Haley Lobs Law Bomb

Feeling Good Means Working Good

Haley Odom — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:10:29 +0000

Like most people, I would imagine, I really hate going to the doctor. I wait until the pain is so bad or the problem is so disruptive that I simply have no choice than to make an appointment (and inevitably be annoyed by the fact that I have to wait a day or two: “I’m sick! Can’t you tell?!?!”), sit in a waiting room for who knows how long, have a nurse poke at me and ask personal questions, and then have a doctor do the exact same thing. That’s not even the end! Then I have to mosey down to the pharmacy in the middle of my day and wait for what has been prescribed to me to fix that pain/illness/whatever that I’ve let get too bad.

The irony is that I have a slew of doctors that work to keep me functioning, and this leads me to my point:

We are better at our jobs when we take care of ourselves.

Why don’t I like taking a half day off to go to the doctor for that weird pain in my chest? Because I don’t want to lose that half day of working. How much time do I lose when I end up in the emergency room? How much time do I lose when I’m so sick I can’t actually come into the office?

Taking care of ourselves seems to take up a lot of our time when we’re busy making our billables or dealing with our clients, but it’s important to our overall well-being and for the quality of our work.

Firms, managing partners, attorney directors of staff, head paralegals, HR, etc., need to be aware and accepting of preventative care. Letting your staff, associate attorneys, etc. take care of themselves, allows them to be better employees and increases the quality of their work product.

It’s hard to concentrate on a brief when your wisdom teeth are killing you. Believe me, I’ve been there.

(On a side note: I would also like to cue the Robert Earl Keen song “Feels so Good Feelin’ Good Again” because I love it.)

Why I Love My Job

Haley Odom — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:47:09 +0000

Someone who wished to stay anonymous stated that my blog presented the not-so-pretty side of being a paralegal. As I look back through my posts, I suppose that’s true to some extent. Perhaps it’s about time for me to talk about why I love my job so much.

Intelligence

While there are stupid people everywhere, I get to work with brilliant individuals- lawyers, paralegals, legal secretaries, and marketing and HR folks. Working in a law firm, by the nature of the profession, puts you in contact with smart, bright people. Enjoy it. Pick their brains. Have conversations with them. You’re lucky.

Clients

I get to help people in very real ways. The ability to be part of a team that helps other people through the harrowing legal process is a blessing. Telling a client that the court battle is finally over and having them thank you profusely for your help is incredibly uplifting. Providing assistance to your clients is often why you get dressed and come to work everyday.

Learning

Our profession allows us (almost infinite) ways to learn and grow. There are so many areas of the law we can pursue. Tired of doing medical malpractice work? Move on to commercial litigation! Learning is one of my passions, and I’m so glad that I found a job (and a firm) that allows me branch out.

In the end…

Paralegals, tell me what you love about our profession. Let’s crowdsource this!

Teaching People Things About Things People Want to Learn

Haley Odom — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 21:01:36 +0000

Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion

I’m teaching a webinar on November 29, 2011: The Paralegal’s Guide to Effectively Using Technology in the Law Firm.

What I’ll be talking about:

Maximizing the Technology That Already Exists Inside the Law Firm
Evaluating New and Existing Technologies to Determine What Best Fits Your Needs
iPhones, iPads, Tablets, Web Based Software, and the Changing Face of the Law Firm in Regards to Technology

Let me know if you have any questions/problems/technology/software you’d like me to try to cover during my webinar, and I’ll see what I can do.

Oh, yeah. And sign up!

Wherein We Shield Attorneys from Having to Learn New Things

Haley Odom — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:41:21 +0000

Option 1:

Atty:	Acknowledged technical problem; fumbled with technology to try to correct error; became frustrated and yelled at computer screen; gave up.	0.5	$300.00	$150.00
Atty:	Called paralegal and explained issue	0.3	$300.00	$90.00
Para:	Listened to attorney’s problem	0.3	$100.00	$30.00
Para:	Researched problem	0.4	$100.00	$40.00
Para:	Drafted email with step-by-step instructions and included pictures for easy reference	0.5	$100.00	$50.00
Atty:	Reviewed and followed step-by-step instructions	0.3	$300.00	$90.00
Para:	Checked in with attorney to confirm that problem was solved; discussed the cause of the initial problem	0.4	$100.00	$40.00
Atty:	Discussed with paralegal the cause of the initial problem; asked paralegal to look into an easier way to solve the problem	0.4	$300.00	$120.00
Para:	Contacted software vendor regarding cause of initial problem; no real resolution; drafted report to attorney	0.5	$100.00	$50.00
		3.6		$660.00

Option 2:

Atty:	Attended 1-hour training on new software program and listened	1	$300.00	$300.00
Para:	Attended 1-hour training on new software program and listened	1	$100.00	$100.00
		2		$400.00

You decide.

I’m the Child of a Law Enforcement Officer

Haley Odom — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 04:10:35 +0000

Growing up the child of a peace officer is a unique experience. When your dad’s job is to determine when people are lying and to serve them up a dose of justice, you don’t get away with a lot. (As a very young child, I learned the difference between saying “I lied” and “I’m just pickin’.” Semantics are important, people.)

Having a law enforcement officer as a dad can also give you a fantastic gift: the love of justice. Perhaps watching him enforce the law is why I work in the legal industry now. My dad instilled in me the need for the justice system when instituted correctly. I will forever be thankful for his guidance, confidence, and sense of duty.

