New Lawyer’s Guide to Avoiding Mistakes: Dear Diary
A lawyer’s diary system can be a critical tool for organization and practice management. While we are encouraged from a very early point in practice, usually during articling, to begin using a diary system to track our work, many young lawyers find themselves unsure of what to track in their diary, why it is so important, and what type of diary system to implement for their practice.
The What
Determining what to track in your diary may depend on your areas of practice, but consider starting by diarizing the following:
LIMITATION PERIOD DEADLINES
All other work deadlines, such as a Court filing deadline, deadlines to return completed work to senior lawyers, or deadlines to respond to clients.
Follow up reminders to reach out to clients for instructions or to review a file that has been inactive.
Appointments, appearances at Court, and internal meetings.
The Why
Starting and maintaining a diary system that works for you has many benefits as you advance in your legal career, including:
Keeping your files and work tasks organized. You are only going to have more and more work as you go, so start organizing now!
Avoiding procrastination and forgetfulness. You cannot remember it all!
Reducing the risk of practice mistakes such as missing limitation periods, missing Court filing deadlines, or making an error in a rush assignment you forgot about.
The Method
Lawyers within the same firm or organization will often vary in the type of diary systems they use. The method of diary system you utilize should be reliable and accessible to you. If you are lucky enough to work with an experienced legal assistant, they can likely show you a few methods of diary systems their previous lawyers have tried and had success with. A few options that young lawyers could try are:
Outlook Tasks and Calendar – As part of Microsoft Outlook, you can display both your calendar of appointments and the tasks due each day of the week. Tasks and appointments can also be shared with others such as your legal assistant or another lawyer working on the file.
Microsoft Planner – This is a separate Microsoft application that can be used to plan your tasks and assignments. The task you input can include deadlines, comments, and instructions, and can be arranged through organizational boards or viewed as a schedule of upcoming tasks and deadlines.
Trello – An application with similar features to Microsoft Planner, but available to lawyers that do not have access to Microsoft office applications.
Paper Planner or Diary – The least technologically savvy option, but still a popular method for many lawyers. With most organizations trying to reduce their paper use, this affordable option may become obsolete soon, but is still one method to try if using a computer-based application is not working for you. Make sure someone else in your organization knows how they can access your paper diary in the event you are unavailable for some time.
If you have not started a diary system yet, give it a try! You will see organizational benefits immediately, save yourself the stress of remembering everything going on in your work life, and hopefully avoid any unnecessary mistakes early on in your practice.
* Kelsey A. Barnes is an associate lawyer at McKercher LLP in Regina, SK who maintains a practice in insurance and corporate/commercial litigation, estate planning and estate administration.
This post is for information purposes only and should not be taken as legal opinions on any specific facts or circumstances. Counsel should be consulted concerning your own situation and any specific legal questions you may have.