Secretaries Are from Mars, Partners from Venus

Some of us have long been tired of reports about women dissing other women, but now comes an ABA Journal report that female secretaries are not quite as keen about working for female partners as for male ones: Not One Legal Secretary Surveyed Preferred Working with Women Partners; Prof Offers Reasons Why. 

Men, women, or other lawyers can be challenging personalities to work for all the way around. They are driven, hard-working, intense. They don’t really engage in a lot of hand holding with their staffs. They expect their workers to be as competent and professional and motivated as they are. Instead of complaining about how some partners are more emotional, shrill, or demanding than others, figure out a way to make the workplace exciting and fun for you. Some tips are in my book under Working with Lawyers (Chapter 7). 

Good Lawyering/Good Managing: What’s the Difference?

Failure and success. The news is all too full of sad stories of law firm implosions. Here is one recent example: “Portland Firm Tells Ex-Shareholders Full Repayment of Capital Must Wait.”

Decent training in law office management does make a difference. See Contemporary Law Office Management chapter 2 on Why Do Law Firms Break Up? and chapter 9 on Money Management.

 

Precision Billing

When I was in law school, I could never quite believe how some of the parties in the cases we would read had gotten themselves into such thorny dilemmas. Even though my school years are long past, I am still sometimes astonished that even very big players in the legal establishment sometimes trip up. Take, for example, this recent report that four Am Law 100 firms are having some $8.1 million in fees for legal work for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) questioned for—of all reasons—insufficiently detailed bills. Two bills—adding up to a half-million dollars’ worth of work—allegedly just specified the dollar amount owed without additional clarification. Maybe everyone was too busy saving the economy to keep track of their time? Er, maybe not.

Maybe the lawyers at these firms should just read Chapter 9 of my book, which explains how to prepare a well-crafted bill with sufficient detail.

Why This? Why Now?

Colleagues ask why I chose to write a textbook on law office management. It is not the only course I have taught to paralegal and legal studies students over the years. Why not something on legal research? Law and society? Legal writing? Those are other topics that I am passionate about, but I focused on law office management because I saw a need. As a freelance journalist, I have been covering the business of law for some time. I appreciate the incredible satisfaction that employment in this field can bring. I also recognize and understand the pressures and challenges lawyers and those who work for them face every day.

Too often, textbook authors portray an idealized, tranquil workplace. I write about a real one: with ups, downs, challenges, victories, passions, tempers, moral dilemmas. Read other books if you want to learn about utopian work settings. Read mine if you want to learn about real ones. I love lawyers: They are gritty, committed, hard working, intense. Those who work for them can experience career thrills like none other. Really, nothing beats winning. But legal battles can be long and draining. Not every case turns out as the client would like. Day-to-day oversight of a legal business and strategizing about client matters take long hours. Business peaks and ebbs.

Contemporary Law Office Management will help legal studies and paralegal students negotiate the sometimes bumpy, sometimes smooth, sometimes life-altering terrain of the legal industry. Lawyers and their intellectual endeavors can be electrifying. I hope that every student who uses my book appreciates the delights the legal field can bring to many who are involved in it. I also hope that students, on more challenging days, can rely on the guidance provided by this book to maintain their own career satisfaction. I also hope that students and instructors alike can continue their discussions about the legal workplace here. I look forward to sharing experiences and ideas.