Tips for Working in a Law Firm

welcome back to another video guys as promised I've created a list of tips that I would give anybody who is thinking about joining the legal industry or who is currently working in the legal industry and just wants to watch this video for fun I'm going to jump right into it because I do have a lot to say the first tip that I have on this sheet is to establish who you want to be working in an office with a lot of attorneys means that you are going to be surrounded by a lot of people who have very big egos so you need to know who you are you need to know how to set boundaries you need to know how to put your foot down you cannot let people walk all over you there's a very fine line between being very nice and being a person who gets walked all over figure out how you can create the perfect balance between being firm and also being a pleasant person to work with what I mean is when you are suggesting something that you think will benefit the firm or you want to bring something up to the attorney don't say things in a questioning voice don't make yourself sound unsure of yourself you want to say things with a sword of affirmative tone for example if you know that you filed something and there's a lot of question around it don't go up to the attorney and say um I think that I felt that but I'm not sure that's not how you want to say it you want to approach things with a sort of confidence you want to say i e filed this last Tuesday we don't have to worry about it we're good to go I promise you that if you are confident in yourself and if you are sure in yourself if you believe yourself 110 when you were saying things to other people they're gonna start believing you too and they're gonna have so much more respect for you than if you are saying things in a super nice tone all the time unsure of yourself doubting yourself this isn't to say that you can't be nice being nice and being somebody people respect are not mutually exclusive you can be both there's just a very fine line that you have to learn how to navigate I know when I started this job I was the super nice girl who kind of said things just to make other people feel better but now I've done a complete 180 I'm more sure in myself if I need to question somebody on something I will if I need to bring something up to somebody they didn't do something they had to do I will because that is who I've established that I want to be I want to be somebody people respect I want to be somebody people listen to and I am and not putting myself below other people so I'm not going to keep jogging that one out but I think it's the most important thing that you can bring to any job but especially to affirm you have to just right off the bat establish who you are make sure that people know that and make sure people respect you the second tip I have is to be as inquisitive as you can be master your domain try to be another attorney I mean if if you're trying to be a paralegal try to exemplify how you would act if you were also an attorney in The Firm try to learn as much as you can about the law about what your firm practices so that you can also be a role model and eventually show your boss if you want to become a lawyer that you have what it takes to be hired on as a lawyer after you finish law school let's say that your end goal is to be a paralegal and that's where you want to stop you will be a lot happier being a paralegal if you know what you're talking about clients will have so much more respect for you they will look up to you they will come to you for questions there's truly not a better feeling in the world than knowing what you're talking about it's very easy to pass by in a job not knowing everything and just knowing what you have to know and doing the bare minimum but I don't think that you're gonna enjoy the job as much if you're kind of just passing by it's the same thing as when you're in school it's much more fulfilling to study a subject when you are a master of that subject then you truly enjoy it and you want to know as much as you can you go to the office hours you tutor your friends not only will it be more fulfilling if you are more inquisitive and you learn more things but you're also building value in yourself and and let's say you want to move to another firm well you're not just bringing yourself you're also bringing all of that extra knowledge that you went out of your way to collect from the attorneys that is number two is the inquisitive the third tip that I have is to acknowledge and understand that there are going to be a lot of people in the legal profession who will deter you from continuing to be in the legal profession or from even joining the legal profession small Side Story I went to an event that was for young lawyers obviously I'm not a lawyer but I went just because I wanted to meet lawyers I wanted to ask them questions get some inspiration from them see how they did it and ask out for any advice more than half of the attorneys that I met that day were all telling me not to become an attorney which is crazy because you'd think that if somebody is reaching out to you asking for advice you'd want to be as encouraging as you could be and Inspire them to keep going and tell them to do the thing and get motivated they were all telling me don't do this this is not what you want to do trust me you're going to be in debt you're going to hate your life you're always going to be working this that and the other but guys do not let them get to you if you know that you want to become an attorney and you are super passionate about it it's all you've ever wanted to do you watch trials on end you look up case law for fun don't let them get to your head especially if they work with you there's going to be a lot of people who are going to try to put you down and steer you into a different path but you have to be strong and you have to know yourself know what you want to do and actually tell them thank you for your perspective I appreciate it but I actually am really passionate about this is what I'd say and even in the workplace as well not not my own attorney but I have worked with people who do not want to work here and they no longer work here but they really hated working here and every day they would tell me you know I really don't want to do this I I don't like doing it which is fine you know it just wasn't for them if I had let it get to me I would have just been like you know what I have a degree in economics let me go become an economist but then that would have resulted in 80 years of misery just because I let other people affect how I feel about something on top of that before I wrap that one up if you're working for a defense firm and you're talking to the plaintiff they're gonna be super mean to you and they're gonna act like they're having the worst day of their life every time you speak to them you can't let that get to you either you have to kill them with kindness I was literally how can I say this what is it um there was a girl who's being super passive aggressive to me a few months ago via email and told her thank you I hope you have the day that you deserve my response was a little passive aggressive as well but genuinely if she wants to treat people like dirt have the day you deserve the fourth tip that I have is that you should always admit to your mistakes especially working for an attorney with deadlines every attorney has deadlines if you make a mistake you better tell the attorney right away unless you know how to fix yourself and even then you should still tell the attorney why because that could very well be the reason why his case falls through and then you're going to be in even bigger trouble than that little mistake that you had initially gotten yourself into so always always admit your mistakes and don't repeat the mistake it's as simple as that nobody is perfect I assure you every attorney has made mistakes themselves everybody in that office that you work in or that you will be working in has made mistakes it's just a human natural thing know when you're wrong admit to it fix it don't repeat the mistake doesn't mean that you're stupid doesn't mean that you're less than anybody else just means that you weren't paying attention something that I do whenever I make mistakes it's not to say that I make them a lot but whenever they do happen I make a habit of writing them down I sticking out them on my computer or somewhere where I can see them every day and I make sure that until I remember to not repeat the mistake then I will take it off whenever I have that ingrained in my brain I take the signal off and I throw it away but I have that I look at it every day the last tip that I have is to never assume anything and this goes hand in hand with making mistakes for example if there is a mediation set your co-worker is not coming the next day and you know that the client needs to have the zoom information never assume that the client already has Zoom information it is so much better to just send the client the zoom information for a second time and assure that they can get onto the mediation Zoom then assume that the person that's out that day had already sent this makes everything more complicated if you assume that somebody has information when they really don't it can also apply on something your attorney has to do let's say five days ago he sent you an email I have to write this in five days put it on your calendar be the person who's on top of it remind so and so that they have to write this due in five days from mine a paralegal stands for Legal Assistant you want to be the assistant to your attorney you know what I'm saying so you're never being annoying reminding them of things if they haven't done awesome if they don't have it done well you just save their day now you look really good it will completely set you up for success I have a longer list here I decided to only do five tips because we're already running kind of long over time and these videos do take a little bit to upload that's why I keep them to 10 minutes but if you guys want me to continue this list let me know and I will but those are the most important tips that I thought were worthy of being in this video so I hope you guys appreciated the tips that I had to share and that they help you in some way thank you so much for watching

Channel: The Legal Diaries

Views: 12,468

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Id: MGHbr24fF_4

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 21 2022