Am I a Shitty Attorney/Screwed at My Current Firm? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I graduated in 2014 and have been at my mid-size firm for about two years now. One partner at my firm is 82 years old and kind of doesn't give a fuck about politics anymore. We go out for beers probably twice a week and he tells me basically everything that goes on in board meetings and shareholder meetings.

The basic summary of my review thus far (we don't do formal evaluations) is this: (1) the litigation people think I'm an excellent writer; (2) the shareholders like me personally; but (3) I have a "growing reputation" for making dumb, small, mistakes.

Here's three anecdotal examples in the past month or so:

(a) I drafted a motion with five legal arguments. Partner wanted to switch arguments A and B. I switched the arguments, but upon copy-pasting, I forgot to delete Argument B. So argument B was duplicated in the motion.

(b) I was on a deadline to get discovery responses to this partner. My secretary had gone home and I had to do all the copying myself. Upon doing the copying, I forgot the request only asked for correspondences in the last twelve months. I gave the partner correspondences from about two years back, which he easily fixed, but wasn't happy about.

(c) We've gone through like 5 drafts of this complaint, and a partner just asked to eliminate four of the defendants. I went through and deleted 99% of any mention of those defendants, but left a stray paragraph naming all those additional defendants.


The partner is right that these small mistakes keep adding up. The problem is that this isn't bad legal analysis or bad writing, it's just pure dumb mistakes that admittedly represent a lack of concentration.

I'm beginning to get aspy/neurotic about this because I'm starting to get some calls from recruiters for some biglaw firms in my mid-market. I like my job now, like the work-life balance, etc., but part of me thinks maybe I need a fresh start because I'll never get over my reputation for making dumb mistakes.

So do the above mistakes make me a shitty attorney? Are these mistakes normal for a new(er) attorney? And how do I stop making such stupid mistakes?

[arisboddle]

bro have you heard of blacklines or ctrl+f. I feel like just those two features would have solved at least problems 1 and 3. Problem 2 could probably have been solved by simply re-reading the request prior to making the copies. You just did a bunch of extra work yourself and it does, indeed, make you look dumb (or at least like you don't have your shit together).

The best way to get over your "reputation" is by not making any more dumb mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes--everyone--but the ones you noted seem entirely avoidable.

[johnB86]

None of those mistakes sound terrible for a second year, but you need to stop making them. Slow down and read things a few times before sending them to the partner. CTRL-F your document when deleting all references to something.

Just slow down. Unless you're literally minutes away from a filing deadline, it's almost always better to take 30 minutes to proof read. The partner isn't going to hound you over an extra 30 minutes, but word of carelessness spreads like wildfire.

[WhiteCollarBlueShirt]

if you're concerned, then it's better to slow down as others said and get some time written off -- as much as realization matters, as a 2nd year, work product matters more

[JenDarby]

None of those mistakes sound terrible for a second year, but you need to stop making them. Slow down and read things a few times before sending them to the partner. CTRL-F your document when deleting all references to something.

Just slow down. Unless you're literally minutes away from a filing deadline, it's almost always better to take 30 minutes to proof read. The partner isn't going to hound you over an extra 30 minutes, but word of carelessness spreads like wildfire.

CTRL-F is definitely your friend. I use it whenever there's any chance I could have missed something like that, and I also manually check as well.

For a lot of people all that "read things backwards!" type advice isn't very useful, but at this point you should take every opportunity to check everything in as many reasonable was as possible, unless as J said there's literally no time.

[UVAIce]

if you're concerned, then it's better to slow down as others said and get some time written off -- as much as realization matters, as a 2nd year, work product matters more

This. Every firm is a little different, but at my firm realization rates don't really start to matter until you're a fourth year.

[emkay625]

If your secretary has an eye for detail, use him or her to help you. Instructed to delete all references to something? Have him/her proof and make sure you did. About to submit a draft of a motion? Ask for a quick proofread.

[Pokemon]

bro have you heard of blacklines or ctrl+f. I feel like just those two features would have solved at least problems 1 and 3. Problem 2 could probably have been solved by simply re-reading the request prior to making the copies. You just did a bunch of extra work yourself and it does, indeed, make you look dumb (or at least like you don't have your shit together).

The best way to get over your "reputation" is by not making any more dumb mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes--everyone--but the ones you noted seem entirely avoidable.

