Downsizing

I have downsized.

Oh, I don’t mean my paycheck, although for the time being while I’m getting my business going, that’s true too. (Just you wait . . . I’ll be back making the medium bucks again any time now!)

No, I mean I’ve downsized in terms of the size of the offices I work with, and the size of the cases I work on. It’s still a novelty!

In BigLaw in recent years, I tended to work on mega-cases. There were armies of attorneys to respond to, scads of money at stake, and boatloads of documents to manage, and filings and deadlines to track. There were always ten plates spinning at once.

Which isn’t to say I don’t have ten plates spinning at once now – often I do. But they’re my plates, not the plates spun off by the decisions of others, which I must nonetheless keep in the air somehow.

No, the offices I work with now as a virtual paralegal tend to be small. I work with solo practitioners, for the most part. They may or may not have on-site staff, and they may or may not have permanent office space.

Because my clients have smaller offices themselves, they tend to handle matters that are somewhat less document intensive than those I've handled in the past. They tend to use different technology than that which I had become accustomed to in recent years. I work more with PDF document compilations, and less with Concordance databases, for example. I prepare document productions in the hundreds (or maybe low thousands) of pages, rather than in the tens of thousands.

But these are minor differences - differences of detail rather than substance.

In fact, now more than ever I am often called upon to figure out the most efficient way to accomplish a project with available resources and my own two hands and the small-office technology at my disposal, with no Litigation Support personnel to fall back on for getting a project done. This satisfies my practical nature.

Case size and technology may have downsized, but professionalism certainly has not. With my attorney clients, the quality of the work is just as painstaking, and the expectations of excellence are just as high as they were when I worked at larger firms. This satisfies my perfectionist nature.

There is a different “office” dynamic as well. (Yes, in an odd way my attorney clients and I do make up an "office.") There are fewer layers of approval to work one’s way through than in large offices. I find that communication is more direct, and the sense of partnership I feel with my clients is more pronounced. This satisfies my collaborative nature.

So you see, in my world, downsizing has been a very good thing!

Things I Love About Teaching

Do you want to know the thing I love most about teaching?* Well OK, the two things I love most? Well OK, maybe the three things?

I love it when students ask good, thoughtful questions and participate in discussion. When they ask a question not because they suspect it’s going to be on the test, but just because they’re interested and curious - that's a terribly gratifying thing!

Such as questions raised about the benefit of settling a lawsuit before doing a lot of discovery (saves expense, saves a company or individual from having to disclose info they don’t want to disclose) as opposed to settling after a lot of discovery (discovery enables all parties to more objectively evaluate the strength of their case). Or about the effectiveness of different kinds of trial evidence using the at-the-time ongoing Casey Anthony trial as a source of examples. Fascinating!

Another thing I love is seeing students improve over the course of the class. Their written assignments get better. Their comprehension of the discovery process increases. Their proofreading skills even improve. They’re learning!

But do you know what the best thing of all is? My absolute favorite thing about teaching?

Teaching makes me better! It helps me hone and sharpen my own thinking. The process of reviewing the material in preparation for teaching it forces me to reorganize and perhaps rethink what I know, in order to explain it to the students in the clearest and most organized manner possible. It’s almost as though I’m relearning things I had grown accustomed to taking for granted over the long years of my career. I’m looking at my profession through fresh eyes.

And that’s quite a rush!

* I currently teach a Discovery course in the Paralegal Associate Degree program at Empire College.

Vacation Season's Here At Last!

Oh wait . . are you kidding?!? Not for me! I’m teaching all summer long – our program doesn’t take a summer break! So me, I’ll likely be plugging along at my own office desk through the variably hot, mild or overcast summer weather of beautiful Sonoma County where I live.

Vacation Snorkeling!

But for much of the working western world, it’s that time when employees begin pondering escape from the proverbial rat race for their much anticipated vacations.

Although I’ve always been more of a spring/fall traveler, myself.

An interesting article got tweeted recently which stimulated this train of thought: Should you contact that vacationing employee? The article gives what seems to me to be quite prudent advice to an employer about how to decide when it’s appropriate to interrupt an employee on vacation.

During my many years of law firm employment, I’ve run the gamut on this one. I have indeed been phoned while on vacation. I’ve been phoned at 10 pm. I’ve been called into the office on a Saturday afternoon to fix something that went awry. I didn’t really begrudge these interruptions to my non-work life – in most cases, they were legitimate emergencies.

That said, I have a confession to make. Historically, I have been a bit rebellious on this topic!

Don’t get me wrong. I do not endorse rebellion in law firms. It is generally a poor strategy for maintaining gainful employment. But truth be told, I have not always been docile and compliant when it came to making myself available during non-work hours, including but not limited to vacations.

There was a particular small law firm in my past, with a particular beloved attorney (No, really! I was fond of her! Honest!) who was notorious for . . . how shall we put this . . . neglecting certain boundaries. For example, she was prone to sitting at her desk and hollering my name when she needed something, causing me to stop what I was doing, get up from my desk, and walk into her office to say, “What?” Rather like my mother used to do, and evoking a startlingly similar emotional response.

Now granted, she probably thought it was silly to pick up the phone and call me when I was right next door. And maybe that’s true. I dunno . . you pick your poison.

She was also prone to phoning me (if I wasn't within hollering distance, that is) in “dire emergencies.” Such as not being able to find a piece of paper she suddenly needed.

Which was on her desk.

Which she was standing next to.

Knowing this, I once intentionally failed to leave my contact information when I went on a week-long vacation. (Note: This was before everyone and her brother had a cell phone.) I knew that while she may have had difficulty finding a document on her desk, she would have had no difficulty tracking down my phone number while I was travelling, if it was anywhere in the office. And I knew she would call me when she couldn’t find that piece of paper. Which was on her desk. Which she was standing next to.

