Vancouver Family Law Civility and Client Focus matter. I’m Tristan Jer of MacLean Law and am a senior legal administrative professional here. If you are thinking of a career in family law, I can tell you it is gratifying and exhilarating experience. I’ve always loved people over paper and in family law we help people move on successfully free from bitterness and resentments so they and their children are winners after separation.
Vancouver Family Law Civility and Client Focus
Vancouver Family Law Civility and Client Focus are key to a success as a lawyer, paralegal and family law legal assistant in managing client stress. Remembering to deal with colleagues in a respectful way allows all of us to not fall prey to being “part of the madness” and focus instead on being part of the solution. Clients deserve a “bite of reality sandwich” says Lorne N. MacLean, QC early on in their case. Family lawyers, paralegals and legal administrative assistants can all fall victim to “vicarious trauma” from distraught clients and tough cases and that’s why Vancouver Family Law Civility and Client Focus helps clients and their legal team obtain a sustainable and successful resolution to family cases. Getting clients proper psychological support to calm their anxiety, protecting them from all types of family violence and providing them with a calm road map for their family law case is key. Hiring the best paralegals and legal administrative professionals is also crucial to a family firm growing robustly.
In today’s blog, I want to give some insight into what it is like to be a legal Assistant at the busy award winning family law firm of MacLean Law. If you have ever seen the opening scene of TOP GUN you know how much support it takes to get a fighter jet safely off the deck of an aircraft carrier. The same behind the scenes hard work is frantically happening daily by paralegals and legal administrative professionals when a lawyer anxiously waits to “take off” to battle in court.
I have spent the last few years at MacLean Law and enjoy my colleagues and work I do tremendously. MacLean Law has been named Vancouver’s Best Family Law Firm 4 times and the last three years straight. Maclean Law has also just won 2018 Small Private Firm Employee Recommended Workplace Grand Prize Winner from the Globe and Mail.
Being a Legal Administrative Assistant in Family Law Today
This November marks 10 years for me as a Legal Administrative Assistant. When I started in November of 2008, the Supreme Court Family Rules were not what they are now. In fact there are some Rules from back then that would probably be helpful to the industry if they were brought back in. Such as filing application materials, serving them, and then choosing a date for the hearing, and then filing a Notice of Hearing. Not to say what we have today is better, just different.
Building relationships in this industry is key, especially relationships with other assistants and paralegals in other family law firms, and also at the Registry counters in the various courthouses across the city and the Province. But not all relationships that start out good, stay good. This is a high stress area of law, especially for support staff who are charged with pulling everything together and producing the mountains of documents to make things magically happen on time for the lawyer so they can walk out of the office and into the courtroom fully prepared. The challenges in executing this feat is not without its stresses and strains, and sometimes tears. That being said, being a Legal Administrative Assistant is not a thankless job however. Many lawyers and the firms they work for fully acknowledge all of the acrobatics it takes for support staff at various levels to get the job done and the lawyer prepared. I often tell people outside the legal community that I could teach them how to do the basics of my job in a week. Two weeks for more advanced and complicated duties related to the job. This is not to say the job is simple by any means, I have witnessed many in my 10 years that did not make it, and many who excelled at the position. Many lawyers refuse to give up their assistants, many taking them with them as they move from firm to firm along their career.
Education in any form is also key to success. CLE and TLABC seminars are a great source of knowledge, reading cases on CanLii and also subscribing to various mailing lists and articles are another great way to stay in touch with what is happening in the legal community, not only in the area of family law.
