However, the reason behind the fire drills was to practice walking down the stairs (something we’re capable of doing in a normal situation). In their minds, they didn’t need to practice leaving the office. They didn’t like walking down stairs and were very vocal about the absurdity of practicing vacating a building. We had several employees who complained each time we had a fire drill. As office manager, I was required to make sure everyone participated in fire drills. In one particular law firm where I previously worked, the offices were on the 15 th floor. Control defuses panic.Īnother important element is having a system. Set up a schedule and procedure for everyone to report their progress so the attorney feels a sense of control. By helping your attorney delegate tasks, you are helping to defuse the panic. Many attorneys who operate in panic mode believe they need to do everything themselves. Delegate the highest priority tasks to individuals who are best suited to perform those tasks. Your resources may include other staff members and professionals outside of the firm as well as your attorney and yourself. First, use your analytical skills to look at all of the details and determine the priority of tasks.Īssigning priority also means using your resources efficiently. However, what you do is as important as how quickly you do it. If your attorney’s in panic mode, you should be concerned and you should act quickly. Just because your attorney believes every situation is a crisis doesn’t mean that EVERY situation is, in fact, a crisis. You must first get as much information as you can about the situation and make your own assessment considering the level of urgency. In both definitions, handling a crisis requires the paralegal to be able to assess the situation quickly and assign priorities. Let’s look at each of these definitions in terms of dealing with an attorney who always seems to be in crisis mode.
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