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Anyone have issues with reading your partner's handwriting? I'll get revision after revision after revision of absolutely ridiculous edits and then edits of those edits in handwriting that is simply unreadable. The partner gets frustrated when you ask him what his handwriting says but it's just terrible.

This may be one of the most infuriating parts of my job. Open the word document and make your changes you god damn boomer. It's literally unethical to bill a client 3.5 hours in revisions to a one page letter on a topic that is not important (and yes, I'm sure the partner is intentionally juicing every minute they can out of the client by doing this).

Any advice on how to deal with this?

Anonymous User wrote:Anyone have issues with reading your partner's handwriting? I'll get revision after revision after revision of absolutely ridiculous edits and then edits of those edits in handwriting that is simply unreadable. The partner gets frustrated when you ask him what his handwriting says but it's just terrible.

This may be one of the most infuriating parts of my job. Open the word document and make your changes you god damn boomer. It's literally unethical to bill a client 3.5 hours in revisions to a one page letter on a topic that is not important (and yes, I'm sure the partner is intentionally juicing every minute they can out of the client by doing this).

Any advice on how to deal with this?

I just wanted to note that I WAY prefer hand mark-ups. Allows me to catch better what's actually changed, and no one can "accidentally" forget to track some changes (it's the worst trying to hunt down who made a stupid change and didn't track it).

As for advice, find another attorney who works with the partner a lot (associate level), and ask them for handwriting clarifications. They have experience with it, and can probably resolve 90% of issues without you ever having to ask the partner.

OP here. . .

Yeah I typically go to other associates and the legal assistants. But, I literally have to ask about every single thing. It's not just the actual handwriting, it's the way he rearranges everything and draws lines and arrows across the paper and expects people to understand what he wants. Then he edits his own edits. What should take ten minutes on a word document becomes an hour ordeal of deciphering this crap.

I'm at the point where when he gives me a revision, I am going to have him explain it and take out a notepad and copy verbatim what he says so he sees how dumb this is.

Ask their Secretary.