Duties and Responsibilities
While paralegals work in a wide variety of businesses, most are employed a law firms, the government or corporate legal departments. Within these organizations, paralegals are responsible for a variety of areas including bankruptcy, corporate, criminal, family and labor law, litigation, immigration, intellectual property, real estate and employee benefits to name a few.

Over the years, as laws have become more intricate many paralegals have become specialists and within each specialty, duties are broken down even further.

One example in labor law is that a paralegal may choose to focus primarily on employee benefits. As a general rule, the bigger the law firm, the more specialized the paralegal, while responsibilities are more general in nature for those paralegals working in small to medium sized firms.

Legal Assistant is another name for a paralegal but whatever the name they continue to take on an ever expanding range of duties, with many being identical to the lawyers in the same office.

On the other hand, paralegals are explicitly prohibited from performing anything that is considered to be the practice of law, like trying court cases, giving legal advice or setting legal fees. However, the final responsibility for the legality of the work is the lawyer, regardless of what work a paralegal does.

Assisting lawyers prepare for trials, hearings, corporate meetings and closings is one of key duties of a paralegal. They also help to investigate case facts and help ensure to all pertinent information is taken into account. Paralegals also help identify proper legal articles, judicial decisions and other important information to their assigned cases.

Next, after a paralegal gathers and organizes key case information, they may even prepare a written report that the lawyers use in making decisions on how that case should approached.

Once the decision is made by an attorney to file a lawsuit, a paralegal may be called upon to draft motions and prepare the legal arguments filed with court. A paralegal may also be asked to track and organize all vital case documents on behalf of the attorneys.

In addition to preparatory duties, many paralegals perform a number of other functions like: drafting mortgages, contracts and separation agreements.

Some paralegals may also be responsible for estate planning, preparing tax returns or establishing trust funds. Other paralegals maintain office financial records or the activities of their law office co-workers.

Computer skills are important for all paralegals in today’s hi tech world. They use the internet to search online legal material and CD-ROMs contained legal databases.

In litigation cases that involve a wide range of supporting documents, paralegals may use computer databases to index, organize and retrieve important materials.

The advancement in imaging software has allowed paralegals to scan documents directly into a database, while billing programs allow them to quickly track billable client hours. Tax software packages enable paralegals to explore the ramification of different tax strategies for clients and quickly and accurately perform the tax computations.

Clearly, the duties of paralegals are wide and varied but the primary factor that determines a paralegal’s responsibilities is the type of business or organization they work for. Duties for public sector paralegals vary by agency but in general, a litigation paralegal conducts research for lawyers, maintains files, analyzes and collects legal material or evidence for hearings. They may also prepare explanatory or informative material on agency regulations, laws or agency policy to use by the agency and/or the public.

Community legal service project paralegals help those in need of legal assistance like the old and poor. When authorized by law, they can represent a client at administrative hearings, conduct research, file forms and prepare documents.

Paralegals in the corporate realm assist attorneys with stock option plans, shareholder agreements, benefit plans and employee contracts. Other duties include filing and preparing annual financial reports, loan forms or record corporate resolutions. They may also be responsible for reviewing and monitoring government regulations to ensure the corporation is abiding by the law. In addition, experienced paralegals are taking on supervisory responsibilities in areas like team projects.

Work Atmosphere
Inexperienced paralegals start with the more basic, routine duties but as their experience and skills are honed, the scope and complexity of their responsibilities normally grows accordingly.

Paralegals normally perform most of their work in a law library or an office but on occasion they are required to travel in order gather information and perform their duties.

As a general rule, paralegals that work for law firms are most likely to work long hours when deadlines for cases need to met but most government and corporate paralegals work a traditional 40 hour week year round. However, as in most fields, some paralegals are hired as temps during busy times of the year.

Education and Training
As in all professions, there are number of ways to become a paralegal although one of the most common routes for those without a college degree is to earn an associate’s degree through a local community college. For those with a college degree is to earn a certificate in paralegal studies.

A less common method is to learn on-the-job but that is happening less often than it did 10 or 20 years ago.

A percentage of certificate programs only take a few months to complete and they can vary quite a bit, depending on what institution you attend.

For those that currently hold college degrees a certificate program provides intensive paralegal training.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has approved about 250 paralegal programs, with about four times that number of law schools, colleges and universities and proprietary schools offering paralegal training programs.

Although employers don’t require ABA approval and lack of ABA approval doesn’t mean a program isn’t top notch it can add a little cherry of credibility to a program and for some employers enhance your standing when considering who to hire.

A sound idea, if possible, is to take a look at the placement experience of recent graduates when considering what school to attend. Most of the training programs usually include a number of courses in the legal applications of computers and legal research.

In addition, many of the training programs are also offering internships in private law firms, attorney generals, the public defender’s office, banks, government agencies or corporate legal departments. Clearly, experience gained from an internship is one of those “cherries” on your resume when it’s time to find a job.

Although less common, some businesses will provide on-the-job training to college graduates from other fields or promote experienced legal secretaries.

