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Meet the 21st Century Paralegal

By Lynne DeVenny

While working on another post, I came across a very well done feature article, "The 21st-century paralegal: from interviewing prospective clients to managing documents at trial, today's paralegal participates in every aspect of an attorney's practice, bringing organization and perspective to complex legal tasks," that appeared in the January 2008 TRIAL trade journal, which was before I started Practical Paralegalism.

The article is so good that I highly recommend you read for yourself, but I'm going to highlight the essential paralegal job duties described in the article, as well as some of the best quotes about today's paralegals.

There's No Legal Team without Paralegals

• "My attorney introduces me as his right hand and his left brain." ~ Paralegal Regina Valenti, who kept her firm's New Orleans office running after Hurricane Katrina
• "A paralegal is a lawyer's right arm." ~ Attorney David Landay, a Pittsburgh sole practitioner
• "We give our paralegals much of the work that attorneys do." ~ Attorney David Lansner of New York City
• "A good paralegal can do the work of newer attorneys in our scheme of operations." ~ Attorney Ed Lau, San Francisco
• "The attorney I'm working with, to the best of my knowledge, has never set foot in a trial without me." ~ Paralegal Julie Hunt (2006 AAJ Paralegal of the Year), Paducah, Kentucky
• "As paralegals, our main job is to anticipate what [the attorneys] are going to need before they need it." ~ Paralegal Natalie Andrus (2007 AAJ Paralegal of the Year), Spring Lake, Michigan

Working under Lawyer Supervision, Paralegals Get the Job Done

The wide variety of substantive paralegal job duties discussed in this article include:

• Interview clients
• Speak to adversaries
• Draft many legal documents
• Docket all key dates, and follow up on deadlines
• Prepare for trials and assist in the courtroom
• Help prepare opening and closing arguments
• Attend depositions
• Coordinate exhibits
• Analyze and digest records and transcripts
• Contact witnesses
• Take assigned tasks and run with them
• Implement work with their own ideas
• Investigate cases
• Facilitate focus groups
• Use case management software
• Perform legal research
• Function as the firm's network administrator

For highly-organized people with terrific communication and people skills, as well as the ability to multi-task, the paralegal profession offers the opportunity to be an invaluable part of today's legal team.

Sources: Goliath; American Association for Justice Paralegal Affiliates

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on September 29, 2010 (boomark / email).