Famous Paralegals

Recently I received an email from Online Paralegal Programs letting me know about a new study they have conducted regarding the job outlook and educational requirements for the paralegal profession.  If you know me by now, I’m always always interested in those statistics.

Although those statistics are important to know what got my attention this time was the fact that they took the time to research some very important paralegals.  Makes us all proud to belong to such a great profession.

I have been given permission to post the graph here on my site.  I think it’s really important to share this type of information.  One of the things I seem to always be saying is that I’m not a paralegal by accident.  Some of us really enjoy what we do and we have carefully picked our profession.  I am not a paralegal because I couldn’t be anything else.  It’s true that I fell into the profession by a happy coincidence….. I needed a job and that small law firm was hiring.  I was eager and they were willing to give me a chance.  That’s all I needed.  The rest is history and I have since fallen in love with what I do….. I’m one of the lucky ones.

Enough about me…. Please shut me up.  Here is the one page study from Online Paralegal Programs .

 

Source: Online-Paralegal-Programs.com

Paralegals are your greatest asset

Ok, so this is just my humble opinion but it’s based on facts which as a paralegal, I am trained to do.  So what are the fact?  Why are paralegals your greatest asset?

What are the facts?

Fact – Paralegals cannot represent clients in court.  Yes, that is true.  We cannot go to court with the client and represent them by ourselves, that is.  I have been to plenty of courts with my attorneys and sat right next to them through the entire proceeding.  We can and do assist during a trial by providing research on the spot and since most of the time we know the file inside and out we can pull out discovery while the attorney is on his feet and make his/her life easier by having all the documents marked and ready for review by the witness.  Makes the attorney’s life so much easier.  At least that’s what I’m told.  Another fact, we do all this at a lesser cost than a first year associate.  That is welcomed news for the client.  Imagine, having a helping hand in court who is knowledgeable about court proceedings and the file for half the cost, most of the time.  Trained properly a paralegal can provide more help than a first year associate when she/he sits next to the attorney in court.

Myth – Paralegals can be more costly because I’ll still have to use a lawyer to sign the paperwork prepared by the paralegal – You’re right, an attorney has to supervise the activities of the paralegal.  However, the paralegal prepares the documents.  I’ve prepared complaints, answers to complaints, requests for productions, motions of all kinds, trial notices, subpoenas, briefs……you name it, I’ve prepared it.  Some of this documents can take hours and sometimes days to prepare and are billed out at a paralegal rate…. again, half of what the first year associate’s rate.  The attorney will then take an hour to review and sign and the rest is history.  The paralegal prepares the cover letter, makes the copies files the documents away and all this has taken an hour of the attorney time.  Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of other things the attorney can busy himself/herself with.  Paralegals are never going to take the place of the lawyer and we don’t want to, let’s just be clear here.  Most of us do not …. let me repeat that…. DO NOT want to be attorneys.  We are perfectly happy being paralegals.  Can you imagine getting to the end of the month and sending your client a bill for half of what it would have cost him if you didn’t have a paralegal working on the file?  Yeah, I’ll give you a little bit of time to think about that. Let me illustrate:

Bill to client for an initial meeting and filing a complaint in Superior Court in New Jersey:

Lawyer only bill $600 per hour:

Phone call  or meeting with client 1 hour billed at $600

Draft Complaint 3 hours $600 X 3 = $1,800

Cost for filing the complaint $200

Grand total = $2,600

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Lawyer with one paralegal, lawyer billed at $600 and paralegal billed at $300

Phone call or meeting with client for initial intake 1 hour Paralegal Time – $300

Draft Complaint 4 hours (let’s say it takes the paralegal longer) $1,200

Attorney review and sign complaint 30 minutes $300

Cost for filing the complaint $200.00

Grand Total = $2,000

So, as you can see you have saved your client $600 and in the process you, the lawyer, have been able to do something else while your paralegal is taking care of the work in the office.  Instead of spending 5 or 6 hours handling this case, it has taken you only 30 minutes to review the complaint, give your paralegal instructions for filing the complaint and the client has saved $600, which to me looks like a happy ending.

