A Paralegal’s Survival Guide in a Law Firm Environment

The Law Firm: Where Paralegals Originated

Let us go back and consider the structure in which the paralegal profession was born-the firm. The law firm will always have an impact on how you function in the paralegal world. Its original structure carried the paralegal in a staff relationship, not a line function. From the beginning, it was clear that paralegals would be self-directed professionals providing support work. They would not be giving orders to subordinates, but rather be entrusted with projects over which they would be responsible. Since paralegals are by definition not lawyers, the work divides itself quite easily. Attorneys are the planners, strategists, directors; paralegals are the technicians, organizers, fact experts, custodians of details. The paralegal plays a distinctly different role than the lawyer, and you must recognize your value as an individual with unique skills within the structure of the law firm.

 

Diplomacy 101: The law firm environment

Diplomacy 101 is not a course suggestion for a paralegal program, though it might be a good idea for a seminar. Because paralegals are not part of a managerial/administrative structure, they must stand on their own. Paralegals should have the diplomatic skill to negotiate themselves through the perils of law firm gossip, relationships, who's in, who's out, and all the problems that arise in a stressful, tense, and sometimes seething subsurface political environment. The paralegal who fails to recognize the importance of secretaries is sometimes in as much danger as one who disappoints a senior partner. The need for diplomacy is made obvious not only by the nature of the work being done, but also where it is being done.

What more can be added to this basic description of the paralegal's role? The first paralegals had skill and adaptability. These two elements are further reinforced by the firm's structure itself. In the firm, since you are standing on your own, you should have as many technical skills as you can possibly develop. Diplomacy is also an important skill, for you will need friends. You will have to be adaptable, especially in the beginning, for it is adaptability that gets careers going. Many specialists were once volunteers who decided to take on a special case for which they had no experience. Their willingness to pitch in and help allowed them to gain valuable knowledge.

Trust and confidence are of paramount importance in the world of law. Clients place complete trust in their attorneys and that relationship. In a similar fashion, lawyers place tremendous confidence in their paralegals. As time passes, the paralegal is relied upon more and more completely. This is why salaries and benefits are sometimes low in the beginning, but build quickly after a short time. When a lawyer's confidence and trust in you builds, and you become a valuable member of the team, your pay will reflect that trust.

Adaptability is an asset that will help you work with the one entity that stands responsible for everything that a paralegal touches-the lawyer. The lawyer /paralegal partnership is one of complementary opposites: Strategy vs. Technicality, Overview versus Detail Analysis, Plan vs. Execution. The challenge of dealing with a lawyer comes from the fact that the paralegal must adapt to the style of the attorney. While paralegals are adapting, they must also keep intact their self-esteem and enthusiasm. The paralegal, as adaptor and professional, must be able to rise above the immediate hectic dramas of the law office.

Working with lawyers is what paralegals do. The excitement and challenge of working in the traditional law firm has to do with the high stakes of legal activity, the well-developed egos that populate the world of law, the tense deadline-orientation that pushes everything forward and then occasionally leaves you becalmed on a quiet sea of inactivity. When a case settles and the firm throws a big party, you suddenly have nothing to do-when the hour before you were being driven to distraction by a score of unfinished assignments. You pop the champagne instead of the aspirin bottle and smile to yourself because you are working in an exciting world. Lawyers are a part of this world, and so are you. You are in a law firm that sometimes sedate and serene place of thick carpet and serious looks that can in a given situation turn into a place of high drama, hilarity, confusion or pure Adrenalin-driven fun.

Here to Stay: Paralegals in Law Firms and Nontraditional Settings

Even though there are still firms that say, "We do not use paralegals," in cities large and small the paralegal is now a permanent part of the traditional law firm. Some firms have stylized their practice around paralegals. One particular estate planning and probate practice instituted a well-organized system of small teams of attorneys matched with a cadre of paralegals and sophisticated computers. Their ratio is one attorney to three paralegals. In other firms, the ratio is three or four lawyers to one paralegal. In some firms, it is 10 to one. Places where paralegal use is minimal or nonexistent await that one experimental day when a stubborn old attitude gives way to a begrudging mumbled statement: "Well, I guess we'll hire you, just to see; now this is an experiment, mind you . . . we'll have a 90-day probation period . . . then we'll sit down and talk again."

The key to paralegal success

Within this quiet acceptance lies the key to paralegal success. Well-trained, skillful, enthusiastic professional paralegals have found them-selves in this scenario tens of thousands of times. More often than not, after 90 days the paralegal became a "part of the woodwork." When paralegals get a chance to prove their usefulness they not only carve out a job for themselves, they change workloads and expand practice areas. They increase profits. Though not carrying the prestige of the lawyer's status, you, as a paralegal, can have rightful pride and self-respect in knowing that you are a member of a new profession that is influencing the American legal system in many ways. The status of paralegals in the law firm is fixed.