We all know that lawyers have their own language, and stereotypically they're made up of very old-fashioned terms: 'herein', 'aforementioned', 'forthwith'. Even better is the Latin that we relished learning in law school: 'inter alia', 'prima facie', 'amicus curiae', 'caveat', 'erga omnes' and 'a priori'. In reality, these are never to be used to clients and lawyers are moving away from that 'legalese'. Even so, I have still found language to be one of the strangest parts of my new job. I thought this post could be about those weird words and maddening mix-ups that I've experienced so far in my first two months.
Weird words
Some words that are thrown around casually in law firms are those that you quickly get used to, but on reflection realise that they are not actually normal. One such term is 'capacity'. An associate might come up to you and ask 'do you have capacity?' To a non-lawyer this seems bizarre, but it actually just means 'do you have time to do this task?' My confusion stemmed from what 'capacity' means in contract law: someone who doesn't have capacity to sign a contract would be a minor, someone under the influence of alcohol or drugs, someone with a mental illness etc. They morally shouldn't be held to the contract that they signed. So when someone first asked me 'do you have capacity?' I thought to myself 'yes...I am of sound mind and body. I'm able to sign a contract. Do I have to sign a contract or something?'
Other terms that pop up all the time are 'flag it' and 'make a note' - if there's a potential problem up ahead, I'm going to 'flag it'. The first time I pointed something out to an associate and he asked me to 'make a note', I genuinely had to ask him 'do you literally mean make a note, as in I write up a note and save it on my computer, or I write it down on a piece of paper, or I just make a note in my head and remember it, or I email it to you? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN??' Turns out it just means write it down somewhere and remember it. Similarly if we have to get an associate to 'sign off' on something, that doesn't mean they actually sign their name on the document, it just means they have to approve it.
Other words are just plain weird. An email from counsel (i.e. a barrister) referred to 'bumph'. I had to look this up, it means 'useless or tedious printed material'. Another word which even spell-check didn't recognise was 'scupper', or as it appeared in the document, 'scuppered'. i.e. if we don't make this application to court, our claim will be 'scuppered'. I think it means 'thwarted'. Literally, it means 'a hole in a ship's side to carry water overboard from the deck'. My reaction?
Maddening mix-ups
In Australia, a 'file' is a document. E.g. 'this folder has 200 files in it'. In the UK, a 'file' means a folder or binder. This is an almost verbatim conversation I had with the printing centre in my second week:
In my group a lot of the PAs (secretaries) that I work with are from Essex, and when I see them in the morning they always ask "ah YOU all riiight?" It's hard to describe it by writing it down. But my first reaction every time was 'Yes...why, don't I look all right? Do I look tired? Maybe I look tired. Maybe that's why they're asking if I'm all right'. Turns out it just means 'how are you?' so that you have these bizarre conversations where one PA will ask the other 'are you all right?' and the other says 'good thanks.' So strange.
An experience that my house mate went through, and this is rare, was when an associate asked her to research a topic. She tried to ask him to be more specific, and he replied: "I just want you to canvass the legal ecosystem on that question". WHAT??? Canvass the legal ecosystem?? My poor house mate's reaction:
Emails
Lastly, I just wanted to show how strange lawyers emails are to each other. I think this must stem from the idea that at some stage, if we ever go to court and if these emails aren't subject to privilege, they might have to be disclosed to the other side, so we should make these emails sound official. If it's not that, then I have no idea why we write emails the way we do.
We could be having a friendly discussion about the task, making jokes, being normal, and my associate will then end by saying that he'll send me the relevant document. Then I'll get this:
'Name,
As discussed, please find attached the current version of the witness statement.'
Or another one is 'Further to the email below...' or 'By way of update...' And you can forget about saying "Hi"!!. For the first few weeks, the difference in tone between face-to-face discussions and follow-up emails, really confused me. Now I just fall into line and write emails like everyone else! Occasionally I'll try to quietly subvert the system and add a smiley face or exclamation mark in there :-) !!! :-) !!! :-) !!!
Thanks to everyone who reads these posts, I've really found it to be a fun hobby and I look forward to writing these every weekend. Until next time!
Post-script: today I was reading a document and didn't understand the phrase: please refer to paragraph 1 of our letter of 1 April 2015 "resent under" our letter of 27 April 2015. I thought to myself 'oh great, ANOTHER weird British phrase' and asked my supervisor what the term 'resent under' meant. I pronounced it 'reh-sent', like 'crescent'. He said 'I think you mean re-sent, as in, they sent the document again'. FML.
