1. Discuss how, through this program, you changed from a Year 1 student to a pre-professional. What specific elements in the program helped to develop you as an emerging legal assistant? You may wish to relate your new sense of professionalism to, for example, research you have done - explain how 'real' you think your classroom/lab experiences have been; why it is that you have come to feel more mature in your attitudes/thought processes/people skills. These are only examples of what you may wish to discuss. You may choose your own topics but please be specific - how, why, what, when!
a. I believe it was the demand to have something done by the teacher’s that helped with being under pressure (not that they were always 100% done correctly.) An example would be when Mrs. Stewart demanded we write a Consent to Travel letter for our ‘client’ on the spot that was due within a half hour or so. That has helped with me emerging as the pre-professional legal admin that I am. Since I have been working at Caron Family Law, I have had to search through a lot of client files so that I could flesh out a Case Conference Brief for an upcoming CC. I feel like I am more professional because I’ve had to adapt my way of thinking opposed to how I was taught. Real world experience is much more different than my school experience because all we had to use was our textbooks; here, we are required to dig for the information and to decipher our lawyer’s unintelligible writing.
2. Were there benefits to blogging - both writing about your experiences and reading others' blogs, over the last three weeks or would you prefer to submit a private written report at the end of the three weeks? Explain.
a. It was difficult for me because I am the only one doing the field placement in this point in time; I have no idea if what I am blogging about is helping the other student’s or making them apprehensive. I will know more in April when everyone else is completing their placement.
3. How prepared were you for work placement following completion of the program?
3. How prepared were you for work placement following completion of the program?
a. I felt like I was very confident and prepared, but like I stated in question 1, it is very different from school. The way to write correspondence is, basically, the same. I’m just finding it difficult to write it out correctly because I have no experience aside from emailing with Mrs. Bradley. Once the task is repeated, I shouldn’t have any issues in regards to anything.
4. Have you chosen the career path that's right for you? Explain why or why not.
4. Have you chosen the career path that's right for you? Explain why or why not.
a. I believe I have, but again I just need more than the 90 hours I’ve been working to really cement that I chose right for myself. Three weeks is too short.
5. Have you developed your own 'standards of excellence'? Describe what you expect of yourself with respect to your approach to a work assignment/formatting documents/etc. Describe some of the standards you have developed over your two years of study.
5. Have you developed your own 'standards of excellence'? Describe what you expect of yourself with respect to your approach to a work assignment/formatting documents/etc. Describe some of the standards you have developed over your two years of study.
a. I expect myself to find all the information out personally, either through browsing the client files, HRC’s notes, previous Orders/CC Briefs etc., and the scanned items/correspondences that we have saved electronically before I ask someone else. I think once I work for more than three weeks at a firm, I will be even better than I am now. I wonder what the lawyer has to say when she evaluates my performance.
Thank you Maryrose for your very comprehensive posts. Your blogging was great and it made for very interesting reading. DO you have any suggestions as to how we could make school simulations more real, other than handing you a shoebox of receipts to go through in order to prepare a financial statement! Thanks for your hard work. Wishing you all the best...Mrs. Bradley
ReplyDeleteMrs. Bradley,
DeleteI find that your and the corporate law teacher's way of instruction was the easiest and best simulation available for a made-up scenario, I just wished it was that way across the board for all classes. I also wish that all the teachers agreed on something as simple as writing out the inside address (ie. do we spell out Ontario, or just abbreviate it? Do we double space after the abbreviated province or just put the postal code under it? Things like that.)
I agree. There were quite a few things the teachers teaching the legal classes did differently, and the two who cared about those small differences and mark accordingly need to get together and decide what they are going to expect from their students going forward so they can stop getting marks docked for silly errors. Yes we need to learn what each individual lawyer likes as we move into our careers, but at school we are still learning and need a constant.
DeleteThank you so much for writing up your experiences, Maryrose, especially as you were the only one doing so at this time :) We are all aware I think of how it feels when you have to present to the class first, or go first in anything and don't have a yardstick to go by, so to speak. On the bright side it also means that none of the students reading your posts had anyone else's to compare yours to, whereas when we all write at once that won't be the case! :o
ReplyDeleteSpeaking for myself and my learning curve after my summer experiences in a law office, it helps me to do my learning slower. To have learning experiences which speed up at the end of the course (which would benefit from being much longer in order to accommodate this at least) would have been better. I find no benefit from trying to desperately learn at an accelerated speed after hearing something lectured once, and then desperately trying to do it as fast as possible. I need to learn it for a while in order to get fast at it. THEN I can work fast. Learning needs to be slow and thorough, work can then be fast. :D Being handed a shoebox of receipts in class would prompt me to not be in the class at all.
How did you find your conversations with the court staff went? Were they happy to chat with you about process and spend time with you? You mentioned in a previous post your interest in possibly going for a clerk position there...
No problem, Emma! I felt like I was kind of in a rift since I had no one else going through the co-op with me, but it was an invaluable learning experience. I really wish that Caron Law office had room for a second assistant, because it was such an inviting place.
DeleteAs for the court staff, I found them very friendly and accommodating. By the end of my three week experience, I knew practically all the names of the staff on the FL side. I was there quite a bit because I had to find jobs for myself since the law office was in a slow period. They were very helpful, and I liked the aspect that they were helping self-represented people with finding the appropriate forms they needed to fill out for their specific matters.
Thanks for your questions!
Hi Maryrose,
ReplyDeleteI am happy to see you again here and congratulate you on finishing your work placement. Your detailed posting helps me a lot. Thank you.
Aw thanks Claire! Glad I could help!
DeleteWeek 3, Comment 2
ReplyDeleteI hope you're doing well!
I assume by the date stamp that you have completed your 90 hours. You mentioned you were unsure about the career path you've chosen for yourself... are you still feeling that way? What's changed your position?
Hey Alex!
DeleteI was simply feeling very overwhelmed because I felt like I was prepared from being at Conestoga college, but it's very different from what I've learned. They didn't have a computer for me to use DivorceMate or PC Law. I had to go through the back way to get DivorceMate forms to work on a client's matter so I was unable to use what I had learned when it comes to the legal software. Also I had a lot of silly mistakes that compounded to make me very frustrated and uncertain; ie. the paper jam when I was doing a respondent's
I had the option of my placement either at Caron FL or Harris Law, which is Litigation. I went with FL because that was the field I wanted to start my career in; unfortunately, I still went into the placement with the knowledge that she could not secure me a position because she simply did not have the work. I have been handing out my resumes since before the work placement was even finished (Mrs. Bradley helped me with correcting my resume to incorporate what I had learned in the work placement.) Unfortunately, I have received no interest in my cover letter and resume. I have resolved to seek out the help of a temp agency in the hope that I could find a job. To bring this to a close, I do think Office Administration - Legal is the right field for me, I was just feeling very uncertain and rushed since I felt I had to learn as much as I could in a 90 hour period.
Hope this answers your questions!