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Junior associate, less than one year at my (small) firm. I made a stupid mistake on a discovery subpoena that went out and we had to re-serve it. This means that we’ll get the documents from the subpoenaed entity a few weeks later than we should have. The partner was understandably not happy and I’m freaking out that I’ll get fired tomorrow.

Turd_Ferguson wrote:Junior associate, less than one year at my (small) firm. I made a stupid mistake on a discovery subpoena that went out and we had to re-serve it. This means that we’ll get the documents from the subpoenaed entity a few weeks later than we should have. The partner was understandably not happy and I’m freaking out that I’ll get fired tomorrow.

I mean, mistakes happen, and this is not great but it certainly isn't something an associate is generally fired for the next day... You've been an attorney for less than a year, this stuff sometimes happens. With that said I also don't know the dynamics of the small firm you're at nor how upset the partner actually was.

Just take deep breaths, it doesn't help to freak out about it. Go in the next day and apologize politely once again and explain that you don't expect this to happen again. Then just get back to work and see what happens... For what it's worth I've heard of some worse screw-ups from some people I know and they survived.

So long as the subpoena went out within the discovery deadline, I feel like this is fine... It sucks you won't get the documents a few weeks late (which means it will delay the review, etc.) but this was your first time serving subpoena, assuming the fuck up was in some procedural aspect of it (didn't serve properly?), I can't imagine this leading to a fireable offense. Just don't repeat the same mistake twice. But those are my two cents -- happy for others to chime in.

Lawman1865 wrote:

Turd_Ferguson wrote:Junior associate, less than one year at my (small) firm. I made a stupid mistake on a discovery subpoena that went out and we had to re-serve it. This means that we’ll get the documents from the subpoenaed entity a few weeks later than we should have. The partner was understandably not happy and I’m freaking out that I’ll get fired tomorrow.

I mean, mistakes happen, and this is not great but it certainly isn't something an associate is generally fired for the next day... You've been an attorney for less than a year, this stuff sometimes happens. With that said I also don't know the dynamics of the small firm you're at nor how upset the partner actually was.

Just take deep breaths, it doesn't help to freak out about it. Go in the next day and apologize politely once again and explain that you don't expect this to happen again. Then just get back to work and see what happens... For what it's worth I've heard of some worse screw-ups from some people I know and they survived.

The partner was out of the office so he just sent me an email to the effect of “this is not ok, fix it”. He could have called and chewed me out so that’s something. The firm is generally not hyper-demanding and my work has been good otherwise but I’m just worried.

Turd_Ferguson wrote:

Lawman1865 wrote:

Turd_Ferguson wrote:Junior associate, less than one year at my (small) firm. I made a stupid mistake on a discovery subpoena that went out and we had to re-serve it. This means that we’ll get the documents from the subpoenaed entity a few weeks later than we should have. The partner was understandably not happy and I’m freaking out that I’ll get fired tomorrow.

I mean, mistakes happen, and this is not great but it certainly isn't something an associate is generally fired for the next day... You've been an attorney for less than a year, this stuff sometimes happens. With that said I also don't know the dynamics of the small firm you're at nor how upset the partner actually was.

Just take deep breaths, it doesn't help to freak out about it. Go in the next day and apologize politely once again and explain that you don't expect this to happen again. Then just get back to work and see what happens... For what it's worth I've heard of some worse screw-ups from some people I know and they survived.

The partner was out of the office so he just sent me an email to the effect of “this is not ok, fix it”. He could have called and chewed me out so that’s something. The firm is generally not hyper-demanding and my work has been good otherwise but I’m just worried.

It sounds like you screwed up, the partner (rightfully) was stern for you to get on it and fix the situation, but that's all. Like you said, he could've called you. Obviously there's no guarantee, there's plenty of crazy partners out there, but this sounds like you should be fine. Just go in the next day, offer a sincere apology, explain that this won't happen again, and get back to work. Gotta roll with the punches. Hope it works out.

Turd_Ferguson wrote:

Lawman1865 wrote:

Turd_Ferguson wrote:Junior associate, less than one year at my (small) firm. I made a stupid mistake on a discovery subpoena that went out and we had to re-serve it. This means that we’ll get the documents from the subpoenaed entity a few weeks later than we should have. The partner was understandably not happy and I’m freaking out that I’ll get fired tomorrow.

I mean, mistakes happen, and this is not great but it certainly isn't something an associate is generally fired for the next day... You've been an attorney for less than a year, this stuff sometimes happens. With that said I also don't know the dynamics of the small firm you're at nor how upset the partner actually was.

Just take deep breaths, it doesn't help to freak out about it. Go in the next day and apologize politely once again and explain that you don't expect this to happen again. Then just get back to work and see what happens... For what it's worth I've heard of some worse screw-ups from some people I know and they survived.

The partner was out of the office so he just sent me an email to the effect of “this is not ok, fix it”. He could have called and chewed me out so that’s something. The firm is generally not hyper-demanding and my work has been good otherwise but I’m just worried.

In the grand scheme of things, "This is not ok. Fix it," is not bad. You'll be fine and it won't happen again.

Turd_Ferguson wrote:Junior associate, less than one year at my (small) firm. I made a stupid mistake on a discovery subpoena that went out and we had to re-serve it. This means that we’ll get the documents from the subpoenaed entity a few weeks later than we should have. The partner was understandably not happy and I’m freaking out that I’ll get fired tomorrow.

Depends on the mistake. I think you should be ok as long as you didn’t miss a deadline. However, who knows with smaller law firms... In my experience you can get fired the next day for almost anything.

As long as you're still within the discovery deadline, you're fine. No real prejudice here. Learn to slow things down a bit and take time to triple check everything before it goes out. As a 5th year I'm amazed that I still catch shit on a second or third review.

When it comes to low-hanging fruit mistakes (i.e., stupid mistakes that you know you shouldn't have made), they happen to all of us now and then. The key is to not let it happen again.

Your mistake is not that bad, just don’t fuck up the same thing again.

Usually discovery and response deadlines get kicked a few times. Don’t worry about this. Depending on how adversarial it is they may just accept a corrected subpoena.

You will also learn that you will work with seniors who will catch everything and some don’t. The person that you are working with may be in the later category if he reviewed your work and didn’t catch it.

Happens to the best of us. Feel bad for a couple of days, then move on. But don't do it again.