This! Maybe I am biased cause I am in corporate, but Not using control f, not grammar checking and not black lining your work before sending it out should be legal malpractice.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Glad for the encouragement and to see I'm not an idiot. I do need to slow down and just focus on what I'm doing (seems like while I'm doing something, I'm constantly thinking, "Oh, have to send that email to X").

Anybody have a checklist of shit they do before they turn in an assignment?

[1styearlateral]

Anybody have a checklist of shit they do before they turn in an assignment?

I almost always have someone senior review it.

[tyroneslothrop1]

Print and review the next morning, when possible. Does wonders. Everything I do goes to my secretary first. Her proofreading is of uneven value.

[cowgirl_bebop]

OP here. Glad for the encouragement and to see I'm not an idiot. I do need to slow down and just focus on what I'm doing (seems like while I'm doing something, I'm constantly thinking, "Oh, have to send that email to X").

Anybody have a checklist of shit they do before they turn in an assignment?

I have a checklist taped beside my monitor of things to check before sending any document off. I double check dates, names, numbers, and all defined terms. I also try to read everything out loud and always run a comparison in Word.

I don't have an admin to review my stuff, but soon we'll get some interns and I'll have them do it.

[Anonymous User]

OP, I had a lot of the same issues (at least I felt like I did). Redlining and ctrl f/h are super great. I also like to hand write edits or comments, make the changes, then use a highlighter on the paper and highlight the change during the final check. Makes it way more difficult to accidentally skip one. Same thing for email edits, but write them on a sticky note or print the email and cross off.

I'm also a huge fan of reading my stuff out loud.

The other thing is if you're making tracked changes, accept them all and read it. It's so easy to leave off a parentheses, period, or something minor in tracked changes for some reason.

I've seen a big drop off in stupid mistakes with these adjustments.

[h2go]

The other thing is if you're making tracked changes, accept them all and read it. It's so easy to leave off a parentheses, period, or something minor in tracked changes for some reason.

At least the very least you you read with the tracked changes set to final without markups showing. You'll often spot missing/extra punctuation and formatting errors you wouldn't otherwise with the track changes on. Also, you can just search for (, [, {, or " and see if the counts match up with ), ], etc.

[dixiecupdrinking]

It frankly sounds like you aren't giving your stuff a final, thorough read before submitting it. I know sometimes it's tempting to just get something off your plate, but you need to take 30 minutes or whatever to give it a close review before sending it up the chain.

[reasonable_man]

Print and review the next morning, when possible. Does wonders. Everything I do goes to my secretary first. Her proofreading is of uneven value.

This. When I find careless mistakes in a junior associate's work it drives me nuts. Print it out and live with it for a little bit. Read it 3 to 5 times and self edit the shit out of it. Be very hard on your own work.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Had a good run for about six months and got a really positive year-end review.

And then...like I said in my OP, I finally bit on one of the recruiting emails. The process has taken about three weeks and I just had my interview last Thursday. Seems like the new firm would be a great fit so I hope it works out.

BUT...throughout this process, I've seemingly lost focus and fallen back into my whole of making dumb mistakes. Today, for instance, I turned in a memorandum of law in a tax appeal matter and attached 11 exhibits. Exhibits 9 and 10 were reversed and the partner caught my mistake. He called me into a conference room and was pretty livid about the whole situation because he had scanned what I gave him and sent it to the client.

What gets me about this case is that I have no tax background, and neither does the partner. So I basically taught myself the relevant tax law, drafted a pretty good memorandum of law (that he barely changed), drafted stipulations of evidence, drafted the necessary disclosures, drafted memoranda to the partner with updates, etc. All of this was apparently good work, but this one mistake is all my partner will remember from this entire project.

There have been a couple other mistakes (less mild than this one) and I've just lost all my confidence. Hoping to bounce back tomorrow, but man, I feel dumb.

[smallfirmassociate]

Do you procrastinate? These errors sound consistent with someone who drafts stuff last minute and doesn't have the time to sufficiently review the work.

[pml87]

Do you procrastinate? These errors sound consistent with someone who drafts stuff last minute and doesn't have the time to sufficiently review the work.

This. Also has this made your decision to switch firms more likely?

[Anonymous User]

Do you procrastinate? These errors sound consistent with someone who drafts stuff last minute and doesn't have the time to sufficiently review the work.

