The friend on whose behalf I spent an entire day in a hospital called this morning. She’s getting sprung today and feeling tremendously better. We chatted for a while. In my usual fashion, I was multitasking, leafing through the classifieds in the local lawyer’s rag.
I spotted one that said “contract attorney needed in Employment law.” That could be any number of things, but since the contact information listed was a telephone number, once I was done talking to B. I dialed it. I found out from the secretary which firm I’d called (it’s a good one) and which of their attorneys had placed the ad. So ok, I left him voicemail. He called back, leaving voicemail in turn for me. Now, I have little use for games of tag, so I hunted up the firm website and e-mailed a resume and brief note to him.
Then I called back. I know an awful lot of middle aged lawyers who only check their e-mail if they’re expecting something so I wanted to give him a head’s up. That time he was in, so the secretary put me through. We chatted for about three minutes, and then he started asking me questions based on prior experience. He had pulled my resume off his e-mail, and I was being interviewed on the spot!
Some ways, that’s good. I didn’t have time to get nervous, and I didn’t have to get dressed up, although I admit I had never expected to be interviewed in a t-shirt and shorts. The downside was that he asked me some very specific questions that I couldn’t recall the answers to without looking, like the names of the assorted programs on my computer. I e-mailed those to him after the interview.
We’ll see what, if anything, comes of this. He said the hardest part is figuring out what to let go of, and I allowed as how sometimes it could take longer to get another attorney up to speed than to do the project yourself. Then I asked him if what he really needed was an attorney to call in emergency overload situations, or an associate to whom he could assign entire cases or aspects of cases.
I’m curious to see if he’ll ever actually contact me again. Either way, though, I learned something. I am capable of sounding professional when I’m not expecting the conversation. That’s reassuring.