And in fact, I learned upon my return that she had indeed asked others in the office for my contact number on that vacation when she couldn’t find something. But they didn’t have my contact information either. Woops! (It was a nice vacation :)

There was another law firm (this time in BigLaw) where, at a certain point due to a massive case I was managing, I was offered a firm Crackberry Blackberry.

And I refused. (GASP!) 

Because I knew what would happen. I knew that notwithstanding all assurances that I truly wouldn’t be expected to be on call 24/7, in reality I would receive countless evening/middle of the night emails, to which I would be expected to reply. Those same attorneys who refrained from phoning me at 10 pm (thanks for that, guys!) would still have emailed me at all hours of the night, and would have stared hopefully, expectantly, at their own Crackberrys, anticipating my inevitable response.

And if I failed to respond, you can bet I would have heard about it.

So I politely declined, and they didn't force me to carry one. (Thanks for that too, guys!) And lo and behold, the world kept turning, and the case was (ultimately) successful anyway.

It may seem by this that I’m advocating a refusal on the part of staff to make themselves available to their attorneys in off-hours times of need, and I’m really not. There are times when things go wrong after hours, or even, heaven forefend, in the middle of a vacation, and the team player is willing to help out.

No, I’m simply advocating establishing some reasonable boundaries to our personal lives, and assisting our bosses in respecting them.

After all, we all need a little vacation now and then!

Of Matriculation and Minefields

Well, there was a little flap in the legal twitterverse and blogosphere last week with what was widely perceived to be a quite ill-informed attack on paralegals over at ATL. A number of my colleagues have responded to this admirably in their own blogs here, here and here, as well as in a large number of comments to the post, and I don’t want to rehash what’s already been very well said.

In fact, I hesitated to weigh in at all, as the post has probably already gotten more traffic than it deserves, except now that I'm teaching in one of the very degree programs the post is ridiculing, I guess I took the whole thing a little personally.

So . . . . I want to comment on two aspects of “paralegaldom”: education and appreciation.

The slender excuse for the slam on paralegals was an alleged question to ATL about the utility of an A.A. degree in Paralegal Studies. (I say alleged because who really seeks career advice from the notoriously snarky ATL? I've always assumed these “Pls hndle Thx” queries were made up – which if true, actually makes the meanness toward paralegals that much more gratuitous.)

So how about it? Exactly what kind of education does one need to be a good paralegal? All sorts of education plus a healthy dose of life experience might fit the bill, in my view.

Granted, there are some law firms and corporate legal departments that would not consider hiring a paralegal candidate who lacked a 4 year college degree.

However, that hiring stringency is by no means universal. There are lots of law firms out there who care more about law firm experience than educational credentials, and are hiring (when they hire, anyway . . . whole 'nother issue, that) candidates with Associate of Arts (i.e., A.A.) degrees, or even no post high school degrees at all.

In fact, I even see the occasional paralegal job posting insisting on a paralegal certificate (i.e., that same maligned A.A. degree) which suggests that my B.A. plus over 20 years' paralegal experience wouldn't be enough for them.

Which is just weird.

The point is, law firms evaluate their staffing needs, their clients and their firm culture, and make decisions about what sort of training they're looking for in their paralegal candidates.

In fact, in my state of California, the only state so far to legislate mandatory educational standards for paralegal*, an A.A. degree in an accredited paralegal program satisfies the statute’s requirements. As an instructor in an A.A. paralegal program, I can attest that when my students graduate, they will certainly know more about the legal system and the job skills needed by paralegals than I did when I entered the field and started my on-the-job training.

Don’t get me wrong. I have a BA myself (plus a few years of grad school to boot – I just couldn’t let go of being a student for a while.) I loved my field of study, and I believe my college education taught me how to research, how to write, and how to think critically – all necessary skills for a good litigation paralegal. But does anybody really think that my philosophy and literature courses actually directly prepared me for work as a paralegal?

I'm also in huge favor of paralegals gaining all the training and continuing legal education they can pack in, and taking advantage of the superb professional development and certification resources available to them.

That said, it seems there is this elitist view that a Bachelor’s Degree is inherently superior to any type of vocational training, and my question is, superior for what? This ridiculing of paralegal degree students - exactly as if a person actually desiring to pursue a course of study that would prepare her to . . . wait for it . . . be a paralegal is a thing worthy of scorn - makes me tired!

Can we all get along?

And finally, because I did say I would also comment on appreciation, I’d like to add that there are a lot of lawyers and law firms out there who appreciate paralegals and the value we bring to their practices and their clients. People who don’t view us as being at the low end of the law firm pecking order. People who appreciate the fact that we know Minesweeper is just about the lamest game on the planet.

(Oh wait . . . sorry to all you Minesweeper fans out there . . .)

So hats off to the lawyers who appreciate us, and let’s quit giving time, attention and precious RSS feed real estate to those who don’t!

* See Business & Professions Code §6450(c). In addition, the New Mexico Supreme Court, in its Rules Governing Paralegal Services, sets mandatory educational standards for paralegals. (Rule 20-115 NMRA.)

Terror and Exhilaration!

No folks, it’s not a roller coaster ride.

Did you know (well, how could you know?) that I used to beg my father to take me on roller coasters when I was very young? I loved 'em; I couldn't get enough of those nail-biting, scream-enducing amusement park rides!  But I digress.

No, the terror doesn't come from the standing up in front of a class of 12 and talking about Discovery. Perhaps that would frighten some, but for me that’s a piece of cake. In fact, it’s really fun. In fact, it’s the exhilarating part! It’s a huge rush, talking through my lesson, seeing comprehension on faces (or occasionally lack thereof), eliciting discussion, telling stories from my paralegal career and hearing the occasional chuckle.

The terror comes from my perfectionist nature. What if some student doesn’t do well? What if they appear to be tracking in class, but when it’s time to grade the assignments, it turns out they really aren't? What if they don’t like me? What if I’m not doing it right?

You know. Normal neurosis.

So I proceed through my week like this. I panic about how I’m going to fill up two hours in the next class. I go through the course curriculum and decide what material it makes sense to cover. I review the next class homework assignment to determine what I need to teach in order to prepare my students to succeed on it. And these decisions make me feel a bit better.

