If you`re considering a legal assistant, be sure to look for a candidate who has experience in areas that are particularly valuable to your law firm. The goal is to find a legal assistant who can handle tasks that are not sustainable, effective or impossible for a lawyer. The right legal assistant should help you make your practice stronger, more efficient, and more profitable. The legal assistant helps lawyers prepare for hearings, trials and company meetings. However, your specific duties may vary depending on the size of the firm and the area of law in which the paralegal operates. The need for paralegals and others in this field is growing faster than in other professions in the United States. As demand increases, so do the skills required for this position. As part of a paralegal job description, expect a list of required skills, including: Part of this process may involve finding a legal assistant with specific skills and attributes. These skills and traits may be slightly different from what you`re looking for when hiring another lawyer. Consider the following key qualities when hiring a legal assistant: Typically, a paralegal`s resume includes a partner`s degree or a legal assistant certification. During these programs, one learns legal terminology, the purpose of certain legal documents, law firm practices, word processing, time management and files.
Legal assistants assist lawyers in a variety of tasks, including legal research, document preparation and review, communicating with clients, preparing for hearings, trials and meetings, and organizing and maintaining records. A high school diploma is required to become a paralegal, and most paralegals have an associate`s degree or certificate in paralegal studies. Legal assistants are usually highly organized and detail-oriented and have strong communication skills. The American Bar Association (ABA) recently revised its definition of a paralegal to separate the role from that of a legal assistant. But non-legal staff, such as paralegals, should still not go beyond the general guidelines of the ABA Model Guidelines for the Use of Paralegal Services. Under no circumstances may paralegals act as lawyers, provide legal advice to clients or hold themselves out as lawyers. Wondering what a legal assistant does every day? Clerkship is a busy day. In this role, a person assists a lawyer with routine tasks that allow court proceedings to proceed while ensuring that everyone stays informed. Specifically, a legal assistant is likely to perform the following tasks on a regular basis: Part of the value of a legal assistant is that their exact role and responsibilities may vary depending on the specific needs of a law firm.
However, the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) classifies legal assistants as individuals whose work includes certain administrative and secretarial tasks to assist a lawyer, with some tasks overlapping those of a paralegal. These paralegal duties include legal research if the person has sufficient training and experience. A legal assistant must be able to juggle multiple tasks at once, have excellent communication skills, exercise good judgment, and keep records and procedures confidential. If you`ve ever wondered, „What is a legal assistant?“ you`re not alone. Although the term may seem explicit, paralegals are not the same as paralegals. Because paralegals take on more legal work on behalf of lawyers, they often gain more formal training or certification. However, many states do not require formal paralegal education or training. The ABA outlines training opportunities and certifications for paralegals. We are looking for a motivated legal assistant to ensure the smooth running of the office and effective case management. They offer a wide range of legal services under the supervision of a lawyer. Simply put, a legal assistant is a legal professional who performs work – usually administrative – on behalf of a lawyer.
A legal assistant performs the necessary routine tasks on behalf of a lawyer. The work often involves elements of administration, customer service and coordination. More than a name, there is a difference between a paralegal and a paralegal. Law firms need to understand „what a legal assistant is.“ By understanding the different roles (and responsibilities that come with them), lawyers can make a more informed decision as they build their teams to grow their law firms. Legal assistants work closely with lawyers to manage some of the time-consuming administrative work that reduces lawyers` efficiency and productivity. The 2020 Legal Trends Report showed how much of a problem this is for many lawyers. Specifically, the report found that lawyers spend an average of only 2.5 hours per day on billable work. It is clear that many companies could benefit from the help of a legal assistant.
While these rules are good general guidelines, specific codes and rules for working with paralegals may vary from province or territory to jurisdiction. With that in mind, it`s important to review your state`s rules and regulations and comply with how lawyers can work with paralegals (and the tasks they can assign). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median salary for paralegals and paralegals in 2020 was $52,920 per year, or $25.44 per hour. A legal assistant increases the efficiency of a law firm by providing office services and other support measures to lawyers. While the work involves a lot of secretarial work, such as answering the phone, scheduling appointments, and filling out paperwork, there are additional tasks, including attending court hearings and researching information for a specific case. Hiring a paralegal can be an effective solution for law firms that need help with substantive legal work. A paralegal also costs less than another lawyer. If your firm is struggling with lawyers who are overburdened with essential legal tasks, few billable hours, or dissatisfied clients and customer service complaints, you may benefit from working with a paralegal. As we discovered, paralegals support law firms by working on behalf of lawyers with other team members – from paralegals to lawyers.
But what exactly does a legal assistant do? Now that you understand „what a legal assistant is,“ you may decide to hire a legal assistant. When hiring a legal assistant for your law firm, there are several factors to consider to ensure you make the best business decision for your firm. Start the process by asking yourself questions such as: Working with an outsourced paralegal to do substantive work as well as an independent legal assistant can ease the workload of a lawyer. Lawyers can recover many billable hours that would have been lost on administrative tasks. In addition, lawyers can spend more time on substantive legal work, growing their business, or taking care of clients. The best thing about working with an independent legal assistant is that you don`t have the hassle of hiring a full-time employee. Paralegals and legal assistants should possess computer, technical, analytical, communicative and organizational skills. While these statistics give a general idea of the average salary of a legal assistant, it is important to note that the BLS does not differentiate between the two roles. However, Indeed`s data shows that paralegals tend to earn less per year than paralegals. The average annual salary for a paralegal in the United States is $44,229, compared to $51,239 for a paralegal. From the tasks that paralegals typically take on to the advice for hiring and working with paralegals, this blog post covers the main benefits lawyers can gain from working with paralegals.
With a better understanding of what a legal advisor can actually offer, you can make more informed decisions when considering adding legal counsel to your team. Paralegals and paralegals assist lawyers directly and may need to supervise other legal staff, such as legal secretaries or case workers. Paralegals can be trained on the job in some jurisdictions, but are increasingly required to obtain diplomas or certifications through post-secondary paralegal programs. As described in the previous section, legal assistants perform routine tasks on behalf of lawyers. For law firms where lawyers spend a lot of time on administrative work, hiring a legal assistant can improve the efficiency of the law firm. A legal assistant may remove these administrative tasks from a lawyer`s task list. Lawyers can then spend more time on billable work. Now that we understand „what a legal assistant is,“ we understand that most lawyers and law firms can benefit from the assistance of a legal assistant. But hiring full-time legal counsel isn`t always the best solution, especially for small businesses.
In these cases, turning to an independent or virtual legal assistant is an effective solution that allows companies to delegate routine and time-consuming support tasks to a legal assistant when needed. We explored the answer to the question „What is a legal assistant?“ earlier in this blog post. While the terms „legal assistant“ and „paralegal“ are often used interchangeably, the roles of today`s paralegals and paralegals are different. In fact, it wasn`t until 2020 that the American Bar Association (ABA) revised its definition of a paralegal to remove the term „legal assistant.“ .
