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This is a humorous and sarcastic blog written by a paralegal in a mid-sized law firm in a mid-tier market. The goal is to share some of the pitfalls and foibles encountered in my own day-to-day experiences. Feel free to contact me at aparalegalslife@gmail.com with comments. Complaints, not so much :)

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Raiders of the Lost Co-Counsel

Co-counsel asks for one of his associates to be admitted pro hac vice, which is a pretty routine matter.  I draft up the motion and e-mail a copy to him with instructions to sign the certification and E-MAIL it back to me so that we can file it promptly and he can appear at a hearing. 

Days pass.  (12 to be exact.)  He e-mails me to ask why the order isn't entered yet.  I double-check and advise him we never received the required certification that I asked him to E-MAIL back to us.  He says he signed it and his secretary sent it to us the same day.  Having been down this road before, I politely ask him to confirm with his secretary exactly how she returned the certification to us.  Turns out she sent it by REGULAR SNAIL MAIL despite my explicit instructions.  And they didn't keep a copy, so they cannot scan and e-mail it to me.  (RED FLAG - law office doesn't keep a copy of a document signed by one of their own attorneys???) 

It is possible she wasn't told by the attorney that it needed to be e-mailed to us.  It's possible she was told and screwed up.  At this point, I don't care.  The fact remains that they did not follow simple instructions, and don't keep good records.  Yet these are our lead counsel in a multi-million dollar case.  Oh, goody.

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Sounds like you have a fun time ahead with the remainder of this case. Ugh.

Paralegal said...

God. What a beating.
Paralegal Hell