Being the newest and least inexperienced associate at a big firm definitely has its challenges. As I’ve already alluded to before, I most definitely stumble through my job. The mistakes I’ve made so far (forgetting to pay the filing fee for a Complaint, for example), while frustrating and silly, have not been too terrible. Last week, I was tasked with responding to something from opposing counsel. Seems simple enough? Count the days from when you got it and there’s your response deadline. That’s where the tricky part comes in. The actual counting. I did the requisite 21 days and then was told – Hey! add three for mailing! Sounds great, three more days to respond - I’ll take it.
Unfortunately, for reasons I still can’t quite explain, I added 21 plus 3 and got…25. I respond on day 25, pat myself on the back for a job well done, and sit back and wait for the compliments to start pouring in. Well, that’s a bit of an overstatement, most likely I responded, crossed it off my to-do list with tremendous urgency, and moved on to something else. I had just opened the reply from Nasty Opposing Counsel and getting to part where she calls me out on my inability to count when I get a call from the partner of the case, who has been dubbed The Shirker – in that she agrees to do something that needs to be done, you talk about it for a few minutes and then when you leave her office, you realize you are now doing what she had agreed to do not five minutes earlier.
me: “This is Jersey”, full of apprehension as my caller ID ominously reads The Shirker.
TS: “Hey, have you seen the response from Nasty Opposing Counsel?”
me: “Um, yes. I am so sorry…I must have…um, counted…um, incorrectly.” I immediately start listing off reasons why it is not the end of the world, including citing case law, in what I am sure sounded both incomprehensible and annoying.
TS: “Okay. Just wanted to make sure you knew.”
So basically she just called me to say, You screwed up. She wasn’t interested in hearing about how I could rectify said screw-up, but she just wanted to make sure I was aware that I had messed up. Yep, all good on that front. I am pretty sure I realized the screw-up, when Nasty Opposing Counsel moved to have our delay by one day in responding constitute an admission as to all LIABILITY. For those non-lawyers, that means my client could lose just because I was a day late. Realistically it won’t happen, but wouldn’t you think that the phone call pointing out the error was unnecessary? Over the top perhaps? I think the expression involves salt and my wounds?
Lesson learned: No. More. Counting.
