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Shmel

03/08/2008 11:57 AM	Quote Reply
I work in a small firm as a paralegal and I get zero instruction. I'm expected to read minds and have the legal intellect of a senior partner. When I make mistakes or fail to read someone's mind that day, I'm chastized in front of everyone.

Admit *

03/08/2008 01:18 PM	Quote Reply
My supervising attorney tells the partner I didn't do an assignment, meanwhile I did it 2 months ago but she said she was so "swamped" she didn't have time to review it. Never admits she was wrong, and throws me under the bus at every turn.

Bad Day *

03/10/2008 02:07 PM	Quote Reply
Time to create a C.Y.A book and note everything down.

debjame *

03/10/2008 02:41 PM	Quote Reply
Might also be time to start looking for another job. That's exactly what was happening to me on my last job. That, plus attorneys who totally ignored calendar and verbal reminders of upcoming deadlines then charged around like crazy people at the last minute.

BruceW

03/10/2008 08:48 PM	Quote Reply
I usually get chewed out at least once a week because the partner I work for loses various important documents that come in the mail and somehow it's my fault that they are lost in the abyss that is his office.

Grumpy

03/11/2008 05:47 PM	Quote Reply
My employer attorney asks me to lie to his clients. He wants me to lie about the status of the work in progress.

SLS *

03/14/2008 08:03 AM	Quote Reply
Doles out little pieces of the assignment at a time then disappears or gets on the phone for hours in between, leaving me waiting around doing nothing and having to work very late to finish. He enjoys being a puppet master.

Vandy

03/14/2008 02:21 PM	Quote Reply
My employer fired me because a client filed a complaint with the Bar association (prior to my employment) for misdeeds that also took place prior to my employment. Somehow, it became my fault.

Art

03/14/2008 02:26 PM	Quote Reply
Posted By Vandy on 03/14/2008 02:21 PM My employer fired me because a client filed a complaint with the Bar association (prior to my employment) for misdeeds that also took place prior to my employment. Somehow, it became my fault. I am very sorry to hear that Vandy. My previous employer tried to pull that stunt on me too, but he didn't fire me. I left that job anyways..

debjame

03/16/2008 01:04 PM	Quote Reply
Blamers are probably the worst people to work with/for in the legal field. There are attorneys really asking to be reported to the State Bar. Unfortunately, a lot of clients don't know that they have that resource available to them. It's hard to be a support staff person in a situation like that.

Deborah James

sandyr *

03/19/2008 07:23 AM	Quote Reply
I'm so glad to hear that I'm not alone. Reading this actually makes me gratefull for the boss I have. He won't return calls. He blames me for not doing things he dropped the ball on. Sometimes I do my work and put it in the attorney tray to go into his office and two weeks later I'll be in his office looking for something and find docs I finished still sitting there on his desk. He tells me to lie to the clients about things like.... he's out of town for 2 weeks. I don't get it. And really don't understand some of the things he does. I've been with him 10 years though and at least I know we can get along. I don't have that gaurantee if I change jobs. He doesn't like people at all but for some reason he does like me. I'm not young, I'm don't have a figure like trigger. He just decided I was the one he wanted for his paralegal and he came and asked me to go to work for him. I've quit the job several times but he won't hire anyone else. He just waits for me to come back. And no... we don't have a sexual thing. Our relationship is more like brother and sister. Go figure. I sure don't understand it.

04/21/2008 05:19 PM	Quote Reply
Gees....are lawyers really the abusive cretins they sound like? I am just a paralegal student here, but how do you find the decent ones to work for?

WendyNC

Moderator

04/21/2008 06:46 PM	Quote Reply
JR, the nice, routine days with agreeable attorneys, co-workers and clients don't make good stories, but they do constitute the majority of the workdays for many of us.

Wendy Kimbel, ACP, NCCP Paralegal Assistance, Inc. 105 E. Center St., Ste. C Mebane, NC 27302 Phone: 919-967-4495 Fax: 919-304-0743

Hey J.R. *

04/21/2008 11:18 PM	Quote Reply
There are plenty of decent ones out there and if you find a good one stay loyal to them and they will stay loyal to you. Speaking from experience!!

AL *

04/22/2008 10:24 AM	Quote Reply
No, the decent ones are not the majority. Most paralegals are burned out. Attorneys are difficult to work for and have huge inflated egos. You, of course, can find the exceptions. I wish you luck.

Hey J.R. *

04/22/2008 12:54 PM	Quote Reply
I guess I'm lucky....however it does help that I work inhouse! So most outside counsel tend to nice to me!!

