Duties of a Paralegal – A Silent Warrior?
The duties of a paralegal primarily consist of supporting attorneys by conducting legal research, performing legal writing and drafting legal documents. That means researching cases, drafting litigation documents – complaints, answers, motions. Also reviewing discovery documents. In non-litigation environment that can be preparing corporate documents, such as annual minutes, company formation documents, contracts, leases, and more. In the end, paralegal duties consist primarily of legal support tasks.
The duties of a paralegal are quite often described incorrectly because people use those very formal descriptions. Those do not reflect the reality of working as a paralegal. Paralegal duties vary widely depending on the employer. I have spent several years working as a paralegal before I went to law school, and I feel that I am qualified to write a few words on this topic.
I have looked up a few articles describing paralegals’ work and paralegal duties. Some of them were very good, practical, and right on point. But a few other articles were total rubbish. They seem like a reprint from paralegal school prospectus or some marketing material.
I have seen articles describing paralegal almost as a general leading the whole law firm in a battle. That paralegal should be a leader or whatever else. This could not be farther from the truth.
First of all, a paralegal is a legal support worker, and all duties of a paralegal stem from supporting lawyers in their law practice. A paralegal is a quiet back-office chair warrior sitting in the cubicle or at the desk, doing his or her share of a law firm’s legal work.
No attorney usually wants their paralegal to be some kind of leader – they want the work to be done well and on time. Paralegals are servants to attorneys, who, in their turn, are servants to clients.
Second, paralegal duties depend not only on the area of practice but also on the size and location of the law office. I have worked for solo attorneys and a larger law firms of corporate type. There was not only a significant difference in salary and benefits but also in flexibility and access to the body of lawyers and immersion in the work process.
What is a paralegal in a law firm?
I started working for law firms as a legal assistant, for quite a low hourly wage. Solo attorneys and small law firms usually pay less, have fewer benefits (unless you are really good and indispensable as a paralegal), but the relationship in the office is less formal.
Paralegals in small offices are usually more involved in the whole case workflow from A to Z. In a small office, I had to work through files searching for documents, to do legal research, to prepare documents, to even serve opposing party with litigation documents, talk to clients, explain the progress of the case, set up meetings with them, all to save attorneys’ time.
The salary was lower, but I had some flexibility in terms when I come to work, when I do the work, and how I do it. I never prepared coffee for attorneys, though. That would be a waste of my legal assistant time.
They knew I could do legal work so they did not make me do anything other than legal work, except for occasional delivery and picking up legal documents in court or at the client’s office. If you are asked to do coffee – it is time to consider changing a job.
My duties as a paralegal
Then I went through the UCLA Attorney Assistant Training Program (Paralegal Program) and became certified as a paralegal with immediate salary bump and a large all-night office party to celebrate me becoming a paralegal. Well, they just needed an excuse for a corporate event. In large, more corporate type law firm setting, I was more of a back-office paralegal. I was certified by UCLA as I said.
So, the salary was better, although still far from spectacular. I also received benefits package, which included medical, dental, and IRA, I think. 401K. It was a long time ago. That felt good. I would come to a large office with the ocean and/or city view. That was nice.
But it was boring work. More work. Lots of work. I was expected to work, work, and work. Mostly corporate formation, maintenance, and dissolution of business entities. I handled huge volumes from my desk. Mostly paperwork – preparing documents, papers, corporate filings, constantly resolving issues with government agencies.
Usually, when some legal entity was closed or would loose its active status due to, say, untimely filing or submission of the annual statement, annual report, annual fee, and so on. I talked to state government agencies quite a lot, figuring out what needs to be done to reinstate entity.
I became somewhat an expert in that area. And was praised for that. I wish my salary would be twice as much as I was making. Then I could stay at that firm for much longer.
I would prepare volumes of annual statements, annual filings, annual minutes of shareholders or directors, etc. I would do some cleanup work for the last 10 years, for example, when the entity did not do things right. Lots of work. But solid job security.
I would rarely talk to clients. Although I had the opportunity to speak to some big shot clients over the phone or meet with quite successful clients in-person to give or discuss some documents, that was only occasionally. On the good side, I was able to work on projects related to highly successful people, including A – list celebrities.
Common paralegal duties
But, at all times my job was to support law firm partners in their work. Paralegal duties do not include making tactical or strategic decisions for clients – that’s what attorneys do. I could give suggestions to attorneys, and they would either accept or reject them. Otherwise, I would keep my mouth shut and do my work.
Therefore, my duties as a paralegal also included doing lots of paperwork and research. Later, when I started doing litigation work, my paralegal duties became legal research and drafting paperwork.
Lawyers see paralegal as a resource. Hence, that affects the duties of a paralegal. A paralegal is not on the stage – a lawyer is. It is like working for a fashion show, preparing things, or sewing outfits for a designer, and then watching from the backstage those models are walking around showing work. Then the designer goes on stage, but you are somewhere in the back watching the whole show if you are lucky.
Some paralegals make a career out of it. They become so experienced and skilled in their particular area, that they become indispensable.
Then they can command better wages and benefits and they can choose their work setting and eventually end up at larger firms. Or at small boutique firms that pay their paralegals well.
Where do paralegals work?
