There are also specific educational and/or experiential requirements, which must be met. Some provisional appointments may be made, however, when the agency is waiting for the examination to be given again but needs to hire people to fill an immediate need.
In the federal government, paralegals are employed as legal technicians and paralegal specialists. To be considered for these jobs, you must take the Professional and Administrative Career Examination (PACE). A legal technician may type, monitor cases, set up files, and draft form pleadings. He/she must have a knowledge of legal documents and processes.
A paralegal specialist assists attorneys in litigation, monitors discovery documents, drafts legal memoranda, and interviews witnesses.
Paralegal Specialist, GS-5
Duties. A trainee paralegal is assigned a variety of duties intended to provide the employee with a good working knowledge of agency programs, policy, regulations, and implementing legislation.
- Consults prescribed sources of information for facts relating to matters of interest to the program;
- Reviews subpoenaed documents to extract selected data and information relating to specified items;
- Summarizes information in prescribed format on case precedents and decisions; Searches for legal references in libraries and by means of computer data banks;
- Accompanies attorneys to hearings and court appearances to assist in the presentation of charts and other visual information and to become informed on court procedures and the status of cases.
Paralegal Specialist, GS-7
Duties. In a developmental capacity the employee serves as a paralegal providing legal assistance to attorneys. In this capacity he/she:
- Reviews case materials to become familiar with questions under consideration;
- Searches for and summarizes relevant articles in trade magazines, law reviews, published studies, financial reports, and similar materials;
- Prepares summaries of research findings for use of attorneys in the preparation of opinions, briefs, and other legal documents;
- Interviews potential witnesses, and prepares summary inter¬ view reports for the attorney;
- Participates in pretrial witness conferences, notes any deficiencies in case materials and additional matters requiring investigation prior to trial, and requests further investigation by other agency personnel to correct deficiencies;
- Prepares and organizes trial exhibits, such as statistical charts and photographic exhibits;
- Verifies citations and legal references on prepared legal documents;
- Prepares summaries of testimony and depositions;
- Drafts and edits non-legal memoranda, research reports, and correspondence relating to cases.
Most of the positions in the legal clerk and legal technician series require the employee to perform one or more clerical functions, such as: Initiating and composing standardized legal forms routinely needed for specific legal actions;
- Accepting service of legal documents, reviewing for correct form and timeliness, annotating case files and status records to reflect receipt and due date for response or other actions required;
- Maintaining docket calendars and tickler systems, coordinating schedules with clerks of courts, reminding attorneys of court appearances and deadlines for submitting various actions or documents, notifying witnesses of appearances and of changes resulting from suspensions or settlements;
- Establishing, maintaining, and closing out case files or systems of legal records, annotating indices and status records, compiling workload and status reports, and locating and abstracting data from files and records.
