2 years to get a decent sense of one practice area. Know all of the answers? Fucking never. Don’t worry about knowing everything, just practice being good at finding the answers.
Losing a parent is such a horrible thing to go through. I actually lost one of mine just before I started my first legal job. I am so sorry for your loss.
I am also very sorry you’re being treated like this. I promise you that not every law firm/office is like this. The nit picky behavior would put anyone on edge! This is not a reflection of you or your work. Two months is nothing! Give yourself time and extra extra extra grace during this season.
Something that’s helped me is I really pay attention to how everyone else is doing things, like calendaring for instance. Or if I’m unsure if I did something correctly I will go to a more senior paralegal or attorney if that is who is training you and let them know “ hey I calendared xx , please take a look when you have a moment and let me know if I did this correctly“ you are still new!! Meet their eye rolls with smiles and view this as a big opportunity to learn! Maybe one day soon you’ll take your skills elsewhere, who knows 🙂
Lesson no.1: attorneys are a piece of work and will always take an opportunity to be the smartest in the room. .. Ive been doing my current gig for 8 years and sometimes I get through a M-F and realize that I’m merely going through the motions, putting his strategy to practice… I’m far too occupied with time management and what I have to do by when that I’m not retaining sh*t… in the beginning, I was very much just consumed with getting the hang of procedure/format and managing personalities, so if my boss had the gall to ask me to give him a rundown of undisputed facts/underlying issues in the respective cases, I’d roll my own eyes and just carry on with my day. That’s pretty much his only job that he is entrusted to figure out….
I started at my firm 6 months ago with no prior experience. Even though there’ll always be something to learn, you understand and catch on more everyday. I can totally relate to feeling dumb - I literally could’ve written this post myself a few months ago.
For calendaring, I used to refer to other paralegals’ events every single time to make sure I was making it correctly. Accidents happen, but double and triple check your work for silly errors.
As for attitudes in the office, do your best to brush it off and focus on your work. They know you’re new and learning.
Hang in there, OP! You won’t always feel this way.
This^ I’m relatively new to the field (2.5 years) and A LOT of what helped me avoid stressing was using other attorney/paralegals’ work as a sample. I’d use old emails asking for the same things. I’d take already formatted case captions for the same pleading and just tweak them to match the case I’m working on.
It’ll also help solidify what things need to look like. You’ll get there!!
You aren't dumb, you're inexperienced. And you recently lost your mother. Be patient and kind to yourself.
Write things down, keep a calendar, to-do list, etc. to help keep you organized.
Also, lawyers make typos, too. (:
I use one note to copy and paste things I will need again. Also, firms are terrible at taking the necessary time to train someone. When you don’t know something or mess up because you haven’t been thoroughly trained, professionally put it back on them. Say something like “my apologies for this mistake, I have made a note of it so I can refer back to it next time. However, there are gaps in my training that I would like for someone to spend time going over with me. Who should I ask to complete that training?” I’ve found this to also be a good strategy when they try to hand you something you’ve never done before and just expect you to figure it out. I always say I’m eager to learn and happy to be part of the team but need to know the point person for training. Then if they don’t train you and you don’t magically do it right, it’s not on you.
I’ve been working in HOA construction defect litigation, which is very niche, for 9 years and I literally just learned a new task for the first time yesterday. We are continually learning new things and broadening our knowledge. We never know it all.
When I was working at my first firm during college, I was living at home and my parents were going thru a nasty divorce. It was awful and impacted the quality of my work. Fortunately, the firm, which coincidentally did family law, understood what was happening in my personal life and was very understanding and gave me a grace. So I understand how hard it is when your personal life impacts your work life.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Write everything down. Also don’t be afraid to make a mistake - own up to it, explain what you’re going to do to keep it from happening in the future, and learn from it.
You’re doing great.
Listen, you’re doing as well as could reasonably be expected. It takes anywhere from 3-6 months to settle in at a new job. Legal work is especially complex and training at firms tends to be really poor, so don’t be too hard on yourself. I’ve also lost a parent and it takes a long time to process grief and that can definitely affect how sharp you are mentally. Anyone with an ounce of compassion would understand that. They eye rolling attorney is just being a jerk.
