1, information collector.
We live in the information age, and the information transmitted from radio, television, newspapers and the Internet is overwhelming every day. This information is messy, and most of it has nothing to do with our lives. We each take what we need, and it is only related to a few things that are useful to us. For example, I don't care where another missile is launched, or the news that an athlete got another card; You may not need to know that a star fell in love with a man, or that a president was ousted. If you are an assistant, it is necessary for you to get into the habit of collecting industry information, which may bring you or your teacher some useful information after being collected and sorted. The information you want to collect is: 1) the latest laws and regulations. Laws and regulations are published every day, so it is necessary for you to collect them in time. Otherwise, it is possible that in a certain court session, you will still quote the replaced version and be refuted by the opposing lawyer in court. You can collect these texts and submit them to your teacher, or you can organize them for a period of time and submit them to your teacher's clients. 2) The latest development of the lawyer industry. If you surf the Internet, you can go to China Lawyers Association, local lawyers associations, law firms that you think are big names, and some theoretical websites every day to see if there is any latest situation. Always pay attention to the latest trends in the industry, know the news of those big-name lawyers and the latest theories of jurists, so that you can constantly update your information base and knowledge base, so that you can always realize the gap with them, instead of standing still and becoming a frog in the well. 3) the dynamics of the service industry. You will serve an industry. Whether you have a professional orientation or not, I suggest you choose an industry that you think is suitable for attention. The latest situation in this industry can help you adjust the way and thinking of service. Even if you think it's none of your business, get to know it and talk to the bosses of the enterprises you serve, at least they will think you are a conscientious person.
The information you have collected, I suggest you sort it out in time, and the information needs to be sorted out to be effective. If you just download it from the computer network and print it out, then your role is no different from that of a laser typesetter.
I asked my assistant to give me a briefing once a week, mainly focusing on the latest laws and regulations of the industry, the latest trends of the lawyer industry, the latest trends of the client industry and some latest news of our firm. Then, this briefing will be sent by my assistant to the customer's mailbox one by one.
2. The author of the document.
My assistant wrote the first draft of almost all the documents of a case for me. After your teacher receives the power of attorney, I guess he will also take a look at the case documents and then call you to the office to start explaining the task. He will let you read all the documents, and then let you list the important evidence and secondary evidence, and what other evidence needs to be supplemented. Those documents are not helpful to the case, but harmful. Around the facts of the case, he will ask you to collect the identification of these facts by current laws and regulations. With facts and legal basis, he will let you write all the documents of the case. In fact, it is easy to write a basically qualified document, because you only need to write what you want to express, but it is difficult to write an excellent document, because there are many ways to express it, and different people are allergic to different words. The documents you want to write include: indictment, defense, application for property preservation, application for jurisdictional objection, application for extension of proof, evidence list, cross-examination opinions, agency statement, supplementary agency opinions, legal opinions, closing report, conversation record, statements of the parties, etc. Please proofread these documents word for word before handing them over to the teacher. No teacher likes to read documents full of typos.
Slowly, your document writing style will be close to your teacher's. For example, your teacher likes to state facts first, then cite laws and regulations, and then deduce legal consequences. This is a typical syllogism. You will never quote the rules before stating the facts. My teacher likes to write in the last paragraph of the indictment: "In view of the above facts and laws, I request the people's court to order the defendant xxxxx according to the plaintiff's request." So I usually restate my claim in the last paragraph of the indictment without exception, so as to impress the presiding judge.
3. Case assistant.
Most teachers will take their assistants to court. Of course, some teachers refused the assistant's request to appear in court together because they were afraid that the assistant would learn how to appear in court. If you go to court with your teacher for the first time, and the teacher forgets to remind you what to do, and you are embarrassed to ask him, then I think it is necessary to tell you, otherwise you may embarrass the teacher.
You follow the teacher to court, but your name is not on the power of attorney, or your name is only added temporarily so that you can sit in the seat, then I suggest you: don't talk nonsense. Your nonsense will disturb the teacher's thinking.
