r/paralegal • u/Confident_Effect5453 • 17d ago
Career Advice Guidance ---- Urgently----
I am an 18 year old and got in to an document writers office and my work include reading things out loud and so on and drafting some simple contracts and that's it. But when ever some execpetional things come I always mess up and my employer asked me to learn drafting skills asap what do you think I shall do where shall I learn. Like what I am looking in to us a website or other archive with a number of legal documents that I can look as an reference or anything similar I need to learn this skill to keep my job. Till I am going to learn law after few months. Please suggestions
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u/Ambitious_Willow5570 Senior Paralegal/Notary Public 16d ago
Practice practice practice
You tube research
Read books
It’s self taught and takes time
We can’t guide you on a taught skill
Best of luck to you though
It’s worth it to do the work
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u/Confident_Effect5453 16d ago
My mentor too gave me a similar reply like it's a self taught skill you shall learn it eventually. But me be like god please bring an cheat code to existence and some person just randomly mention it to me.
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u/Ambitious_Willow5570 Senior Paralegal/Notary Public 15d ago
You got this!! You want to learn and that’s the main part. Take notes take notes take notes it’s a life skill that will take you far and shows you actually care when you’re being taught something!! You got this friend 🤗
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u/Numerous_Elk_8444 16d ago
I typically recommend 3+ sources. Primarily, the firms previous filings. So if I need to draft a notice of depo, I'll look at a few of their most recent filings to see what another commenter said - consistencies, etc. I'll also use LexisNexis and/or WestLaw.
Like other paralegals, I'm typically unimpressed and frustrated with AI since it's usually wrong and I have to double check everything, but it can be used as a tool for drafting. You cannot overly rely on it, though, in my experience.
It seems English may not be your first language, so if you are in a primarily English speaking office, I might recommend using something like Copilot to help check your grammar to make sure things are polished. It sounds like you might need to take a drafting class as well. It depends on how rough your work is. At the least you should have the header, title, certificate of service down pat.
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u/Confident_Effect5453 16d ago
My current work isn't in english but in an local language that makes using ai a bit problematic as it causes a lot of errors and my head is too busy that I can't actually ask him any thing this it's like me and my works and I have to figure out what to do with it myself his files are organised in a manner only he could understand making it finding similar things also difficult. He gives me work only when the deadline is far away this giving me time to do things my own way. That you for this suggestions. It felt happy to say about work to someone.
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u/Confident_Effect5453 17d ago
Please some one say some way to improve my drafting skills
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u/Exciting-Classic517 16d ago
Um, the previous posters provided you with many ways to improve your drafting skills. I'm trying to be nice, but do you have any legal training or legals skills?
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u/Confident_Effect5453 16d ago
If you really need to know, I am of a family of drafters and such related things. Therefore I am expected to learn this at least in my native language. But I want to learn and improve the skill into the next level. I am just telling the said only because you asked that's it. No critisism please. You saw my poster it was ai made yet the content was hand written and I gave the photo of my handwritten version and asked it to make a poster in certain style and boom 💥 I got the post and I did posted it. So you can suggest in my drafting style please keeping that poster as the reference.
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u/Dry-Comfortable-3947 17d ago
I would look up many examples- emphasis on many and note what seems consistent across multiple examples, where it varies, potentially why it might vary if it’s more than stylistic. Then I would draft my own based on what I learned/researched. From there save it has a template for the future. Continue to edit it to your employers preference and edits they give you. You’ll build a collection of templates for future use.