And then I talk through my lesson plan a time or two so I can create some memory of it. And then I feel a bit better still.

And then I show up in class, and work through my lesson, and answer questions, and ask questions, and finish the two hours. And it seems like it went well, and I feel great! On top of the world!

And then I start to worry about how they’ll do on the assignment, and about what I should have covered more thoroughly, and about how I’m going to pace out the rest of the sessions in the course, and about how the students will do on the final (you see, I do a lot of worrying about my students).

Until I’m panicked again.

So come to think of it, I guess it’s a bit like a roller coaster after all!

P.S. What in the world am I talking about, you ask? I’m teaching an evening Discovery course in the Paralegal Degree program at Empire College. About which I'm incredibly pleased, excited and proud! Albeit a bit terrified . . .

What's the Best Learning Environment for a Paralegal?

Question: What’s the best learning work environment for a litigation paralegal?

Answer: Any work environment can be an excellent learning experience – a paralegal just might learn different things in different settings.

Tiny firm. In my experience, this is the place that affords a paralegal the chance to perform the most substantive tasks. This happens because there are fewer hands to do the work, but that rarely translates into less work to do. So a paralegal might get a lot of experience drafting all manner of documents, interacting  with clients, and becoming a veritable jack-of-all-trades.

I cut my teeth in a pretty small law firm with 4 attorneys and about 8 staff. I drafted and answered discovery. I collected and reviewed documents. I created a calendaring system. I helped prepare for trial. Heck, I even assembled my own office furniture! It was a great opportunity to gain experience in every aspect of litigation.

Even the furniture assembly experience was not wasted!

Medium Firm. In medium firm settings, there may be fewer document drafting or client hand-holding opportunities, but there are greater resources and there are more hands to help.

I spent some years in a mid-sized firm of (if memory serves) about 65 lawyers in 3 offices. It was small enough to know everyone and to have a lot of firm-wide parties, but large enough to have more resources, such as an excellent library and librarian, daily court messenger runs, and training classes. I did a bit less document drafting and had a bit less contact with clients, and there was no furniture assembly. But I still did a lot of factual investigation, and document collection and review. And of course, lots of trial prep.

BigLaw. Then came my 10 years in BigLaw. In my experience, large law firms utilize paralegals differently than small firms do. They have armies of associates, which can mean that paralegals’ tasks are less substantive. I rarely drafted discovery responses for example, and had even less contact with clients.  With a couple of notable exceptions, I did less factual investigation too.

Oh, and no furniture assembly.

On the other hand, the cases were larger, there were many more documents involved (we’re talking millions of documents in some cases), and bigger attorney and paralegal teams. This required much greater management skills. As lead paralegal on my cases, I had to be the liaison between the attorneys and staff, to assign staff projects, and to supervise maintenance of a huge file and copious amounts of evidence. And there was still a great deal of trial prep.

Trial prep seems to be a given regardless of firm size.

Freelancing. Of course, now that I’m the self-employed owner of my own Virtual/Contract Paralegal biz, my duties have changed yet again. My litigation related tasks are extremely varied – from administrative duties such as invoicing, to hands-on tasks such as trips to the law and public libraries, to legal research, to drafting research memos, motions, declarations, etc., to discovery tasks such as document productions.

I find that I have a bit less in-depth knowledge of my clients’ cases, because I’m more likely to work on isolated projects than to run cases from start to finish. I have little or no direct contact with my clients’ clients.
And then there are all the other tasks related to running my biz, such as accounting, purchasing, IT, and marketing, marketing and more marketing. Even at my smallest law office, I wasn’t doing much of those tasks.

Oh, and I’m back to assembling my own office furniture. So it seems I have come full circle at last!

Driven: Part 4, or Believing Isn't Necessarily Seeing

OMG it's been f-o-r-e-v-e-r since I posted last, where have I been?

I've been here!

Pretty, eh? 

Plus when I haven't been frolicking in the desert, I've been Crazy Busy.

Enough of that, onward with the thoughts I've been thinking while reading Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

The farther I read in this provocative book, the more I realize that it has vast implications for virtual paralegals such as me, and  for all other freelance or telecommuting workers.

I’ve seen a lot of articles suggesting that trust is a barrier to telecommuting or remote working relationships. That managers, supervisors, and business owners who hire contractors worry about the work getting done when no supervisor is present to watch it happening.

This is the exact opposite of what I experience, and I'm guessing it is the opposite of what all of my virtual colleagues experience too.

The notion that a remote working contractor, such as a virtual paralegal, won’t work when not being watched operates on the old assumptions that people don’t really want to work, and must be driven to by carrots and sticks. An assumption that doesn’t really bear out when people are interested in what they’re doing, and have a deep personal investment in what they're doing.

In fact, the very reason that many freelancers want to be self-employed and want to work remotely is that autonomy is very important to us, and it is also highly motivating. The control I wield over when and how I work is an integral part of my drive to excel.

I've commented in previous posts about the way in which carrots and sticks can warp our natural motivation to work hard. Studies show that in a work environment where workers know they are being monitored to assure they’re performing, they may actually slack if monitoring stops. The goal can shift from performing the work to appearing busy for the ever watchful boss. So I can see how managers – lawyers in my case – could become programmed to believe workers require monitoring to get them to perform.

But a self-employed person, someone owning her own business and responsible for her own income, benefits, livelihood and well-being, is really operating outside such an environment. She has strong motivation to perform and to exceed expectations that has nothing to do with being monitored.

Now I’m not suggesting that it’s impossible for a remote working professional to slack off and charge clients for not working – obviously there are unscrupulous folks around. I'm simply saying that for me, the motivation to do my best and most efficient work stems from my love of what I'm doing, from the exhilarating sense of pride I feel from owning a business that provides services to clients, and from the knowledge that it's the value I provide that keeps clients coming back, whether they can see me working or not.