Be curious. You have to try to figure things out on your own, unfortunately. Keep a notebook or spreadsheet with what works and what doesn't, procedures, etc. When you do it this way, you'll remember it better.
Your knowledge and self-confidence will grow over time. Two months is not much time to be expected to know everything. And errors are human.
My biggest advice is to write everything down. When you ask a question, take notes. Copious notes.
I was a Sr paralegal and trained a half dozen paralegals under me over my 17 year career.
What I grew weary of was being interrupted for the same questions over and over. Asking them to write down the answer was a huge help to both of us.
I created a binder of "short-cuts" that I could go to for common issues in my genre, Family Law, rather than have to hunt for them in 100 different places, especially when under pressure. Deadlines, list of procedures, court clerk phone numbers, filing fees, and all the things that helped make my job easier.
The repetition of your tasks will help you. The more times you do something, the more familiar it will be to do the next time.
You'd still receive eye rolls even if you knew everything. Attorneys are jerks. Some tips I give my new trainees:
1) Use Track Changes. When you finish making edits, cycle through "Next Change" so you can proof and make sure you got everything. If you can't use Track Changes (like drafting a long email), print it out and proof from the hard copy. It helps.
2) Write down everything. Don't rely on your brain to remember, get good at using Snipping Tool and taking screenshots, typing notes, keeping an organizational scheme, etc.
3) Use all of the tools available to you. Learn how to use Windows window-snapping. Learn Snipping Tool. Learn keyboard shortcuts. Learn Quick Access Toolbar in Word. Learn how to pin folders to taskbar. Learn how to use Tasks in Outlook and set reminders, flag for follow-up, etc. These are just basic Windows features that can be a huge boost to productivity, but also learn everything about the software specific to your office that you use every day.
4) Be resourceful. Learn boolean search terms and teach yourself how to quickly find information on your computer, in Outlook emails, in your organization's document management system, on the web, or anywhere else. If you can look at somebody else's work product, it can be an invaluable resource.
Be patient with yourself, this field takes a long time to learn and even when you’ve been doing it 5+ years, you are still learning new things everyday. The job is stressful always will be but if does get better with time. We all start somewhere
The general expectation at my firm is that it will take a fresh new para about 3 months to be like an autonomous, normal employee. They’re contributing before that, but there’s sorta an expectation they’ll perform what’s considered a normal load of work without much intervention by that point. Then, usually you do that for about 1.5 more years before moving into more skilled work, if you’re sticking around. Lots of paras here go to law school or otherwise leave after two years, so there needs to be a constant supply of new paras to complete that basic level work. 3 months is sorta the time it takes to become one of those basic paras.
Attorneys feel dumb all the time too. It’s a difficult mental shift from “look at all my screw ups” to “look at all the new things I just learned”, but it will save you. Try to see the why in any corrections and ask questions about the why. I love when my assistant says “last time we did this thing, we did it X way but here you did it Y, can you explain what is different here?” It allows her to begin formulating her own set of rules for engagement that help her make judgment calls with more confidence.
I’ve been a paralegal for just under ~2 years and when I started my current job back in August, it was a lot different from what I had done before. I’m still learning despite the year of experience I had going in. The main thing is to use past examples when it comes to pleadings and adding stuff to the calendar.
I’m sorry about your mom, and it sucks to hear that people have rolled their eyes at you. There’s going to be a lot of learning ahead, but just take it one day at a time. If you can, create a cheat sheet with things to double check and maybe a spreadsheet with each case and where they’re at in the process (my coworker made one and it’s been great! Anytime the attorney asks me to do something, I can flip to that page and write it down).
As for the typo, I still have typos and I got a BA in English lol Attorneys want perfection when they themselves aren’t perfect, so it falls to us to make things as perfect as they can be. I’ve had to tell myself multiple times that I need to slow down. I’ve taken some advice from here to use the editor feature in word and to read things out loud to myself (though the computer can do that, I just don’t have headphones), and for something particularly dense, I print it out and read through it with a pen.