Other potential paralegals may have gained experience in a technical field like criminal justice or tax preparation that is pertinent to law firms, while those with experience in health administration or nursing are valuable to personal injury law offices.

Certification
Earning certification from a professional society demonstrates initiative and can help secure your dream position, although the majority of employers don’t require it. The bottom line is that it won’t hurt you and will only add to your qualifications and market value as a potential employee so if you’ve got an opportunity to get certified - do it!

The National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) has established a set of certification standards that requires a combination of experience and training and those paralegals that meet these standards are eligible to take their 2-day examination.

Those who pass the exam are entitled to use the Certified Legal Assistant (CLA) or Certified Paralegal (CP) credential.

For experienced paralegals who would like to specialize, NALA offers, via the Internet, the Advanced Paralegal Certification curriculum based program.

The American Alliance of Paralegals also offers a certification program that in voluntary called the American Alliance Certified Paralegal (AACP). Requirements for paralegals looking to pursue certification are the following: They must meet at least one of three educational criteria and have a minimum of five years experience. In addition, certification carries a bi-annual renewal and includes 18 hours of continuing education.

Another certification program is called the Registered Paralegal (RP) designation offered by the National Federation of Paralegal Association. The certification is available to those paralegals who have passed the exam and who have at a minimum of 2 years experience and a bachelor’s degree. For a paralegal to maintain the credential, they must satisfy 12 hours of continuing education every 2 years.

And yet another certification program is called the Professional Paralegal (PP) certification and is offered by the National Association for Legal Professionals. The exam is broken into four parts and for those who pass, a total of 75 hours of continuing education training is required for recertification.

Paralegals must have the skill set to understand legal terminology, have solid research and investigative skills and then be able to present, along with documentation, their opinions and findings to an attorney. In addition, in today’s ever increasing digital age competency with a computer and being able to do with litigation support and legal research using one is important.

A few states along with the National Federation of Paralegal Associations and the National Association of Legal Assistants have established ethical guidelines for paralegals to follow because so many deal with the public on a consistent basis.

Advancement
Like most fields, the higher the skill level and experience a paralegal acquires the more responsibilities and opportunities they receive.

For example; an experienced paralegal in a government agency or big law firm may be given supervisory responsibilities that include assignment delegation to clerical staff and other paralegals.

Other advancement opportunities may include promotion to managerial or other law-related positions within the company or corporate legal department.

Employment
Of the 237,000 employed paralegals and legal assistants in 2006 about 70 percent worked in private law firms, while the vast majority of the remaining 30 percent worked with-in various levels of government or for corporate legal departments.

The Department of Justice is the largest employer within the Federal Government, followed by the Social Security Administration and the Department of the Treasury.

On the flip side, a small number of paralegals run their own businesses and work as freelance legal assistants, contracting their skills to lawyers and corporate legal departments.

Although rapid growth in employment is expected to continue for the foreseeable future; the seasoned, more experienced and highly trained paralegals will have the best employment opportunities.

Projected Employment
Projected employment growth for both paralegals and legal assistants is expected to be above 20 percent until about 2017. One of the primary driving forces behind the growth is the desire for the primary employers of paralegals; like law firms, to reduce costs.

Paralegals enable law firms to reduce costs by performing tasks previously only done by lawyers. They are also capable of performing a larger variety of duties, which provides an increased level of flexibility throughout a law firms staff.

Private law firms will continue to be the largest employers of paralegals but a growing array of other types of organizations, also hire paralegals. Companies like insurance companies, legal departments and real estate or title insurance firms.

Another factor behind the growth is a growing population which leads to a higher demand for legal services in areas like health care, criminal and environmental law and intellectual property. A smaller but contributing factor is the expected continued growth in prepaid legal plans.

Employment Prospects
To a limited extent, the business cycle affects the demand for paralegals. For example; during a recession the demand declines for legal services that depend on discretionary income like estate planning, real estate transactions and the drafting of wills. In addition, companies are less likely to initiate some types of litigation when sales are falling.

As a result, paralegals working in offices affected by a down-turn in the economy could be laid off or have their hours reduced. On the other hand, in a recession, companies and individuals are more likely to face problems that require legal assistance, like divorces, foreclosures and bankruptcies. Therefore, those paralegals that provide some of the same type of legal services as a lawyer but at a lower cost will do better in difficult economic conditions.

Earnings
Annual wages of paralegals and legal assistants can vary quite a bit.

Many circumstances come into play but some of the primary factors are experience, training, education, the geographic location of the position and the type and size of the employer.

As a general rule, those paralegals that work for large law firms or work in large metropolitan areas earn more than those who work for smaller law firms or in less populated areas.

Median yearly earnings for salaried, full-time paralegals and legal assistants, in late spring 2006, was about $43,000 while the middle 50 percent earned between $34,000 and $55,000. The bottom 10 percent earned less than $28,000 while the top 10 percent earned more than $66,950.

Median yearly earnings in those industries that employed the highest number of paralegals in 2006 were: