Paralegals may not be giving dramatic arguments in the courtroom before judge and jury. They may not have the ultimate responsibility in the legal work they are preparing. But don’t discount the impact paralegals have on the legal process!
If you look at all the tasks that paralegals are charged with doing, you definitely realize that paralegals are essential to the legal process, almost to the level of the work that the attorney is doing.
The Paralegal Workload
Most of the work paralegals do is behind-the-scenes though, which is why they rarely get the glory. Paralegals often perform legal tasks such as researching and investigating facts, drafting pleadings, drafting motions, preparing legal documents, obtaining affidavits, assisting lawyers during the trial in the courtroom and ensuring all the information necessary is considered by the legal team.
It’s a total mulitasking career – as a paralegal you have to be ready to juggle many different to-do lists all at once. If you’re looking into becoming a paralegal, be ready to sort through tons of stacks of legal documents in your research. Yes, the work can be tedious. Yes, the work can be hectic. But if you’re looking to to study to become a paralegal, you should be an excellent multi-tasker and you should actually enjoy having multiple tasks needed to be done all around the same time. You cannot get overwhelmed! Time management is key for the paralegal.
With Experience Comes Responsibility
Even though I’ve probably scared some of you aspiring paralegals – don’t get too stressed out. As you get more and more experience in your field, you’ll get the opportunity to work with more varied tasks that have more responsibility and more weight in the legal community.
“New paralegals need to be patient and realize even small and seemingly routine tasks are invaluable learning processes,” says Janet Sullivan, senior paraprofessional manager with Reed Smith LLP in Philadelphia and a paralegal for 29 years. “Be flexible and willing to gain exposure to many areas and tasks until you get a good feel for the profession.”
Even though you might think that sifting through the loads of legal paperwork may be extremely boring and mundane, you can actually learn heaps from getting deep into this clerical side of paralegal work.
“Common mistakes that I have seen, especially from recent college grads, is a reluctance to master the more clerical work that may be associated with the position,” says Katherine M. Kerr, director of paralegal and library services at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, an intellectual property law firm in Boston. “Young paralegals often want to move on to more complex work too quickly without truly understanding the basics.