Driven: Part 3, Or, What do YOU call work?

If it’s work then it can’t be play, and if it’s play then it can’t be work.

Or can it?

Think about this. Imagine a little kid who loves to draw. During play time at preschool, she draws because that’s what she loves to do. Then imagine she’s told that as a reward for drawing during play time, she’ll get a pretty blue ribbon. And for a while at school, she gets the ribbon every time she draws. And then one day there’s no ribbon.

What do you suppose happens?

Well, Daniel Pink* describes a study done some years ago (at 37-38) with a group of kids who liked to draw. Some were promised a reward for drawing and others were not. The kids who didn’t get ribbons continued to draw during play time because they liked to. But the kids who were promised ribbons for drawing quit drawing when the ribbons stopped coming.

Why?

The reward had turned play into work.

Or think about this. Remember Tom Sawyer and whitewashing the fence? Tom tricked other kids into whitewashing his fence for him, because he made the chore seem exciting.

He turned work into play.

Or think about this. Wikipedia. An online encyclopedia completely written by volunteers. Or open source software, such as FireFox. A free web browser developed primarily by unpaid programmers. Is what they do work? Is it play? What’s the difference?

What qualifies a task as "work"? Is it as simple as getting paid? Or does it have more to do with how we feel about it? What makes a task fun, and what makes it drudgery? Do we define work as unpleasant, and unpleasant tasks as work?

Once we realize that the boundaries between work and play are artificial, we can take matters in hand and begin the difficult task of making life more livable.

~Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Beyond Boredom and Anxiety

Pink says that contingent rewards – if you do this, then you’ll get that – can result in a loss of interest in the project because the interest shifts solely to the reward. And that can be counterproductive.

It’s interesting, isn’t it? It strikes me as having huge implications for me as a self-employed (self-motivated) freelance paralegal. And the implications may be even greater given that I primarily work remotely such that my attorney clients can’t see me working.

About which, more in the next post in the series!

*This post is the 3rd in my series of musings on Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, from which the examples discussed in this post derive. Daniel H. Pink. New York: Riverhead Books, 2009.

Driven: Part 2, Or, The Bugs Bunny Secret to Workplace Bliss

Onward with my musings about Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. What with the little explosions that keep going off in my head, it feels like the 4th of July around here!

One of the big premises of Pink’s book is that lots of biz owners believe something about employees that research shows is flat wrong. And based on that flawed belief, biz owners use means of motivating employees that don't work very well any more.

This flawed assumption is that people need rewards and punishments – carrots and sticks – in order to do anything.

That absent carrots and sticks, workers would be content to . . . well . . . not work.

That employees will do the bare minimum required to pick up their paychecks and go home.

As a result, many businesses manage their employees with a set of carrots (bonuses, salary increases etc.) and sticks (no bonuses, bad reviews, possibly loss of job).

Pink cites a lot of interesting research that shows why this is a bad assumption – that we are not lazy, passive slouches by nature, but instead, normally curious, interested and self-directed. Granted, some folks have had these cool traits drummed out of them. But for the most part, humans can be motivated to do good work by things other than carrots and sticks.

The tricky thing is, research shows that rewards and punishments can actually have really nasty side effects. Things like dampened motivation. Reduced creativity. Myopic thinking. Even cheating. (See p. 35).

There is a lot to all of this of course, and you've gotta check it out yourself for more details, but here’s the juice for today.

Even before I got to the inevitable section in the book where Pink talks about law firms to exemplify his theory (at 98-101), my brain was twirling with ways in which BigLaw uses . . . you guessed it . . . carrots and sticks to motivate both lawyers and staff.

Here's the caveat. In my experience, big law firms do not necessarily view their employees as hapless lazy folk who need a firm hand to get things done. My experience has been quite contrary to that – there has been an expectation that employees desire to do good work, and that everyone will do their best and get the job done right.

BUT talk about carrots and sticks! Can you spell minimum billable hours?

Quality is assumed - taken for granted even - and if your work isn't up to par, you may be shown the door, but quantity is the real name of the game.

In many offices, the minimum is impossible to meet without some serious overtime, even for paralegals, and heaven help you if you’re an associate and want to have a life. In many cases, timekeepers not meeting their minimum requirement are not getting a bonus Period. End. Of. Story. No matter how exemplary their work may be in every other respect. The carrot is more money, and the stick is less money (and no partner track) at best. At worst, it’s unemployment.

Such an environment could cause a paralegal to care more about racking up hours than about doing great work for the client. It could cause a paralegal to take less pride in the excellence of her work product, because the only thing that puts money in the bank is billables. It could even motivate someone to (gasp!) pad her hours.

And yet, wonder of wonders, that's not what I experienced! My colleagues and I wanted to do good work. We wanted to serve the client. We wanted to do our best to help win the case. We also wanted to be ethical and honest.

Now don’t get me wrong. My purpose here is not to trash BigLaw – my years in BigLaw served me well, and I'm not picking any bones with my past employers.

Nor is it to trash the billable hour – lots of other people are doing that these days and I’ll leave it to them.

My purpose is to tip my hat to my colleagues in BigLaw who do good work, and care about excellence, despite the fact that the environment in which they work could stifle those traits.

Oh yeah . . . Where in the heck does Bugs Bunny fit into all this?

Well, think about it.

Bugs Bunny never works for carrots. In fact, Bugs Bunny doesn't work at all. Because what Bugs does he would never classify as work. (About which, more in the next post in this series!)

Bugs just does what he's best at!

Which happens to be stealing carrots, eating carrots, and annoying the heck out of Elmer Fudd . . , well, I guess that is another story after all, isn't it?

Driven: Part 1, Or, Embracing My Inner Nerd

Do you know what one of my amazing nephews bought me for Christmas? Daniel H. Pink’s mind-blowing book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. (The other amazing nephew bought me another wonderful book, but that’s fodder for a different future post.) I didn’t read it right way, and now that I’ve started I find it hard to put down, and it’s causing my synapses to fire overtime.

