Module 4

Reviewing work: reading, marking up and returning it so that people learn

Review is where supervision most visibly happens, and where it is most often done badly. The reviewer who receives a draft at six in the evening, reads it in a hurry, fixes the commas, rewrites two paragraphs in their own style and sends it back with no explanation has done something, but not what was needed. The big problem (the wrong question, the missing issue, the unsupported conclusion) may not have been found, the junior has learned nothing and the next draft will be no better. Good review is a skill. It starts with reading for purpose, deals with the large points before the small ones, checks the things that must be right (the law, the figures, the dates, the quotations), marks up in a way that teaches, returns work in a way that leaves the person able to act, and leaves time for all of it. It is also the last safeguard before a document leaves the firm, so it must be done even when it is inconvenient. This module covers how to read, what to check, how to mark up and when to rewrite, how to return work, how to review output from AI tools and other drafters, and how to make time. All the people are invented.

General education on supervising legal work and giving feedback, using invented people, firms and matters. It is not legal or employment advice, and it does not state the professional or employment rules of any country. Those differ and change: check the rules that apply to you and take advice.