I don't think I procrastinate. Most of my mistakes come from quick turn-around assignments, e.g., this case, where the partner asked me this morning to consolidate all the exhibits and get them to him by early afternoon so he could send it to the client.

[Anonymous User]

Do you procrastinate? These errors sound consistent with someone who drafts stuff last minute and doesn't have the time to sufficiently review the work.

This. Also has this made your decision to switch firms more likely?

I think I'll switch firms (a) for a fresh start and (b) because I think I would enjoy the practice more (would be all the practice area I want to do rather than doing an extreme variety of things).

To the second point, I honestly think that's my biggest issue. I'm bottom rung of the totem pole and just get tossed around to an extremely wide variety of assignments. Just this week has involved will contests, tax appeals, foreclosure actions, workers' comp hearings, an ERISA matter, and franchise litigation. IT'S TUESDAY. Tomorrow is going to include drafting a brief in opp in a noncompete case and obtaining a settlement in a collections matter.

I honestly can't keep my head on straight because I'm constantly worried that I'm fucking something up because I'm constantly unfamiliar with the area of law of these assignments. That constant worry leads to distraction, which leads to these dumb errors.

That's my rationale at least, but I'm probably wrong.

[Anonymous User]

I do the same kind of stuff, and FWIW, I see it from the other side of all the time too (including the government, who really should do better). People on TLS tend to be anal, but so are a lot of lawyers. In real time, we have to recognize that you don't always have 30 minutes to re-review, or another morning to "sit on it." Sometimes people ask for shit fast and its not perfect. C'est la vie as far as I'm concerned.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I do the same kind of stuff, and FWIW, I see it from the other side of all the time too (including the government, who really should do better). People on TLS tend to be anal, but so are a lot of lawyers. In real time, we have to recognize that you don't always have 30 minutes to re-review, or another morning to "sit on it." Sometimes people ask for shit fast and its not perfect. C'est la vie as far as I'm concerned.

This makes perfect sense (and I've definitely made my share of errors), but it doesn't really help OP when the errors clearly matter to his bosses, who do think that even shit done fast should be perfect.

[dixiecupdrinking]

I do the same kind of stuff, and FWIW, I see it from the other side of all the time too (including the government, who really should do better). People on TLS tend to be anal, but so are a lot of lawyers. In real time, we have to recognize that you don't always have 30 minutes to re-review, or another morning to "sit on it." Sometimes people ask for shit fast and its not perfect. C'est la vie as far as I'm concerned.

This makes perfect sense (and I've definitely made my share of errors), but it doesn't really help OP when the errors clearly matter to his bosses, who do think that even shit done fast should be perfect.

There's also a difference between details you can flub and things you absolutely need to nail no matter the time pressure. Including the right exhibits, you need to nail. Cut and pasting arguments so they're not repeated, you need to nail. You need to take the extra 15 minutes to get this right, no matter what. Stuff like forgetting to update a caption, minor typos, bluebooking errors... these things people can usually understand in a time crunch.

[Npret]

OP here. Had a good run for about six months and got a really positive year-end review.

And then...like I said in my OP, I finally bit on one of the recruiting emails. The process has taken about three weeks and I just had my interview last Thursday. Seems like the new firm would be a great fit so I hope it works out.

BUT...throughout this process, I've seemingly lost focus and fallen back into my whole of making dumb mistakes. Today, for instance, I turned in a memorandum of law in a tax appeal matter and attached 11 exhibits. Exhibits 9 and 10 were reversed and the partner caught my mistake. He called me into a conference room and was pretty livid about the whole situation because he had scanned what I gave him and sent it to the client.

What gets me about this case is that I have no tax background, and neither does the partner. So I basically taught myself the relevant tax law, drafted a pretty good memorandum of law (that he barely changed), drafted stipulations of evidence, drafted the necessary disclosures, drafted memoranda to the partner with updates, etc. All of this was apparently good work, but this one mistake is all my partner will remember from this entire project.

There have been a couple other mistakes (less mild than this one) and I've just lost all my confidence. Hoping to bounce back tomorrow, but man, I feel dumb.

I'm wondering if you aren't grasping that the mistakes you make are things that matter? This isn't a mild mistake. Also it's one everyone will notice and think you are sloppy.'

You sound defensive about all the good stuff you did. But no one is going to pat you on the head for it necessarily. Doing a lot of stuff well doesn't save you from mistakes. You have to work carefully.

I don't think it will be any different at another firm.