Scott Benton: [00:00:00] Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I’m the host of the Classroom2Courtroom podcast. This is a podcast dedicated to law students, people who just graduated law school, they’re studying for the bar, are taking the bar, have taken the bar, passed the bar, even if you haven’t passed the bar and you’re now currently looking for your first position as an attorney in a law firm.
Our premise is that law school or any of the bar prep programs don’t exactly teach you how to practice law. That’s something that they expect the law firms to teach you. But as you may soon discover the law firms, expect you to come in already knowing how to practice law. So, there’s a little bit of a gap there, a gap that the Classroom2Courtroom podcast thought it could fill and give you all the information that you’re going to need, so that when you start your first job as an attorney, as a bonafide attorney, that you already know how to [00:01:00] practice law and what’s all involved.
Scott Benton: Now, we’re also trying to make the practice of law easy and fun, which it can be. We’re here to provide you with all the tools that you’re going to need so that your day doesn’t get stretched out, bogged down and you’re dreading your evenings and your weekends. We want you to enjoy those. So, that’s the entire point of the Classroom2Courtroom podcast. Today’s topic that we’re going to discuss is, and you’re not going to know what this means, but I’m going to explain it to you. What are G-Sheets? Now, if you look at our success cycle, I’ll say that a little slower, that is what our entire podcast is based on.
It’s premised on the idea that there are three parts that you need to know and master when it comes to practicing law. The first part is G-Sheets. That’s what’s on our graphic. The second part is services. And the third part is log time. Now, that’s about as simple as we’ve been [00:02:00] able to get it down to.
And once you understand this model, you’re going to be able to do your work and follow this pattern, this three part simple pattern over and over and over and over and over again. And it’s going to make your life a lot easier, a lot more fun, and it’s going to make it, so that you get your legal services done with efficiency and hopefully alacrity because that’s how excited you’re going to be.
So, There’s a component on this diagram that we have. This success cycle that the entire Classroom2Courtroom podcast is based on. And it’s labeled G-Sheets. And chances are, unless you’ve worked with us at our firm, you don’t know what a G-Sheet is. And so, I’m going to explain that part. You probably know what services is, and you probably know what billing time is all about or logging time, but you probably have no idea what G-Sheets is all about.
Now, in this section, this particular podcast falls under 1 of 3, really 1 of 4 sections, and it falls under the to-do-list [00:03:00] section. So, you can really look at the G-Sheets as equaling a to-do-list. But I’m gonna go into a little bit more depth and give you some more detail so you have a better idea of how we’re using the idea of G-Sheets and why that name appears on the success cycle diagram. So, let’s get into, what G-Sheets are?
What is a G-Sheet? Well, I’m going to hold up a generic G-Sheet. Here it is. I’ve redacted all the names so that you can’t read them. That is an actual G-Sheet and it’s just a simple form, and our attorneys have access to this form. And when they want our law clerks to do something, what they’re going to do is they’re going to reach for a G-Sheet and they’re going to fill it out.
And I’m going to explain what items are on the G-Sheet. Now, this is work that’s sort of. pre-dates the to-do-list, so it comes before the to-do-list, the to-do-list. And this is the work that is going to be done to help you figure out what belongs on your to-do-list. What items need to be done and what items you need to work [00:04:00] on next.
And so, on our G-Sheet, first and foremost, we have the case name and the file number, so that in case you need to go and look up anything on that particular file, you know how to get to it very easily on our drive. There’s really 3 items on a G-Sheet and it’s the background of the case.
It’s sort of talking about, what’s going on, what the situation is that this case is all about. Bit of a summary, a summarization of this particular case so that you have some context, some background. If you don’t know this case, then this should kind of catch you up to speed. And there’s maybe a sentence or two on there to kind of help explain what this particular case is about.
The second part of the G-Sheet is going to describe the desired outcome. Now, the desired outcome is really it should be anyway, a component of two pieces. The first piece is the desired outcome of the case. So maybe, the client [00:05:00] wants to have an accounting done on a particular probate case. So, we’re a probate law firm, so we’re dealing in wills and trusts and probate and stuff like that.
So, maybe the desired outcome is an accounting that the client wants to be done on a trust, because maybe the client feels that there are assets that have been removed from a trust. So, in order to verify whether or not, assets have been removed from a trust. You want to do a proper accounting to go through all the bank statements, for instance. And look and see if there’s been money or either in or out of the bank account that is sort of suspect or looks like it shouldn’t be there.
So, the second part on this G-Sheet is the desired outcome. What does the client want? What does the case want? What does the client want? But also, what does this G-Sheet want? So, When you complete the work on the G-Sheet, what should be the desired income? So it’s really kind of a 2 pronged approach, so that the person [00:06:00] doing the work can read this, familiarize themselves with the background of the case, but also really kind of understand what the work that they’re about to do should be accomplishing in the more broad based perspective of, the overall case.
And then, the third section is what the immediate next steps are. Now, And that’s probably the most important section. You have to have all this background info, of course, so that you have context into what you’re doing. But you need to know what your next steps are. What is it that the G-Sheet is asking you to do?
On that last piece, what are the next steps? The attorney who is writing out this G-Sheet will put down the next step that needs to be, it might be something like fill out a form, or it might be something like contact a bank and get these bank records or contact the DMV and get these DMV records or some other institution.
But there may be several steps. You might have to research something. You might have to call somebody. You might have to get a name or a date or a financial figure, or something like that. [00:07:00] And those will be listed on the last part of the G-Sheet. What are the next steps? Now, the attorney is filling out this G-Sheet, and then handing it and because this is one of their cases, but this is work that can be done by a law clerk or somebody else, a summer intern, maybe somebody that can handle the legal work.
