i think i'm too nice sometimes for my own good...
a little background before the (crazy long) rant, and no, i'm not trying to brag or anything...
i'm a lawyer, freshly called to the bar last september, therefore making me a noob lawyer, i've still got about 5 months or less, before i even hit the first year mark.... so i've been sent by my firm to this company to conduct a due diligence (it's like auditing, but i don't look at numbers but documents such as minutes, forms, resolutions, agreements etc)..
during the course of my due diligence, i noticed a number of discrepancies and missing documents (minutes, resolutions, forms), mind you, i'm on a tight schedule here. so i had to waste almost 3 hours of my precious time drawing up a list for the company secretary (short form coseq - who by right usually holds said documents), with a note that it is URGENT!
no word from her, so the director being the nice man that he is, he called her to ask what is the delay, since we have a deadline and i need the documents, she requested to speak to me. okay fine... she asked me to go to the companies commission (we call it CCM here - it's the regulatory body, where we usually send a copy of the company's documents to for their records) to do a due diligence (DD) there...
internally "WHAT??", so i asked her nicely, why can't she send the documents to me, and she kept telling me to go to CCM. i told her, we have a tight deadline, i don't have time to waste there. why can't you get me all the documents... with that the director took back the phone and started scolding her, before hanging up.
next the coseq called my office requesting i call her, as i was not in the office (i was at that company remember?) my secretary mailed me... ok.. the next morning ie this morning i called her... and she starts saying things like.. she doesn't understand what is wrong with me, why am i so unprofessional.. first time she has met a lawyer who refuses to conduct a DD at CCM... and she doesn't care what happens to the company, if they get questioned by the Securities Commission for not disclosing stuff... bla bla bla... i was baffled and very WTF!
hello? the first thing after i introduced myself you start off with that line? you as the coseq should have these documents, i am on a tight schedule i don't have time to waste going to CCM and be printing out the documents one by one... page by page...
but i was too nice... i told her... rather asked her... why can't she get it from me, and it's not that i'm refusing to go there to do DD, but i'm on a tight schedule, since you have the documents just send them to me..
then she goes on again bout me being unprofessional and not understanding why i won't do DD at CCM when other lawyers do that.. err... as far as i know.. no lawyers i know of goes there for DD, unless under special circumstances...
she goes on and on.. wasting my phone bill about that.. and so i asked her... (in an impatient voice but still quite nice if you asked me compared to her) why can't she just send me the documents, why must i go to CCM. and i told her when is my deadline, and told her to understand.. i really have no time!!!!!
then she asked me why was the timeline set as such ie so tightly... i was really at the brink of going !@£$%^&*
hello, you are the coseq, you should know what is going on right????? ok fine, maybe the director didn't tell you,... so i told her the reason.. and she was like ooh... and she still told me to go do DD at CCM!!! which part of deadline did she not understand?
sigh.. for one she sounded more agitated than me.. so i got pissed..
i asked her to calm down and tell me what's the problem... why is she being so damn agitated for???!! does she not have the documents..???!!!
then she tells me.. she doesn't... it was confiscated or something... and i was like "WTF!!????" you could have told me that earlier.. 10 minutes of you calling me unprofessional and all, wasting my phone bill while you were at it and you tell me that you don't have the documents.. so i told her, if that's the case then you should have told me, cause it will be useless and a waste of my time pressing you for documents you don't have and i will have to consider getting someone to CCM to get the damned documents... (i will discuss that with my senior, since this would take time and money)
arghh so irritating... and then when she realised that i'm not as panicky or agitated as she might be attempting to make me, she starting saying things to cover her ass... she has done listing before, the directors of the company have not.. she knows what's going on bla bla.. and i was like yea yea... internally i was like "OMG"
and she told me not to tell the directors that she told me the documents were confiscated.... so i told the directors, that the coseq simply said she doesn't have them, then they told me that she moved office at least 5 times, apparently one time was because of a fire...she does things on her own without much or any support staff... and well.. this and that....
so i'm annoyed and on the fence, both sides don't seem to like each other very much, and the fact that she tries to cover her ass so much... and bringing the name of some big law firm in.... and well.. me wondering if what she told me holds a seed of truth, which i can only find out if i go to CCM (according to her) and me not sure whether the director and manager are telling me the truth.... well good for her... she's managed to sow the seed of doubt...
so yea... besides the fact that i've been stuck doing DD for 6 companies alone (3 were updates but still substantial, and my dispatch only collected the documents today) the other 3 i've to do from scratch and 2 of which have been around since 1992, meaning the minutes, resolutions etc that i've to take down are 18 years worth... doesn't help that the documents for the latter 3 are not really in order, the registers not updated (coseq responsibility you know.. who's not professional here?) i've been typing so much like a maniac that my fingers are numb, playing the piano was hard.. i think even professional pianists don't' get what i've got.. imagine them practising piano for... wait... i think some of them can do that.. i digress
also i did mention i'm a noob right? so i'm not sure what i'm supposed to do, and that makes me even slower... i've a tight deadline, a bunch of missing documents... documents which are not in order and everywhere.. a pain in the butt coseq... doubt sowed by the coseq, and i think the worst part is i'm alone! my SOS callls have gone unheeded... (no one is available to help me)
can i not get angry and depressed like this??
i'm at the client's place from 9am- to about 10pm everyday.. i only take a 15-20 min lunch break and go back to typing, and i can't finish it... damn i'm pissed!!!
not to mention that i don't have sufficient sample reports or anything to follow.. i'm not God ok? i need help! i've never done this before. i've no one to guide me. i've been practically thrown in the middle of the ocean when you know i can't swim, and i'm being expected to swim.. (in some sense when i look back, i will tell you that's the way to learn, and it makes you independent, but for now let me rant, i wouldn't rant that much if i was properly briefed on the technics to swim and stay afloat before being thrown in the ocean... doesn't matter that i don't have the practical, at least tell me the theory, that's how i work.. or give me sufficient samples.. i will look at it and use it as a guide.. or don't give me so much trouble.. lost documents, confiscated.. nothing in order... documents location unknown... wtf??) is this revenge or what???? arghhhhh.... i'm being hated...sigh =.='
anyway am going to bed, my firm works monday to friday, but because i have NO help, and am doing this ALONE with a Fucking tight schedule, I've to go to the client's company again tomorrow morning to continue my DD. and i'm actually going to thank god they work on saturdays.. hmmph.. and i get nothing except transportation claim (which i claim anyway) and food claim (yea like that's a lot)
and i also have to thank god that the manager is trusting me with all the important documents (i'm not being sarcastic, they are important) and allowing me to bring it home so i don't have to go all the way to their office which is a 40 minute drive from my home to do the DD..
oh yay.... FML
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Labels: Law, Random Rambling, Rant, 仕事ージェイ●エル●ピ●ダバルイ
