Wednesday, February 08, 2006
A Day in the Life of Me
I've been reading a lot of Anonymous Lawyer recently. His perspective on life as a lawyer really resonates with me. This post is an attempt to replicate his style.
I got in the office this morning to find a long email from a lawyer in a nearby country explaining that there was some kind of misunderstanding and therefore my firm doesn't actually have to withdraw from the case because of the client's behaviour. It's a long, confusing and ultimately illogical explanation. That's par for the course but what impressed me the most was that he sent the email at 8pm his local time. I didn't know he worked that late.
So I called a Junior Associate working on the file with me to discuss our response. The Associate sounded terrible, so bad that I was forced to ask what was wrong with him in the hopes that he could fix it so that it wouldn't annoy me over the phone. He had the flu. We agreed on our response to the foreign lawyer's email then I told the Associate to go home and I would draft it myself (normally, this Associate gives me a draft reply, I make some superficial amendments like changing the grammar or underlining a word so it looks like I worked and then I send it on to clients).
After lunch I make small talk with the Pupil sitting right outside my room and notice that he sounded terrible too! He had the flu. He said he probably got it from the Associate whom I instructed to go home this morning. I asked if they were being gay together. It was a valid question - the Associate doesn't have a girlfriend (he can't with all the work I give him to do) and the Pupil doesn't have a personal life I care about. The Pupil denied they were gay. He said the Associate probably got it from the Deputy Director in our team. That guy's off the gay list since he's now dating an Associate in Corporate/Banking. The Pupil then suggested that it was that girl in Corporate/Banking who started it all because she fell sick a few weeks back.
Just to be safe, I buzzed another Pupil and asked him to give me a memo in 1 hour about who's been spreading the gay flu around the office. We have a laugh at the 2nd Pupil's expense and the first Pupil blows his nose in front of me. I tell him to go home early, about 9pm or so :) Actually, I told him to go home immediately. He said he would last through a normal day's work to about 5pm. He clearly misunderstood my instruction to be genuine concern for his well-being. The truth is, since he sits just outside my room, if I catch the flu next, I'm on the gay list too.
I then call J and tell her I'm feeling lethargic. I'm thinking of getting a massage this afternoon then coming back to work into the night to make up for the lost billable hours. If I do that, I'll have to cancel on dinner tonight and I'm sorry. J said it's ok and then asked if I was going to use one of my Amex Platinum "1 For 1" spa/massage vouchers. I said no ... if I'm going for a massage this afternoon by myself, there is no one around to use the other "1" in the voucher. Sometimes J is funny that way.
I just opened my door to take a peak. The Pupil is blowing his nose whilst hard at work on some document. *sigh*
I've been reading a lot of Anonymous Lawyer recently. His perspective on life as a lawyer really resonates with me. This post is an attempt to replicate his style.
I got in the office this morning to find a long email from a lawyer in a nearby country explaining that there was some kind of misunderstanding and therefore my firm doesn't actually have to withdraw from the case because of the client's behaviour. It's a long, confusing and ultimately illogical explanation. That's par for the course but what impressed me the most was that he sent the email at 8pm his local time. I didn't know he worked that late.
So I called a Junior Associate working on the file with me to discuss our response. The Associate sounded terrible, so bad that I was forced to ask what was wrong with him in the hopes that he could fix it so that it wouldn't annoy me over the phone. He had the flu. We agreed on our response to the foreign lawyer's email then I told the Associate to go home and I would draft it myself (normally, this Associate gives me a draft reply, I make some superficial amendments like changing the grammar or underlining a word so it looks like I worked and then I send it on to clients).
After lunch I make small talk with the Pupil sitting right outside my room and notice that he sounded terrible too! He had the flu. He said he probably got it from the Associate whom I instructed to go home this morning. I asked if they were being gay together. It was a valid question - the Associate doesn't have a girlfriend (he can't with all the work I give him to do) and the Pupil doesn't have a personal life I care about. The Pupil denied they were gay. He said the Associate probably got it from the Deputy Director in our team. That guy's off the gay list since he's now dating an Associate in Corporate/Banking. The Pupil then suggested that it was that girl in Corporate/Banking who started it all because she fell sick a few weeks back.
Just to be safe, I buzzed another Pupil and asked him to give me a memo in 1 hour about who's been spreading the gay flu around the office. We have a laugh at the 2nd Pupil's expense and the first Pupil blows his nose in front of me. I tell him to go home early, about 9pm or so :) Actually, I told him to go home immediately. He said he would last through a normal day's work to about 5pm. He clearly misunderstood my instruction to be genuine concern for his well-being. The truth is, since he sits just outside my room, if I catch the flu next, I'm on the gay list too.
I then call J and tell her I'm feeling lethargic. I'm thinking of getting a massage this afternoon then coming back to work into the night to make up for the lost billable hours. If I do that, I'll have to cancel on dinner tonight and I'm sorry. J said it's ok and then asked if I was going to use one of my Amex Platinum "1 For 1" spa/massage vouchers. I said no ... if I'm going for a massage this afternoon by myself, there is no one around to use the other "1" in the voucher. Sometimes J is funny that way.
I just opened my door to take a peak. The Pupil is blowing his nose whilst hard at work on some document. *sigh*
# posted by Fore! @ 2:32 PM 