So this is the start of a little series of posts recording my reflections as I read this book, because I believe it has such important implications for the path I’ve been on throughout my career, the reasons behind some of the choices I’ve made, my current virtual paralegal business venture, and on the nature of entrepreneurship itself – which as you know I think about quite a bit here on this blog.

As one might guess from the title, the purpose of the book is to discuss human motivation, how the theories of motivation and the tactics used to motivate in the business world have changed over time, with implications for employers, employees, and just about everyone else. 

Pink postulates two general categories of people as defined by what drives them: extrinsic motivation, which he calls Type X, and intrinsic motivation, which he calls Type I. So assuming the same baseline standard of living, a Type X person is more motivated toward achievement by outer rewards such as money or honors or recognition or perks, while a Type I person is more motivated to achieve by something more internal, “the freedom, challenge, and purpose of the undertaking itself.” (at 78.) And lots of implications arise from these two different motivations.

Well, the first explosion that went off in my head that I want to talk about is this:

I now realize that I have pretty much always been a Type I person.

When I was a young kid, I was content to read for hours. All that reading didn’t gain me popularity, influence or lots of friends (I think mostly it gained me a rep as a weirdo), but it was satisfying to me. 

There was a period during high school, when I would spend hours studying and researching stuff. Stuff that hadn’t been assigned by teachers. And that didn’t have any purpose in particular except that I was curious, and driven to figure it all out. 

(“GEEZE what a colossal nerd!!”  Well yeah, pretty much I was. Am. Whatever. My brother playfully refers to this trait of mine as OCD (is it playful??) and I take exception to this, but this longstanding little joke between my brother and me is a whole ‘nother story, so I’ll just move on.)

My first “real” job after college was for a non-profit organization at which I worked long hours, and had very little money. I did it because at the time, I cared about the work and the cause, and believed we were helping. I found the group effort very satisfying.

Later, my career path took a more conventional turn (such as law firms), but I still never did the angling some of my colleagues did to command the highest salary out there. As long as I felt valued by my supervisors and co-workers, and believed I could take pride in doing work of excellent quality, I tended to stick around, with or without hefty pay raises.

And I begin to see how this fact – the fact that I am so strongly motivated by the satisfaction of performing well, of making my own decisions and of providing work of value – has led me here. To start my own business. To continue the struggle to build a client base in a bad economy. To create a lot of informational and educational materials for which I’m not compensated financially – at least not at the moment (although there are certainly lots of other – well, intrinsic compensations).

It’s fascinating. My head is spinning. I hadn’t looked at myself and my career trajectory in quite this way before.

What about you? How do you think you’re motivated?

Calling the IT Department Redux! Or, lessons learned from revisiting the Dark Ages!

Yes folks, it has been a trying week here at Chez Moi, otherwise known as Sonoma Freelance.

And an illuminating one, as I've had a chance to see upclose and unpleasantly personal just how well all my business data backup efforts are working! (The answer is, pretty well, fortunately!)

In the middle of last week, I thought things were going along swimmingly. I was busily working and writing and playing away as usual (picture me skipping through meadows vineyards singing tralala) when all of a sudden I needed to reboot my laptop late in the day . . . .

And it wouldn't reboot.

Or not normally, anyway. I couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong or why, but even with my rather limited amount of Geekness, I realized I had a problem with Windows, or with my registry, or both.

[Mac users, put your hands down! Just stop it. No Gloating!!!

Do I need this????]

By morning the situation was worse, so I gathered up all my recovery disks (you do have recovery disks don't you?) and headed off to the computer repair store.

I was Laptop-less for 3 days. Three. Full. Days.

Interesting to experience just how reliant I am on my laptop not just for working, which is obvious, but for amusement. Entertainment. Use of time. I thought it was tough being without cable when I first cut it loose - that was nothing, I realize, compared to the restlessness, the fidgeting I experienced for three full days/evenings without that computer! What to do with myself????

Well, I cooked. I cleaned. I read! I got so much reading done - I mean books, not just my RSS feed and on-line newspapers! That part was cool, actually.

The short version is,  they backed up my data (onto my own external hard drive), and rebuilt Windows, and popped my backup data into a folder on my desktop, and handed a sortof unrecognizable, straight-from-the-factory laptop back to me. Which is where the real nightmare began, because I had to embark upon the mind-numbingly tedious task of reinstalling all my software, reorganizing all my files, and basically putting things back as they were - and I'm still not done.

However, I gained some insights about what works and what doesn't in this technological aspect of my personal and business life, and that's what I'll share with you here.

• The very good news is that my backup systems work! I didn't loose any important business or personal data! Most crucial files, including music and photos, were of course captured on my hard drive backup. (That not all were is an anomaly I can't explain, since I didn't perform that backup, but I'll take steps to fix that in all future backups.) And since all my work related materials back up constantly in real time to SugarSync, they were all there waiting for me when I re-synched. Yea!
• More good news is that even while my computer systems were down, I was still able to answer emails and remain connected with clients, colleagues, business contacts and friends (and even a few Tweeps!) via my phone - thank god for my trusty Droid!
• The bad news is that re-downloading large software programs took forever, and it seemed that my internet connection selected those two days to be particularly slow. Or perhaps that's just my paranoia at work. Anyway, I took the opportunity to order disks of some of that software so that if, heaven forfend, this ever happens again, I can just re-install from the disks.
• I also realized that I need to better familiarize myself with my external backup system. Restoring from SugarSync was pretty seamless - perhaps because I work with it a lot more, but restoring data from the external drive had a few kinks. Nothing devastating mind you, but just not as streamlined as I'd like, so I want to address that and establish a better protocol, so I'm armed for future tech glitches.

And of course, I'm still not back to normal. I still have software to re-install, and my music library isn't back yet, and files are still in weird places on my hard drive and I need to clean that up. But I'm functional. I did triage, and restored the systems I needed most urgently for my business, my client work and my writing projects. The rest I'll keep chipping away at.

