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Do small law firms have paralegal managers?
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It's been my experience that the legal assistants are there to assist the attorneys only and not the paralegals, and the paralegals are expected to do their own clerical tasks that accompany their billable tasks. We are a large firm and have additional support from the mailroom that send my faxes and prep and post my certified mail, but that is the only clerical support I get. I file any court documents I prepare and am responsible for saving to the file any incoming discovery related correspondence and documents and enter deadlines into the system for discovery documents and discovery related orders.
Yes, speaking as an LA, this has always been my understanding - the paras do their tasks from start to finish, including any clerical component. Most firms understand that paras' billables will be a bit lower due to built-in clerical tasks. If the firm has a specific policy of requiring LAs to assist paras, then that's different.
17 year paralegal here, worked at 4 firms. These are my general observations: LAAs like to suck up to the lawyers because they think they’ll get something out of it like a promotion or a bonus and working with us doesn’t come with that kind of incentive but if this person’s job is to assist you then they need to do that. They also act like they’re busier than they are and make an excuse of prioritizing the attorneys requests to keep their workload down so they can be on social media all day. I also find that a lot of assistants hate taking direction from paralegals because they don’t want to feel inferior to them but all of these things are their problem, not yours. I would go straight to the partner. Office managers do not understand the concept of paralegals needing to be rid of all admin and clerical work so we can focus on doing the work that actually brings money in and in turn helps to pay for all of their salaries. Partners think on this scale. At the end of the day the assistant and manager likely cannot do your job and if the firm has put resources in place to help with tasks that can be delegated I don’t see why anyone would tell you they’re not available to you. Makes no sense from a logical or business perspective. People really need to get over themselves and stop getting in the way of people bringing in money and just do their job in supporting those people, paralegals included.
Litigation Paralegal 2: You NAILED IT!!!
Also not sure about your firm. But our dept works in a team basis. If there’s too much and the paralegal can’t get it done on time LA’s step in to assist to get the job done. Lawyers also do what they can to get it out the door. Also whoever the LA is for the attorney who assigned the task is expected to assist with the project until it’s out the door.
Exactly!!!
I have experienced pushback sometimes but that’s easily resolved when the partner steps in.
This varies so much by firm, but most places I've worked, work exactly as you described. She's not working for you, she's working for the team or the attorney, but its the same damn thing. It's the attorney's filing, you need to do billable work and she needs to do nonbillable work. It's not personal, it's not about who you answer to, she gets paid either way and I'll never understand the butthurt parade. It sounds like you need to get some clarification on the workflow.
Coach
I had assigned legal assistants and only ever go push back from one but oy because he was promoted to an assistant and thought he knew everything and even gave push back to the attorneys. I've always been assigned assistant, but obviously was shared with associates and partners. I'd clarify if she is assigned to assist you or only the attorney. As a biller, they did not like paralegals doing non-billanle tasks.
Coach
Not currently but the LA I was paired with would give me attitude for forwarding tasks per the partner I am assigned to. It was a whole big thing and she quit just recently (and good riddance if you ask me).
You might try explaining that the part they are finishing out can’t be billed for, therefore it’s an admin task and why they have to do it. If you still have issues, get the manager and/or attorney involved.
Gosh, you sound like a peach!
It may seem unreasonable to the Legal Assistant, given that you've already completed 98% of the assigned task(s). It may have seemed more reasonable had you completed only 25%. Try involving the Legal Assistant earlier in the process.
It's the paralegal's job to do the billable work and the LA's job to do the nonbillable work. Period. That's the difference.
As a legal assistant, I completely get it. Because why can’t you just complete the entire task? You did majority of it and now you want the LA to come and basically do the most simplest thing that you could’ve done yourself. LA’s are not your assistant. They work for the attorney not the paralegal. I wouldn’t have done it either.
I think it depends on the firm structure. My last position the paralegals and ELAs had assigned assistants. Copying and mailing is not usually an ELA’s responsibility, particularly if the firm is not structured that way. And, what was that person told when they were hired about who they were to support? They may not have been told they were required to support paralegals.
In some firms, paralegals support themselves including preparing mail projects; legal assistants being assigned to complete other tasks. In some firms, paralegals put work into final form and legal assistants support them.
Law firm practice managers can put differences between responsibilities to rest if they explain to paralegals and legal assistants at hire their job descriptions and minimize overlap.
Finally, some legal assistants are wannabe paralegals and have a bad attitude about supporting paralegals.
Just complete the remainder of the task yourself and include it in billing for the task as a whole since the time to complete it is diminimus.
I think the point of the post is that it’s the LA’s job to take over with the admin part of whatever the task is. Assuming the OP has a billable requirement, that is time that is taken away from time they could be billing.
I’ve assisted paralegals before, many times. As long as they’re kind, and don’t throw you under the bus, I don’t mind doing these tasks. Paralegal work is billable, legal secretary work is not. The main priority is the client. As the client, I’d be unhappy if my paralegal charged me for a task like that. In the 10 years of me working at a law firm, I don’t really see paralegals doing these tasks frequently, or at all.
I am expected to delegate work to the Legal Assistants in my office so I can work on other larger projects but I do a lot of the same tasks they do including printing, stamping and mailing my own letters. However, sometimes I have no choice but to delegate things that can easily be done without having to take too much time for explanation because I just really don’t have the time most days.
Agreed!!
Try completing 1% of the task and have them do the rest? They probably feel like you are making them feel like they’re not capable?
I think she would be more pissed. I’ve come to the conclusion I’m going to do it all myself.
Former LA here. please clarify if it is the LA’s responsibility to help you or the attorney. I know it doesn’t project team work but sometimes places and job descriptions are compartmentalized for a reason.
I wonder if it’s some weird power dynamic that developed after she started
I'm so glad that I don't have to deal with this kind of crap. I work remotely so I don't have to watch legal assistants and other para's play on social media all day while nothing gets done. We're also paperless which amazing! I don't have to run errands for the office like going to the post office, the bank, etc. Firms could save a ton of money going remote AS LONG AS they find people who can be productive at home. There are apps that keep track of every key stroke and every movement on your computer along with when you clock in or out or if you walk away from your computer for more than 10 minutes. I'm perfectly fine with it be I actually work. Working from home is such a blessing - so long as you aren't stuck working for an a-hole attorney who can't shit for themselves.
At my firm we aren’t allowed to do that, unfortunately, because understandably, it is unacceptable to treat a LAA as your own personal assistant. Have you tried talking to the LAA to see what they’re comfortable doing and giving them some of the workload to take some of that off of you. I am the queen of control issues so I get it for sure but if you start working closer with the LAA you can start to trust them more. Also, have you tried asking them if their career end goal is a LAA or if they want to go for paralegal or lawyer? I think sometimes people assume because LAA are a little bit under educated or sometimes uneducated, that they couldn’t do a job from start to finish. I can definitely see both sides.