Not only did I get my love of the justice system from my father, I got his work ethic, personality, attitude, straight forward and no-nonsense manner, and a surly mouth. All of those things ingratiate me to him forever.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

Oh. Dad, I think you’re going to like your present!

Communication is Key to Keeping People (and Yourself) Happy

Haley Odom — Sat, 14 May 2011 22:13:01 +0000

At the beginning of every week I do what most people probably do, I make a “to do” list. Because I’m a nerd, and I love Excel (see previous post professing my love), I make four lists on the same spreadsheet: Home, Work, Volunteering, and Miscellaneous. I then create a separate list for “Work” and break it down further into smaller action steps. Yeah, I know, you can laugh. It’s ok. I’m comfortable with my neuroses. After I break down my list, I rank prioritize.

Then I do what we all should be doing: I sit down with my attorneys and confirm that we’re on the same page. Because I work for a couple of attorneys, I have to make sure they know what work the other one is giving me, and if a conflict comes up, we discuss it (or better, have them discuss it).

Talking to your coworkers about what you’re working on, making them aware of deadlines you’re under, and what availability you have makes everyone happy. Most of all, it keeps you sane.

Simply communicating when you can get things done keeps people happy. Inside a law firm, we all work under deadlines and there’s a lot of pressure to get things done as soon as possible. Sometimes that just doesn’t happen. I know that we don’t talk about that, we push the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day and that we only have ten fingers under the rug a lot of times. Making people aware of your time constraints let’s one of three things happen: 1) priorities are realigned, 2) deadlines are moved, or 3) work is redistributed. All of these things keep the work flow moving along, everyone is happy, and stress is abated.

Don’t make your life more difficult because you can’t (or won’t) communicate your work load with the rest of the firm. Being busy is a blessing (it just feels like a curse sometimes). It’s ok. Prioritize, confirm, and just keep plodding along.

The Modern Age

Haley Odom — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 02:33:36 +0000

Several weeks ago, I sat in a CLE where a judge made a joke about bloggers being journalists, and about 200 attorneys snickered. Yes, how could bloggers possibly think that they are journalists!? Perhaps the attorneys simply laughed because it was a judge making the joke, but I doubt it.

Journalists can blog, and not all bloggers are journalists. I can agree with that statement. The part that I took offense to was that a room full of attorneys scoffed at the notion that blogging is a valid form of writing/journalism. The legal industry has always been chronically behind the times, but in this fast-paced, technological world, we need to pick up the pace.

Look at CNN. They’ve devoted a whole section of their website to bloggers. Look at Huffington Post. Look at Law.com.

Let’s move into the modern age together, folks. I’m not suggesting that we all start blogging our little hearts out (it’s not for everybody), but as a group, let’s start respecting a medium that the rest of the world has already validated.

Blogathon & The Power of Finding a Group

Haley Odom — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 18:10:57 +0000

Today is Blogathon. It’s full of PR and marketing folk talking about the power of blogs/twitter/social media for growing your business. I am a paralegal. None of that PR/marketing stuff applies to me. Then why am I here? And more particularly, why do I help organize?

Because working in a group increases creativity. Working in a group makes you a more social person. Working in a group lets you relax (in the right setting).

The Blogathon crew is made up of some brilliant bloggers in all realms (not just marketing and PR). These are some smart folks, and I want to take advantage of their knowledge. Wordpress questions? Yep, we have some experts in WordPress. Design problems? Yep, we’ve got people that write books on that. Need ideas on content creation? I’ll point back to those people that were able to write books on a variety of topics.

Let those people help you. They may not DO what you do, but they have intelligence and insight that you should tap into and manipulate to make your writing/blogging/tweeting better.

Just do it.

Haley Lobs Law Bomb is Getting a Redesign

Haley Odom — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:02:19 +0000

As you can see, Haley Lobs Law Bomb is going through some changes. After moving to haleyodom.com, I realized that the blog really needed some upgrading/updating, and what time is better than right now?

Thank you for being patient while I figure out what I’m doing. If you have any ideas or changes you’d like to see, please let me know.

And if I haven’t said it before, let me say it now, thank you so much for reading. It means a lot to me.

Excel is Your Friend

Haley Odom — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:32:29 +0000

If you follow my twitter stream at all, you know that I am an advocate of Excel. Why? Because it’s simply more efficient and versatile than Word charts and indexes. Yes, I know that Word will allow you to sort data, but beyond that, manipulation of your information is limited.

A couple of weeks ago, I inherited an index of documents that totaled 40 pages – in Word. That wouldn’t have been a problem if I were only searching for a particular document where a simple word find would have sufficed, but it was not. I was trying to organize documents into separate folders based on several attorneys’ “hot docs” classification. Yes, that’s right. Five attorneys had gone through the index and marked what they felt were hot docs depending on what they were individually working on. Trying to organize, pull, copy, and re-index those documents was a nightmare. After going through the index once, I decided to just put in the effort on the front end and import the entire index into Excel. Because the formatting on the original index had been corrupted, it was a harrowing, frustrating process.

After importing everything, I created columns for each attorney and remarked their hot docs. Because the index could be easily sorted and unneeded portions deleted, I handed off the pertinent sections to an assistant who had no question what to reproduce. The index could be printed from there without any need to “re-index.” And the best part? When/if any attorneys want to add to their hot docs list, all I have to do is re-sort and re-print.

Excel is your friend. Learn it. Use it. Love it.