So. How was your week?

Always Be Teaching

Lee Rosen, in his insightful blog Divorce Discourse, had a couple of great posts a while back (here and here) about the importance of cultivating a culture in a law office in which everyone teaches others how to do what they do, and everyone learns what others are doing. Every employee, from partner down to receptionist, should be both teacher and student. This appeals to me on many levels:

First, because it means that everyone understands the value of another’s job, which fosters mutual respect.

Second, because we hone and finetune our own knowledge and expertise as we think about how to share it with others.

Third, because this culture of teaching helps instill shared values about excellent service to clients, teamwork and courtesy.

And finally, it appeals to me because it means that no one is indispensable or irreplaceable, and that is a good thing. When some young staff member goes off to law school, someone else knows the status of her projects and can keep them moving. Perhaps anyone in the office is equipped to help a new client with an info packet, and filling out paperwork. And everyone knows how to make a photocopy in a pinch.

When I worked in BigLaw, I loved to mentor junior staff. I wanted to teach them what I knew about procedure; I wanted to impart knowledge about how to manage a case. I wanted to share best practices on how to approach projects. And I frequently found myself learning from them how to do something more efficiently! This happened in particular when younger, tech savvy staff quickly grasped and then taught me how to streamline a database search, or had new ideas about organization.

And I appreciated the time many lawyers took to mentor me about their philosophy of a case or a motion or a discovery task, and showed me exactly how they wanted something done.

Now as a virtual and freelance paralegal, I am constantly learning from clients their preferred procedures, and their understanding of and goals for their cases. And I sometimes find myself in a position of teaching them about a new technology too.

And while opportunities to share my knowledge with fellow legal support staff don't crop up every day as they did when I worked in a law office, I still relish the chance to teach and to learn from others. Active participation in my local paralegal association is one way to do this. Networking with fellow virtual paralegals and California LDAs is another. Also, I think this is one of the reasons I enjoy preparing my newsletter so much. (Sign up at the right!) I love being the curator of a resource which I hope provides useful tips and resources to colleagues. And getting emails from readers sharing their own tips and resources is an even greater kick.

Wherever we work and whatever our roll, this is an inspiring message: always be learning, but also, always be teaching.

Guest Post: 6 Ways Reading Paralegal Blogs Can Make You a Better Paralegal

Paralegals work in an environment that is constantly changing and knowledge about technology innovations, new areas of opportunity, recent cases, and paralegal industry news can help paralegals stay ahead. Blogs written by experienced paralegals can be an excellent source of useful information that can help you be more effective at your job. Here are a few reasons why reading paralegal blogs can improve your paralegal career.

Learn what is going on inside other law firms

Whether you’re looking for your first gig, a new opportunity, or career development, reading a variety of paralegal blogs can give you an inside scoop on what is going on at law firms. You can learn what skills are in high demand at law firms or what trends are changing the environment or the role of paralegals.

Stay informed with changes in the industry

The latest cases, innovative ways to use technology, or industry news are often covered by the top paralegal blogs.

Learn career enhancing tips

Paralegal blogs can share useful tips on how to become more effective and more productive. For example Practical Paralegalism has the Top 10 Tips for Brand New Paralegals.

Learn from the experiences of other paralegals

Nobody can know the ins and outs of every situation, so what could be better than to become familiar with the many experiences of many different legal professionals? Some paralegal blogs also feature interviews of experienced and successful paralegals. You can find some great paralegal interviews at The Paralegal Mentor.

Get the insights you need to move up the ladder

The ability to show deep knowledge about the inner workings of the industry will put you  ahead of others when it comes time for a promotion or a move to a bigger and better law firm.

Expand your professional network

Paralegal blogs will expand your network of professionals who you can turn to for free consultation and career advice. You can often connect with paralegal bloggers on Twitter or LinkedIn.

This article is a guest post by Charles Sipe from Criminal Justice Degree Schools, a site providing information on paralegal degrees and schools. 

Charles offers some great reasons to read paralegal blogs! I was also interested to learn that Charles lives in Seattle, where I spent ten happy years, and I've enjoyed "chatting" with him via email as we prepared this guest post!

Friday Six Word Memoir

You know what I haven't done in a really really long time? No, taking a vacation to Italy is not what I had in mind, although that's true too!

It's writing a Six Word Memoir. In fact, I haven't done one in so long, that more recent readers probably don't even know that it's one of my things.

See this for the origins of this folderol eccentric exercise.

I've found myself too busy this week! Too busy to blog. Too busy to tweet (much). Too busy to read what's in my beloved RSS feed (much). Almost too busy to answer emails. Definitely too busy to attend my usual Wednesday evening wine tasting event - now that's drastic!

It's true. I have a lot of plates spinning as I'm working hard to market and build a stronger business for 2011 plus take care of existing clients plus take care of administrative stuff (can anyone spell Tax Time?).

I'm writing a lot. (A lot.) I'm writing upcoming Newsletter articles (next issue comes out next week - sign up at the right!). I'm writing a white paper. I'm re-purposing previous articles for my website. I'm completely revamping and redesigning my website! (Stay tuned! Stay tuned for a change for this blog too!) Not to mention the client/potential client thing, clients being the point of the whole kit 'n kaboodle after all.

My head is spinning.

So here is the next in my occasional series of Six Word Memoirs - a memoir to encapsulate my week:

No rest for the good, either!

"I can't slow down, I can't hold back, although you know I wish I could . . ." (Cage the Elephant - gotta love that song!)

What about you? Got your own Six Word Memoir? Feel free to leave it in the comments!

Who you gonna call?

When I worked in BigLaw, there were plenty of opportunities to exchange ideas and commiserate with co-workers. The office was veritably pulsing with fellow paralegals, IT folks, litigation support people, legal secretaries and document clerks who were all involved somehow in the endeavor of providing excellent service to firm clients. Everyone had a role to play in getting the firm’s work done, and everyone in his or her own way was dedicated to accomplishing that.

