The Kids are Alright

I have two new kids, a boy and a girl. It's my job to raise them up right and teach them the ways of the world. The legal world, that is!

I had been working with the same attorney for the past three and a half years. Recently, someone--and I don't know who, but apparently it was someone in the management end of things--had some kind of brain fart and decided I should instead work with two brand new younguns. I've been here before--it seems that during the course of my 30-some-odd (and some were odder than others) year "career" as a legal secretary, I have had more than my share of fairly new attorneys. So now my assignment is to teach these two kids the ropes.

Usually our firm hires attorneys who have been out in the world, practicing law for a couple years. This time, though, we practically robbed the cradle in hiring two attorneys fresh out of law school. They've both taken the bar exam, but they won't get the results until November--traditionally, the week before Thanksgiving. So, for the next few months, my kids will be in the office, doing all kinds of exciting things like summarizing medical records, doing legal research, and writing legal motions, all under the direction of the partners they're assigned to work with.

When I was first told about this reassignment, I was less than excited. Kind of pissed off, actually. In many ways, I feel like I'm getting a little too old to be teaching attorneys what they're supposed to do. Imagine having twins at the age of 45. It's like that. And you never know what kind of attitude these new attorneys will have; whether they'll see you as someone to help them along the way, or whether they'll figure you can't possibly be as smart as they are--after all, they went to Law School!

Both my kids come from fairly humble backgrounds, which I think is a big plus in their favor. They don't seem to have that snotty air of entitlement. Both have put themselves through law school and will be paying off student loans for the next several years. That's good--I think they'll appreciate what they've accomplished and work harder to achieve their career goals.

I'll tell you one thing, though. My "girl" knows how to win points! Here's an e-mail she sent me today:

"Going to lunch shortly and to Starbucks. Would you like me to bring anything back from Starbucks for you? Not sure if you are a caffeine drinker."

HA! Kiss up! She's obviously done her homework! But I love it. Maybe raising kids isn't so bad after all. I like these two so far.