PT-LawMom

I’m writing this post with my brand new to toy, iListen. iListen allows me to speak to my computer without using my hands [EDITED TO ADD: obviously I’m on drugs. What I mean is that it allows me to type by speaking or that it allows me to type without using my hands. It’s voice recognition software]. This is very helpful right now because I have been having severe nerve and joint pain throughout my body for the past few weeks (hands, arms, elbows, knees, ankles, toes). It has been getting worse every day and the doctors are not completely sure yet what’s wrong or how to fix it, although they’ve found a few issues already that we need to address. I’m now on my 13th vial of blood drawn and I just got a $450 bill for the first round of tests (and that’s with health insurance, by the way — thanks for the huge deductible, employer-who-will-remain-nameless). Fortunately I saw a great rheumatologist who gave me a nice, big, fat steroid shot in the butt today and I can feel the difference already (probably because of the pain killers he also gave me). Hopefully the six vials they sucked out of my arm this afternoon will lead them to some definitive answers because I can’t take much more of this. He gave me additional steroids to take for the next week so I should be a fun sweaty mess (anyone else get wicked hot flashes on Prednisone?), which I guess is better than being a mopey, pain-ridden mess. (NOTE: To those of you who know me IRL, please keep this on the down low. Obviously this is kind of upsetting/worrisome, but I’m hopeful that it will be resolved soon. )

Classes are going well so far. My teachers are a bit more scary this semester, but one seems to have a good sense of humor and the other at least seems fair. I’ve been called on by one of them and managed to hold my own. I’ve been taking Big Drugs since class started, which has left me either vomiting or drowsy, so obviously I haven’t been doing my best at work or at school. Thank God for the long weekend, over which I hope to catch up some.

This weekend, Chapin and I are finally celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary with a night away at a nearby hotel. Hopefully the steroid shot will make me a bit more fun to be around, but either way we’re going! Where there’s a will, there’s a way! We had to cancel on our real anniversary at the last minute so we’re not doing it again. Pumpkinhead’s going to spend the night at his Mimi’s house and Chapin and I are going to watch Bourne Ultimatum, have dinner by candlelight and enjoy some time in peace. This will be our first full night away from Pumpkinhead since he was born, so you can understand why it’s a momentous occasion! With any luck, he won’t drive my parents to an early grave.

Okay, now that I’ve spent 45 minutes testing my iListen and correcting it, I can see that it might take a little more training for this program to really help me take notes. It does pretty well, so I think that with a little more time invested it will be a good addition to my study tools.

WashPost has a great article explaining how judges are looking at, or should look at, local ordinances trying to withhold benefits to undocumented immigrants and the businesses that support them.

Hopefully this week-long boycott of Prince William Co., VA businesses will show county officials the power of the immigrants in that community. Non-immigrants who support them should really consider joining in.

Pausing the posting break to bring you news of the ACLU settlement with USCIS over conditions for children at their Hutto facility.

The Washington Post reports:

Under the ACLU detention agreement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed to place families who have a legal basis to contest deportation — such as asylum claims — in Hutto only if no other space is available. Families facing expedited removal proceedings, where no hearing is required, may be detained but their cases must be reviewed every 30 days to see if they can be transferred or released.

The agency also agreed to allow children older than 12 to move freely about the facility, to provide a full-time pediatrician, to end a requirement that families stay in their cells 12 hours a day, and to offer field trips, toys, books and more nutritional food to children.

The Weekly MILS (Moms In Law School) Roundup** is the brainchild of Saramel. It is hosted on a rotating basis at the Reasonable Expectations, PT-LawMom, and A Little Fish in Law School blogs and is usually posted no later than Monday morning. Next week’s MILS Roundup will be hosted by Butterflyfish.

The Race is On — 2L Wannabe, Reasonable Expectations and Knocked Up (and in Law School)
Roadblocks — Law School Mom and A Little Fish in Law School
A Little Family Time Before School — Adventures of Law School Mama and Frequent Citations
Hiding Under the Bed Sounds Pretty Good About Now — Lag Liv and Legally Certifiable
Time Flies — Magic Cookie
End of an Era — Parens Binubus
Advice for Pregnant Law School Moms — Peanut Butter Burrito

Lose-Lose? — Ms-JD.org (This is not a MILS blogger post, but I think it’s a thought-provoking post with some interesting comments worth reading.)