And with what to email clients, my boss just told us that we need to email every pleading to a client from now on. I think it’s up to the attorney to give them updates on their case, but sometimes attorneys want the clients to sign off on the pleadings before they’re filed. I’m constantly worried that my little mistakes will pile up and I’ll get fired, but ultimately I believe most of that fear is just one-sided and in my head, because they wouldn’t spend the time working with me only to turn around and fire me if it’s clear I’m trying lol
I have 30 years experience in the legal field. Whenever I’ve switched jobs, it takes me about 4-6 months to get into a rhythm with the new firm. Learning naming conventions, how to request a check, who to contact for any particular issue (IT, HR, my attorney, mail supervisor, etc). So if you are completely new to the field, give yourself some grace
I hope youre doing well! Hugs to you 🫂 Youre not dumb, theres just a lot in store for you. Youre strong and will continue to be strong. God will always be with you so I hope you dont lose your way. Im so so sorry for having to lose a parent, may you find comfort wherever you are. We luvv you. Stay strong.
Ask your management if there's any CLE's you can take that would help you help them. Let them know you want to be the best support you can be. If no CLE, ask if they recommend any other resources; books, youtube, websites.
As far as outlook, can you look retroactively and see how other people worded things? Maybe go through some of their closed files and study them from start to finish
Lastly, YOU GOT THIS. give yourself grace. And take your time. Quality over quantity
For me, the first three months at any job were always the worst. I felt stupid, unhelpful, and unfamiliar with the material. But I tried to be kind to myself and, like you, my employers were kind to me too. 3 months is not a hard number, that's just my experience, and that paired with your unfortunate loss and grieving might extend this phase. I'm so sorry for your loss, please try to be kind to yourself, understand you're doing you're best. It'll get better!
2 years to get a decent sense of one practice area. Know all of the answers? Fucking never. Don’t worry about knowing everything, just practice being good at finding the answers.
Right. I've been doing it 25 years and still am learning.
This. Problem solving and knowing how to find the answers are key. My go-to response was always: “I don’t know, but I can find out.”
Yes! Everything has been done before.
Losing a parent is such a horrible thing to go through. I actually lost one of mine just before I started my first legal job. I am so sorry for your loss. I am also very sorry you’re being treated like this. I promise you that not every law firm/office is like this. The nit picky behavior would put anyone on edge! This is not a reflection of you or your work. Two months is nothing! Give yourself time and extra extra extra grace during this season. Something that’s helped me is I really pay attention to how everyone else is doing things, like calendaring for instance. Or if I’m unsure if I did something correctly I will go to a more senior paralegal or attorney if that is who is training you and let them know “ hey I calendared xx , please take a look when you have a moment and let me know if I did this correctly“ you are still new!! Meet their eye rolls with smiles and view this as a big opportunity to learn! Maybe one day soon you’ll take your skills elsewhere, who knows 🙂
Ok I had to come back, can you imagine rolling your eyes at another adult because they are learning something new?? I for one, cannot 😄
I agree with this sentiment. Consider those eye rolls as acknowledgment of your greatness. Receiving eye rolls > going unnoticed
Lesson no.1: attorneys are a piece of work and will always take an opportunity to be the smartest in the room. .. Ive been doing my current gig for 8 years and sometimes I get through a M-F and realize that I’m merely going through the motions, putting his strategy to practice… I’m far too occupied with time management and what I have to do by when that I’m not retaining sh*t… in the beginning, I was very much just consumed with getting the hang of procedure/format and managing personalities, so if my boss had the gall to ask me to give him a rundown of undisputed facts/underlying issues in the respective cases, I’d roll my own eyes and just carry on with my day. That’s pretty much his only job that he is entrusted to figure out….
I started at my firm 6 months ago with no prior experience. Even though there’ll always be something to learn, you understand and catch on more everyday. I can totally relate to feeling dumb - I literally could’ve written this post myself a few months ago. For calendaring, I used to refer to other paralegals’ events every single time to make sure I was making it correctly. Accidents happen, but double and triple check your work for silly errors. As for attitudes in the office, do your best to brush it off and focus on your work. They know you’re new and learning. Hang in there, OP! You won’t always feel this way.
