2002-06-20 - 8:40 p.m.

This is such a classic lawyer story that I had to come on line to write as my Mom is not home and I can't think of anyone to call now who will apprechiate the humor of this as much as her! (Mom worked as a paralegal)

Yesterday I was told by the lawyer I am working with to write this legal notice for our client which needed to be posted today by the client, and to bring it to the client to have it immediately posted. This was in response to me informing the lawyer and the client of the requirement of the posting to be in compliance with some regs. My boss said "Let's just do it for him and not have him have to go to the trouble of posting it. He's really busy- a lawyer's job is to simplify things for the client, not give him stuff to do."

I thought his point was a good one!

So this morning I wrote the notice, and brought it over to the client. (I actually stopped by the office before I brought the notice to the client but the lawyer boss was not in.)

Later this afternoon the lawyer WAS in his office and he spent time reviewing some work I did for him. The last thing he reviewed was the copy of the notice I had done. He took out a pen and started marking up the page with some changes. He instructed me to make the changes and e-mail it to the client. When I told him I already brought it to the client he was very specific that in the future I am not to ever communicate with the client in any way without passing everything through him.

(I'm actually not offended by that as it is truly appropriate since he is supervising my work! I am glad he take that role seriously! So that is appropriate)

However I just reviwed the changes and was literally laughing as there are a few INSIGNIFICANT changes just not worth the time to even make and there is one change which renders a sentence gramatically incorrect! He also changed two other things which are taken out of the EXACT language of the regs governing such notice. The regs say that a particular statement must be included in the notice and then has exact language to be used. So that change cannot be made!

I was hysterical after taking a look at his comments. (Laughing that is!)

The clear communication coming through was that I am not to do anything without his input! I think the comments on the page were to make that point.

The good news is that the application I hoped to get completed and Faxed over to the required govt entity was actually accomplished today! I recognize that WOULD not have been the case had I waited for the lawyer to review the notice which legally has to be posted BEFORE submitting that application!

I called the lawyer back and left a message that I reviewed the changes and am not making them as the one change would render the sentence gramatically incorrect and that I verified this with my Oxford English dictonary. (ACCORD is a VERB He had changed my phrase "in accordance with" to "in accord with.")

I also told him the other change was with the specified regulatory language so that can't be changed. I did not mention that the change of "After" to "Following" was just too insignificant to waste my time on!

I have more valuable things to do Like make fun of lawyers on Diaryland.

�

