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Sameera Ansari: Paralegal with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, LLP, New York, NY

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published July 17, 2006

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( 32 votes, average: 4.2 out of 5)
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<<She recently left her job as a litigation paralegal in Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker's New York office to attend Pace University School of Law in White Plains, New York. However, she said the move was not the result of a lifelong ambition to become a lawyer.

"I didn't always plan on eventually becoming a lawyer," she said. "It was a culmination of a lot of things that made me decide to go to law school. Mainly, I've had a growing sense of needing to be involved in cases more deeply than I have been able to."

Ansari, 27, started working as a paralegal right after she graduated from New York University in 2001. She said that when she graduated, she wanted to get a job that would give her more exposure to the legal field, which had interested her since her undergraduate years.

"I was a politics major as an undergrad, and we spent a significant amount of time on the judicial system," she said. "I had a good understanding of how the court system works. I worked as an intern in the Transportation Division of the Department of City Planning in New York for most of the time as an undergrad; so I was able to see how things worked, not just from a textbook perspective, but how it worked in actuality."

Ansari said that the property, real estate, and zoning issues she saw arise while working at city planning piqued her interest in the legal aspect of urban planning and also led her to explore a career as a paralegal. But she added that monetary considerations also played a part in helping her make the decision.

"It was one of the few jobs available that afforded you the opportunity to live completely independently without your parents' financial assistance," she said.

After receiving her bachelor's degree in politics and urban design from NYU, Ansari began working as a corporate paralegal for Hughes Hubbard & Reed in the firm's New York office. She worked for a year and half as a corporate paralegal at Hughes Hubbard and then for two-and-a-half years as a litigation paralegal at the firm. In 2005, she joined Paul Hastings in its New York office as a litigation paralegal. There, she worked with a small group of litigation attorneys on various projects in the commercial-litigation and employee-benefits practice areas. She said that her duties included "anything from database searches, document productions, or cite-checking a memo to going to clients' offices to go through their files with them to get documents."

Ansari, who left Paul Hastings on July 7, 2006, said that her experience as a paralegal will be beneficial to her once she becomes an attorney.

"What I've learned by watching some of the best attorneys I've worked with is this: Sometimes, it's worth it to take a step back and think through a whole situation before taking any action," she said. "Sometimes when you end up with a big project from a client, the initial reaction is to dive in and start doing something just so you feel like you're making progress in some way. Oftentimes, better results come from stepping back, looking at a situation more strategically, and coming up with a course of action that eliminates a lot of unnecessary steps."

An only child, Ansari was born in England; and her family is from India. However, she said that she was primarily raised in Queens, New York, as her family moved there from India when she was four years old. She said that the environment where she grew up also played a part in her becoming a paralegal.

"I grew up in a largely immigrant community where people were very intimidated by the legal system and didn't know how to maneuver within it," she said. "Seeing people struggle unnecessarily because they didn't know legal remedies that were or could have been available to them also made me curious about the legal field and was another factor in my decision to become a paralegal."

Ansari said what she enjoyed most about being a paralegal was the sense of accomplishment she got when she took something that didn't make sense and brought some order to it.

"For example, [I enjoyed] taking a box of documents and going through it to find the documents that highlight certain points we're trying to make," she said.

She said that some of the most satisfying moments in her career as a paralegal have been in her pro bono work.

"I participated in a program where women who couldn't afford divorce attorneys were guided by a team of paralegals with attorney supervision through the court system and were assisted in filing papers," she said. "They did this all pro se, and it was very empowering to them. They went from feeling trapped in these relationships that weren't good for them anymore to making plans for their futures."

Ansari said the experience had a tremendous emotional impact on her because of her own personal background.

"My parents are divorced, and my mom struggled to get the divorce so that she could bring me to America and give me a better life than she had in India," she said.

Ansari suggested that students who are interested in becoming paralegals take a hard look at the firms they are choosing to join. They should examine what kind of work the paralegals get and if the firms offer classes that would allow them to constantly learn and develop their skills.

"It will not only save you hours of unnecessary work, but I think that it is really important if you plan to have a career as a paralegal. Employers are always looking for people who not only are constantly proactive in learning and growing, but have updated skills," she said.

Ansari said that in her free time, she takes a lot of continuing education classes either online or at one of the many colleges and universities in the New York City area. Some of the classes she has taken include jewelry design, literature, and creative writing.

She said that she is not sure in what area of law she will practice once she becomes a lawyer.

"I've loved working in litigation so far, but I am open to whatever opportunities law school will bring," she said. "And who knows—I may find something I enjoy even more and am more passionate about."
  1. Legal Jobs
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  6. Sameera Ansari: Paralegal with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, LLP, New York, NY

published July 17, 2006

( 32 votes, average: 4.2 out of 5)
What do you think about this article? Rate it using the stars above and let us know what you think in the comments below.

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