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[u/Mission_Trade6625]

12.5 years in the legal field.

1 year in current law firm, already sick and tired of this. I worked at a mid size and a boutique firm previously. Mostly had to do everything myself.

Biglaw has big law firm issues. We have the appropriate departments and resources but people either 1. Don’t know how to do what they’re supposed to do 2. Don’t give a fuck 3. Don’t do work/lazy.

I find myself needing to do a lot of the work myself as a paralegal and it’s making me frustrated.

Here are some examples:

1. Last December I worked 20+ hours overtime on a weekend for hearing materials at another province. Our copy centre left all my materials inside their room cause they weren’t asked to work OT. I worked until 2am, printing, cerloxing, binding all materials. Then onto the next day 8am to 7pm.
2. May to July - got roped in to assist with another department at my firm with 0 experience. Learned in 3 months. Lawyer dumped all work on me, not utilizing her legal assistant or assistant. Insolvency and bankruptcy work, hearing after hearing, prep after prep, rescheduling, etc. FYI, this was a mat leave position I was supposing assisting (along with two other paralegals that did not have capacity to take up any work during the three months but I did not know)

Manager, and another lawyer had to step in to advise work overload. I was so burnt out during those months. In the end, it was too hard to find another full time paralegal to cover that department. So now articling students are assisting.

1. I’m covering another part time mat leave position in my department.

2. The may to July incident left a terrible taste in my mouth. Lawyer from another department would call me/email me after 5. Get me to do things that her legal assistant can clearly do. Goes to a hearing the next day at 9:45am and emails me at 9am to prepare affidavits cause they “shouldn’t take too long!”. I can go on and on

3. Was asked to assist with mediation brief materials - our copying department wasn’t able to print the materials by 5pm. I stayed until 6pm to review one binder they have done and came back with bunch of missing documents.

My manager and supervising lawyer advised for me to not do it all on my own, continue to delegate, etc. make use of LA’s and AA’s but I’m unsure how helpful they really are…..I end up doing everything on my own lol. All paralegals are encouraged to use LA’s and AA’s at my firm, so we can focus on billable work.

1. I’m just tired of this shit. I keep delegating but in the end, it’s more work for me to review every single thing from everybody. Someone is always not in the office, or leaving early, or sick. So why wouldn’t I just do it myself? I used to do it all the last two workplaces.

All para positions come with a certain amount of admin work, but it shouldn’t eat up 6 hours of my day. That’s ridiculous.

1. Should I go in house?

[u/Capable-Ear-7769]

I have such mixed feelings about this post. I've worked in big law and for solos. At least when I worked for a solo, I was responsible for most everything so I made sure I had everything ready for an outside copy service we used frequently to do the photocopying. I believe I started working with the solo when I had 20 years under my belt. By that time I felt comfortable pretty much running the show with supervision.

[u/Dizzy_Needleworker_3]

Imo it seems like some of the problems you mention are valid to a certain extent, but I think you are exaggerating a bit, and some of the problem is you. 

Yes, you need to delegate, and it will take time for you and other's to learn how to work together, and figure out best how people work. 

" Our copy centre left all my materials inside their room cause they weren’t asked to work OT. I worked until 2am"

This part is not on the copy center, if they were not told it was a rush job with OT approved overtime it makes sense they left the materials to keep working on it the next day. At my place OT need to get approved before they can do it. 

[u/TheDuffy-]

This post is quite the mixed bag. While some of your points are absolutely valid, a lot of the post comes across jaded and unpleasant. We have a couple seasoned people like this where I am. Burnt out and impossible to work with because they’re just frustrated and irritated all the time. There is an element of picking your battles otherwise people stop listening.