Week 1 Post 1

First Impressions

It’s been a little over half a week of working and I got to say I love it. I thought the hours of 9-5 would be hard to get used to but I enjoy them. The legal assistant has kept me quite busy even with the software and WiFi acting up a lot because of construction going on in the area which makes the day go by so quickly.

What areas of law are practiced in the law firm you are working at? Do they have a mission statement? If so, what is it?

Family Law, Wills and Estates and Real Estate are all practiced at the firm. With this busy season the lawyer, Mr. Teixeira isn’t taking new clients unless they are related to Real Estate transactions because he never passed up on those offers. He takes on more family law relate cases towards the fall months.

Provide details of the orientation you have received. How were you introduced to other staff members? Are you working with one or many staff members? Are you writing instructions in a designated notebook?

With the law firm being so tiny, introductions went very quick. Aside from myself, there is only four others working in the law firm, and two of those people have offices in the law firm but they don’t do work for the lawyer, one being his dad (Armenio), and the other being an old friend of Mr. Teixeira who just needed a desk to be able to work at (Rafael). He does things like income tax, deals with immigration papers and much more. I work under the legal assistant, Crystal Laurie, who was a former graduate from this program, and we both work for the lawyer. Crystal gives me instructions on what to do and how to do it. Her instructions are straight forward and we do one thing at a time, so I don’t necessarily write down what I am supposed to do. Although, I do write down in a notebook notes/steps about file opening/closing, printing, scanning, faxing, discharges, mailing, and I will continue to expand my notes based on what I learn, in order to remember the little details.

Were you provided with a manual of office procedures? If so, what type of information was in it? Is there a particular way to format documents? If not, how will you keep track of all the details of the job?

I was not provided with a manual of the office procedures. I do have a notebook that I keep with notes the legal assistant has told me. The pages so far I have filled in consist of steps on how to fax out letters to companies, how to scan ID’s on real estate transitions, what to look for in a file when closing in, and the proper way to label closing files. Also, I have notes on what to do when I receive discharge statements and how to open files in Convencyer.

When formatting letters, it was easy and straight forward. When Convencyer produces a document the lawyer would just like me to remove one enter before the date, add and enter after the re line and remove the space before the legal assistant’s initials beside the lawyer’s initials in the signature line.

Has anything surprised you about the office or what you are doing?

I’m not sure if it’s just the first week and I’m not given too much responsibility, but I am not stressed at all, as I assumed I would have been before starting. During my former placement the phone rang, but not too much. Today alone I counted 32 phone calls, which I was responsible for answering and transferring it to who it needed to be transferred to or answer the questions/concerns the callers were dealing with. People are always calling, so it surprises me how the legal assistant is able to get work done when people are always calling. People were also very nice and understanding when I told them that I am new and I’m able to transfer them to someone who was able to help them.

Provide details of your observations of the office environment and the things that made an impression on you [positive or negative].

I don’t believe I have any negative observations. It’s a small, friendly, cozy office with very few stairs that lead to a second level (which I am thankful for as I do go up and down many times a day, and it can get pretty tiring). Everyone in the office speak Portuguese, other than myself, so along from learning legal related work, I’m also learning Portuguese.

Real Estate is a very busy field, people are always calling in about their purchase, sale or refinance. Day’s of closing are very stressful because the money needs to be deposited in the bank before the end of the day and the proper correspondence sent out before the transaction can be complete. My first day working it was a client’s day of closing. Crystal and I took a trip to three banks that day, we went to TD to get certified cheques and then went to deposit the cheques at RBR and CIBC. That took about an hour and we got back at the office just in time to finish the transaction on the purchase file. I was informed that next week, I’ll be taking a trip to the bank to do exactly that for another clients purchase transaction.