Paralegal

Lawyers frequently depend on the services provided by legal assistants or paralegals. While legal assistants are restricted in terms of what they can offer in the legal field, the careers fulfilled by legal assistants are still quite rewarding. Legal assistants and paralegals cannot offer clients advice pertaining to the law; while lawyers are not restricted in terms of offering legal advice to clients. Legal assistants or paralegals, for the most part, work in the background by providing lawyers and attorneys with the critical preparation assistance they need for cases. Legal assistants or paralegals also provide lawyers with desperately needed office management skills, and therefore serve as major assistants to law firms and independent law offices. In order to begin a career as a legal assistant or paralegal, the individual will need to engage in serious formal training, learning about various aspects of the law and office management. Legal assistants and paralegals have an exceptional outlook in terms of future jobs – it is estimated that the paralegal position will continue to be promising, offering many future jobs to future students of paralegal studies.

Legal assistants and paralegals must be licensed in order to be able to work in any of the fifty states within the United States. Once the legal assistants and paralegals receive the proper licensures, they will then work for an attorney and will be subject to the attorney, lawyer, or law firm they work for.

As mentioned above, Legal assistants and paralegals have a number of working restrictions that are defined by the law in all of the fifty states in the United States. For one thing, legal assistants and paralegals have jobs in which they know quite a bit about the law, but not enough to be able to provide clients with legal advice. Therefore, it is against the law for legal assistants and paralegals to represent another individual in a court of law. Nor can legal assistants and paralegals establish attorney or lawyer fees.

Legal assistants and paralegals are bound by the decisions of the attorneys and the lawyers they work for. If a client is asking for an attorney’s or a lawyer’s consideration in terms of case acceptance legal assistants and paralegals can in no way confirm or deny such acceptance. Basically, the attorney, lawyer or law firm acts as a supervisory position and the legal assistants and paralegals are expected to answer to the lawyers or firms that have taken them on as employees.

While there are a number of legal restrictions placed on the legal assistant’s or paralegal’s position, there are still a number of functions that individuals are permitted to fulfill when they work in such jobs. Legal assistants or paralegals can legally interview individuals for attorney’s and can maintain communications with the client as long as the attorney permits the assistant to do so. The client will need to be notified of the legal assistant’s or paralegal’s position and the individual working as a paralegal is still subjected to the supervision of the lawyer at all times.

Among additional functions that a paralegal can fulfill include the act of locating people for an attorney, and many times legal assistants are given the task of conducting legal research for the attorney.

Legal assistants can complete client interviews and maintain ongoing communications with the client, so long as the client is aware of the status and function of the legal assistant, and the legal assistant works under the supervision of the attorney. Paralegals are also expected to possess the knowledge that makes them capable of creating important legal documents. Depositions, summaries, interrogatories, and witness testimonies are all tasks that fall under the helm of a paralegal’s responsibilities.

Legal assistants or paralegals will be expected to have a high school education or a general equivalency diploma before they can attend a school to receive the proper certification that will allow them to work in legal assistant jobs. In order to get a career as a legal assistant the individual will want to earn a four year degree at the appropriate accredited university. A four year degree gives the legal assistant career seeking the added edge over those individuals that take on a two year course of study. Once the degree is achieved from a two or four year program, the individual may also required to take a Certified Legal Assistant Exam, otherwise known as a CLA as required by the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA).

Some attorneys may be willing to teach an individual everything they need to know in order to enter into one of the many careers available as a paralegal. If that is the case, the individual will be required to work beneath such an attorney for three years time, and must also complete half a year of in house training in a paralegal position before they can become certified as a legal assistant. Alternatively, if the individual receives a period of two years worth of in house training, that individual is eligible for paralegal certification. Finally, paralegals are individuals that are expected to abide by the Code of Ethics established by the National Association of Legal Assistants. The failure to keep to the code of ethics means that the individual runs the risk of being suspended as well as the loss of certification.

Careers as a legal assistant are unlike many other careers when one considers the fact that there are a number of different ways one can gain the appropriate education to become a paralegal. Among the different training options includes the achievement of an Associate Degree, the achievement of a Bachelor’s Degree, the fulfillment of an appropriate Certification Program, the achievement of a Master’s Degree, or independent training via a law firm or attorney. All of the latter options are the paths one can take to become a paralegal.

