When I began my first legal job at a seven-lawyer firm, our staff was lean and simple: lawyers, paralegals, secretaries and a half-dozen administrative support employees. The secretaries, each of whom worked with one attorney, wore myriad hats. They opened and closed files, prepared invoices and ran conflict checks using an ancient card file system. One secretary even served as the firm’s unofficial computer expert, and any problems that went beyond her skill set required a call to an outside tech support company.
Years later, I accepted a position with a large firm and entered a new world in which one secretary might work for three, four or more lawyers. But the additional burden was minimal, because corporate-style administrative departments handled most of the secondary responsibilities that had been part of my job previously. The prospect of such plentiful, diverse and readily available help made me almost giddy.
