I think I’m considered a (younger) Generation X-er. I still remember why a pencil is relevant to a cassette tape. I’ve also felt the pain of lining up dot matrix printer paper, recognizing the sound of dial-up internet, and having to wait at least an hour for holiday pictures to develop. The horror! In the end, I was always kind and would indeed rewind. By the time I graduated from law school in 2004, technology was on a fast pace that would revolutionize the way we communicate and work. I feel I am lucky because my generation still remembers a world where things were a bit slower and less instantaneous, but because we have grown with the technology, we are pretty good at adapting to the latest devices and apps.
In my first job out of law school, I still relied a lot on paper files, dictation, proper formatting, and mailing of hard-copy letters. I remember getting used to the dictation device. It was magical. Expertly formatted letters would appear on my desk on firm letterhead, along with a correctly addressed envelope, all neatly stacked and held together with a paperclip. Of course, it wasn’t magical, but was the hard work of my administrative assistant who expertly formatted all of my letters. However, in my next couple of jobs, the role of the administrative assistant started to change, largely because of the comfort level that I had in creating Office documents and relying more on my own abilities. Further, with the advent of email becoming the primary method of communication, the legal secretary was largely cut out of the process. Being able to work in a mobile environment also fortified skills to function independently.
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