Things typical and annoying today

1. Associate successfully argued a motion to dismiss without a specific ruling, and without asking, if the case was dismissed with prejudice. Genius. When I asked her whether it was with prejudice, she just stared at me like I was talking Greek! I tried to explain how important that ruling is on a motion to dismiss, but I was met with nothing but blank stares. I gave up. I guess we'll wait and see what happens.

Work-Life Balance for Paralegals

One of my readers recently asked whether there is good work-life balance for paralegals.  This is an excellent question. (Thank you, Indy!)

I want to be a Paralegal! What school should I go to?

Getting a job as a paralegal can be difficult, as in any profession these days (except perhaps for blogging, woohoo), but it can be made easier if you have some credentials backing you up. The more letters you stick after your name and the more colleges you have listed in your C.V. the better for bringing in the dough. How many letters you put after your name is a matter of time and the money you can put into education. There are several options for this, depending on what you're willing to put into it. You owe it to yourself to get the best credentials you can.

CELEBRATING 10,000 PAGE VIEWS!

Superlegal Fun hit 10,000 page views today!!  

This is how I celebrate. 

Quote of the day

Email exchange sent to everyone in the firm:

Waiting for a verdict

After you run a marathon to get to trial prepared, and after closing arguments are done, you finally realize that there is nothing to do but wait for the jury to return the verdict.

Legal TV genius: David E. Kelley

Legal shows are rarely very good. It is hard to catch and keep the attention of the general public with law, and rarely does a show succeed. I think I have at least taste-tested the majority of them, rarely becoming enthused about any one series. It seems that it may be even harder to keep the attention of legal enthusiasts, like myself, because the shows rarely portray the law, judges, lawyers, and their staff accurately. Producer David E. Kelley is the common thread in every legal show I have liked and loved. He is a legal TV show super genius. Plus, he had the good fortune to marry Michelle Pfieffer in 1993. (Random fact, unrelated to law)

One of JD's career choices

JD told me he used to be a used car salesman. Life makes a little more sense now.

Manners, manners!!

I worked all weekend preparing for a major trial starting today. To my surprise, Passive Aggressive Paralegal also worked all weekend. I asked her if she also had a trial soon. She said she had one in September. Well, that may not be too far off, but I have THREE trials between now and then. She asked how my trial was coming along - the one that starts today. I told her there was still a lot to do, but that I would be at the office all weekend working on it. 

Wrong! There is such a thing as badly-timed, stupid questions!

I am starting a MAJOR trial in a couple days. I have told Secretary X that I have no time for anything but trial prep, especially since B-Dub is on vacation and I am preparing the case by myself.  I told her to see me in two weeks if she needs instructions on anything and to simply deal with anything else herself in the meantime. Well, that little instruction through her into quite a tizzy. Her response a-la-attitude was that now I have one case and she has a THOUSAND cases and that isn't fair, promptly stomping her hooves in protest. Obviously, I told her that I don't have time to help her with that issue and she needs to bring it up with B-Dub if that's a problem (again, he's on vacation). She walked away.

Now, of course, five minutes later she comes to me about another question, and another, and another, all unrelated to my case going to trial. So frustrating! Here is a list of her issues that are more important than my huge trial: