Self Censorship

So, I should probably explain why I haven’t been writing much at all about work. We were told during training that the firm keeps pretty close tabs on any mentions of their name online. Additionally, we signed strict confidentiality agreements that set pretty harsh limits on what we can divulge. As illustrated by the last book review I posted and the subsequent comment from the author (sorry, man), despite having, like, no readership, it’s still very possible for people to find themselves on this blog if they’re looking for it.

Anyway, so this is going to be a pretty vague description of my work, but whatever. Basically, I work in Financial Institutions (”FIG”), which is a practice group within the law firm that focuses on banking law. This means we only work with banks and on deals that solely involve banks. It sounds limiting, but it actually allows the lawyers to do a wider variety of different types of deals for one specific industry whereas most other groups focus on a specific type of deal for a variety of industries.

For us, as legal assistants, it just means that we need to familiarize ourselves with where to get information about banks, bank filings, various Fed opinions, SEC-related information, bank deposits, etc. It also means we often take field trips to various banking institutions to deliver filings, etc. We also do a lot of copy-checking, indexing things, researching-type activities, sending things to be reproduced (we go through mind-boggling amounts of paper), making binders ‘o stuff — though these things aren’t really FIG-specific. Oh, one big thing about FIG is that it is VERY male-heavy, as I have yet to work with a single female lawyer. I am told this is because women don’t want to do it because they think it will involve a lot of numbers (it doesn’t). However, I sort of resent this assertion, so I am going to assume that it is caused by something else entirely.

In addition to myself, there are only two other legal assistants for FIG. I spend all my time with them, especially my officemate, Christina. Luckily, we get along well otherwise we’d be pretty miserable, haha. Christina and I giggle a lot in our office, take personality quizzes, read news, online shop and gossip, etc. This all sounds good and well, but honestly, we’d rather be doing work cause there’s only so much of this stuff you can do in a week without going crazy and feeling like you’re getting a little stupid (with the economy going south, things are seriously dragging). We study for LSATs a lot, too. Patrick, the other legal assistant, is in the office next to us, is a year older than us and seems to find us somewhat annoying/bewildering at times, but is very nice nonetheless.

As for the lawyers, it’s a small practice group with around 35 or so lawyers that mainly do FIG stuff, including, notably, the chairman of our firm. He is sort of a big deal and, according to the Wall Street Journal, “arguably the country’s leading banking lawyer.” So course, as paralegals, we don’t see him very often as he is Very Important, and we are painfully low on the legal hierarchy, haha.

In general, we work with (read: for) the newer associates, about 15 or so of them, and then maybe 5-7 or so more seasoned lawyers depending on needs (maybe we’ll eventually work with all the FIG lawyers, I’m not really sure yet). The first- and second-years are obviously closer to us in age (generally 26-ish), but unless there’s work to be done, they don’t really talk to us because they are very focused on Impressing the Partners, which I have only now discovered is the main priority for any associate at a law firm. I suppose I should have realized this earlier, but I guess I didn’t realize how serious people are about it. (Of course, they’re still really nice, just busy/focused, too.)

By the time they become third- and fourth-years, they’re more relaxed and willing to take time to chat with you and whatnot, so we actually tend to know those lawyers better. (The fifth- and sixth-year lawyers are generally a bit too old for us to really socialize with and the only ones who are left — there’s a culling process within most large law firms where most associates only stay 3 or 4 years — are now focused on Becoming Partner and probably fail to see how chatting with paralegals will help them to accomplish that end.)

All in all, Christina and I are very fond of those that we consider “our lawyers,” though I don’t think they really feel the same about us, haha. I like working here, but I really wish we were busier, as I am not really used to/comfortable with having all this free time. Anyway, this pretty much summarizes my Life at the Law Firm. Another book review to come, soon. Ciao, lovelies.