If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILS blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.

**Hat tip to the “original” Roundup — Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground and Divine Angst

Sorry I’ve been a bit absent lately. I have lots to say about my new professors, my summer grades, etc. But… I’m sick. They’re pretty sure they know what it is but I won’t know for sure until late next week. It’s not the Big C or anything (thank God for small miracles), but it’s painful and is really interfering with school and work (and blogging). I’m having to take things slowly and just do what I can, which right now means reading 150 pages for this upcoming week and working on the MILS roundup. Hopefully I will be back soon and in a better shape to blog.

In case you missed it, immigration activist Elvira Arellano was arrested by USCIS officers last Sunday as she stepped out of her church sanctuary to participate in a press conference. Ms. Arellano has an 8 year-old, U.S. citizen child she has tried to protect and has used his citizenship as a basis for her petition to remain in the country. Immigration officials didn’t accept her argument and ordered her deported. She has been living in a church ever since refusing to surrender and speaking out about the separation of families by USCIS.

I was sad to hear this, but not surprised. What did surprise me was reading NOW’s press release on the matter. Apparently USCIS really does have a cruel streak, naming the operation to arrest Ms. Arellano “Return to Sender.”

NOW has called for a moratorium on these types of destructive raids:

CALL FOR MORATORIUM ON IMMIGRATION RAIDS

WHEREAS, the National Organization for Women (NOW) is a convener of the National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights, an important collective of grassroots and advocacy organizations that promotes equality for all immigrant women and families living and working in the United States by advocating for comprehensive immigration reform, reproductive freedom and economic justice; and

WHEREAS, in 2006 NOW passed a resolution calling for fair immigration reform that supports provisions to improve wages and working conditions of immigrant workers, to protect them from exploitation, to preserve the provisions addressing violence against immigrant women and families in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and for a more efficient system to process those eligible to work and seek permanent residency/citizenship, one that excludes the building of fences, walls and prisons at the border; and

WHEREAS, tens of thousands of undocumented workers, many women, have been unfairly detained, terrorized, and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of a program dubbed “Operation Return to Sender,” that has separated hundreds of children from their mothers, who often were their only caretakers; and

WHEREAS, there has been a failure in Congress after two attempts to agree on a positive immigration reform, which could have addressed harsh employment practices, unfair policies, and the unjust, terrorizing raids and arrests that are tearing families apart; and

WHEREAS, immigration raids are targeting workers, typically immigrant women, based on their racial and ethnic appearance, accent or limited English skills; and

WHEREAS, ICE uses military-style tactics to terrorize communities, families, and workers by barging into homes and arresting residents, apprehending parents picking up their children from school, confronting immigrants about their legal status, raiding factories where many undocumented women work, and sweeping up workers and separating families by sending workers to inhumane detention centers that are scattered across the country; and

WHEREAS, the recent raid in New Bedford, Massachusetts, detained and arrested 360 undocumented workers, the majority women. They were taken into custody on March 6, 2007, after a raid by federal agents on the Michael Bianco Inc. factory, a military contractor 60 miles south of Boston. They were sent to detention in Texas which separated them from their children at home, including breast-fed babies. Many other children were stranded at day-care centers, schools, or homes of friends or relatives. This is only one of the thousands of stories of devastation;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Organization for Women calls for a moratorium to immediately halt the immigration raids that have been devastating families and our communities across the United States; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that in addition to this moratorium NOW calls for our government to: investigate allegations that detained individuals have been denied access to counsel, illegally interrogated, and subjected to abusive treatment; prohibit the separation of families with long, drawn out detentions; provide safe, appropriate and humane holding facilities; notify counsel and family members within 24 hours of transferring any detainee; halt transfers of those arrested by Department of Homeland Security; and afford detained workers who have been unfairly and illegally exploited at the raided places of employment a pathway to pursue labor claims against their employers; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that NOW continues to recognize the contributions of immigrant women and a right to due process and fairness that will result in an equitable and fair immigration policy that provides legal and safe immigration options, a path to citizenship, reproductive freedom and economic justice.

