Some people refuse to listen until their own mistakes embarrass them in front of the wrong person.

What would you do if your manager insisted on doing things the wrong way, even when you knew it would backfire?

Would you keep pushing back to help them save face?

Or would you do exactly what they asked and let them face the fallout?

In today’s story, one legal secretary finds herself in this very predicament and opts for the latter.

Here’s how it all went down.

Yes Sir You’re the Lawyer Sir

This happened many years ago, but I was just reminded of it last night by a former co-worker.

I got my degree in business with a paralegal minor.

I worked as a paralegal for a few years before moving to a new city.

Upon arriving in the new city, I found that legal secretaries got paid OT while paralegals didn’t.

With very similar base salaries and similar work hours, the legal secretaries made more money.

So, I took a job as a legal secretary.

I worked directly for 2 attorneys.

One (L) had a couple of years’ experience, knew I had the education and experience to be a paralegal, and utilized me as such.

Other (B) was fresh out of law school and had newly passed the Bar Exam.

He had a massive “I’m the lawyer” chip on his shoulder.

She tried to warn him, but he knew better.

One day, a named partner (NP), who was notorious for flying off the handle at mistakes, assigns B to prepare some legal documents.

Instead of saying, “Hey, NP needs documents on this file to handle this issue,” and having me do them, he takes the time to actually dictate the documents.

As I’m working on them, I realize he’s made a logistical mistake. He’d drafted the document in a way that would result in it not being legally enforceable.

I go to his office and explain, “Hey, I was working on this, and I noticed X, and that’s not how that works. You need to have it do Y instead, or it won’t be enforceable.”

He says, “I know what I’m doing and that’s the way it needs to be done, so just do it as I dictated it.”

He finally realized he was wrong when the Named Partner started screaming at him.

Yep, of course, absolutely.

I went and did it his way, reminding him when I handed it to him that we’d had a prior conversation and that I’d completed the document exactly as he’d wanted it.

He happily nodded, and off he went to NP to give him the “finished” work.

Less than 30 minutes later, NP is in B’s office doorway, throwing a hissy fit that the document was prepared that way.

“YOU CAN’T DO THAT?!?!? YOU’VE LITERALLY MADE THIS DOCUMENT WORTHLESS!!!! ” Blah, blah, blah.

Unfortunately, it didn’t make the lawyer change his ways.

I sat out in my cube and hid behind a piece of paper while NP told B to prepare the document exactly how I’d told him it needed to be prepared.

I wish I could say that going forward, B listened to me when I raised concerns, but he only lasted a year and never lost the “I’m the lawyer, you’re not” attitude.

Years after I left that job, joined the corporate world, and moved up in my career, I was still close with NP, who actually referred my company business, and I attended his funeral when he passed a few years ago.

Wow! These types of people are the absolute worst.

Let’s see what the fine folks over at Reddit have to say about people like Lawyer B.

Apparently, these people are everywhere… even in the military.

According to this reader, filling out legal documents can be as simple as experience.

Here’s the perspective of a paralegal.

This lawyer hopes he was never like that.

He probably didn’t go far.

People like this either change their ways or face the consequences repeatedly.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.