Week 3, Post 2

Reflection

The best thing that I could have developed within the Office Admin- Legal program is the fact that we were able to learn the process of each matter. Working at Clifton Kok, the legal assistant that I worked with the most didn't attend school for legal administration, so she would reply on previous files and instructions from the lawyers to know what step is next, which isn't a bad way to learn, but I feel that in having this education it makes me a little more independent in my working career.

The program does well in giving us the knowledge for this career, which a lot of the other students would also agree, and in most ways it prepared me well in my placement. The only thing that I would say is that certain formatting was kind of too enforced. My experience with the letters at Clifton Kok showed me that little formatting things aren't the way they would like it, an example is the spacing after the date; I never did more than 2 enters. They also liked to put the postal code on its own line when typing out the address. I also noticed that the way Wills were formatted were a tiny bit different, the signature lines weren't formatted like how we learned and we also only capitalized the person's last name, rather than the full name we were taught.

That being said though, I really did have a standard for the documents being produced. It would bother me so much seeing that the account template was all tabs and no tables. Mostly the templates were made nicely, so there wasn't much needed to change in order to satisfy me with those ones.

I actually really enjoyed blogging, I would write myself notes on what I did each day and then when reviewing the questions for each post I would refer back to these notes- which I felt helped me in reinforcing new concepts and could help me in the future as well. Personally I wouldn't want to do a written report, since I really liked reading what my other classmates were doing and I enjoy this type of open discussion.

Week 3, Post 1

Contemplation

Coming up on my last day here at Clifton Kok has made me realize that my working life is truly about to begin. Unlike many of my other classmates, I started this program right out of high school, so I have only ever been a student. I feel that not having much of any work experience is my greatest weakness coming out of this program. Though I do feel that I have a complete understanding of all the legal software and the structure of legal documents, this is reinforced at Clifton Kok since the work that I have done hasn't needed many changes after being reviewed. I just hope that my knowledge will outweigh my inexperience when potential employers look at my resume.

Looking on the bright side of that though, also being a student and encountering  many different types of teachers has made it possible for me to easily adapt to their learning style and cross it with my own, which I think would be helpful in being able to continually learn and develop in my professional career.

It kind of makes me sad to think that I'm done my first college program, though I feel that it isn't my last college program. It's nice to reflect back on what type of classes I really liked and know for the future what I'm best suited in. Like everyone in this program I learned a lot- and yet I am still learning new things within the first day of being at my field placement. This is mainly because we didn't have enough class time to cover all the ins and outs of every procedure, which is pretty understandable.  I do feel that somethings were unnecessarily stressed, like only a handful of the first year courses were actually helpful for me, though I can understand that not everyone is coming into this program with the same level of math, English and computer skills as me. I appreciate that the program has realized its faults and are no longer requiring the advance word and excel- because those classes felt like the biggest waste, since I feel that Microsoft has made their programs user friendly and many people never really use these programs in an advanced way. I still would think there is room for improvement for this course though. One of the main things that I would really like to see be taught in PCLaw is how to use the docket timer so that you can docket your own time, though it's not a hard thing to figure out it is common enough and used in the office every day.

Having to review over what habits I have established at Clifton Kok is interesting, because really I have just followed the way that Taylor has organized everything. I don't have a to-do list, because I often just complete tasks as I do them, but I do make shortcuts in my computer's Favourites to the files that I'm working on so that I don't have search for the matters in the client lists. This is helpful in knowing which matters haven't been completely dealt with- as once the file is closed and nothing more needs to be done to it, I would delete the shortcut. Also once a matter is done we email the lawyer responsible to tell them that this matter is close and that they can delete their task for it. We use Outlook for our emails, whether we are sending them or filing them, those are really the only features that I have used with Outlook in this firm. The way that we are filing them is by using a public folder (everyone in the office can move emails into these folders and read these emails) that holds all the emails for each matter- this eliminates the need to print off emails for the physical files, and makes it easy to find these emails again. It also keeps your inbox clean, which is super nice.

Week 2, Post 2

Reflection

I can honestly say that my biggest strength is my know how of the Microsoft Office Suite. I have been able to show the others in the office how to do mail merges- cutting the time spent on drafting letters in half. I have also been asked a few times on how to format things, which I always make sure to turn on the show/hide button, even if the others think find it confusing and have asked me how I can even read anything on my copies since I keep it on permanently.

When first starting at Clifton Kok, there was so many resources to read and review. Along with the procedure manual, and other more specific instructions, Taylor ensure that I read Chapter 8, Part VI of the Condominium Act, so that I can understand what liens were, along with a memo that explained process of Power of Sales- Taylor also emailed me a link to the a website explaining power of sales > http://www.bankruptcywindsor.org/2011/02/16/what-is-the-power-of-sale-process/ <. I have also been allowed to look at as many files as I wish- so when I have free time I take a look over the less common work that is done here like Financial Law or Litigation.