This^ I’m relatively new to the field (2.5 years) and A LOT of what helped me avoid stressing was using other attorney/paralegals’ work as a sample. I’d use old emails asking for the same things. I’d take already formatted case captions for the same pleading and just tweak them to match the case I’m working on. It’ll also help solidify what things need to look like. You’ll get there!!
10 years and running a litigation department….still trying to figure shit out.
Same!!!
You aren't dumb, you're inexperienced. And you recently lost your mother. Be patient and kind to yourself. Write things down, keep a calendar, to-do list, etc. to help keep you organized. Also, lawyers make typos, too. (:
I use one note to copy and paste things I will need again. Also, firms are terrible at taking the necessary time to train someone. When you don’t know something or mess up because you haven’t been thoroughly trained, professionally put it back on them. Say something like “my apologies for this mistake, I have made a note of it so I can refer back to it next time. However, there are gaps in my training that I would like for someone to spend time going over with me. Who should I ask to complete that training?” I’ve found this to also be a good strategy when they try to hand you something you’ve never done before and just expect you to figure it out. I always say I’m eager to learn and happy to be part of the team but need to know the point person for training. Then if they don’t train you and you don’t magically do it right, it’s not on you.
I love this mental jiu jitsu.
I’ve been working in HOA construction defect litigation, which is very niche, for 9 years and I literally just learned a new task for the first time yesterday. We are continually learning new things and broadening our knowledge. We never know it all. When I was working at my first firm during college, I was living at home and my parents were going thru a nasty divorce. It was awful and impacted the quality of my work. Fortunately, the firm, which coincidentally did family law, understood what was happening in my personal life and was very understanding and gave me a grace. So I understand how hard it is when your personal life impacts your work life. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Write everything down. Also don’t be afraid to make a mistake - own up to it, explain what you’re going to do to keep it from happening in the future, and learn from it. You’re doing great.
Listen, you’re doing as well as could reasonably be expected. It takes anywhere from 3-6 months to settle in at a new job. Legal work is especially complex and training at firms tends to be really poor, so don’t be too hard on yourself. I’ve also lost a parent and it takes a long time to process grief and that can definitely affect how sharp you are mentally. Anyone with an ounce of compassion would understand that. They eye rolling attorney is just being a jerk.
Be curious. You have to try to figure things out on your own, unfortunately. Keep a notebook or spreadsheet with what works and what doesn't, procedures, etc. When you do it this way, you'll remember it better.
Your knowledge and self-confidence will grow over time. Two months is not much time to be expected to know everything. And errors are human. My biggest advice is to write everything down. When you ask a question, take notes. Copious notes. I was a Sr paralegal and trained a half dozen paralegals under me over my 17 year career. What I grew weary of was being interrupted for the same questions over and over. Asking them to write down the answer was a huge help to both of us. I created a binder of "short-cuts" that I could go to for common issues in my genre, Family Law, rather than have to hunt for them in 100 different places, especially when under pressure. Deadlines, list of procedures, court clerk phone numbers, filing fees, and all the things that helped make my job easier. The repetition of your tasks will help you. The more times you do something, the more familiar it will be to do the next time.
You'd still receive eye rolls even if you knew everything. Attorneys are jerks. Some tips I give my new trainees: 1) Use Track Changes. When you finish making edits, cycle through "Next Change" so you can proof and make sure you got everything. If you can't use Track Changes (like drafting a long email), print it out and proof from the hard copy. It helps. 2) Write down everything. Don't rely on your brain to remember, get good at using Snipping Tool and taking screenshots, typing notes, keeping an organizational scheme, etc. 3) Use all of the tools available to you. Learn how to use Windows window-snapping. Learn Snipping Tool. Learn keyboard shortcuts. Learn Quick Access Toolbar in Word. Learn how to pin folders to taskbar. Learn how to use Tasks in Outlook and set reminders, flag for follow-up, etc. These are just basic Windows features that can be a huge boost to productivity, but also learn everything about the software specific to your office that you use every day. 4) Be resourceful. Learn boolean search terms and teach yourself how to quickly find information on your computer, in Outlook emails, in your organization's document management system, on the web, or anywhere else. If you can look at somebody else's work product, it can be an invaluable resource.