I had people everywhere I could seek help from, brainstorm with, complain to (not that I would ever do that!), and get encouragement from. And co-workers would come to me for the same reasons. There was (usually) a spirit of teamwork and cooperation.

Or at the very least, a coffee run co-conspirator or after work drinking buddy.

Ah, but I work in BigLaw no longer! I am flying solo . . . master (mistress??) of my own fate . . . a solitary soul slaving in solitude, so to speak!

If you’re a biz owner, a “solopreneur” as the current buzzword goes, where do you go to get ideas?

Who do you turn to when you need to ask a question, or to get advice, or to vent, or to enjoy a simple cuppa coffee forgodssake?

Who you gonna call?????

Well it turns out, much to my delight, there actually are folks!

First, there are colleagues in my paralegal association. As I go to meetings – whether it's the entire membership, the litigation section, or the occasional board meeting, I've begun to form friendships. Most of these colleagues work in law firms; some work as freelance paralegals as I do; a few are unemployed and looking for work. I can empathize with all these situations, and we support each other.

Next there are colleagues, both paralegals and attorneys, whom I’ve begun to make friends with through my involvement in other associations, such as the county bar association and my Women in Law group. We can swap stories, swap tips about legal vendors, or occasionally even reminisce about our former life in BigLaw!

I have developed a network of local fellow biz owners who are great friends, and who also brainstorm with me about building my business. (Turns out they’re superb drinking buddies too!)

But what I didn't anticipate when I began my virtual paralegal business was how many friends I’d meet online through Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs!

• There is a small group of fellow virtual paralegals I've phone-conferenced with, and who are proving to be a supportive group to exchange ideas with.
• There is a group of fellow freelancers, in a wide variety of fields, that I have weekly chats with about marketing and other business matters.
• There are interesting and talented legal professionals who share or post material that I find useful and that I learn from.
• There is a virtual assistant and tech guru extraordinaire I met on Twitter, who is now helping me revamp my website. (Thanks @TMarieHilton!)

What I’ve learned is that participating in professional organizations, building friendships with fellow biz owners, and being active on social media sites are even more important for me as a self-employed virtual paralegal than they were when I was an employee. Now that I can’t just walk down the hallway to find a co-worker to consult with, it has become doubly important to make sure I’m active in my paralegal & bar associations, and that I'm showing up online to exchange information and good will with folks.

Plus, I've gotta get my coffee run co-conspirators and drinking buddies from somewhere!

What about you? Who are you gonna call?

Stuff I Miss About BigLaw . . . and Stuff I Don't! (Plus, a Bonus)

No really! Quit laughing! There are things I miss about my life in BigLaw! Such as:

1.  I miss having all my MCLEs and training programs paid for by someone else.
2.  I miss having a team of staff to manage.
3.  I miss the opportunities to teach training programs.
4.  I miss the afternoon latte breaks. Note: there is no Peet's Coffee in walking distance of my home office :(
5.  I miss specific people. Attorneys I liked working with. Fellow staffers who were helpful, knowledgeable and a kick in the ass.
6.  I miss the Word Processing Department! (But now I’m oh-so-skilled at formatting those documents myself!)

Stuff I'm not missing even a little about my former life in BigLaw:

1.  I don't miss getting yelled at by attorneys. (Not that that ever happened . . . )

2.  I don’t miss the all-nighters. Thank god my current boss doesn't allow those. :P
3.  I don’t miss the commute. Not. One. Bit.
4.  I don’t miss the billable hour minimum.
5.  I don’t miss the terrible vending machine food in the lunch room.
6.  I don’t miss being stuck with the terrible vending machine food when I’m too busy to find something better to eat.

And as an added bonus, things I love about being a virtual paralegal:

1.  I love the variety of projects I work on – an even greater variety of work than I experienced in any one law firm.
2.  I love learning about the varied cases of my clients in different practice areas.
3.  I love not commuting! (See #3 above.)
4.  I love the flexibility to exercise and run errands in the middle of the day if I want to.
5.  I love the tremendous sense of ownership I have over every aspect of my work, now that I’m a business owner.
6.  I love the technology I utilize to work remotely.
7.  I love the ability to say NO, when no is the best thing for me or for my business.

8.  I love some of the things marketing a business compels me to do. Such as professional networking events, writing my newsletter, Twitter and blog reading as industry research.
9.  See how long this list is?

Things I love not so much about being a virtual paralegal:

1.  I don’t love the inconsistent cash flow.
2.  I don’t love all the annoying administrative details - business taxes, licenses, accounting.
3.  I don’t love some of the things marketing a business compels me to do. Such as cold – or even warm – calling, marketing ROI analysis, tooting my own horn.
4.  See how short this list is?

What do you love/love not so much about your work?

Method to My Madness: Getting More Done

Running my own business requires a different mindset about time management than that which served me as a law firm employee. I have many more tasks requiring my attention, and a different set of priorities. This has necessitated a "re-think" about the organization of my time.

As a paralegal in a law firm, my to-do list flowed from my case deadlines, and assignments from attorneys. After all, most case deadlines are pretty non-negotiable! That motion must get filed by this time on this date, and I must move heaven and earth to make that happen. And when a partner calls wanting something done, the only appropriate response is, “On it!”

Now as a virtual and freelance paralegal, I still have deadlines for case work assigned by my attorney clients. But on top of that, I also have a host of business related tasks I must perform. No matter how much client work I have in the pipeline (and I want to have a lot!), I ignore these other tasks at my peril, because my flow of future client work depends on them.

When I first started this business, I naturally used my old method of a long, daily list of to-dos, largely driven by external deadlines. But when I began adding those business and marketing related projects into this list, two things happened.

First, the list got overwhelmingly long!

But second and perhaps more problematic, because the business related tasks didn’t usually have the hard deadlines that the client projects did, they got shoved to the side. Or they led to a lot of disorganized and confusing “project jumping.” My sense of the priority of these business tasks was so subjective and fear driven, that I found myself switching from one thing to another to the point that little got done.

