Letter of Recommendation Needs Work

Older_LS_Applicant85

Hey everyone,

During the summer, I asked one of my former employers for a LOR (Letter of Recommendation). I worked for him for 3yrs as more of a personal assistant than a legal assistant. I did do some legal work for him (small claim suits related to his real estate business) but most of my responsibilities were non-legal. Since I graduated from college about 10yrs ago, academic LORs are out of the question. So, my former employer agreed to write a letter for me and to help him draft it, I provided him with a binder full of info about LORs, a sort of guide if you will. The most important thing I included in this guide was a detailed list of the legal projects I worked on and what I did in those projects. I also told him to take his time, and to contact me when it was ready because I had a family friend who happened to be a Notre Dame Law School grad who could proofread the letter and give him feedback.

A few months later, my boss emailed me the letter and without reading it, I took it to my family friend for proofreading. After reading it and going over my resume, my family friend shockingly told me that the letter was prominently missing anecdotal info about what I worked on in my previous job. In other words, my former boss either forgot or chose not to include one of the various legal projects I worked on. I haven't read the letter, but I get the feeling that it's full of platitudes and generalities about why I want to attend law school. As most of you know, anecdotal info is paramount to a LOR. So I think the letter needs major improvement.

I'm a little confused on how I should proceed though: how should I tell my former employer that he needs to carefully revise and include anecdotal info in my LOR? I don't want to sound too forceful or complain about the letter because he might misinterpret my concerns or may just rush through it just to get it out of the way (he's a busy guy); but at the same time, I'm concerned that he didn't take his time in writing it because in the guide I provided, I stressed multiple times that anecdotal info is of utmost importance in a LOR. Maybe he didn't bother to look over the guide, which means he didn't meticulously or carefully craft my LOR, or as much as I would have liked him to. I want to respond to him as soon as the holidays are over, but I don't know how I should approach this. Any advice or suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks