What’s more, Kim Yoo-hee shamelessly brought up the Labor Standards Act.
It was truly laughable, but I couldn’t completely ignore it.
I knew very well that my secretary worked overtime as often as she ate.
‘So it’s nice that I can easily make her work.’
Because I can just ask her anytime I think of something.
Once, at 10 PM, I went to her desk just in case and she was there.
It means she’s someone I can use whenever I want.
I’ve even thought that she might collapse in an instant, but it’s not my body, so why should I care?
‘But if I deliver the final blow, it’ll be a headache.’
What is a “final blow”? In a word, it’s delivering the last hit.
Kim Yoo-hee collapsing is because she’s foolish, but it would be troublesome if it were my fault.
Because 100 real estate provisional attachment applications would probably be a bit much.
It probably won’t happen, but if she were to lose consciousness while working, it would be easy to blame me.
Hyun Ah-jin clenched her fists and said.
“Then I’ll talk to Lawyer Lee and ask him to submit it by the day after tomorrow morning.”
Even if it were done tomorrow, it would barely be submitted by the time the court closes.
Then the case wouldn’t even be assigned to a judge that day.
There wouldn’t be much difference from submitting it the next morning.
Hyun Ah-jin quickly thought for a brief moment.
“Oh, since you’ll be doing it with the other secretaries, you might be able to manage it in about a day and a half.”
“Lawyer Hyun, you’re telling me to do that alone.”
Awkward silence hung between the three of them at my words.
Lawyer Yoon Yi-hoon stared at Hyun Ah-jin with a look that said, “This isn’t right.”
Then she blushed and stamped her foot.
“Th-that…”
“Lawyer, putting aside that Yoo-hee has a lot of other work, isn’t that too much for her to do alone?”
Lawyer Yoon purely stated his thoughts.
However, Hyun Ah-jin, misunderstanding it as a reprimand, bristled.
“I’ve been doing it w-well so far. So I thought she could do it all this time too.”
“…You’ve been making her do that all this time?”
“Well, she’s so good at her job. And didn’t Lawyer Yoon make her do that too? Otherwise, it wouldn’t explain why Yoo-hee always works overtime.”
“You’re right. It’s my fault too.”
Yoon Yi-hoon, with a solemn expression, adjusted his posture.
And with a polite expression, he said.
“I’m sorry. It’s an excuse to say that I haven’t been working here long and didn’t know the job well, but it’s true.”
It’s stranger for a rookie who just graduated from the Judicial Research and Training Institute this year to know the practical work well. I waved my hand, indicating it was fine.
“Instead, I’m trying to deliver it as neatly and quickly as possible within my capabilities. She’s helped me a lot, after all. Even when I ask my colleagues, they say there’s no employee who helps a lawyer this much.”
Now I understood.
What he just said wasn’t meant for me.
It was meant for Lawyer Hyun Ah-jin, who was standing next to him, to hear.
Because a new hire who hasn’t been there long can’t admonish a senior lawyer who’s been there for a year.
He was indirectly saying it while pretending to reflect.
“So I’m always grateful.”
“Hmm hmm.”
Hyun Ah-jin cleared her throat when he thanked me.
It meant that she should be grateful enough by now.
In fact, what Yoon Yi-hoon gave was less than half of what Hyun Ah-jin gave.
It was the difference between someone who foists their own work onto others and a newcomer who struggles because they don’t know the practical work.
‘Of course, Lawyer Yoon also asked for help when he was struggling.’
At least he knows how to be sorry.
Moreover, now I only help to a manageable extent.
This is possible because Yoon Yi-hoon is the type to immediately understand if the reason is rational.
Now I’ll do the same for Hyun Ah-jin.
I placed the litigation records Lawyer Yoon brought onto my desk and said.
“Lawyer, as you said, I’ll submit the application for the determination of litigation costs by tomorrow.”
“You have so much work, will you be able to?”
“Didn’t you tell the client the submission deadline? Then I have to.”
In short, he told the client when he would submit it.
Then, unless there are extraordinary circumstances, it must be adhered to.
Because no lawyer at our firm would tell my secretary to submit 100 real estate provisional attachment applications alone and then say she can’t.
With a very apologetic face, Lawyer Yoon Yi-hoon returned to his seat.
Though the person who should truly be sorry is someone else.
I spoke to Hyun Ah-jin, who was standing there looking very annoyed.
“Lawyer, this is a case you’re handling with Lawyer Lee Jun-gang, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s written on the application.”
The lawyers working together are listed as the responsible lawyers on the application.
Among them, Lawyer Lee Jun-gang was the senior lawyer who took on this case.
I read through the application, checking the responsible lawyers listed there.
Including Hyun Ah-jin, there were a total of 4 lawyers, and their secretaries, including me, numbered 3.
‘This much is manageable.’
I looked away from the monitor screen and said.
“Then, Lawyer, it seems we can proceed by collaborating with the secretaries of the responsible lawyers listed here.”
“Then do that.”
She was telling me to collaborate with the secretaries on my own.
For reference, I was the lowest-ranking among them.
I’m a 3-year secretary who hasn’t even become a deputy yet, while the others are deputies and managers.
But if the associate’s secretary, who has the lowest rank, talks to the partner’s and even higher-ranking senior lawyers’ secretaries, how cooperative do you think they’ll be?