Some paralegals work for law firms or solo attorneys. That’s where the bulk of the work. But many are working for companies in their legal in-house departments or even government. Government jobs are hard to get.
A friend of mine went the corporate way. He is quite good at setting up and maintaining entities for real estate investment and management companies. I think he makes now $40-$50 an hour as a paralegal. But it took him good 10 years to get to this level.
He always works for companies in-house, not for law firms. He occasionally rubs shoulders with top managers, including VPs and Presidents of companies he works for. He keeps in touch with some of them. Now he is ready to move to open his own business, unrelated to law. I am not asking why – it is a personal business.
Is paralegal a good career choice?
Frankly, unless paralegals are relatives of supervising lawyers, or unless they make good friends with their bosses, or unless they are very good specialists with solid high-level paralegal experience, most paralegals do not make big money.
There is a cap on how much a paralegal can make. Attorneys do not have that cap. Paralegals do.
Therefore, you should not become a paralegal for money – it is a useless idea. Most paralegals never become rich. It’s a job. If you do become a paralegal, make sure you become good in a certain area of legal work, and do your paralegal duties better than most in your industry.
When you take duties of a paralegal so seriously and become paralegal specialist, that is when jobs and money start flowing your way.
Some paralegals start doing their independent paralegal work, but that is very tricky due to ABA legal ethics restrictions and state laws.
Most of the paralegal jobs are in litigation, though.
Paralegal duty in litigation include lots of legal research, drafting memos and legal paperwork – complaints, answers, motions, petitions, discovery documents. It is not easy work. Your lawyer will want you to do the best job possible to please his or her level of skill. And as quickly as possible or impossible.
I remember preparing appellate briefs and printing them out – we stayed all night. I remember those appellate brief copies lying on the floor. And us, paralegals, crawling on our four around them to make sure we did not miss anything. Not much of glamour, don’t you think so? The carpet was soft and clean – that was good.
Many paralegals eventually leave the profession. Some go to law school, then become attorneys and they already have legal experience. They can hit the ground running. Some change their legal area entirely and learn new.
If I had to do it again, I would not become a paralegal. I would go directly to law school. I burned out as paralegal. Or, I would go either for accounting or coding (programming) now. Times are changing. But that is me – I am better at strict analytics than at writing briefs, for example.
There is still a need for paralegals. There is a problem related to the oversupply of lawyers. Young JD’s (Juris doctors – law school graduates) are coming out fresh and hungry from law school, and work for little money at low-level legal support positions to gain experience. This creates competition for new and inexperienced paralegals.
Go to the job search website called “indeed.com” and type in “paralegal.” There, you will see the jobs, job description, how many, how many are needed in any state or city. This will give you an idea of what to expect in the profession.
A paralegal is not an independent profession. It is a higher level of legal support. A paralegal is a higher legal assistant in a law firm’s hierarchy. It is a special kind of legal specialist.
A hint: essentially, the duties of a paralegal include many duties of an attorney, except for representing a client in court. But paralegals are doing them for much less money. The difference between how much they make and how much of that work is billed to clients represents a law firm’s profit.
Duties of a paralegal may sometimes include advising clients, as long as it is done under the supervision of attorney – in the office or over the phone. I advised clients on bankruptcies, on immigration issues, and their corporate entity issue resolution, but as a paralegal working for a lawyer.
Here is US Bureau of Labor Statistics’s web-site providing job outlook for paralegals and some other useful information.
Some Paralegals Become Lawyers
It is not uncommon for experienced paralegals to go through law school and become lawyers. Because it makes sense. I do know a story of one paralegal who worked for a large law firm for about 6-7 years in Los Angeles. Then, they allowed him to go to law school and rehired him as an attorney.
Now they could bill his work at a higher rate and he could represent and freely advise clients. He went from making $65,000 to $120,000 starting annual salary with that move, doing practically the same job he did before. He learned it well as a paralegal working for that firm. But he was an exception to the rule.
Law firms do not like to hire paralegals who want to become attorneys one day. They usually want them to remain paralegals and do the work in the back office.
It is hard to find good and experienced paralegal because good ones often either become attorneys, which makes sense or leave the profession entirely.
Paralegal duties or duties of a paralegal may allow helping build necessary legal skills. Paralegals learn how to do a lot of technical legal work. That work is somewhat different from what attorneys do.
Attorneys have to make much more complex tactics and strategy decisions, involving many variables, risking their malpractice issues, and looking at things in complex, as a system.
Paralegals do not have to worry about that. Duties of a paralegal usually involve some more narrow area of law or a set of technical legal tasks that have to be done and then submitted to a lawyer – mostly research and drafting.
Requiring paralegal to essentially act as a lawyer is not the right thing to do and is a mistake made by some attorneys. It is like asking a private solder to run things as colonel or general.
Other than that, paralegals may be asked to do anything – from calling a client to serving documents, depending on the firm. Smaller law firms exploit paralegals in many more various capacities than larger firms.
As a paralegal, you should strive to work in a firm that allows you to build legal skills specific to a paralegal. Because paralegals are paid well when they are good at legal specialist work.
Therefore, every paralegal should strive to become a specialist in some type of legal work in demand by employers – litigation, corporate, bankruptcy, immigration, or whatever else. Then jobs and some money will keep flowing.