I needed a better way.

I've posted before about my realization that I need a strategy for prioritizing my to-dos. As my thinking has evolved – or perhaps as my frustration level has become unbearable – I’ve also realized I need a structure. Something to keep the daily list below 25 items. Or even if I'm using the post-it method (which is that your daily list has to fit on a post-it - see here), I need something to prevent those items that never make it onto the post-it from completely falling through the cracks.

So now I’m trying the “days of the week” method. In other words, categories of projects are assigned to different days of the week.

Now, some tasks need to be done every day. Like client work – I do whatever it takes to get it done, get it done well, and get it done on time. Also exercise – I really try to do this every day. Also Twitter, reading and commenting on blogs, and other social media activities – I spend time on them most days, although not the same amount of time each day. (Why waste time on this? See here and here.)

Another item I can’t assign a day to is in-person networking events. I see big benefits from these for my business, so I attend them whenever they occur and schedule everything else around them.

But the bigger biz-related projects? I’ve assigned them days. For example, I reserve the same day each week for working on my Newsletter. (Not a subscriber? See the sidebar!) I reserve a different day each week for article writing. And yet another day for my website. Etc.

What’s helpful about this is it thwarts my temptation to switch projects every time I get an idea. Say I get an incredibly great idea about organizing an article I’m writing. Typically I would start worrying about the article, and maybe I would even stop what I’m doing to work on it. But this way, I jot the idea down, tell myself I’ll flesh it out on my article writing day, and then continue what I was doing. Or suppose I get a sudden surge of panic that my newsletter isn't ready and it has to go out next week - OMG! I tell myself to relax, that I’ll finish it on my upcoming newsletter day. And I go on with what I’m doing.

Another benefit is that I can actually assure I will get to my accounting, and other administrative stuff! After all, I’ve reserved Mondays for that! It makes it much harder to come up with a convenient excuse to avoid working on that stuff I don't enjoy but need to to!

This method is working for me at the moment, and I find I’m managing to move more projects forward. How about you – what do you do about managing your to-do list?

The Law School Controversy Be Damned, Congratulations to New Lawyers!

Some readers might be aware that there have been a lot of blog posts and tweets flying about the blawosphere and twitterverse recently about the wisdom of pursuing a law degree. The argument goes that law school is expensive, the resultant school loan debt is enormous, and there are no jobs! This topic has been batted about for some time now, but the most recent furor was instigated by last weekend’s New York Times piece called Is Law School a Losing Game?

Now, I’m not about to weigh in here on the relative pros and cons of a law school degree. I never wanted to go to law school myself, but I’m certainly glad that many did, or I would never have had a career in the field, and I wouldn't have such great attorney clients now.

No, I’m writing to celebrate those recent grads I know who did decide law school was for them, who passed the bar, and who now are eager to do something worthwhile with their careers.

Last night I attended the Sonoma County Bar Association’s New Admittees’ Reception. Present to be honored were about ten recent admittees to the California Bar. I managed to meet most of them. They attended a variety of (mostly) California law schools, and their ages varied, (in fact, one graduated from Stanford 34 years ago, and practiced for many years in other states), and some have landed jobs and others have not.

But as I mingled around and spoke with them, I was impressed and heartened by two things: First, each of the new lawyers I spoke with is proud of his or her achievement and excited about the law. And second, although there are regions of the state with bigger law firms, presumably higher salaries, and possibly greater job prospects, these folks choose to live and practice here, in slower-paced, somewhat rural Sonoma County.

As blogger and JD candidate Jack Wittington has pointed out, not every law school student is just in it for money, fame and fortune. Many choose this career because they believe they can help others doing it. The brand new lawyers I met last evening all certainly fit into that category, and my figurative hat is off to them!

So congratulations, I say, to new lawyers here in Sonoma County, in California, and everywhere!

Virtual Paralegals in Litigation Part 5: Delegating Appropriate Tasks

A virtual paralegal can offer huge benefits to a litigation practice, providing savings in both time and money. The purpose of this series has been to discuss those benefits, and answer some of the questions litigators have about working with a virtual or remote working paralegal.

In recent posts I discussed a way to think about the title "virtual paralegal," the readily available technologies virtual paralegals use, issues related to document security and confidentiality, and developing trust in a virtual paralegal.

Today we discuss a final area to consider when contemplating working with a virtual paralegal:

Delegating Suitable Tasks. Some lawyers believe that all the work they require simply has to be done on-site. Or said differently, they believe they need the immediacy of a paralegal close at hand for urgent projects.

Let us concede that there are a small number of tasks which cannot readily be performed from a remote location: making copies, for example, or meeting with clients, experts or witnesses.

However there are a host of tasks that are perfectly suited for a remote working paralegal. These include drafting correspondence, discovery, discovery responses and simple pleadings. They include performing suitable legal or procedural research. They include reviewing documents, preparing document productions, and summarizing depositions. They include cite checking briefs, downloading case law, and e-filing documents.

For example in my own business, I have performed on line and law library research on procedural issues and drafted memos outlining my findings for attorney clients. I have uploaded all relevant statutes and case law to an on-line shared document folder for my clients' review. I have drafted and served notices to all parties in my clients’ cases. I have reviewed and organized client documents, both in paper  and electronic formats. I have bates numbered documents for production. I have reviewed document productions to compile data needed for motions. I have drafted declarations and assembled their exhibits.

These are just a few examples of the many services a virtual paralegal is able to provide to litigation attorney clients, working remotely from his or her own well-equipped office.

A competent virtual paralegal can help an attorney evaluate which projects are best suited for his or her assistance, and can help break the project down into tasks which the attorney can delegate to both in-house and remote working staff. A virtual paralegal can help streamline the case load of any litigation practice. Litigators can not only reap the benefits of a contractor working only when needed, but can also save the costs of providing space, equipment and supplies.

It’s a win/win for us all!