I love my boss

First a little background, a little exposition.

I work at a law firm. No, I'm not a lawyer (so no "kill all lawyers" jokes). I'm a paralegal.

The way a law firm is set up is as follows:

The highest on the ladder are the partners. Partners own the law firm. They make the most money, they make personnel decisions, some partners do other work, but it varies. Many (if not most partners) insist that you do not call them by their first name. After all, they are "higher" than "you". I have never called the current partner "Allan" only "Mr. B______" I have to leave his name anonymous in case some employees (ex or otherwise) read this blog.

Next are the lawyers. They are the ones who work on the cases. One of the lawyers work on files before they become lawsuits. My 2 bosses are lawyers.

Then there is "support staff": paralegals, clerks, helpers of the office manager, secretaries, special projects people. At one point, I am above clerks as I am their teacher. I am 20 yrs. older than these clerks as they are law students wanting the experience of working at a law firm. Also, I am not just any support staff person, because I train the clerks, produce my and clerks' schedule to the partner, tell the partners that they better get going and hire a lot more clerks as I am doing now b/c we have 3 clerks leaving by mid August.

Of special note is the office manager. An office manager is definitely below the partners. But it's iffy where his level of power is among lawyers. (& obviously he is above support staff). I don't see our office manager higher than the most senior lawyers. But I definitely see him higher than the lawyers w/o much experience. It would be tricky for him to be lower than those lawyers that came after Nov., 2006, but it's possible if they bring into the firm a ton of money due to settlements and won trials that they could be, I'm not sure. I don't sit in on those types of meetings. I do hear them talk but that's only limited information.

Anyway, I have 1 boss that I don't know too well b/c he just got out of law school. I'm old enough to be his father. He is very excitable and enthusiastic. So far so good.

The other lawyer has been a lawyer for at least a few years. Like me he is sad because he is unhappily married. We sometimes commiserate. He is a wonderful boss. He praises me when I do well (which is "usually") and doesn't yell at me when I make mistakes. (NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A LITTLE TIME, COMPARE THIS POST TO THE FIRST POST I EVER MADE WAY BACK IN 2005, THERE ARE OTHER POSTS ABOUT THAT "BOSS-FROM-HELL" IN 2005 AS WELL) . He is great to work for and working for him makes me want to work harder for him. He even said to me (GOD BLESS HIS SOUL!!), "Vince does not work for me, we work together!" That was the same way it was with Adam (my ex-boss of 2006&7) and Brad (ex-boss of 2007 and early this year).

Adam taught me a lot and was simply a great lawyer. He left to start his own firm.

Brad was great. Brad left a few months to start his own firm, too. When I got sued he was my lawyer for free. He didn't have to do that; he just said he wanted to do that for me. Also, Brad was very forgiving of my mistakes. He just never got mad at me. If I was with a client and accidentally shot them b/c we were looking at a gun, the conversation would go like this.

Vince: Brad, I accidentally shot one of our clients

Brad: Really? (wouldn't even ask how it happens). Well we bettter go appoint a special administrator and keep the case going.

Brad was remarkably unflappable. Maybe the most unflappable person I ever met.

I like my firm b/c I have worked for 3 great bosses and only worked for 1 who gave me a tough time.