The attorney is writing up a G-Sheet in order to transfer that responsibility to, in this case, we’ll say a law clerk. So, The attorney has written up all this information on a G-Sheet, given it to the law clerk. The law clerk should be able to read the G-Sheet and pretty much immediately understand what needs to be done.
Now, that’s the G-Sheet. Why is that important in the success cycle? It’s important, because this is what’s going to give you the items, the tasks, that are going to populate your to-do-list. Okay, So, once you know what your next steps are, once you have that broad based sort of overview of what the attorney is asking you to do, then you know what your immediate next steps are, you can put those on your [00:08:00] to-do-list. And then, you’re going to move to the second part of the success cycle, which is services. You’re going to perform those items that are on your to-do-list. You’re going to knock those off and check them off as done. And you’re going to fulfill the requirements that the attorney is providing to you by using this G-Sheet.
So, it’s really kind of a conduit to your to-do-list. And you’re then going to have some clarity on what you’re doing. It’s really important that you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, instead of just acting blindly. There’s just more chance for making mistakes. The G-Sheet kind of eliminates that potential for mistakes, assuming that the G-Sheet is written clearly.
If you don’t understand something that’s on the G-Sheet, by the way, you need to go into the attorney’s office to contact the attorney and say, I’m not understanding this part. Can you explain it to me better? Because attorneys are very busy as you soon shall find out. And sometimes, they’re omitting not on purpose, but they have left out maybe some information on the G-Sheet that you need in order to do the job [00:09:00] properly and efficiently and quickly.
So, Make sure that you understand everything that’s on the G-Sheet. And if you don’t, make sure that you get some clarification on it. So, that’s what’s going on with the G-Sheets.
Now, you may ask yourself, what does the G stand for in G-Sheets? What does that even mean? G-Sheets, what does that stand for? And that’s a very good question. And I will tell you what it is so that you can remember, especially when you’re looking at the success cycle graphic that we have. What G-Sheets even mean. So, the G and G-Sheet stands for get it done.
So essentially, this is a get it done sheet. And so, the attorney is filling out a get it done sheet to then hand this off to the law clerk or whomsoever they’re asking to perform these particular tasks.
So, this is really essentially a get it done sheet. And that’s what it stands for. That’ll help you really kind of rememberwhat the G-Sheet is. Because remember, there’s, three stages here. You’re going to do the G-Sheet, create your to-do-list, you’re going to perform the services, you’re going to log your time, and then you’re going to [00:10:00]repeat and go back to step one. And step one is the G-Sheet.You’re going to just kind of repeat that over and over and over again.
Maybe the attorney, if you’re working for us or somebody else that uses this system or a system like it, you’re going to know what to do next. You’re never going to be without work. You’re never going to be without clarity on what the next thing is you should do because you’re just doing the G-Sheets, creating your to-do-list, performing the services, logging the time, moving on.
now. at some point, because we know what happens in this progress of going to law school, passing the bar, looking for your first job, you become an attorney. So, there’s going to come a point where you are the attorney. So, how do the G-Sheets fit in at that point? How does the success cycle work for you at that point?
When you’re an attorney, you don’t have another attorney. Well, Actually, you might, in the beginning. Another attorney may hand you G-Sheets or something similar to a G-Sheet for you to create your to-do-list with as you’re getting up to speed as an attorney, but pretty quickly you’re going to be given a case list.
Assuming you’re working in a [00:11:00] type of environment where there is a case list such as ours with probate, and you are going to have to generate your own G-Sheets, eventually. Meaning, you’re going to have to create your own to-do-list for each case that you’re working on. So, whether you fill out your own G-Sheet, which you can do, but ultimately you want to come up with a to-do-list for that case and you’re probably going to come up with that to-do-list based on the strategy of the case, but also based on the materials that you’re going to find in that file. So, maybe there’s like case summaries or their declarations, if those exist yet. You’ll probably get those if they don’t. And you know, even just meeting with the client, talking to the client on the phone and getting up to speed on what that case is all about, you really now knowing what your strategy is going to be, knowing what the client is trying to accomplish. You’re going to have your to-do-list items as an attorney, and you’ll be able to then perform those services log for that time.
So, it does change a little bit if you’re a summer intern, or summer associate, or a fall spring. So If you’re in any kind of law clerk capacity, the [00:12:00] G-Sheets you’re just kind of waiting for so you can form your to-do-list. Chances are the to-do-list is already on the G-Sheet, but then once you become an attorney, you need to be responsible for generating your own G-Sheet, so to speak, or to-do-list, so that you can perform those services.
So, I hope that’s helpful. I hope that sort of explains what that graphic is a little bit, what the G-Sheet section is. I know that’s not a term that you’re going to find in the legal field, but you are going to find the term to-do-list. That’s, of course, everywhere. And essentially, you can think of the G-Sheet as the to-do-list.
But for us, there’s an extra step. And for you, wherever you end up working, whatever law firm it is, there may be a similar process in place where they give you all the background and the desired outcome and the next steps of a case that you’re being handed so that you can perform some tasks to help that attorney to work on their case and move it forward.
So, that’s it. I hope this was helpful for you. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Now, if you’d like to get notified for all of our new episodes that we put out there of the Classroom2Courtroom podcast, you can go over to our website. We have a [00:13:00] website which is Classroom2Courtroom.com. That’s classroom, the number 2, and courtroom.com.
And there, you can put in your name and your email address. And whenever we put together a new episode that we publish and send out, you’re going to get an email telling you that there is a new episode available. So, you can always sign up and we were going to build a community on that website.
You can always join that community where we talk about the transition of going from being a law student to a legal professional, and everything that you need to know in between those two steps, and everything that you were not taught in law school, not taught in a bar prep class, and that you’re going to be getting on this particular podcast, the Classroom2Courtroom podcast.
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Thank you so much.
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