What lawyers sounded like to me in my first few weeks
Weird words
Some words that are thrown around casually in law firms are those that you quickly get used to, but on reflection realise that they are not actually normal. One such term is 'capacity'. An associate might come up to you and ask 'do you have capacity?' To a non-lawyer this seems bizarre, but it actually just means 'do you have time to do this task?' My confusion stemmed from what 'capacity' means in contract law: someone who doesn't have capacity to sign a contract would be a minor, someone under the influence of alcohol or drugs, someone with a mental illness etc. They morally shouldn't be held to the contract that they signed. So when someone first asked me 'do you have capacity?' I thought to myself 'yes...I am of sound mind and body. I'm able to sign a contract. Do I have to sign a contract or something?'
Other terms that pop up all the time are 'flag it' and 'make a note' - if there's a potential problem up ahead, I'm going to 'flag it'. The first time I pointed something out to an associate and he asked me to 'make a note', I genuinely had to ask him 'do you literally mean make a note, as in I write up a note and save it on my computer, or I write it down on a piece of paper, or I just make a note in my head and remember it, or I email it to you? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN??' Turns out it just means write it down somewhere and remember it. Similarly if we have to get an associate to 'sign off' on something, that doesn't mean they actually sign their name on the document, it just means they have to approve it.
Other words are just plain weird. An email from counsel (i.e. a barrister) referred to 'bumph'. I had to look this up, it means 'useless or tedious printed material'. Another word which even spell-check didn't recognise was 'scupper', or as it appeared in the document, 'scuppered'. i.e. if we don't make this application to court, our claim will be 'scuppered'. I think it means 'thwarted'. Literally, it means 'a hole in a ship's side to carry water overboard from the deck'. My reaction?
Maddening mix-ups
In Australia, a 'file' is a document. E.g. 'this folder has 200 files in it'. In the UK, a 'file' means a folder or binder. This is an almost verbatim conversation I had with the printing centre in my second week:
- Me: 'Hi, I'd like to have these documents printed please. Have I filled in the form correctly?'
- Printing centre: 'Yes that all looks good, how many files will you need printing?'
- Me...stunned: 'Um...how many files? I'm not sure...I mean hundreds, there will be hundreds if not 1000 files. Do you want me to go back to my computer and count them all?'
- Printing centre: '1000 FILES??? We've never been asked to print 1000 files before. Are you sure you need 1000 files printed??'
- Me...even more confused: 'I mean maybe it's just hundreds....I don't know, but there are A LOT of files'.
- Both slowly realising that we're not talking about the same thing.
- Printing centre man holds up a folder: 'I mean, how many of these will you need printed?'
- Me....light bulb moment: 'Ooh, you mean a folder! Just seven'.
In my group a lot of the PAs (secretaries) that I work with are from Essex, and when I see them in the morning they always ask "ah YOU all riiight?" It's hard to describe it by writing it down. But my first reaction every time was 'Yes...why, don't I look all right? Do I look tired? Maybe I look tired. Maybe that's why they're asking if I'm all right'. Turns out it just means 'how are you?' so that you have these bizarre conversations where one PA will ask the other 'are you all right?' and the other says 'good thanks.' So strange.
An experience that my house mate went through, and this is rare, was when an associate asked her to research a topic. She tried to ask him to be more specific, and he replied: "I just want you to canvass the legal ecosystem on that question". WHAT??? Canvass the legal ecosystem?? My poor house mate's reaction:
Emails
Lastly, I just wanted to show how strange lawyers emails are to each other. I think this must stem from the idea that at some stage, if we ever go to court and if these emails aren't subject to privilege, they might have to be disclosed to the other side, so we should make these emails sound official. If it's not that, then I have no idea why we write emails the way we do.
We could be having a friendly discussion about the task, making jokes, being normal, and my associate will then end by saying that he'll send me the relevant document. Then I'll get this:
'Name,
As discussed, please find attached the current version of the witness statement.'
Or another one is 'Further to the email below...' or 'By way of update...' And you can forget about saying "Hi"!!. For the first few weeks, the difference in tone between face-to-face discussions and follow-up emails, really confused me. Now I just fall into line and write emails like everyone else! Occasionally I'll try to quietly subvert the system and add a smiley face or exclamation mark in there :-) !!! :-) !!! :-) !!!
Thanks to everyone who reads these posts, I've really found it to be a fun hobby and I look forward to writing these every weekend. Until next time!
Post-script: today I was reading a document and didn't understand the phrase: please refer to paragraph 1 of our letter of 1 April 2015 "resent under" our letter of 27 April 2015. I thought to myself 'oh great, ANOTHER weird British phrase' and asked my supervisor what the term 'resent under' meant. I pronounced it 'reh-sent', like 'crescent'. He said 'I think you mean re-sent, as in, they sent the document again'. FML.
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