Week 1, Post 1

First Impressions

Walking back into Clifton Kok for the first time since February was pretty nerve racking, but walking in and being greeted by the legal assistant, Taylor, and being shown around the empty office really calmed me down. There wasn't anyone else in this early yet, because most people don't arrive early, rather they show up for 8:30 when the office officially opens.

Right after my tour I finally got to meet with Carolyn, the office manager and also my supervisor, she was the person who I first emailed with to set up my interview. Within the first day, I realized that Carolyn really is the backbone of the firm, which Mr. Clifton and Mr. Kok both said in my interview, but I didn't realize how much of the foundation of the office rests on her shoulders. Well everyone in the office knows how to open files, Carolyn is the person who usually does it. She also does all the monthly accounts and bills in PC Law, though each clerk or assistant have the duty of inserting funds for either fees or payments, along with docketing time.

I started the working day with Carolyn calling the office's tech guru, Walter, so that he can create my set up, which would be the office's back up laptop at an empty desk- consisting of a phone, lamp, and a drawer that randomly opens on its own. All the desks (only 3) for the legal assistants are along a wall on the main floor, my desk is near the end, right in between Taylor's desk and Carolyn's office. Once my computer profile was made, they created an office email for me, so that I can be in contact with the rest of the office- even though the firm is small, the lawyers prefer to initiate work or request things over email. The emails also have their own filing system, which I haven't really looked that much into yet, but I know from the way that Taylor utilizes that system that it can be a good way to keep track of what files are currently open and what tasks need to be done.

I actually already love the filing system set up at Clifton Kok, both manually and electronically. Physical files are kept in an open space that has floor to ceiling shelves (actual picture provided), and the system is both colour coded and alpha characterized depending on the type of law. For example Real Estate matters are given green folders and the alpha character is R, meaning the file number would be something like R023. The electronic system is pretty close to how we organized files at school. On the main drive there is a client folder with subfiles from #,A-Z, making finding clients faster and easier. There can be many subfolders within a client folder depending on what the matter is, and how many matters are opened for the client.

Unfortunately, I have had a pretty slow couple of days. Between Taylor's amazing skills of being on top of everything and the firm only having a handful of active open files (some files are just waiting for responses and such) there really wasn't much to do. I mainly worked on letters my first day, not drafting them but rather finalizing them and getting Mr. Kok to sign them, creating the labels and sealing them in envelops (thank god they were self sealing!) to have them mailed away. Taylor has been my main source of work, she has given me the tasks of reading up on liens, power of sales, and the offices procedures manual. The procedures manual reviews essentially everything, it covers how to open files, how to work the copy machine, what needs to be sent to Carolyn or the lawyers for review, the format that documents-like statements of adjustments and trust statements- need to be in, and all steps for Real Estate transactions, including how to use Teraview.

I'm still excited for the upcoming days, because the firm is about to receive information on liens that need to be registered, meaning that Taylor and I will be working on those and I will be learning a new process that we never really got to do at school.