Life as a Summer Student (Part 3)
Oh to be a summer student again
Marin’s article (which you’ll read below in a moment) reminded me of a hilarious memory from when I was an articling student.
I somehow became convinced (temporarily) that my job on a given transaction was literally the most important one, since if I missed a single signature page, then the deal would be at risk.
Good thing I kept that thought to myself, as it was a dumb one - although there was some merit to it. If one person - regardless of their role on a file - messes up something, there can be key implications.
Of course, what I later learned is that pretty much everything you do as a student is fixable - including signature pages. Who would have thought that maybe I was the least important person on the file.
One thing I have not changed my mind on since I was a student is that most lawyers are terrible at giving instructions and managing people. I believed that then and I believe it (even more strongly) now.
Instructions in a virtual firm
by Marin Shahaj
Summer students might have their workload go from scrolling on Tiktok to a bunch of papers on their desk that need work done on them by end of day.
In a virtual firm like ours, you hear a "ping" and your heart rate quickens as you eagerly open the notification that will determine how you'll spend the next few hours. Often, the student has never seen or read these documents before and has no idea where to start navigating them.
In such scenarios, most summer students face the same problem: a lack of preliminary instructions. Additionally, many students hesitate to ask for follow-up instructions, fearing they might be bothersome. This might be easier in an in-person setting, where questions can be asked conversationally as instructions are given, without the worry of subsequently annoying the senior lawyer.
Still, in-person summer students struggle with not being able to think of every question they have on the spot, often realizing an important inquiry hours after the senior lawyer has left. Additionally, they can easily forget what their superior told them, since the human brain has a finite capacity for memorizing information—especially when it is delivered in rapid legal jargon by a lawyer (who aren’t known for speaking slowly).
Our virtual firm has effectively eliminated these latter issues. Students don’t need to think of follow-up questions on the fly, and they seldom forget instructions because they are almost always written down.
However, instructions at our firm are seldom received synchronously and never in person. Sometimes, a student can’t even begin a task because the very first step in the instructions is ambiguous—lawyers aren’t always the best at giving instructions and often overlook the knowledge gap between themselves and the recipient.
Students are already hesitant to ask follow-up questions; this hesitancy is amplified when they can’t see the lawyer, gauge their mood, understand how busy they are, or even know if they are currently at work.
Life is a game of trade-offs. Our students might run the risk of bothering their superior when the latter wants nothing to do with them, but our students will never forget instructions. Finding a balance that gets the best of both worlds will hopefully allow us to one day eliminate confusion and fear that summer students get once they hear papers slap on their desk, or a notification on their desktop.