What you have to do is, 1) record the court records. Court clerks will record the trial records, but you can't count on them, because many clerks will listen to your teacher and the opposing lawyer and forget to take notes during the trial. Moreover, your records are likely to be reference documents for studying countermeasures after court, and your records should be compiled into a book, so I suggest you develop the habit of shorthand. If you can't remember something clearly, you can record the main points and then refer to the clerk's records to correct them. 2) Obtain documentary evidence. You are the teacher's assistant. In court, you should constantly find the teacher's abstract or a copy of the evidence he wants to talk about in the case file. Before the trial, the files should be sorted out and numbered in order to tell the teacher the meaning of these special symbols. Otherwise, this case file with dozens of evidences and hundreds of pages of materials will accidentally fly all over the court when you drink water, and today's court will not open.
If you help the teacher with a non-litigation project. I think you do more things. Take a small acquisition business as an example: you should conduct due diligence according to the list of documents listed by the teacher, extract the documents, and mark the documents that are in doubt and need further implementation; You should assist the teacher to make a due diligence report and put forward several operational plans for the acquisition; You should help the teacher consider the quotation and counter-quotation; You should assist teachers to participate in substantive negotiations and point out the main points of negotiations; You should assist in drafting the acquisition documents; After the acquisition, you should assist the teacher to participate in the enterprise integration after the acquisition. Maybe, maybe it will be bought by the other party! In short, your assistance in non-litigation business will reduce the workload for teachers and greatly improve your ability.
4. Document Manager.
Whether it is a lawsuit or a non-lawsuit project, there will be more than N files, which will be piled up on your desk at will and will be mentioned by the teacher at any time. Perhaps an important contract will be accidentally broken by you, and an important evidence will unfortunately be washed in a sauna by you. Therefore, not only do I not add a shredder in the office, but I also ask my assistant to sort out documents every day.
No matter how many things you have on your desk, I suggest you have a job index or something. This thing is not difficult to design. You can print dozens of copies and put them there. Every time you receive a document or make a document, you'd better write a number on it, and then register it in the work index, so that you can find the document pressed under the Wuzhishan of Tathagata just by looking at this index. This method is applicable to any large or small company. You should also have a numbering scheme. For example, a lawyer's letter should be written according to (200x)X, and a court letter should be written according to XX. Then you can make a directory and quickly find out when and what documents were sent. When your teachers ask questions, you will also answer them quickly.
If you ask me where I got these methods, I can tell you that I have written a complete set of ISO9000 quality system documents, among which "Document and Information Management" tells us that these documents should be traceable. I won't tell you other complicated methods. For a law firm, having a management document is enough to ensure its normal operation.
5. Customer communicator.
Some lawyers don't like people to get involved in their clients, even their assistants, for fear that their business will be taken away by them. I'm not that stingy person, so my assistant is my client communicator. What would you do if your teacher asked you to communicate with customers? Your teacher may tell you some good methods, and I will also tell you some methods that I think are useful. What you need to do is: 1) Contact customers every week. Whether you are consulting or litigating, your teacher should contact the client once a week. I think you are fully qualified for this liaison task. You should ask the customer about the work schedule this week on the phone. Although you are thinking, nothing is the best, then record their requirements and inform the teacher. 2) Send them a company profile. You collected information and arranged a briefing. After your teacher approves it, you should deliver it to the customer immediately. These things may not be available every week. You can make them into fortnightly or monthly magazines, but you can't make them into casual magazines. 3) Visit the teacher's clients. If you have the ability and the teacher agrees, you can pay a regular visit to the customers, listen to their opinions on the service and adjust your work in time, collect their information and find out the information that can bring benefits to the teacher. Of course, these jobs can only be done by more capable assistants, and you may be competent.
As for the rest, I don't recommend you to use it. At the customer's place, try not to say things you shouldn't say, and it's best not to do things you shouldn't do, if you still need to learn more from the teacher.