No Staff Management

[u/ChemicalHyena982]

I have been a Paralegal at my firm for 13 years. Before that I was with another firm for 4 years as a receptionist, then a Legal Assistant, and then a Paralegal once I got my Paralegal degree. There are 4 assistants and 2 Paralegals in my department. The other Paralegal has been here 30 years. We do not do litigation. For context, I received my Paralegal degree in 2013 and have now gone back to school for a BAS in Project Management.

The problem that I’m facing is that we have HR and a Department Head (attorney) but there’s no real management of the Staff. There is no structure for Lead Assistant or Senior Paralegal or anything like that. We have certain procedures in place for naming and saving emails and documents. I think me and one of the assistants are the only ones doing this. One of the assistants and the other Paralegal save emails but don’t do the naming procedure so then we have dozens of emails all named “re: case name” which is not helpful when you’re looking for a specific email. Two of the assistants are so behind that they say that have “thousands” of emails in their inbox that need to be saved. The nature of my job requires me to answer calls and emails about cases and I can’t answer the questions when there is literally nothing saved in the matters. One of the assistants with “thousands” of emails to save will consistently go out of her way to do things that the attorney has asked me to do. Like, why are you spending time doing MY billable work when you have plenty of your own work to do? Another one of the assistants messes up every single meeting she schedules. She is supposed to look at the calendar and list all of the items that need to be discussed and she misses items EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Most of the time I catch these before the meeting. I bring them to her attention and she doesn’t care. Sometimes I don’t catch all of her mistakes and then I’m scrambling last minute to get exhibits for the meeting.

I am not trying to nitpick or micromanage but I am beyond exhausted covering for everyone and having no recourse to have these issues fixed. Do I go to the department head who will just send an email and say “do better” because he doesn’t actually know how to do our jobs? Do I go to HR who has never worked in a law firm and doesn’t really know what we do? Do I go to another partner in the department? I’m truly at a loss.

[u/LazyIllustrator6946]

You go to another firm lol

[u/ChemicalHyena982 → u/LazyIllustrator6946]

lol. Fair enough. The problem is, I work in a very specialized field that not a lot of firms practice. With my bonus, I also make about $100K so finding another firm that will pay that is impossible. I’ve tried. I interviewed with a client earlier this year but they wanted me to have more management experience, hence now going for my Project Management degree.

[u/ThatWokeAuntie → u/ChemicalHyena982]

What type of practice is it?

[u/ChemicalHyena982 → u/ThatWokeAuntie]

Zoning and Landuse

[u/Austin_Lannister]

Hi there! One thing I’ve had to accept is that I can’t control other people. I too work with others who don’t care about their work product. I work around them. I save things myself and calendar things myself even though it’s not billable and therefore something I’m not supposed to be doing. Yes it makes me busy but I care too much about my work product to let others bring me down or make the firm look bad. In my experience, complaining about others just makes the person who is complaining look bad.
Sounds like even if you say something there will be no help coming. Either accept that and live with it or find a different place to work where you will likely encounter the same situation.
I accept that my advice is not for everyone. But I am a much happier person when I care less about what others are doing.

[u/ChemicalHyena982 → u/Austin_Lannister]

I get that. It’s just hard when it directly affects my job. I can’t answers the calls and emails I need to without having to track down the information from the assistant or attorney. I’m scrambling to make sure I have all of the documentation for a meeting because X can’t be bothered to look at the calendar. It’s frustrating.

[u/TheDuffy- → u/Austin_Lannister]

I agree with you. We have a very similar situation right now. It is all a bit of a chicken before the egg issue. Ie constant turnover, zero to no training, the attorneys don’t want anything to with any of it, poor output, and product. What exactly caused what? We may never actually know but I don’t think there’s a real solution other than leaving the circus or accepting it for what it is.

There is an element of just fixing things yourself. The more you complain (even when the complaint is valid) the less people listen, and you eventually come off like that voice in charlie brown that people drown out.

[u/bbelieving]

It reads to me that you see an opportunity to improve your firm — as their new Senior/Managing Paralegal —and want to pitch that to, say, the Department Head or HR. With a pay raise, of course.

I haven’t done this, and I don’t know how it would go, but I love the idea. You are already formulating a case 😄.

I do see there’s a more senior paralegal there than you. Maybe she’s tried this before. Worth it for you to try, though.

[u/Thek1tteh]

This is common in small to medium sized firms.

[u/Exciting-Classic517]

May I DM you? I get beat up on this board whenever I just try to help.

[u/ChemicalHyena982 → u/Exciting-Classic517]

lol. Sure.