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Paralegal vs Lawyer
Paralegal vs lawyer can be life-impacting career choice. A paralegal is a legal professional whose primary tasks revolve around supporting attorneys in their legal work. Essentially, an attorney is a primary frontline unit of the law firm and paralegal is working in the background. It is easier to become paralegal than an attorney. Attorney usually must graduate from law school and then pass the bar exam, with some exceptions. Paralegals often do not have to have any special education or training to become paralegals.
I have read a few politically correct articles on this topic and realized that you need to know the truth. Few of the paralegal vs lawyer career descriptions reflect the reality of a law office work.
First of all, paralegal vs lawyer is incorrect comparison because these two types of legal professionals are not equal by any means. At least, not in the USA.
Lawyer (attorney) usually must study for 3 years in ABA-accredited law school, obtain Juris Doctor degree, take and pass the state bar exam, and obtain his or her state bar admission (attorney license.) This requires very significant effort before the attorney even starts his or her career.
State bar admission allows attorneys to freely practice law, consult and represent clients in the court of law and government agencies, as well as in relationships with third persons.
A note: people can take a bar exam in California and New York even without going through law school, although, it is not recommended for many reasons.
The attorney is advising clients on strategy and tactics in the course of legal representation. The attorney is calling the shots in his or her relationship with the client.
Paralegal Position
Paralegal, on the other hand, in most states except for California, does not even have to have a bachelor’s degree. The paralegal also is not required to have any legal or other training or education whatsoever.
A paralegal can be certified as a paralegal just by any lawyer, usually, by the one, he or she works for. The only state requiring paralegals to have certain education and work experience in California.
On the other hand, colleges and universities and training centers are offering special education for paralegals, paralegal degrees, and so on.
Many of them I would find useful for any aspiring paralegal because they provide basic knowledge background to start within the legal world. Some do not do a good job, but that is beyond the scope of this article.
Unlike attorneys, paralegals are silent background workers, supporting attorneys in the legal work. A 25-year old attorney can rule and reign over 55-year old paralegal just like that. Because it is bar admission and the danger of malpractice lawsuits that are on the line.
The job of a paralegal is just that – to support attorney in serving clients of the law firm. A paralegal has no right to independently advise and consult clients on legal matters. Which are, essentially, all matters because any matter has legal implications.
The only exception is that paralegal can consult clients while specifically working under an attorney, in the course of performance of his or her work for an attorney.
A paralegal does not have any final say regarding legal strategy and tactics. Although, good paralegal always can suggest something useful to attorneys.
It sucks to be an attorney (a quote often repeated by my legal ethics professor in law school). A being paralegal may suck even more. Or, it may be all good.
Make it work, paralegal!
But there is a bright side of being a paralegal. Paralegal bears a lower level of responsibility, compared to an attorney. Much lower.
Anything paralegal does while working for an attorney is ultimately the attorney’s responsibility. And that is a good arrangement for a paralegal.
Under legal ethics rules in most, if not all, states, it is a lawyer who is ultimately responsible for any mistake his or her paralegal makes.
That is why attorneys are usually way more on the edge than paralegals. It is a heavy burden for any attorney. But if the attorney can make money from clients, then-attorney rips the biggest reward in the office.
Both paralegal and lawyer work for the same purpose – to provide quality legal services to clients and get paid for it. The relationship between the two is essentially a symbiotic nature.
If they complement each other in the office – they can work together forever and enjoy that relationship if paralegal reduces attorney’s workload and attorney treats paralegal right. This can be good.
If they are not matched for each other, do not have a good relationship, then this relationship will not work out because they cannot operate as a team.
A lawyer can make paralegal’s life great or miserable. A paralegal can do a few things to put a lawyer in a proper place, but it is not recommended because then the working relationship is over.
TIP: In short, being a paralegal is not sexy. Being an attorney is sexier. It is better to be attorney than a paralegal, but paralegal can be a good long-term career if the paralegal is professional, smart, and specialist in a certain area of law, thus, necessary for law office.
It is all about supply and demand. If you just like to come in, do the job, go home, get paid, without taking charge or accepting much responsibility on your shoulders – then paralegal is better than an attorney.
Paralegal vs lawyer in solo attorney or small law office
Solo attorney means a lawyer who is working alone in his or her office and hires and fires staff. A small law office usually includes less than 20 lawyers and few or more legal support and other staff.
According to ABA, most law offices have less than 10 lawyers.
Under California law, small business is less than 25 employees, and many small law offices keep it that way for some extra tax deductions.
The attorney working solo is usually a lord, sovereign ruler, king, and God in his or her office. Such an attorney decides who lives or who dies.
Sorry, I meant who gets hired or gets fired. A solo attorney has total power over the work process and anything that is going on in the office.
A smart paralegal can often outplay attorneys in office bossing and management games because attorneys are very busy and will be happy to delegate many powers to a capable paralegal who can relieve lawyers from unnecessary duties and tasks.
