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BY: ANN PETTIGREW
It’s 4:45 on Friday afternoon. Your only daughter’s wedding is tomorrow, and the rehearsal dinner is set for 7:00 at your house. It takes forty-five minutes to get from the office to your house. Are you with me?
Just then, the attorney you work for comes over to your desk and says that the brief you worked on and gave to him last week — you know, the one that doesn’t have to be filed until next Friday — needs to be revised right now because the senior partner wants to review the draft over the weekend. And the senior partner is leaving at 5:30. You force a smile, take the brief from the attorney, and quickly peruse it while he’s talking. Each paragraph is going to move to another location. He has scrawled illegible changes on every single page. He has even printed out pages from a different brief and numbered certain sections for insertion into your brief. The coup de grace? He looks you dead in the eye and says: “While you get started on those revisions, I’m going to run across the street to Starbucks to get a mocha latte. Can you get those changes done before you leave?”
You have three seconds to respond.
In your head, you see yourself taking the death swan stance of Daniel in The Karate Kid, preparing to deal swift justice. Press the rewind button! But then you fast forward to a mental accounting of your 401(k). You only have six more years before you can comfortably retire, but if you give up Pilates, double caramel espresso lattes, paying the mortgage, and cancel your daughter’s wedding — you can hand in your resignation right now.
Take a deep breath and press “pause.”
It’s at this time that you have to think – am I going to handle this with Grace and Aplomb, or will I go rogue and resort to Mace and a Bomb? Human nature, of course, will often opt for the latter. Common sense dictates the former. We all want to handle things with Grace and Aplomb, but Friday afternoon with professional and personal deadlines in mortal conflict, is not the time to learn how. You have to prepare for this type of disaster just as you would a natural disaster. You have to formulate a plan, practice it, then set up a backup plan, and practice that.
Your first line of defense: Communication. That rehearsal dinner wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment event. Tell your attorney about it ahead of time. Put it on his calendar. Remind him about it as often as possible. If you can, schedule that afternoon off. If that doesn’t work, your communication backup plan is to alert your family ahead of time. It’s the “here’s-what-you-do-if-Mommy-can’t-leave-work-on-time speech.” List everything that you have to do for the rehearsal dinner. Parcel those chores out to your friends and family and let them know that you’re counting on them to be your backup in case of disaster. Be sure to let them know that you appreciate their willingness to jump in on such short notice!
Your second line of defense: Negotiation. Try to elicit a compromise with the attorney. Can the two of you — as a team — explain the situation to the senior partner and request additional time? List the strong points of your argument (but not thru clenched teeth and balled up fists!): (1) the amount of changes cannot reasonably be completed correctly in the time parameter given, (2) there is certainly enough time to make the changes on Monday, (3) the importance of the work demands an unhurried and methodical approach, and (4) the senior partner deserves a better representation of the team’s work product (because I can guarantee that a document that is rushed thru will be replete with unseen errors, but the senior partner will see each one!)
Your third line of defense: Teamwork. Build a safety net with the other paralegals, assistants, and support personnel at your job. Let them all know (communication) what’s going on ahead of time. Unless the matter is extremely confidential, keep them apprised of the status of the matter. That way, when the disaster hits, you can tell the attorney that you anticipated his needs and made sure that there is qualified backup at his disposal.
So, get out of the death stance, leave your 401(k) alone, and get to the rehearsal dinner. Grace and Aplomb is possible! Besides…Mace and a Bomb is illegal in most jurisdictions. Be prepared!
The Paralegal Society™ 
This is a great article and I’ve been in this type situation more then once. The other alternative is that the brief with its changes and additions be sent to Word Processing where they can make the changes as often as he likes and send it to him. This way everyone is happy. If the Senior Attorney is very “sensitive”, they can have a dedicated Word Processor or the Lead Processor come and sit at you desk and work on the document. I started out as a Word Processor in the legal field and did this many times for those attorney’s and bankers that waited until the last minute on a sensitive document that they wanted done right away. Keep writing, this was a great first start.