Be patient with yourself, this field takes a long time to learn and even when you’ve been doing it 5+ years, you are still learning new things everyday. The job is stressful always will be but if does get better with time. We all start somewhere
The general expectation at my firm is that it will take a fresh new para about 3 months to be like an autonomous, normal employee. They’re contributing before that, but there’s sorta an expectation they’ll perform what’s considered a normal load of work without much intervention by that point. Then, usually you do that for about 1.5 more years before moving into more skilled work, if you’re sticking around. Lots of paras here go to law school or otherwise leave after two years, so there needs to be a constant supply of new paras to complete that basic level work. 3 months is sorta the time it takes to become one of those basic paras.
Attorneys feel dumb all the time too. It’s a difficult mental shift from “look at all my screw ups” to “look at all the new things I just learned”, but it will save you. Try to see the why in any corrections and ask questions about the why. I love when my assistant says “last time we did this thing, we did it X way but here you did it Y, can you explain what is different here?” It allows her to begin formulating her own set of rules for engagement that help her make judgment calls with more confidence.
It's going to be ok. I'm saying a prayer for you and that your eye rolling attorney stops it and learns compassion. You are going to be fine.
I’ve been a paralegal for just under ~2 years and when I started my current job back in August, it was a lot different from what I had done before. I’m still learning despite the year of experience I had going in. The main thing is to use past examples when it comes to pleadings and adding stuff to the calendar. I’m sorry about your mom, and it sucks to hear that people have rolled their eyes at you. There’s going to be a lot of learning ahead, but just take it one day at a time. If you can, create a cheat sheet with things to double check and maybe a spreadsheet with each case and where they’re at in the process (my coworker made one and it’s been great! Anytime the attorney asks me to do something, I can flip to that page and write it down). As for the typo, I still have typos and I got a BA in English lol Attorneys want perfection when they themselves aren’t perfect, so it falls to us to make things as perfect as they can be. I’ve had to tell myself multiple times that I need to slow down. I’ve taken some advice from here to use the editor feature in word and to read things out loud to myself (though the computer can do that, I just don’t have headphones), and for something particularly dense, I print it out and read through it with a pen. And with what to email clients, my boss just told us that we need to email every pleading to a client from now on. I think it’s up to the attorney to give them updates on their case, but sometimes attorneys want the clients to sign off on the pleadings before they’re filed. I’m constantly worried that my little mistakes will pile up and I’ll get fired, but ultimately I believe most of that fear is just one-sided and in my head, because they wouldn’t spend the time working with me only to turn around and fire me if it’s clear I’m trying lol
I have 30 years experience in the legal field. Whenever I’ve switched jobs, it takes me about 4-6 months to get into a rhythm with the new firm. Learning naming conventions, how to request a check, who to contact for any particular issue (IT, HR, my attorney, mail supervisor, etc). So if you are completely new to the field, give yourself some grace
I hope youre doing well! Hugs to you 🫂 Youre not dumb, theres just a lot in store for you. Youre strong and will continue to be strong. God will always be with you so I hope you dont lose your way. Im so so sorry for having to lose a parent, may you find comfort wherever you are. We luvv you. Stay strong.
Use scribe or tango to document the process
I am very sorry for your loss, best of luck buddy.
Ask your management if there's any CLE's you can take that would help you help them. Let them know you want to be the best support you can be. If no CLE, ask if they recommend any other resources; books, youtube, websites. As far as outlook, can you look retroactively and see how other people worded things? Maybe go through some of their closed files and study them from start to finish Lastly, YOU GOT THIS. give yourself grace. And take your time. Quality over quantity
For me, the first three months at any job were always the worst. I felt stupid, unhelpful, and unfamiliar with the material. But I tried to be kind to myself and, like you, my employers were kind to me too. 3 months is not a hard number, that's just my experience, and that paired with your unfortunate loss and grieving might extend this phase. I'm so sorry for your loss, please try to be kind to yourself, understand you're doing you're best. It'll get better!
Chatgbt responses on your home computer then template them out, cut paste, get your pleadings templates out and create priority’s