Fact – Training paralegals is less expensive in the long run than training lawyers how so, you may be asking.  Well, it’s normal for a first year associate to be looking to make partner at some point.  What does this mean?  it means that the associate eventually will be making almost as much per hour as you are billing him/her out.  Adding partners to your practice can be costly and if you decide that you are not going to make them partner they will go and find that partnership somewhere else.  This means that you have spent time and resources training that first year associate only to watch him/her leave your firm and go somewhere else with the knowledge you have given them.  Paralegals?  We don’t want to be partners.  It’s a fact that most of us stay at our jobs longer than attorneys do.  As long as the work is challenging and we are treated well we will stay and continue to provide you with 100% of our dedication.  The longer we stay and the more time you invest in us the better we become and those 4 hours that it took us to draft that complaint up there…. eventually it will only take us 2 or 3 hours.  We are resourceful and our goal is to make you look good.  Training a paralegal to be the best she can be can only benefit you.  We also develop great relationships with your/our clients.  If you notice, we are the ones on the phone with them most often, more often than not we get to know their families, medical histories and we become the first people they call when they feel they need a lawyer.  It costs them less money to speak with us so why not? So what’s a client going to do when they need a lawyer?  They are going to call someone they know and trust and most of the time it’s your paralegal whom they have gotten to know and trust.

So, have I given you enough reasons to hire a paralegal or more in your practice?  I can tell you that you should have one or two paralegals per lawyer in your office and if you do that you would come out on top. A well set up paralegal department, even if it’s only two paralegal with a well organized and divided work load can be the….. actually will be the greatest investment you can make today in your firm and set yourself up for the future.  Don’t take my word for it…… work out the figures yourself or if you prefer, contact me for more information.

Ana

 

 

 

 

 

 

Associate or Paralegal

when you graduated law school and hung that proverbial shingle outside of your small office you hoped against all hopes that one day you would find yourself in the situation you are in today. There was a very small chance that your practice would grow so much that you had to face the decision of hiring some help.

Yes, you have a secretary. She’s great. You really lucked out when you hired her. You have a great relationship with her. You hear the horror stories about some secretaries and thank your lucky starts that yours is professional and always willing to help. However, there are things that she just can’t do. Not because she’s not intelligent enough to do them but that’s not what’ she’s been trained to do. Draft motions, review discovery, research and write memos, all the things you did before this huge client hired you to represent him. You really hit the jack-pot this time. You have arrived.

You need to find someone to do all those things. Otherwise you will be in the office 24 hours a day with no hope of ever seeing day light again and, worst of all, not being able to drum up business and keep the momentum going. There are business meetings to attend, conferences to prepare for and travel to and … horror of horrors, there’s that trial starting in a few weeks that may take a month or more in court. What will you do then? How will you work on your other cases? You have, after all, more than one client. Shhhhh don’t tell that one client. He/she doesn’t know that yet.

So now you have two choices. You can hire a first year associate and bill him/her out at $300. The clients will think it’s a bargain. After all, it’s less than what they are currently paying you. Sounds good doesn’t it? You’ll have to hire someone right out of school because you can’t pay them that much and after all, you’re running a business and the goal is to have more money coming in the door with both of you billing. Or you can hire a paralegal. You can’t bill her as high as you would a first year associate and you will have to supervise her work and still spend some time at the office. However, you can hire an experienced paralegal because paralegals make less than attorneys and with your budget you can pay a pretty competitive rate. You can then bill her out at $200, and all you have to do is review her work and supervise her activities in the office and with the rest of your time you can drum up more business.

Recently, while you were sitting in court you heard someone talk about the paralegals in their office. Even the guy down the street has one first year associate and two paralegals working for him. He seems to be doing well and his practice seems to be growing at a much faster pace than you. He also seems to have more time to go to seminars and meet with clients. You’ve always wondered how he did that.

Paralegals That’s how he did that.

Let me put into perspective for you. Let’s compare what you can do in both scenarios.

Remember when you first graduated law school? How many motions had you filed? Did you know how to navigate the court system? What clerks to call? Response schedules? Filing dates? You know, all the procedural stuff that you learned while working at that other law firm for the first two years of your career? Yeah, that’s what you’re going to get when you hire a first year associate. You will have to fully train that person. When you hire an experienced paralegal you don’t have to spend your time doing that. The paralegal already knows how to navigate the system, which motion to file when, what documents to sent with which motion, how to e-file and even, at times, which clerks are easier to work with.

Has your choice become easier now? How about this? The paralegal can prepare all the pleadings you need, reach out to clients and interview witnesses, draft your memos, organize your medical files, have all your discovery ready and organize before you come back from court at the end of the day. The beauty of that is that you will be paying this individual, with experience, probably half of what that first year associate would be asking.

Don’t get me wrong. I think that eventually you will and should hire that first year associate. Next year you can hire the associate and the paralegal can train him/her and the office will never miss a step.

Now, to develop a program where a paralegal can thrive? That’ll be my next post. Stay tuned.