That's what you get for opening your mouth...

A few days ago I was sitting in my Boss’s (whom we will call SC for Senior Counsel) office on a conference call with a partner from outside counsel. SC and Partner were going over contracts while I sat curbside as part of my learning process. A half hour or so into the call, they were struggling with some language and without thinking I said, “What if you phrased it…?”

As soon as the words came out of my mouth I cringed. Stupid, stupid, stupid. What possessed me, a licensed attorney of two months with a handful of days on the job, to suggest word choices to a Partner of a major law firm and an in-house counsel with many years experience? SC stopped and scrunched her face as if she were pondering just how to respond to my blunder.

Ohmigosh Ana. You are so going to get in trouble for this one. Apologize. Say something self-deprecating. Backtrack. Do whatever you need to do to get out of this.

Then I noticed that SC was nodding her head, and over the speaker the Partner announced, “That sounds good.”

After the call was over I did apologize, but SC was like, “Not at all. One of the reasons I hired you was because you knew how to write and edit. When you have an idea I would hope you would chime in.”

Awesome.

Of course today when SC and I went over the contracts, instead of laboring word by word, she quickly went through the paragraphs saying, “Rephrase this. Make that mutual. Add a sentence to this about that; and write up a clause here, here, and here. Then give me a final draft to review.”

No pressure there.