The Paralegal Professional Part I: The Paralegal Profession Chapter One The Paralegal Profession

What Is a Paralegal? A paralegal or legal assistant, is “a person qualified by education, training, or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.” No distinction between “paralegal” and “legal assistant” trend is toward using “paralegal” may be distinctions in job descriptions within an organization

What Do Paralegals Do? Tasks such as interview clients conduct factual investigations legal research Assist attorneys in law firms or legal departments prepare for hearings, trials, meetings, closings

What Do Paralegals Do? (cont.) draft documents complete forms coordinate activities maintain financial records

Professional Skills Previous work experience helpful science & medicine engineering, architecture, construction customer relations (front end positions) bookkeeping or financial experience

Professional Skills (cont.) “Soft” skills are relevant: Communication Initiative Resourcefulness Problem solving Commitment Team work Leadership Self-motivation

Career Planning Career planning includes educational planning and A plan for perfecting professional skills.

Career Planning (cont.) An estimated 1,000 paralegal education programs are available in the United States. They are offered: Onsite, online and in hybrid format combing both onsite and online instruction. Some of these programs have obtained ABA approval.

Career Planning (cont.) Qualifications of a paralegal were established by the educational guidelines of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Standing Committee on Paralegals and American Association for Paralegal Education (AAfPE).

Career Planning (cont.) Types of Education Programs: Certificate programs Association degree programs Baccalaureate programs Graduate programs Specialty certificates

Career Planning (cont.) Paralegal Certification Paralegal Advance Competency Exam (PACE) of the National Federation of Paralegal Associations: CLA (Certified Legal Assistant) of the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALS). ALS (the basic certification for legal professionals of NALS. PLS (the advanced certification for legal professionals of NALS) PP (Professional Paralegal Certification of NALS)

Career Planning (cont.) What are your goals? Identify other educational skills Identify your personality traits Assess whether you enjoy working under deadlines Do you enjoy working with certain groups? Identify your personal interests Recognize your strengths Acknowledge weaknesses

Career Planning (cont.) Selecting a specialty: Your decision should be based on self-evaluation of your likes, dislikes, interests, passions and any physical or geographic limitations.

Career Planning (cont.) Assessing your background Doing a self-assessment early in your studies offers you an opportunity to recognize your strengths and to develop them and To acknowledge weaknesses that you need to address in order to allow for personal and professional growth.

Credentials May obtain a national certification Certified Legal Assistant (CLA), through National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) Registered Paralegal, through NFPA Professional Paralegal, through National Association of Legal Professionals (NALS) Exhibit 1.1 is appropriate here

Regulating the Practice of Law The practice of law is regulated by state government and court rule to protect the public from incompetent and unscrupulous practitioners.

Regulating the Practice of Law (cont.) Regulating the Paralegal Profession: The traditional role of the attorney in advising and representing clients is limited to those who are admitted to practice as lawyers under the applicable state law.

Regulating the Practice of Law (cont.) Some exemptions do exist that allow non-lawyers (paralegals) to perform certain services under state law.

Regulating the Practice of Law (cont.) Some states have enacted legislation establishing licensure to perform certain paralegal functions to address the issues of the unauthorized practice of law (UPL). Under Federal regulations, non-lawyers may represent parties before the Social Security Administration, the Patent Office and other agencies.

Opportunities for Paralegals More paralegals are employed by large firms than smaller firms; small firms tend to use secretaries for some paralegal tasks 2/3 of attorneys use paralegals at their firms Paralegals are most commonly utilized by firms practicing in the areas of Business/corporate Probate/estate planning Litigation

Opportunities for Paralegals (cont.) Salaries are higher in large, metropolitan areas Large firms tend to pay more Paralegal billings must be based on paralegal (billable) activities, not clerical or secretarial (overhead) activities

Opportunities for Paralegals (cont.) In 2006, paralegals held about 238,000 jobs in the United States with median annual earnings of $43,040 Courts can award paralegal fees along with attorney fees

Opportunities for Paralegals (cont.) The U.S. Department of Labor projects that this profession will continue to be among the fastest growing through the year 2016. Some attention is being paid to the choice of an attorney to perform tasks a paralegal could perform for less. Court-awarded fees may be reduced accordingly

The Future As courts require the use of paralegals to reduce legal costs, law firms may have to hire more paralegals and delegate work to them in fairness to clients. Courts are looking at the appropriateness of law firms charging secretarial time as costs to clients