New interns are sometimes a bit intimidated by their first assignments on the job. Questions that typically run through their minds are: How do I get started? Where do I begin?
Taking four basic steps will quell that anxiety and get you off to a confident, productive start. The four steps are:
- clarify the instructions,
- systematize your work,
- find samples of the work you are doing, and
- submit a rough draft.
Clarify Instructions
Assignments generally come in one of two forms. Sometimes they arrive in a written memo. For most paralegal interns, however, assignments are conveyed orally, in person.
Although written instructions may seem less personal, they have many advantages. For example, there can be no dispute about what the instructions contained or what they omitted. You can read and reread written instructions slowly to get a good understanding of them. With everything on paper, informational gaps are usually obvious enough to be quickly identified and followed-up. And the memo provides a permanent record of instructions to refer back to as your work progresses.
However, few attorneys have time to write out detailed instructions for every assignment. Instead, many assignments are delivered orally under rushed circumstances. Rapidly delivered oral instructions can be confusing and difficult to remember. That is why smart interns try to get spoken instructions in writing, even as they are being delivered.
To gain the advantages of written instructions, interns should take notes of all assignments that are made orally.
Here are a few pointers on how to do that:
- Use your customized personal planner or calendar for this purpose, if you have created one.
- Alternatively, buy an inexpensive steno notebook for keeping all instructions together in one place.
- Bring this notebook or your planner with you to all meetings where work may be assigned to you.
- Write all oral instructions in this book, in detail.
- To save time, often use abbreviations and symbols in your notes. Choose abbreviations you will recognize later.
- Identify each new set of instructions with the name of the client and the date at the top. Draw a line across the page between assignments.
- Note deadlines and completion dates. Underline them. Add these deadlines and completion dates to your personal calendar to help coordinate multiple assignments.
- After the instructions have been completed, draw a large "x" across those instructions but do not rip them out of the book.
- Keep past instructions as a reference in case questions arise later about what you were told.
Whether an assignment is delivered in writing or orally, questions frequently arise. Some of the terms being used may not be clear to you. For example, working in a municipal office for the first time, the difference between a site plan and a subdivision plan may not be immediately apparent. Understanding the legal and procedural differences between those terms might help avoid wasted time and effort.
The greatest risk of misunderstanding occurs when interns assume they know more than they really do. A smart intern is highly alert to possible unknowns. As instructions are being given, ask lots of questions. Do not wait-ask immediately.
Even after the instructions have been given, additional questions will sometimes come to mind. Act on lingering questions. Make a list of the terms, procedures, or legal issues that are not 100 percent clear to you. Then begin finding out about them, using the following strategies:
- Ask more questions! Start with whoever gave you the assignment. If that person is unavailable, leave a short memo listing your questions-perhaps noting your home phone number on the memo. Alternatively, ask others in the office who are familiar with the subject area.
- Consult a legal dictionary, a legal thesaurus, Words and Phrases, or one of your textbooks at school.
- Get background on unfamiliar principles in a legal encyclopedia.
- You may know other interns and paralegals from other offices who work in that area of law; try consulting them. However, guard clients' privacy by not disclosing details that would reveal a client's identity.
- Check with the paralegal instructor at your school who teaches a related subject. Here, too, client confidentiality must be guarded.
When all the terms, issues, and procedures involved in your assignment are clear, you can begin working with confidence.
Questions are not a sign of stupidity. On the contrary, good questions signal intelligence and an active, multidimensional mind. Never hesitate to ask questions.
Systematize Your Work
Having reached a solid understanding of what an assignment requires, break the assignment down into several steps and create a checklist of the steps required to complete the assignment. For example, updating a lease agreement might be broken down into four steps: study the existing lease, contact the client to verify changes, research new lease clauses, and write a review draft. Then set a personal deadline for each step and add these steps to your personal calendar.
As you set a deadline for each step, estimate the amount of time needed for each one. Take these time estimates into account as you determine each interim deadline. Schedule these step in the light of other ongoing work.
The checklist of steps can be kept inside the front of the file you are working on, or temporarily clipped to the file cover. Each time a step is completed, cross it off the list. That way, you will always know exact]/ where you left off, even if you have not seen the file in days. If the flu strikes and you cannot be at the office, anyone covering for you will see the list of steps and know immediately what remains to be done.
Use Samples
Rarely is a legal document drafted as a complete original from beginning to end. The format of law office documents-and much of the content as well- is often taken from earlier documents. The office has many resources that are copied and reused, again and again. Paralegals save a great deal of rime by using this same approach whenever they can.
