I promise you, despite your best efforts, your denial will not make a dent in your workload. Take this quiz and assess your current state of affairs:

1.   Your office just received a Notice of Trial. How does your staff react when you call a meeting and announce the big news?

a.  Your best paralegal breaks out in a big grin and practically yells: “Woo hoo! Finally!”

b.  There is much debate about who has the extra time to handle the demands of trial prep, and honestly, there was a little bit of grumbling involved.

c.  Crickets. And you notice that everyone is staring at the floor, the ceiling, or otherwise avoiding eye contact with you. OR – What staff? I’m a sole practitioner!

2.  Opposing counsel just served some responses to Interrogatories and Requests for Production of Documents. What do you do next?

a.  Make sure the paralegal assigned to the case receives them and updates the discovery objection chart so you can address the deficiencies in a dispute letter within two weeks.

b.   Make sure the paralegal assigned to the case receives them, but due to the workload, your paralegal is not able to process them for a month, costing you too much time and resulting in discovery extensions.

c.  Nothing. The other side sent their responses in. What are you even talking about?

3.  You just got a list of potential jurors from the Clerk. Trial begins in just a few days, and you and your paralegal are completely swamped. What is your plan?

a.  No worries. I have other staff members who can provide support and split the research between them.

b.  Let my paralegal work 12:00 a.m. – 6:00 a.m. to get the research done.

c.  To blow off the research.

4.  You have a discovery deadline coming up but you are busy preparing for a hearing and a deposition in another case. What do you do?

a.  My paralegal has it completely under control and has already talked to the client, and gathered the documents that we will be producing. Additionally, there will be a draft in my inbox one week before the deadline. No sweat!

b.  Work longer and harder to meet all the deadlines, and drive everyone else in the office completely insane.

c.  Get so stressed out because of everything else that you have going on that you forget the deadline and have to deal with a call from opposing counsel checking on the date that your responses were mailed. Doh!

5.  You just inherited a case from another law firm. You need to make sure it is worked up and organized. Who are you going to assign this case to?

a.  I have someone in-house who loves piecing these types of puzzles together.

b.  Give it to my intern and hope for the best.

c.  Worry about it when it gets noticed for trial.

Scoring:

All A’s:  It would appear that you are an excellent boss who has everything under control and/or you already have an excellent paralegal who probably needs a pay raise or a bonus. (You’re welcome, excellent paralegal)

Mostly B’s:  You are overwhelming yourself and/or your staff unnecessarily. You need to seriously think about calling for reinforcements when things get stressed so you can avoid burnout.

Mostly C’s:  You need me desperately. Call me immediately. I will help you fix things.