Eliyahu

05/02/2008 07:39 PM	Quote Reply
I'm expected to read minds, cover for the boss when he's late (and he's late for everything... doesn't usually get to the office until nearly noon), catch the blame for things he'd buried in the heap of papers called "his desk", transcribe audiotapes that he starts dictating at 4:30 in the afternoon and have them done before leaving (three drafts, of course), and put up with his rudeness in front of clients and other attorneys. I also have to provide much of my own office equipment since he's too tight to pay for anything himself. OTOH, he's going to be shocked when I find another job and take all my stuff with me, since it includes my office chair, printer, most of the cables, all of the productivity software in the computer, all but 512 MB of the RAM in the computer, document sorter, ergo keyboard, telephone table, shredder, bookcase, and all the stuff on my desk. :-) The real question is why I even put up with this for $10 an hour and no benefits? (Well, okay, I do get five days of vacation a year, but that's it.) In a nutshell, I'm sixty years old, partly disabled, and living in a small town with few jobs available and a lot of age bias in the workplace.

Sexy Para.... *

05/13/2008 12:41 PM	Quote Reply
My boss once told me to get off the internet and get back to work!! The nerve!!!

Fired *

05/13/2008 03:56 PM	Quote Reply
Haha! Were you on myspace? I see almost all paralegals from my office on myspace. One even got fired because of that. She didn't even hide it from the partner one day.

Sexy Para... *

05/13/2008 04:05 PM	Quote Reply
Funny enough, I was on paralegalchat.com

Maggie *

05/18/2008 09:52 PM	Quote Reply
I must be very lucky. I work for a medium sized firm and love every moment of it. I guess the head of the firm sets the tone. No one is any better than the other where I work, that includes attys, paralegals, legal assts, receptionist, and process servers. It's a good mix and working as a team, we seem to get things done.

ahamm2006

05/19/2008 01:58 PM	Quote Reply
I've worked with some real class A jerks, but the firm I'm with now is pretty laid back. My boss, who is also one of the partners, used to teach paralegal classes, so she's very patient when I make mistakes (I've only been here for just under 6 months, so I'm not quite out of that adjustment period yet). I first started working as a courier for another local law firm when I was 18. The associate attorney was a real jerk, and one day he called me into his paralegal's office (who I thought had my back at the time), and proceeded to tear me a new one over a UPS overnight that didn't get to the client on time. Apparently it was some multimillion dollar real estate deal, of which no one informed me, and it wasn't even put into my basket until late that afternoon. It was rare that I had to rush them out as soon as they were signed and sealed, and I was always told when it was urgent, except for this particular time. I tried telling him that I have zero control over when the guy in the big brown truck actually picks up the packages, but he just shook his finger in my face and screamed at me and all but called me an idiot to my face. What was worse, was that no one in the firm stood up for me. The partners, of course, were at lunch at the time. I was so upset, I didn't come back to work that following Monday. It was too much crap for $7/hour with no withholding and no paid holidays.

whitm80

06/11/2008 03:18 PM	Quote Reply
Life is too short to put up with attorneys like that. I went through the same thing at my last job and I had to get mean to stick up for myself. Once he saw that I wasn't afraid of him, he backed off like a puppy with his tail between his legs.

debjame *

06/12/2008 01:34 PM	Quote Reply
Glad you found a good place. I'm finally in a firm that I really like. There are late hours but no one has classified me as "exempt" to get around overtime pay. After 27 years, I could write a book about jerks in the legal field. There are still decent attorneys around,

KYParalegal *

08/25/2008 01:08 PM	Quote Reply
Wow! This kind of makes me feel better about my own job! I work for a county agency where the paralegals are often treated as no more than glorified secretaries, but at least we don't have to deal with abuse from our boss!

Newby *

10/16/2008 08:00 AM	Quote Reply
This is great! I am so glad I found this forum! The complaints I had about my last boss (I quit and am now looking for another job) were exactly the same things that I have read about here. I really wondered if it was just me. This was my first real job as a paralegal right out of college, and I started thinking I made a huge mistake! My boss would also drop the ball and then blame me right in front of the clients. I realized fast that this would ruin my reputation as a paralegal and it would be hard to find a job anywhere else, so I finally just quit. He would get the mail, open it up and then throw it (literally) on my desk. He didn't care where it landed! He would ignore my reminders of a task, and then make me scramble to get it done at the last minute. I could be in the middle of an important project that I needed to get done right away, and he would interrupt me and make me type up something for his Rotary Club. Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I had applied for a job as the Rotary club secretary as well! Anyway, what a relief to read all of these comments from everyone. Guess we all have to stick together and stand up!

Lady Litigation *

10/16/2008 03:01 PM	Quote Reply
Interesting all of the responses to this. Most of these items are questionable ethics issues. For my city, I work in a large law firm. Even the more liberal attorneys here are ethical in their actions...and most of them would do something if they saw/heard a paralegal be treated that way. My firm encourages the paralegals to continue education, become certified and registered, etc. Makes for a more effective team when you increase the knowledge and capability of the staff.

Para2 *

10/16/2008 07:59 PM	Quote Reply
Well, some attorneys are assholes.

Hmmmm *

11/10/2008 04:39 PM	Quote Reply
Ya think??? Posted By n/a on 10/16/2008 07:59 PM Well, some attorneys are assholes.

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