The Most Depressing Letter I've Ever Written

Without disclosing any details, my latest substantive assignment was a little depressing. For a couple of reasons.

I was assigned the task of writing to a deceased's parents, in another country, because they have an interest in the deceased's estate, and are also entitled to joint administration of his estate. I won't bother you with the details and legalese here, so you'll just have to trust me.

Have you ever had to write a letter to parents telling them that they can have a say in how their child's estate is divied up? How does one even start such a letter? And not to mention, in the best of times the recipient probably doesn't want to read these obscure legal terms. How does it feel when the letter isn't even in a language that you understand well?

But I put all that aside and gave it a shot. I had a vague idea of what I was supposed to do, but not a strong idea. And that was borne out when I received my first draft from the responsible attorney and the red ink covered about 3 times the space that the black ink covered. I guess I missed a few details?

One of the keenest insights into law school I've heard was from a friend, I think after first year. He or she said, basically, that so long as you don't mind being embarrassed in front of a hundred and thirty or so people, you'll be fine in law school. That is, if you don't mind responding "I have no idea" to a question in front of all those people, you'll be fine. In law school, when you're asked a question, you have to understand that there is probably no answer that will elicit the response "absolutely correct". Professors generally want to focus on the reasoning as opposed to the final answer. So even a technically correct answer will result in the professor slightly tweaking the facts so that you've got to analyze every little facet of the issue. It turns out that interning has kind of a similar element: you'll pass in a draft, and just wait for the attorney to tell you how much you've missed.

It's not the worst thing. The criticism is usually pretty neutral (they just want you to write what they want written), but it's sometimes a little disheartening when I think I've done a good job and it comes back so marked up. But it's not a big deal. It's usually either simply stylistic or just something that I couldn't have known.

I obviously don't know much about intestacy law in Hong Kong, so it doesn't really bother me when I miss some elements. Or if I don't know the exact format for citing a Hong Kong Ordinance in a letter. I figure, so long as my writing is pretty close, I'll be fine.

Much like law school, you just have to roll with the punches. It's usually nothing personal, and like writing a paper in school, you've just got to figure out what the person in charge wants to read. It's as simple as that.

See how much I've learned already?!