Especially when I’m already getting all sorts of discrimination for being from a local university.
‘This is why she’s making me do everything in the first place.’
It’s because she doesn’t want to make uncomfortable requests to the other secretaries.
For me, she can just throw it at me and it’s done, but to ask other secretaries, she has to give instructions to another lawyer’s employee.
And to the secretaries of her superiors, at that.
Hyun Ah-jin wants to give her employers, the partner and senior lawyers, the image of someone who just takes care of everything herself.
It’s like I do all the hard work, and Hyun Ah-jin takes all the credit.
‘Not a chance anymore.’
I smiled brightly and said.
“Yes. Then when I send the provisional attachment application by email, I’ll put the lawyers in CC and ask for their collaboration.”
“W-why is it becoming like that?”
In an email, you can add “CC” in addition to “To.”
The recipient is the direct receiver of the email, and “CC” is, as the name suggests, for stakeholders.
Of course, lawyers should know when their own staff are assigned tasks.
However, if I send it via CC, the reporting structure becomes a bit strange.
It’s as if a secretary is informing superiors.
But what is reporting?
It’s from the bottom up.
If they were going to use the lawyers’ secretaries, it was right for Hyun Ah-jin to send the email herself.
Not for her, as a subordinate, to order someone even lower.
“I’ll just do it myself. Instead, please review the tunnel defect repair matter I gave you this morning and prepare the final submission. That’s simple, so it’s possible today, right?”
Yes.
In the end, Hyun Ah-jin, her face pale, trudged back to her room.
And a moment later, a very polite email arrived, quite different from the ones she usually sent me.
It was a collaboration email sent to all three secretaries, including me.
With all the responsible lawyers in CC.
She didn’t forget the touch of dividing the 100 applications into 33 each, giving me one more.
“Ugh, she writes so well, why is she like this?”
If she had been like this from the start, there would have been no reason to blush.
Lawyer Yoon Yi-hoon’s intervention doubled Hyun Ah-jin’s embarrassment.
I got up from my seat and loaded large quantities of Lee & Yeon’s court submission paper into the printer.
Then, I began the task of printing the applications, lost in thought.
‘This time it passed, but Hyun Ah-jin won’t change.’
The fundamental problem with this work is that I am responsible for three lawyers who primarily handle litigation.
What’s more, their work never overlaps.
‘Just handling two litigation lawyers is exhausting.’
For consulting or advisory work, a secretary’s duties are less than a quarter of what they are for litigation.
This is because lawyers mostly contact clients directly and send opinions by email.
‘This is actually related to performance, though.’
The firm initially assigned Lawyer Yoon Yi-hoon to me because he was a new hire and didn’t have much work.
However, naturally, as time passed, his workload gradually increased.
Now it was time to adjust my responsibilities, but the problem was Lawyer Ahn Gyeong-hun.
His secretary, who interviews with the senior managing lawyer every quarter, couldn’t just handle two clients.
Personnel costs are the biggest expense in a law firm.
Because we are a company that makes money from people.
What does that mean?
‘If Lawyer Ahn settles in well, I’ll only have to do as much as I was originally supposed to handle.’
A sub-mission has arisen for me: for Lawyer Ahn Gyeong-hun to perform well.
Also known as the ‘Hyun Ah-jin Adios Project’.
“Hmm.”
Hyun Ah-jin is an all-around talent.
She doesn’t just assign work thoughtlessly; she simply lacks a sense of how to work efficiently.
She has a knack for making you do something ten times when it only needs to be done once.
[Eui-gwang Tunnel Defect Repair Case Preparation Document_Final Final Final Final Version]
I chuckled as I looked at the email that arrived while printing the application.
It was the simple submission she mentioned when she went back to her room earlier.
Well, it’s simple because only three copies of the document need to go out without supporting evidence.
‘If it were truly the final version.’
Having a final version means there are also revised versions.
For reference, that one was only corrected three times.
It means there are still a few more times to go.
She keeps correcting it herself, so why is she like that?
“Three, two, one.”
As expected.
I heard someone rushing towards my desk from somewhere.
It was her.
“Yoo-hee! Not the one I gave you this morning, but THIS is the final version now, so please review it and prepare it as the submission so it can go out quickly.”
Since I’m good at catching typos and errors, I’m repeatedly reading, printing, and creating documents every time an opinion letter comes out.
And I have to do it quickly because she keeps rushing me, calling it the “final version.”
‘It would be quite a sight if she met another secretary.’
In my previous life, there was actually chaos after her secretary changed.
She even came to me less than a week after the change, asking for various favors.
‘Please organize this file in Excel and send it by email.’
This time, I plan to accelerate that timing significantly.
According to my plan, I can resolve it within this year.
This time, even if she comes looking for help, I will absolutely not help her.
So, I’m actually a little curious.
What will happen if I don’t help her at all, unlike in my previous life?
“It’ll be more entertaining than most movies.”
Something even more entertaining is about to happen, though.
This very week.
The time for Lawyer Ahn Gyeong-hun to dance in front of the promised fiery pit is rapidly approaching.
The chaebol playboy, Go Jong-tak’s VVVIP client, is about to cause a major incident and descend upon Lee & Yeon.
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