Week One (part I)

I am doing my co-op work placement with Pope & Valois Law Office in Waterloo.  For reading week, I worked the entire week full-time, and it was quite an experience. Ms. Valois specializes in real estate.  The office of Ms. Valois is located inside the office of Lowes, Salmon & Gadbois. So whoever gets that placement opportunity will be seeing me around quite often. J

On my first day, I arrived and Ms. Valois gave me a tour of the office, while introducing me to everyone who was working there.  All the legal assistants and lawyers were very nice and welcoming. You could tell they all get along well. I could definitely tell that even though they all get along well, when they arrive to the office their focus is their work.

Ms. Valois showed me the desk where I would be spending most of my day. It is a half cubicle, with a desk, phone, computer, printer, and office supplies. It is only half a cubicle so I can hear when Ms. Valois calls, since I will working directly with her. There are also pictures of a family on the desk, and that is because Ms. Valois has a part-time legal assistant who works on that desk.

I was not given a handbook of office procedure, and I believe it is because Ms. Valois knows that I have been taught all this information in school already, which I have. I was just instructed on how to answer and operate the phone, what the process of taking messages are, how Ms. Valois likes to BF her files, and what to do when we receive documents.  

When I walk in to the office in the morning, Ms. Valois has emailed a list of things to do, which I put into a task list on Outlook and color coordinate. The reason why I color coordinate my task list, and add notes, is because the day is really busy and things come up where I have to do drop what I am doing and address the situation, but I have to come back and finish what I am working on. I am then to check the fax for any correspondence addressed to Pope & Valois. That correspondence is to be attached to the corresponding file and put on my Ms. Valois tower, as she needs review all correspondence before it is filed. All the while I must answer the phone, if it rings, and take down messages.  I also entered new clients into Conveyancer, and PCLaw. I worked unsupervised until Ms. Valois comes in to the office.  

At the beginning of the week I was a little overwhelmed with everything I had to do because some of the stuff we were still learning in our real estate class.  Towards the end of the week I felt a little more confident and do believe that I can definitely do this job. I am quite excited about the future. 

Next post I will discuss how I feel school prepared me for this work week....stay tuned!