Examples of Ideal Paralegal Profile and Career Tracks in Bank and Insurance Companies

Profile—Paralegal Working in an Insurance Company After considerable study, a major insurance company based in Connecticut hired its first paralegal in 1975. Andrew L., a graduate of an associate degree paralegal program, was hired to work in the real estate investment department.
 

He interviewed at five law firms before deciding to accept this job offer. He felt that insurance law would be a continually changing field and his employment possibilities would always remain excellent. The insurance company now employs twenty-two paralegals, working in the areas of corporate, litigation, bond/investment, life insurance, and real estate/investment.


In 1980 the company began its own formal paralegal program which allows for uniform standards in hiring, training, and promotion. The other twenty- one paralegals hired at an entry-level salary of $16,000 have been recruited from paralegal programs, other legal offices, and some are employees promoted from within the company.

Every two years the company takes a detailed look at their paralegal program to review its components. Surveys are sent to law firms and corporate legal departments to determine the relative importance of training and personality of the paralegal to job assignments. It also evaluates the importance of college education, in-house training, and trends in paralegal programs.

Andrew L. is considered to be part of the insurance company's technical, not administrative staff. He has a detailed matrix of job responsibilities and his own secretary. His health and insurance benefits are excellent but Andrew finds the educational benefits most important to his individual needs. Andrew finished his college education and is now attending law school in the evenings with the insurance company reimbursing him for all of his educational expenses.

The company is pleased with the contribution that Andrew L. and the other paralegals have made. To further their individual growth as paralegals, they are encouraged to join paralegal associations and attend seminars in the legal areas they are assigned to.

Profile—Paralegal Working in a Bank

After Carol B. graduated from college in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in history and political science, she worked for five years as a pension administrator for a major insurance company. When the department relocated to New Jersey, Carol, instead of joining the company, became involved in a local political organization.

By the time she was ready to resume her career in the field of employee benefits, she found that the ERISA law had made her prior knowledge of pension administration completely obsolete. It was at this point, in the summer of 1979, that she decided to enroll in a certificate paralegal's program. Since she was thinking of looking for a job in an insurance company or a bank after she completed the program, she chose the area of probate, estates, and trusts to major in.

This specialization, along with her prior business background as a pension administrator, would allow her to reenter the job market with excellent credentials. When she completed the three-month certificate program in August 1979, she mailed out over 200 resumes to law firms, banks, and insurance companies. While waiting for their replies, she went to an employment agency which specialized in placing legal assistants in temporary paralegal positions.

The employment agency placed her in a law firm, which soon began to train her as a litigation paralegal. While working and being trained to become a litigation paralegal, Carol began to go for paralegal job interviews. Within six weeks she interviewed at several law firms and a bank. She chose the bank because she felt she would be offered the most opportunities to use both her paralegal training and her prior work background.

The bank, located in a small nearby city, hired Carol at a salary of $12,500 and assigned her to the Trust Department. She was the second paralegal hired at the bank and the first trusts and estates paralegal. Carol was put on probation for six months, and at the end of that time she was given a good performance review and her salary was raised to $13,000 per year.

After a year and a half, she was making $15,400. Carol's major job responsibilities are in the area of estate administration. She determines the estate's assets and values them according to the date-of-death values. She prepares inventories, listing assets held by the decedent at the date of death. She is also responsible for paying the bills for trust accounts. She makes income projections for the estate on a monthly basis by examining all the stocks and bonds in accounts to determine the amount of dividends, which will be coming in. She completes all the personal state and federal tax forms for the bank's clients and performs the accountings for estates and trusts.

As Carol became more capable, she was given larger, multi- million dollar estates to work on. The bank recognizes that she is clearly "officer material" and would like her to become a trust administrator or an assistant trust officer. It will send her for a special training session at the School of Banking at Williams College, and after a year of examinations she will graduate with a certificate enabling her to be promoted to an assistant trust officer or a trust administrator. Without her specialized training in probate, estates, and trusts, Carol would never have made these advances in her career.

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