You can find the weekly roundup here at Saramel’s site.

The Weekly Moms In Law School (MILS) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis by Reasonable Expectations, PT-LawMom and A Little Fish in Law School and is usually posted no later than Monday morning.

Next week’s MILS Roundup will be back here.

My second semester of law school starts tomorrow and I am sooooo not ready. I’ve been sick all week (Boo! BIG DRUGS not working right!), had to throw my mother a birthday party last night (it went really well), and had enough tear-filled family drama to last a year. I need another week (or six) to get ready, but I guess throwing myself in is the best way to go.

On the plus side, I did read three trashy romance novels, finally finished Chambermaid (yikes!) and took care of several household things that needed to be taken care of (new dishwasher, car registration renewals, banking, etc.). I went out to lunch and played a lot with Pumpkinhead. Sick as I’ve been, Chapin and I did not get to play. I also went to three doctors’ appointments and had blood drawn twice. Have another round of that to look forward to on Thursday. Boo again. Missed two days of work, which means two less vacation days to use for studying in December. Spent $200 between co-pays and prescriptions.

Wish me luck as I launch into the “hard” semester. I don’t have any work-related experience with one of my classes and my experience with the other is very limited. I’ll feel more confident (or not?!?!) about my abilities once I get my grades back from Semester One. Good luck to everyone else starting up this week or soon.

This lovely post title stems from several searches to my blog recently (shout out to Rockville, MD)! Do you want to know the hard answer here?

TELL HER

Okay, maybe she really does suck. Or maybe you suck. But passive aggressive behavior won’t get you anywhere. I have been a legal secretary and before that an admin assistant for over 10 years. I’ve seen attorneys stomp their feet, roll their eyes, do their own work, foist their work on others and hide in their offices — all to avoid a crappy assistant. Why?!? Let me tell you, it doesn’t help office morale to know the girl down the row makes as much as you (or more) and gets away with doing absolutely nothing because her partners are too afraid to talk to her or to management.

Let’s assume she sucks. Is it fixable? Perhaps you could write down the ways in which you think she sucks and address it on a point-by-point basis. Assuming you are her direct report, but she has a supervisor as well (i.e., attorney boss but secretarial supervisor), you should meet with her together with her supervisor if you can’t stomach meeting with her alone first.

Problem - Work not completed fast enough
Solution - Does she have too big of a workload? Are their other people competing for her time who are getting prioritized first? Could you come up with a system where you give her an urgency number to help her prioritize (but this must be realistic - if you always tell her it’s urgent, she’ll probably stop believing you).

Problem - Skills lacking on a particular computer program, typing speed, etc.
Solution - Duh. Training! Send her out for a class in a specific program or perhaps for general training. Many companies offer general overview classes in everything from Word to office procedures. For legal secretaries, send them to NALS. They have both a beginner and an advanced certification. I have received both certifications and, believe me, the courses/exams really teach you a lot. If you can’t afford training right away, direct her to the wonderful blog, Lawyer’s Right Hand. Kelly has some fantastic, practical tips for all sorts of programs a secretary uses every day along with procedural tips for handling the workload.

Problem - Bad attitude
Solution - Maybe this person is just a crab. Maybe they have something going on in their personal life. Bottom line is that it is affecting your work (and probably her coworkers and the office in general). You need to sit her down and be straight with her. Offer help (employee assistance plan?) but be clear that the attitude won’t be tolerated. Especially for a legal secretary, the impression she gives your clients can hurt you (or, in the case of a good legal secretary, the clients will be pushing past you to say hi to your friendly, lovely, wonderful assistant!)

Hope this helps, Rockville, and anyone else cowering under their desk in fear of confronting a sucky assistant. You may find out that a good part of the problem is misunderstanding and lack of communication. That said, perhaps you should change assistants. It’s important to have a good fit and feel like you’re a team.

For how to treat a good assistant, please see this post.