Date: July 15th, 2010
This job has been a job of a lot of firsts, pretty much all of which have made it into blog entries. I had one that I didn't expect on Thursday though. At each of the jobs I've had, I've been treated as a subordinate by my boss or bosses. That's not a negative statement whatsoever. I've been a subordinate so, you know, the universe is in balance. In each of my other jobs, I've been learning the trade and the company culture as well as doing a job.
The same goes for this job so I never expected to have my assessment of a case both asked for and accepted. You see, because the attorneys are stretched so thin, when there are client meetings, the intern helping on the case will usually go into the meeting ahead of the attorney and gather paperwork, ask preliminary questions, have the client sign the things we need signed and all the other time-sucking, but important stuff.
On Thursday, I had a meeting with a client lined up and went about the usual motions before going over to the attorney on the case and letting him know what happened. To my pleasant surprise, he asked me the type of questions the attorneys have generally seemed to reserve for each other. I answered to the best of my ability, still a little thrown off at being asked things that weren't limited to "did she sign this? did you ask her about that?" and was again pleasantly surprised when his response wasn't a polite correction or a dismissive nod. Instead, he expressed agreement before going into the conference room to finish the meeting.
I found myself fighting a grin as I walked in with him to finish the meeting. I managed to maintain a straight face during the meeting, seeing as grinning at a client would probably have been taken the wrong way, and failed miserably over the course of the rest of the day. I know I have millions and millions of things to learn about being a lawyer, but what an amazing thrill it was to have my opinion valued as an equal and not as the sweet, green little intern that could.
No comments :
Post a Comment