Here are several suggestions for finding material that may be partly copied or referred to as you complete assignments.
- Ask whether the office maintains a forms file. If so, see whether it contains forms similar to what you are drafting.
- Find out whether document-assembly software is available at your office for the kind of document you are creating. Wills, contracts, real estate forms, and bankruptcy forms are examples of documents for which special software exists, containing ready-made formats and clauses.
- Ask for an earlier client file in which similar work was done. List documents in that file as samples.
- Check forms books in the law library for sample materials. Often these contain procedural checklists as well.
- Check the Practice and Procedure volumes for your jurisdiction for sample court forms and related materials.
- Try to find a recent Continuing Legal Education (CLE) manual on the subject you are working with. These manuals often contain very good sample materials.
- If all else fails, check with other interns, paralegals, or instructors at your school who are working in the same subject area. They might even have samples of their work.
The first mistake is adopting material that is wrong for your client's situation. Forms books, for example, may contain clauses covering every eventuality, but some may go too far. Documents in the office's forms file, drafted years ago, may include provisions that are outdated or wrong for the current situation. To avoid creating documents that could harm a client, read every word of the sample material you are considering. Constantly ask yourself: does this language do what we want it to do? Omit or carefully modify any material that does not clearly serve the client's objectives.
The second mistake is failing to copy the adopted language correctly. Simple errors can have surprisingly disastrous consequences. For example, changing or to and in a list of options can create dramatic, unintended changes in how a will, trust, or contract is structured. Where only one beneficiary or remedy was intended, there may suddenly be two or more. Copying punctuation incorrectly-such as changing a colon to a semicolon-also creates changes in meaning. If the language or format of a sample form is right for the current client, be sure to copy it flawlessly, right down to the punctuation.
Submit a Rough Draft
At least during the first weeks of your internship, supervisors are likely to make several changes to any document you submit. A savvy intern welcomes this review process as a valuable learning experience.
To encourage thorough review, mark your submissions with the words "Rough Draft" or "Review Draft" at the top. This makes it clear that you anticipate detailed suggestions from your supervisor. Only after sufficient experience should you try producing a final draft on the first attempt.
Even though your work is being reviewed, never waste your supervisor's time with correcting your spelling and punctuation errors. Carefully proofread all work before submitting it so that the supervisor can focus on content rather than your English. Proofread again each time your draft is edited or changed. If your word processor has spell-checking and grammar-checking features, use them, but know that these features are not foolproof. For example, the word of-typed incorrectly as or-would not be detected as an error. Make proofreading the final step to every project you ever have.
As your internship progresses and your workload increases, keeping track of upcoming tasks becomes more challenging. You will need to find ways to stay on top of it all. Several methods for doing that are offered in the following section. Following that are easy, timesaving tips on creating your own reference files and databases. Avoiding a chaotic, overloaded desk may also become crucial, and the last section shows how this, too, is not easy to do.
Creating Your Own Reference Files
Another way to streamline your work is to create reference files of frequently used items. After several different projects have been completed, the reusable portions of past projects can be kept together for future reference. When a similar project comes up later, you will save time by incorporating reusable portions of the old project into the new one. The same principle applies to information from past or current work that may be useful in the future. You can speed future work by creating reference files, on paper or on computer disk, for many of the following items.
- Forms used in the past
- Original clauses you drafted for pleadings, motions, contracts, wills, leases, and other transactions
- Often-used clauses copied from forms books
- Information on frequent contacts such as doctors, process servers, investigators, title companies, social workers, expert witnesses, or court reporters
- Timesaving comments about outside professionals you deal with such as their rates, restrictions on their availability, and particular expertise
- Research findings from past client matters
- Copies of key statutes or court opinions
- In complex litigation, data on all parties and witnesses involved including names, addresses, phone and fax numbers, their relationship to the case, and so on
Some of these reference files-your forms file, for example-may be useful to you even after your internship ends. As long as you are not departing with confidential client information and assuming you get permission regarding anything that might be considered attorney work product} you may want to keep some of your reference files permanently. For instance, your forms file and research file may be useful to your future job search, demonstrating the kind of documents you have drafted or the depth of research you have done. However, communicate your intentions about any material you plan to keep and get your supervisor's approval.
An intern's reference files may also be useful to other workers in the office. Leaving copies behind after you leave helps ensure that you will be remembered positively for future employment recommendations.
