To the first letter writer,

A person who does not produce billable hours at a law firm is considered dead weight. Guess what? Law firms suck for non-lawyers. One might argue they suck for lawyers too, and as a lawyer in a large law firm, I might agree. That said, at least I get paid exceedingly well to put up with jerks like your boss. Why exactly do you think you have "great career prospects?" I just had lunch with a senior partner at my firm, and he referred to the non-lawyers at our firm as “serfs.” He said that they were only there in case he needs a light bulb changed. I do not agree with his philosophy but I assure you, this is the view of most lawyers in large law firms.

In any case, this woman is not going to help you. What do you expect she could do--write a recommendation for you for law school? Turns out, that will about as helpful as having your Starbucks barista write a recommendation (professors or perhaps federal judges are the only recommendations that have weight in law school admissions). By the way, you shouldn't think of yourself as lucky to work at the firm. They, no doubt, have a difficult time finding skilled support staff and are, in fact, lucky to employ an ambitious college graduate. I know this is the case at my firm. In fact, there is huge turnover for all employees at large law firms for just the reasons you mention in this letter.

There is no inherent value to having this woman mistreat you. It would be one thing if you were working for Anna Wintour or for someone in a field in which there was a real possibility your boss could promote your career. This is not the case here. You've already learned what there is to learn from this job, i.e. you need to learn to pay attention to detail despite how much you might hate doing it and some people who you will work for will be abusive a**holes. Now, I recommend making friends with someone in HR so they can arrange for you to be transferred to work with other, less abusive partners in the firm.