My first three days have been pretty cool, other than the first initial nervousness, and getting into normal people sleeping habits. I really miss my naps.
Everyone at Dueck, Sauer, Jutzi & Noll are really friendly and helpful. The office manager wasn't there yet when I arrived, so I met the person training me she showed me around a bit we talked. Their break room is awesome it has almost anything you could want to drink. Then the office manager came in she showed me around again and introduced me to everyone, I'm still trying to learn everybody's name, they all use first names, even their emails are first names. The law firm is smallish, it has 17 support staff and 7 lawyers.The one lawyer is hilarious, we talked about the gnomes in the machine that does everything. The areas of law the practice are family law, litigation, corporate, real estates, alternative disputes, though I am not really sure what that is I'll ask when I'm less busy, and wills and estates which I am doing. The person training me is awesome, she knows everything.
The office is set out in different sections depending on what area of law you work in, it's kind of like a law warehouse though less warehousey, but that is the best way I can describe it.
The programs they use that I know of so far are Estate-a-Base, Fast Company, Teraview, Microsoft Office, and Wordperfect. I use Estate-a-Base and Wordperfect. I'm not so fond of it, but I'm slowly learning it, at least I know how to find and replace ctrl f (I think, I only know it when I'm looking at it). Estate-a-Base she taught me a few things to make life easier pressing F9 populates the assets table for you. Another girl and I are doing a web something for Estate-a-Base, I helped her fill in the information for an Estate she was doing.
Oh I forgot to explain the machine with the gnomes, it faxes, photocopies, scans, sorts, staples, and a bunch of other things. I was nervous using it, after the first few times it was simple, there are all sorts of secret passcodes and tricks to using it. The one person said don't feel so bad I don't even know how to do what you're doing. When she tried to help, but I did get it figured out.
There's also an electric stapler, I like that thing.
That's enough writing for now, I need to go to bed so I can stay on normal people schedule. Hope everyone else is doing well!!!!
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ReplyDeleteWeek 1, Comment 1 (Monday, April 10 - Sunday, April 16)
DeleteI deleted my first reply by mistake while I was trying to label it correctly - such is the way the day is going for me today! I'm intrigued by the gnome copier I remember that much. And I need to see a picture of it. I also added that I was very glad you had met some real, colourful people to work with as they can make all the difference at work between an unfulfilling duty and an enjoyable time.
I hope your 'normal people schedule' becomes easier as you go on. That can be jarring to get used to if it is radically different to what you are used to. I am finding that just the energy expended in getting to know how an actual, working office works is making me very tired and I fall asleep in seconds at night!
She tells me what she wants there's a ton of precedents set up,all I have to do is find the right one, but the formatting is weird. I've had to ask a few times if it's correct, just because I'm not used to the way things are spaced.
ReplyDeleteWeek 1, Comment 2 (Monday, April 10 - Sunday, April 16)
DeleteThe precedents where I'm working are in a jumble too. I am tempted to update them all so they look better, but I don't want to cause more problems than anything else. It might be a project I undertake at a later date though after talking with Diane there. They use Wordperfect a lot as you can use coding to edit your documents very quickly. I really want to learn to use it properly, but find it pretty daunting at the moment!
I'm not touching anything I learned fast they have a specific way of doing things don't fix anything, I blanked and thought I was in school for affidavits, they do not want a line for the commissioner, I added one and was asked why, hehehe I actually blanked out and forgot I did it. Than I explained I got in hmmmm... let's see better word for what I want to say oh lost marks for that. I want to figure out how to update their archaic records system though.... Ugh Wordperfect...
DeleteThat's too funny! And Wordperfect is used for special reasons sometimes. I liken Wordperfect to Windows on a computer as Word is to Apple. The one you can peer backstage and find out why it's not behaving how you want it to, or tweak it's settings in advanced ways; the other presents a flashy veneer that won't let you tweak it much at all but does a lot of stuff for you. If you find someone that likes using one, they probably have their reasons and won't want to change =p
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ReplyDeleteWeek 1, Comment 1
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear that you are enjoying your placement. I hope you don't have any problems with the Gnomes ;) Does your firm have a precedent for everything or do you have to manually do some correspondence on your own? Also did you find your formatting of POA's and Wills to be alike the ones Heather directed us to do or are they much different? Thanks for your post!!
I am indeed jealous in regards to the last post. My firm has precedents for everything. The only time the gnomes are a problem is when they decide to jam the stapler in it. The POA's are different I think, but most things I find are. No I don't correspond on my own there are tons and tons of precedents.
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