The thing that an individual needs to bear in mind is that if they are seeking jobs in the paralegal field it is always best to get as much education as possible. The higher the degree that one achieves the more they are eligible to make in terms of salary. Meanwhile, the paralegal student can achieve an Associate degree program which takes only two years, can apply for a paralegal position, can obtain a paralegal job, all while continuing their legal assistant education. The education approach and how far one wants to go in terms of education is completely at the sole discretion of the individual seeking paralegal positions or careers.

When an individual receives the appropriate training and credentials for a paralegal position, they can work in various positions in the field. Most legal assistants take on positions working with independent lawyers and/or law firms. Further, some legal assistants take government exams and upon passing begin working for government positions.

Legal assistants have many exciting job features and the legal restrictions of the position are really minor. Legal assistants have jobs where they are allowed to work side by side with an attorney, where they can be an assistant in or out of the court room, where they can prepare important legal documents or even investigate certain case aspects.
Paralegals may also assist lawyers in preparing for trial, including the preparation of demonstrations, models, charts, posters, graphs, or other necessary material. Therefore, as one can see, the task of the paralegal is not committed solely to legal paperwork or legal research – the jobs legal assistants are expected to fulfill are quite diverse in terms of tasks.

Legal assistants will study many aspects of the law and will be expected to know a little bit about various laws and legal concepts. In addition to general paralegal studies, the legal assistant student will be expected to have learned about corporate law; family law, wills, estates, trusts, bankruptcy law, real estate law, personal injury law, civil litigation, marital law, and criminal law are just some of the areas where an individual will be expected to possess legal knowledge.

With experience, the legal assistant will see job opportunities grow and the number of tasks the individual is expected to fulfill will also increase in terms of variety. A neophyte paralegal may be required to handle many mundane office tasks while the more experienced legal assistant will have more opportunities in terms of task flexibility. Essentially, the legal assistant is in a position where, if he or she proves job capabilities they will then be trusted with more serious endeavors.

The work week for the paralegal may be part time or full time depending upon the position he or she receives. The lawyer or firm determines how often they require the legal assistant to work, but many legal assistants work as many as 40 hours a week. If a legal case is pending overtime may be accumulated by the legal assistant as the lawyer or law firm prepares for a pending case.

In addition to the extensive legal education required for legal assistant careers, the individual seeking one of many jobs as a paralegal might have to become certified in order to fulfill job openings. A certification exam for a paralegal actually takes two days time, and if the individual successfully completes and passes the certification exam offered by the National Association of Legal Assistants they automatically become a certified paralegal.

Other certifications are available for those individuals seeking legal assistant certification. For example, an individual may decide to take the certification program provided by the American Alliance Certified Paralegal Organization, or they may consider a Registered Paralegal Program offered by the National Federation of Paralegal Association. Finally, an individual also has the option to work toward a Professional Paralegal Certification through the National Association for Legal Professionals which involves a four part examination. Whatever certification one opts for, the certification serves as proof that the individual is truly qualified to fill jobs related to the paralegal field.

The first year in a career as a legal assistant the individual may typically see earnings that fall right around $35,000 a year. The first five years in a paralegal position one may not see too much growth in terms of annual earnings – the earnings depend on the firm or establishment that hires the paralegal and what they ultimately decide to offer the individual in terms of annual pay. If a legal assistant is looking to maximize earning potential quickly, it is best to receive as much education as possible. A paralegal that has a Master’s Degree will often make more than the individual possessing a Bachelor’s Degree. A legal assistant that has a Bachelor’s Degree is more likely to make more money than the individual possessing an Associate’s Degree.

Within five to ten years time the legal assistant may see a pay increase as much as five thousand dollars annually. Time and skill are a major factor for the paralegal and one will find that they can make as much as $50,000.00 a year or more in this field. Many paralegals are offered additional perks for filling legal assistant positions. For instance, the paralegal may find that they are eligible for health insurance benefits, life insurance, 401k plans, dental plans, and vision plans as part of working for the government or a successful law firm. The latter benefits can save the legal assistant a considerable amount of money over the length of one’s career and can also put them in a comfortable position for retirement years.