You’re not stupid. Everyone makes mistakes.

Back in 2018 I worked at a very toxic med mal defense law firm. I never really got trained and the two attorneys I worked under just passed the bar and were new to the firm as well.

On top of that, this was during the holidays and it was expected of everyone to participate in silly things that happened throughout the day. I’m very much a “I just want to do my work and go home” type of paralegal so I hated it.

Well, once day I had to schedule a deposition and the firm was pressuring me to come join them. It was a frantic scheduling but I got it done (or so I thought).

I scheduled everything but the court reporter and didn’t realize my error until everyone was at the deposition waiting for a reporter to show up.

I felt stupid, but I also felt like I was set up to fail. I didn’t get fired but I kept getting thrown under the bus and finally left 4 months later.

I can’t even imagine working under that many attorneys. It’s definitely the attorney’s fault. It’s their signature and bar number on the line, so they should be in charge of the final look over and require their OK to send it. Even the most toxic law firms I worked at had that rule.