A tough job in the day. Not for the faint of heart. And you are correct, the attorneys are computer savvy and it has changed the practice of law dramatically. Another thing that changed the practice of law was when women became partners. The crazy hours got better because women needed some family time.
I worked for Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. Lloyd Cutler was counsel to two presidents. It was ALL about the work. They did pay for me to go get my Legal Assistant certification from George Washington University. They got their money's worth from that investment, but it proved helpful to me for as long as I chose to work in law firms.
We have a all women law firm for a client (well, I there IS one male). They go home at 5:00 o'clock and take every Friday off. I couldn't believe it at first!!
Most of the firm's I worked for were lenient to the married with children. Singles like me had no life outside the offce (according to them) so we were slaves.
The firm's would always send me to learn about some new technology or court procedure. The other secretaries never wanted to learn. Before I became sick, the local court introduced and mandated electronic filing of most court papers. About a dozen secretaries, including yours truly, went to classes to learn the new procedures. The idea was that we would learn and then teach the others. Well, most of the other secretaries ignored or slept through the classes. Ended up that I was the only one who paid atrention. And when I tried to set up classes at the firm for those who didn't attend the original classes, I was shot down. They all figured that it was a lot easier to have me do the work than for them to learn something new.
Shortly before I became ill, I offered to teach one of the secretaries and she blew me off. So I said, some day I might be run over by a bus, you are going to need to file a document with the court and you won't have me to rely on. What was she going to do? Well, she scoffed at me. Sure enough, I became ill and could no longer work. It was panic time at the office. How were they going to get documents filed? Well, sorry. I was in ICU with a breathing tube shoved down my throat. No way was I going to be able to go to the office and bail them out.
I bemoan what I was taught to be a lack of work ethic, but apparently now, going home at 5 is becoming the norm. Of course, along with that haa been a reduction in support staff. Employers figure, why pay for secretaries when we can do things ourselves?