Small office salaries vary greatly, but usually are smaller for both lawyers and paralegals. Paralegal’s salary in the solo office is totally up to a lawyer.
Solo attorney offices are usually hit or miss for a paralegal. When I worked as a legal assistant for a solo attorney, I had a good relationship with him. Or, with them – there was another experienced lawyer who rented space in the same office, so I helped him too here and there.
The pay was not great, but my work was appreciated and I could call in sick if necessary, and so on. Because I had direct access to a lawyer and I did a good job.
So, in a small office, or especially solo offices, or law firms with only 2-3 lawyers, paralegals and attorneys have slightly less formal and close relationship, and that has some benefit.
But pay for a paralegal is usually lower and benefits packages are largely thin or non-existent. In small law firms law firm’s partners usually decide issues together after consulting with each other.
One more thing about small offices – paralegals are usually required to do many different tasks that the office needs them to perform. Wear many hats, from filing to writing motions, to answering phones.
In smaller office paralegals often can talk to clients because the lawyers are too busy and the secretary may be busy too.
Paralegal vs lawyer in medium or large law firm
When I became a paralegal in a bigger law office, sometimes I did not see lawyers for a couple of days, because I shared an ocean-view room with a couple of legal assistants and we, frankly, we’re too busy to chat with a lawyer. The relationship was less formal. I did not know all names of partners, etc.
It was more like a job. I had a narrow scope of the law firm’s work which was mine to take care of. And I did just that. There were other paralegals and legal assistants who did other types of work and I never touched those. There was enough work in my specialty.
I became a specialist of some sort. By the way, the same usually goes for paralegals who work for companies which are not law firms. They focus on some corporate law aspects, while litigation is outsourced to outside law firm.
Attorneys were still the bosses. Managing partners were kings. The work was flowing.
I had to come to work at a certain time, do the work, and often leave at a certain time. Certain lunchtime schedule. No deviations. Quiet work. Headphones, a desk, two laptops and some kind of plant on my desk. Nothing else. No paperwork.
I would not be bothered for half a day or a whole day sometimes, as long as I finished my scope of the daily work.
We had regular weekly mandatory meetings and some motivation pep talk. We had office pizzas. We had corporate events and nights out, paid by the firm. Thank God, no crazy stuff.
I had better benefits, medical and dental. I used those a few times and it was fine coverage. I had an excellent view from my window – better than many attorneys have in huge law firms. View of the ocean.
Good team, 50% of staff were nice people, the other 50% I just stayed away from. They were in different rooms anyway. I did not see them for days sometimes.
I did talk to a few clients many times, but that was not my main responsibility. My responsibility was to work with government agencies and fix the paperwork. That is what I did. My job as a paralegal was quite routine, mundane, and often not interesting. But it was a job.
As paralegals, we had no say as to the workflow process or procedures.
I could only make a suggestion, but the decisions were made by managing partners and attorneys themselves, to suit them better.
They made decisions ultimately that would make it easier for attorneys to perform their work. Paralegal considerations were secondary. We just had to adjust and make sure we serve attorneys well.
Being an Attorney vs paralegal
While paralegal have started opening their own firms or working solo, they are balancing on thin ice due to criminal penalties for practicing law without license.
Some paralegals even open paralegal firms, preparing form documents, adding to tensions about attorney vs paralegal powers.
I agree that public deserves affordable legal services, if we want to pretend that we have any kind of free market.
But the situation is still that paralegals are extremely restricted in services they can perform and then loose in the battle of attorney vs paralegal.
A veteran paralegal with 25 years of experience can know law much better than young attorney with only 3-4 or even 5-7 years of experience. That paralegal may even provide much better service than inexperienced lawyer.
Something must be done or we will have some kind of attorney vs paralegal mess and increasingly agitated debate.
Having said that, lawyers have quite strong lobbies around the country. Bar associations essentially are monopolies.
And this situation means that in choosing attorney vs paralegal it is makes more long-term sense to choose to be an attorney eventually. Because attorneys face no restrictions on their careers.
Salary
I already discussed paralegal vs lawyer salary in one of my previous blog posts. Generally, brand new paralegals and attorneys without any experience or without spectacular high-ranking college name on their resumes both are likely to receive very low salary. Sometimes even on par with each other.
But with experience, lawyer in most cases will outperform paralegal in terms of life-time income many times over.
Because paralegals have a ceiling on their income, while attorneys are only limited by their ability to bring in clients.
Conclusion about paralegal vs lawyer difference
As you can see, attorneys are bosses and paralegals are obedient servants. That is the common set up. Those who are ok with it can take safely take on paralegal career and specialize in something. Those who want more flexibility need to become attorneys.
Yes, attorneys enjoy much greater flexibility than paralegals when it comes to employment choices. Paralegals are quite limited by their status and by the restriction on representing and advising clients. They always need to find a lawyer to work under.
What do you think? You can leave the comment to let me know.