Walking the tightrope

I think one of the biggest challenges for new lawyers is learning to balance. And I'm not talking about work vs. life. I mean things like taking initiative versus appearing presumptuous and completing one supervisor's tasks before another's.

The first is the biggest challenge for me. Every day there is at least one task that I question whether I should go forward with or seek approval for. Generally, if I have a question, I seek approval. But when I have done something repeatedly and know that it will be required again, then I will just do it. Usually this is ok--but this week I got my paralegal in trouble for doing I task that I assigned (creating a med chron). We have done med chrons for all similar cases, so when the records came in, I handed them off and told him to do the chron. Apparently Partner, for some reason I have yet to ascertain, did not want a med chron on this case. (I did tell Paralegal that if he is ever called out because of a task I assigned to please make clear that I gave him that assignment and that I will take the heat.) Another new lawyer on the other end of the office was scolded the same day for giving her paralegal a task.

Sometimes the line is just hard to see. Big Boss is constantly telling me "the staff works for you." So as I have been getting busier and busier I have been handing more tasks off to my secretary and paralegal. I also try to anticipate what needs to be done, because we are so busy, so that we are not bombarded at the last minute. But apparently anticipation can backfire.

The balance of assignments from different supervisors not something that I usually struggle with anymore, but I know other associates in my office are having problems with this. The best advice I can give if you have this issue is to ask for deadlines on every assignment. Partner was terrible about giving me deadlines, which made it difficult to prioritize my tasks--you have to know what is due and when to keep things running smoothly. Also, be sure that the attorneys you are working with know if you are being piled on by another attorney. Many are oblivious to anything except their own cases.

This issue definitely gets easier. Now I have a set of cases that I am primarily responsible for--so I am well acquainted with what is due when, and it is much easier to prioritize. This week, however, I had to deal with two supervisors who seemed to be at odds about when a task needed to be done.

On Monday Big Boss asked me to send some documents out to a third party by the end of the week. I assured them that I would get the documents out without a problem--but the documents needed to be approved by Partner before they were sent (Big Boss was out of town until Friday). On Tuesday I approached Partner about the documents. Partner informed me in no uncertain terms that he was unable to view the documents the entire week.

At that moment, I knew I was screwed. Big Boss wanted the documents out--but wanted final approval from someone higher than me. And I had scheduled a conference call with the party receiving the documents for Tuesday--so they definitely needed to be fed exed by Friday so that he would have time to review them before the call.

On Thursday morning I again (knowing it would piss Partner off) approached Partner about the docs and reminded him of the conference call next week. Partner (who was definitely pissed off) again informed me that he did not have time to look at the documents.

Yep, definitely screwed. I knew that Big Boss would not be happy when he arrived on Friday and the documents had not been sent. But I couldn't exactly force Partner to do anything. All I could do is have the documents in final perfect form and ask Big Boss to approve them so that they could be sent on Friday.

On Friday I held my breath while waiting for Big Boss. To say he was pissed is an understatement--it was not pretty. But I let him have his say and then said calmly, "What do you want me to do about it? The documents are ready, I can overnight them today, but they haven't been approved." He said, "You're approving them, and they're going out."

OK then--I could have had them out on Tuesday if I had had the authority to approve them.

I have to say that I feel sort of betrayed by Partner. He knew that Big Boss would be angry and he knew that I would be the one to take the heat. I guess Partner doesn't owe me anything, but I would never let my paralegal or secretary take the hit for something that I had control over. And I even tried to spin it to Big Boss to put Partner in the best possible light (he was really busy, he had this and this and this going on . . .)

Fortunately, I don't think Big Boss's anger was really directed toward me (and even apologised later). He knows that I get my assignments done on time (usually well ahead of schedule) and that I am not a procrastinator. But he also said that there were going to be some changes that I am not entirely happy about. I'm not too excited to go to work tomorrow to see what the fallout from all of this is.