F.U.

I have spent the better part of the last month preparing settlement documents in a big case for a substantial settlement. This was my first time to ever prepare settlement documents, and I was pretty much left to wing it.

But I pulled it off. There are 5 parties involved in this settlement, and we had everybody in agreement by the 5th revision--and most of the changes were pretty minor. So I was feeling pretty good about getting it right on my first go 'round. In total, the settlement documents exceed 60 pages. I did 95% of the drafting--incorporating changes by the other parties as requested.

Then, an ad litem was appointed at the last minute who wanted to make several changes, including adding an addendum. So I spent half a day incorporating all of his changes, and again, submitted the agreement to all parties for final approval. Big Boss told me to ask the other parties to please make any changes they wanted and circulate them among the parties. (They have, so far, been submitting revisions to us and I have been making all changes.)

Within a couple of hours, one of the parties approved the new changes. But I just got an email (cc'd to about 10 people) from another party saying, "We're still reviewing the settlement documents, but you spelled 'Addendum' wrong in the footer of that document, and in paragraph 13 of [65 paragraph document] [one party out of about 17] is referred to as a he rather than a she."

Thank you very much Big Law a-hole. Because you couldn't have included those two mistakes that were admittedly mine in the list of the other changes that needed to be made (although seriously, in a footer with an 8 point font can you even tell the difference between an "n" and an "m"?) God knows I fixed some of your mistakes without advertising it to the world. Or are you just PO'd that we asked you to make your own changes this time?

I am sure to be bitched out on Monday about this. Big Boss will not be happy that I sent out a document with a spelling error.

Sigh--what a way to ruin a perfectly good Sunday afternoon.

P.S. Yes, I get the irony. If you spend any time at all on my blog you will find it riddled with typos. I spend minimal time proofing here. But I swear, I combed those documents. All 60 pages, line by line with a ruler. Guess I missed the footer. And the red squiggly line that Word should have put under my misspelling.