IN THIS CHAPTER

Knowing what lines you shouldn’t cross

Getting your message across

Figuring out your job’s requirements

No paralegal knows everything. One of the great things about the legal profession is that you face new challenges all the time. Most of what you need to know as a paralegal you learn on the job as you gain experience. There are a few things, however, that you’re expected to know when you start the job. If you know these ten things, you can start off your paralegal career on the right foot!

How to Ask for Help

At the top of the list of things you need to know as a paralegal is what to do when you don’t know something. Throughout your career, you’ll encounter concepts, tasks, and aspects of the law that you’re not familiar with. There may even be times when you realize that you won’t be able to complete an assignment on time. When this happens, you need to be able to ask your colleagues and your supervisor for assistance.

People who choose the legal profession are often confident go-getters, with a strong sense of their own abilities. If this is you, just remember that you’re working for a client and billing that client for the hours that you work. So when you’re tempted to try to do it all yourself, refrain! Everyone needs help — after all, the reason that you’re working on the case in the first place is because the attorneys couldn’t do it without your help!

Your Role

Legal professionals, including both lawyers and paralegals, work for clients by zealously representing the interests of those clients. As a paralegal, you have a more specific role. You perform tasks that would otherwise have to be performed by an attorney. However, you’re always working under the supervision of a licensed attorney, and there are certain things that you’re not allowed to do.

The attorney is the one who gives out legal advice and who ultimately must make the decisions on how best to represent the client. You can certainly share your opinions with your supervising attorney, but you must not interfere with the attorney’s ability to represent the client.

How to Communicate Effectively

Paralegals need to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing. Whether you’re meeting with the client, interviewing witnesses, or discussing discovery with opposing counsel, you must have good verbal communications skills, including grammatically precise phrasings. If you have any doubts about your ability to communicate correctly, check out English Grammar For Dummies by Geraldine Woods (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) or take a grammar class.

The law is a written profession. Although some paralegals may not do much verbal communication, almost every paralegal has to know how to write effectively. Whether you’re writing a memo to your supervising attorney discussing an element of the case, writing a letter to a potential witness, or preparing a document that will eventually be submitted to the court, you need to be able to use standard written English effectively. If your writing skills are lacking, enroll in a basic expository writing course.

The Value of Being Organized

Attorneys and clients don’t care what your sock drawer looks like or if you have sports equipment piled up in your basement. But if you lose a client file, your supervisor will care! Paralegals need to be organized to work successfully. You can’t afford to misplace client files or miss deadlines. Being organized means keeping your paper and computer files in order, as well as keeping track of your schedule and deadlines. You may have missed some deadlines in school, but you can’t miss deadlines in the law office without serious ramifications.

Your Limitations

You can’t do everything, and no one can work 24 hours a day! You need to have a sense of your own limitations and be able to respect those limits. Include in your daily life time to sleep, exercise, and enjoy your family and friends. You certainly want to be a team player and work as hard as possible for the client, but don’t continually push yourself beyond your limits. Know what kind of schedule you’re willing to work, and respect it as you choose an area of the law, look for work, and accept assignments.

Knowing your limits also means knowing what you’re able to do. If you’re asked to do something that is far beyond your level of experience or that you can’t complete before the deadline, ask for assistance immediately.

If you take on a task that you can’t complete, the firm and the client suffer along with you!

How to Research

Eventually you’ll become an expert in conducting the specific types of research that are common in your chosen area of law. You aren’t expected to begin a job with a faultless knowledge of how to analyze and research intellectual property case issues, but you should start a position with a basic understanding of how to find statute and case law. Practice researching with printed volumes as well as on computers.

How to Use Technology

Modern paralegals are expected to have the ability to use current technology. Familiarize yourself with standard word processing and spreadsheet programs, as well as online scheduling, cloud file storage, and possibly even website management. As a legal professional, you use technology to conduct research and keep track of hours worked and client files. If you have limited computer skills, take short courses to improve them, and make a point of learning about computerized research during your paralegal training. Your employer won’t expect to have to teach you how to use a computer (and you may find yourself guiding your supervising attorney’s computer skills!).

The Rules of Professional Responsibility

Paralegals hold positions of trust, so know and observe the rules of ethics. Chapter 15 discusses the importance of attorney-client privilege, honest billing, reporting of ethical violations, and other ethical rules.

Your behavior reflects on your firm, your client, and your profession, so dress and act professionally.

How to Draft Fundamental Legal Documents

You should enter any new paralegal position knowing how to draft demand letters, basic pleadings, internal memos of law, and motions. These fundamental documents form the basis for other documents you’ll learn to draft as part of the specific area of law in which you work.

How to Weigh the Value of Paralegal Organizations

You should know that there are organizations specifically for paralegals. These local and national paralegal associations offer great networking, career development, and other services for members. (Chapter 2 has more information on the major players.)

Depending on where you live, you’ll probably find you get more benefit from local organizations than you do from national ones.