The Police

July 12, 2013

Today was my last day at Novus. I am going to miss the incredible people, engaging work environment, and collaborative approach to document review that I have come to know over the past 3 weeks. Working with an office staff comprised of young, but experienced lawyers who were all excited to be a part of Novus was a truly great experience. With backgrounds ranging from lower court litigation to government employment, my colleagues brought a wide range of expertise into their work. They all were easy to adapt to Novus’ collaborative approach, many times working together to find the direction to client needs, rather than taking directions from a direct overseeing manager. Overall, with such a helpful and open environment, I felt I knew what direction I needed to take my work throughout my entire time at the company.  

                My last week I worked in Relativity software to tag documents, make notations on key documents, and participate in online discussions on different documents from the case. Novus works both in the Relativity program to tag documents, but then also has its own online platform for communication and collaboration on the overall project.  Through this online platform, employees can do the basics like post questions, view central issues, and organize findings, but also can communicate with the client up front to clarify what product they should produce. This client centered communication allows Novus to constantly improve on quality, ensuring that the customer is not only satisfied, but that Novus will go beyond primary expectation. I suppose this reflects a new trend in the legal market. Whereas before law firms produced services behind a veil, it seems now transparency is key to law firm success. Novus ensures that the client not only knows what they are paying for, but ensures that throughout the engagement, when needs adapt, Novus adapts. Along these lines is key business efficiency and quality strategies designed from Six Sigma; a course that all of my colleagues had to some degree gone through. True to its design, the Novus process was cutting costs and improving quality, as evidenced by their continuing success. Overall, I believe that Novus’ client centered and transparent approach to litigation preparation gives the company an incredible advantage and I was happy to be a part of their team.

                As for the actual work itself, document review to me is like detective work. Each new document presents a possible new clue to the important case at hand. In a batch of 100 documents, many of them might not be relevant, but there is always a scandalous or noteworthy few that make the hunt worth the extra scrutiny. Further, organizing documents is like piecing together parts of a story. Slowly overtime, one comes to understand the minute details to the overall plot that makes an otherwise gray storyline colored with scandalous twists and intriguing themes. Viewed in this way, I was able to enjoy document review and truly gain a unique professional experience throughout my time at Novus. 

                In other news, I have of course been adventuring in my free time. And with so much adventuring, I have been able to cover many famous parts of the city. But when anyone adventures so much, there is always the risk that something will go wrong and as much as I’ve travelled, I’m surprised nothing went wrong sooner. But last weekend, I had my iPhone stolen right out of my pocket. Luckily, I can say that was all that happened. Further, I can blame myself for not taking precautions, instead having my headphones in at the busiest metro stop where signs everywhere warn of pick pockets. But I’m stubborn and I like my music.

 The thief simply stood behind me, waited for the sea of men to push onto the train, pulled on my headphones, and grabbed my iPhone. Of course, by the time he grabbed it, I was already being sucked onto the train and couldn’t push the crowd back, so he easily made off with it. As the train started to pull away, it seemed like everyone was trying to help me find it. We all searched in vain on the floors and even at the next stop when I got off to go back, someone came off with me and gave me the information for the police and a private company that tracks lost phones. So it was nice to know that everyone was willing to help. 

When I got back to the first station and went to the police, they told me, through a little charades and a few words of English, that I had to go halfway across the city to report the theft in another police station. I couldn’t go to the one across the street, I had to specifically go to the one across town. So I ventured by Metro to the police station where they wanted me to go. The police station was right in the metro stop and consisted of one room, probably not larger than your bedroom, with one desk, one bookshelf, four chairs, and four policemen talking over a cup of tea. I walked in and one of the policemen motioned to a chair. I waited for about five minutes before they finished their conversation. It seemed when they were ready to start work, one reached over to the bookshelf and pulled out a large, dusty tome and opened it to the last blank page. Another officer sat next to me, handed me a piece of paper and a pen and said, “Write down what you tell me, and I will believe you.” “Comforting,” I thought, and after a second though a little disconcerting, but nonetheless I told him my iPhone was stolen. He motioned toward the paper. I wrote down my exact words and he shook his head. He crumpled my paper and grabbed a different form. This one was an example that had the format of a letter, including the formal salutations of “dear respectful officer” and concluded with “respectfully”.  Through trial and error, I was able after about twenty minutes have a good copy of what he wanted in writing. Known as a FIR, I essentially wrote the police a letter, describing what had happened. The police officer did his best to copy my English down in his dusty book. He made sure after he was finished that my letter and his copied inscription matched perfectly. Once confirmed, he grabbed his official stamp, and with an overenthusiastic pound, formalized both documents with all of his government bestowed powers. With a copy of my letter, he sent me on my way and told me he would let me know if he was able to track my phone. 

So even though I’ll never see my phone again, my aunt says that if it makes a good story, it was worth it in the end. It’s always interesting to have a police story while visiting a foreign country, and I’m fine with this being my only one.