Internet legal research (there are web-based CLEs on this subject open to anyone, so you might as well use them too)
Simple Legal Writing (70-page book on how to write without using legalese)
Legal drafting, or why formbooks are only a starting point. (It's in a formbook because it ended up in litigation. If it were properly drafted in the first place, it wouldn't have been in court at all.)
Diplomacy (How to turn the attorney's disjointed ramblings into readable, persuasive prose using the Simple Legal Writing principles without sounding like a 6th grade English teacher)
CDLaw/Lexis/WestLaw research (Boolean search terms rule)
Old-fashioned research for firms that dont' have Westlaw
Legal Citation (the Blue Book), ad infinitum, ad naseum (Attorneys have all forgotten the technical points of the Blue Book and we're too busy and too highly paid (and too full of ourselves) to relearn it. _You_ check it. I'm teeing off in 40 minutes.)
Any and all computer skills, including in-depth knowledge of Word's pleading forms, table of authorities/table of contents ("Word97 for Law Firms" is the only book I've found that covers these esoteric powers of Word.) Particularly useful if you're expected to work without a secretary.
Ethics, or how not to talk about our clients or their wills during Thanksgiving dinner
Why you aren't allowed to give out legal advice or interpret statutes for clients or friends, even when you KNOW the answer because you researched it for 10 hours last week (pesky unauthorized practice of law rules)
Related: the difference between filling out paperwork for review by an attorney and telling friends how to do it (how to get friends into trouble for filing a fraudulent lien because they didn't give you all the facts before you told them what to do)
Tracey
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This is not legal advice and you are not my client. Double check everything with your own attorney and your state's laws.
