around and told everyone that I do shit work. Even though I've done good work for other people, my reputation took a hit. I'm a URM too, so I don't think that I should have pulled this move.

I never got the pettiness by some people. In my opinion, so long as you show strong effort and willingness to learn, that should be enough.

I highly doubt that junior lawyers do amazing work their first year of practice.

[lavarman84]

Those are not always accurate, so something to keep in mind.

Yeah, I realized that after I started practicing when I taught myself basic legal citation. I'm sure a lot of my cites in law school were wrong, probably in my writing samples even. Oh well.

Typos, purposely doing shitty work for someone eho
I didnt like working for, and probably typos still struggle to Produce perfect work every time.

this is not a mistake. some of counsel kept giving me these projects i hated. i told him to find someone else and he wouldnt. so then i just started doing the assignments poorly. hasnt bothered me in months now.

You'll have to excuse my ignorance but you couldn't just say no, I have too many other projects on my plate?

[Anonymous User]

Those are not always accurate, so something to keep in mind.

Yeah, I realized that after I started practicing when I taught myself basic legal citation. I'm sure a lot of my cites in law school were wrong, probably in my writing samples even. Oh well.

Typos, purposely doing shitty work for someone eho
I didnt like working for, and probably typos still struggle to Produce perfect work every time.

this is not a mistake. some of counsel kept giving me these projects i hated. i told him to find someone else and he wouldnt. so then i just started doing the assignments poorly. hasnt bothered me in months now.

You'll have to excuse my ignorance but you couldn't just say no, I have too many other projects on my plate?

Its tough to do as a first year when you are not really ramped up. Also, I didn't know how condescending she would be the entire time.

[baal hadad]

Typos typos typos

Seems like every fucking thing I do has 1 hidden typo per 7-10 pages

I have gotten chewed the fuck out for this before

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

Sending petty emails to someone outside my office. Now if I am in a fight with opposing counsel, I pick up the phone.

Anyone else treat email like a text stream and then realize the mistake?