Comparing the responsibilities that Carolyn sent me before starting and the work that I have been doing these past two weeks and I have to say that most of it was pretty spot on. The majority of my time is spent preparing documents and filing those documents. I have had to work on Teraview a little bit, and done some background research with Taylor about taxes and such. I haven't yet docketed any of my time in PC Law, though it is something that the other legal professionals do.

Week 2, Post 1

Technicalities

The physical desk set up for the legal professionals at Clifton Kok is really something to be impressed by. Just like how my friend Claire's firm is set up (you can check out her blog at cclairekim.blogspot.ca), everyone usually gets two monitors- including the lawyers. The only exception to this is the office manager and myself, since I'm working off a laptop and she only has one monitor.

There isn't anything overly high-tech about the computers themselves, - if anything I would say the software is fairly dated, but that's mainly because I'm working with Microsoft Office Suite 2010 and we don't use half of the software that was taught at Conestoga. Which if you ask me is a shame because Clifton Kok works in many areas of law, but only have Teraview and Conveyancer for Real Estate. When working on corporate matters, and having to draft up resolutions for companies we use old precedents which takes much longer than just getting FastCompany to generate the documents. Having specialized software would also benefit the firm because then when doing new tasks, the legal assistants wouldn't have to rely so heavily on the lawyers providing us with example documents. Or, in the case of an amalgamation between two companies we had to resort to finding a template online and just customized it for the matter. This seems like a much more lengthy progress, especially if the template wasn't worded right or left out important details.

 The best thing about Clifton Kok is that they at least understand the annoyance of this process and they have all their electronic templates sorted in such a beautiful way. I have included a screen shot of the lien templates folder, since I have done the most work with them, but you can see how the beginning process is folder 1, the documents needed after are in folder 2, and so on. It is so easy to learn about new topics, since they often have instructions already made up.

The templates at Clifton Kok are really nice to work with though, especially for the liens that we process, as they all have standard wording and all I have to do is input information for the new lien. I haven't gotten to do much of Real Estate documents as I had previously hoped, but we have a closing on April 21, 2017, so I'm eager to see the process. I have gotten some projects that don't often take me that long to complete- though I had to compile a table of the owners and shares of co-op ownership apartment building (basically every tenant owns a portion of the property and they appear on the parcel register- which this one was 13 pages long), along with updating some schedules within the same matter.

I feel much more comfortable around the people here at Clifton Kok, the work never scared me, but making a good impression did- nearly hyperventilating whenever discussing files or projects with the lawyers isn't something I have done all week! Mostly because everyone here is already so relaxed with each other and they have all been super nice to me, so it feels silly to be worked up over it. I'm also getting more comfortable just walking into Carolyn's office without knocking so that I can hand her invoices from Teraview and letters to be sent that day.

Besides, these are really the only people that I get to intact with. Not many clients actually come into the office unless they have a meeting with Mark or Michael, or the Purolator man shows up with packages. Each phone is reached by an extension number, and since I'm at the spare desk no one calls, my extension hasn't ever been on the directory, nor is there a shortcut for it on the office phones.

Week 1, Post 2

Reflections 

It's a weird, can't-quite-place-it, type of feeling being done school. Knowing that I don't have more classes to attend or exams to take. It kind of feels like you just finished running a 100 meter dash and you realize that you can stop running and actually breathe. 

This last year, especially with having to learn such a massive amount of information about law, was a little more than overwhelming. I honestly think that there could have been better ways to go about learning all this information, which Conestoga must agree since they have changed the course layout for new students in the program. It's hard to mold people from being students to professionals, and even harder to go from a student to a professional-especially when it's the first time working with the software or doing the procedures. Learning as we went, with quizzes and files, and getting back feedback before a test always helped with enforcing the theory. For me, knowing what I did wrong would stay in my head so that next time I would know to change it, and it helps me look out for the common mistakes that I like to make.

With all that said, the content and skills that we learned have turned all of us into knowledgeable legal professionals. 

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.

Beginnings and Ends

It's really hard to believe that my time with the Office Administration - Legal program at Conestoga is almost over. In these past two years, with over 1,000 hours of class time, I have gained the knowledge that I need for the next stage in my life. Of course there is still my placement that will give me actual office experience, which makes me feel better about this transition in my life.

Starting this Monday, I have been welcomed to work along side the legal professionals at Clifton Kok in Ayr, Ontario. I am quite excited about this field placement as both Michael Clifton and Mark Kok were very courteous in my interview with them. During the interview I was able to get a better understanding of how their law firm works. Mr. Kok explained that the reason they have created, and kept to, a smaller sized firm is so that they can focus on ensuring that the law clerks and legal assistants can succeed and have an exceptional understanding of the legal work they are doing. Since this outlook focuses on individual growth, it’s a really great environment to learn about how law firm’s work. Though that doesn’t make me any less nervous about my first day there.