Thanks for the additional pointers and words of encouragement, Naima! I’ll keep honing my skills as long as i have fair interpreters like yourself! Have a great Labor Day weekend!
What a great and realistic scenario! As I am reading over, I am visualizing such situations taking place in my office. What useful anecdotes you have suggested here for communication and compromise or negotiation and teamwork. All of these work and work well when played out with Grace and Aplomb as you have stated. Besides Mace and a Bomb will surely help one to lose his or her job. Nice Work!
Kalila L.
I know. We’d all rather opt for the bomb, but in this economy, grace keeps that income rollin’ in!
Thanks for your comments!!
In addition, our superiors often seem out of touch with the fact that we have personal lives too after work. The one thing I dislike is working for an attorney who is disorganized and slow to meet deadlines, especially when preparing for a trial.
Your practical remedies discussed here to the pressure we often face as Legal Assistants can be applied to any office setting.
Thanks, Kalila! Our jobs do require a lot out of us, don’t they? I’m glad you found these practical. I hope that you have a great holiday weekend. And again, thanks for your comments!
I love your writing style. I think you should write a little fiction! Great ideas for a difficult situation, but I loved your staging and what makes a great fiction writer is staging. If the story line would have continued, I would have kept reading. 🙂
Thank you so much, Cassandra! I’m a closet writer at heart! Have a great weekend!
Outstanding platform for discussion! I have been faced with this scenario on so many ocassions and utilized somewhat the samelike tactics. If you put a person under pressure when other engagments are clearly on the table pending, they are more likely to make more mistakes and create frustration for the senior partner and the attorney requesting the last minute changes. My argument always underlined costly overtime hours that could be avoided, a word processor that is skilled at complex revisions and, time to review and make changes to this brief with a fresh eye and approach. I enjoyed reading “Paralegal Under Pressure: Grace and Aplomb vs. Mace and a Bomb” and look forward to more of your writings in the future.
Glad that you enjoyed the article, Jeanette! Thanks for the pointer on the word processor as well.
Have a great holiday weekend!!
I agree with you, Jeannette. I think as paralegals, this is something we all face. Some of us, more often than others. We appreciate your comment and we’re glad to hear you liked the article!
Fun article, Ann.
Thanks, Karen. Happens to all of us quite often!
Ann, this is not only realistic but extremely well-written. I’m not a paralegal but I can definitely use the information for myself and share it with paralegals that I know. Being proactive with communication as a first line of defense for a future occurence is such practical advice. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for your kind words, Patrice! We all want to do our best, and it helps when everyone’s reasonable!!
Ann, your scenario hit home. Being proactive with communications will be my first response…but my blood pressure will go above the roof…any First Responders here? 🙂
I agree with others that your writing style is awesome. Very well organized and your points are easily digested. We joke in litigation support about the 4:30pm on a Friday requests from the attorneys. We know they had to have known about it days beforehand, right? As a manager, it was a red flag if someone new to the team started complaining about the 4:30pm Friday requests. They would not last long.
I am amazed at the firm I work with now. They never do the last minute requests. I was trained for years to expect it and to get over it. The attorneys at my firm give me this thing you might have heard of called “notice”. Ha! They give me a heads-up and they ask me how much time I need to get it done. Yes, I know how lucky I am.
Yes, Amy, you are extremely lucky!! I’ve been fortunate to work for some firms that are like yours.
Thank you for your kind words about my writing style. I could have, however, been clearer that the attorney that I was describing was not a “normal” attorney. I don’t mind (and none of us should) staying late for any attorney that I work for, but I do mind staying late for those attorneys that are obviously and continuously running against deadines to the detriment of the team and the quality of the work. And I’ve got no love for the type of attorney that manufactures deadlines for no apparent reason. THOSE types of attorneys really get on my nerves since I tend to think that they don’t really care about the client, the employee or the quality of their work product. The law is such a beautiful profession but it is, alas, like all other professions. There are bad apples mixed with the good!
I’ll bet that your firm either started out with that high regard for the employees and work quality, or that there were staff people and attorneys that “trained” the office to be that way. I also hazard to guess that the work quality that you all put out is a bit better than your competition!!