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Work at a firm that has higher standards. And yes, many paralegals are mediocre to bad.
But a handful are downright rockstars!
We're finding it nearly impossible to find qualified paralegals to hire but the ones we have are very good. They're good because we pay them well, they have lots of experience, but MOST IMPORTANTLY, we meet with them frequently. It's very time consuming, but I have found that if I actually take the time to meet with them and go through ALL of their cases and provide them direction and accountability then they are empowered to do a great job. They often need structure and support more than they're willing to admit.
If someone on your team isn't performing, then it's up to you to figure out how to better manage them or replace them.
I am so tired of these posts 🙄
Were you ever involved in hiring or otherwise have tips for finding the "awesome/rockstar" paralegals? Simply putting out a job listing with a potentially (very) high wage DOE? Stealing them from other firms by offering a higher wage through LinkedIn Recruiter?
Don’t you people have *anything else* to talk about beside how partners suck and paralegals suck and what’s it like to lateral?
OA1 why should I respect attorneys when you clearly don’t respect paralegals?
I've found they're fine for repetitive stuff like checklists but other things you really have to spell out what exactly you want them to do if you want them to do it right.
I'm sure some paralegals are great. I have just never worked with any. The ones I have worked with also had no idea how fundamentally different our jobs are...both in terms of degree of difficulty and stress.
P2 is absolutely right on many points. The only one I would take issue with is the “shock.” Like some paralegals are bad, some attorneys behave shockingly bad while posting online and others behave shockingly bad in person - I have seen both so much that I am no longer shocked - just disappointed.
There are a couple of things I would point out.
1. Author, if you haven’t been able to pick and train your paralegal before - you are now armed with things to train on. Know that you will not be perfect and you will pick wrong sometimes. The trick is figuring out early that something is a bad fit and figure out if training will suffice or if you just need to move on.
2. Comparing an experienced paralegal to a baby lawyer does not make every paralegal better or every baby lawyer bad. It’s just a bad comparison. Every job requires training - if done with thought, this can take years. If not done with thought, training goes as fast as someone learns how to swim in the deep end.
As long as we tolerate bad behaviors in lawyers or paralegals, they will keep behaving badly. If you see bad behaviors, bring the person for a meeting go over the behaviors and come up with an improvement plan with metrics (if you have an HR professional, get their help). Set up regular meetings (weekly, then biweekly, then monthly for a year). If they cannot meet the metrics quickly, move them out. If they meet the metrics quickly, don’t give up the meetings or they will fall back into bad behaviors. If things stay good, you will find that you like and will keep the regular meetings can turn a bad situation into a good situation.
The key to getting a paralegal to do what you want—-ask/tell them what you want. Also, ask partners what the paralegal’s role is in the firm. Yes; some paralegals are not intuitive or self starting or may not do anything without being asked—this may be from working with another attorney (a control freak). Tell the paralegal what you want—them calendaring deadlines without you having to tell them. Them drafting shells for discovery responses without you telling them. Just be upfront. Also, dont throw them under the bus; we have a responsibility to supervise/review their work. Appreciate them by taking them out for lunch for their bday.
The key to having a good paralegal is COMMUNICATING. It’s amazing how many people fail to communicate effectively and fail to specifically state what they when and when they want it.
Paralegal chiming here. I have been doing this work for 10+ years, some of those years at a west coast v50 firm. I have met paralegals worth their weight in gold who can run circles around a junior associate, and also met paralegals who can’t write a simple cover letter. A problem I see in this profession is that paralegal training and paralegal tasks are all over the place. Generally speaking the bigger the firm, the more robust and structured the training, the better the quality of the paralegals you can find. I try to stay one step ahead of the attorneys I support, be proactive, and bring value to the table.
I left firm life altogether. Not worth it.
But yeah, I would have loved to work with one of the rock stars.
I’m currently the only person at my AmLaw50 firm that knows how to draft a sequence listing so I’m the golden child and untouchable 😂 also have never just skated by doing the bare minimum since I knew I wanted to take the patent bar/do law school soon after getting into IP, so maybe that’s different than a perpetual paralegal mindset.
Many associates think paralegals are bad because they do not know how to do their own jobs yet and are mad the paralegals aren’t doing it for them.
A big part of a paralegal’s downfall at smaller or mid size firms is accountability. At larger firms, due to the pay, the firm expects the paralegals to perform well, be proactive, organized etc. At small to mid size firms, they want to retain paralegals bc once they get the skills, they may jump ship for more $$ so the firm doesnt make them accountable or give them alot of responsibility. And without accountability, there are no consequences to screw ups or even not being proactive.
SAME 😩😩 whyyyyyyyyyy
Honestly look at your comments on here and you should be really ashamed of yourself. I’d be very embarrassed if I were you.
Having a good paralegal is like having a good spouse: you don’t both have to be The Best Human Being Ever, you just have to be the best for each other. What I need in a paralegal (someone who knows where my files are and keeps track of compliance docs for me) is different than what, e.g. my boss needs in a paralegal (someone who keeps track of his court dates and literally nothing else). If you’ve never had a good experience with a paralegal, that to me is equivalent to saying you’ve never had a good romantic relationship: it may be true, and it might be because you’ve never found someone compatible with you… or it’s because you’re the problem.
Agree with the people who say work at better firms. I worked at a v5 and had great paralegals (but wanted to die from pulling all nighters every week and billing 2400+ every year). I'm now at a smaller firm and the paralegals suck, but I don't pull all nighters and bill less than 2K. I try to remind myself of the downsides of having really good support (namely that you pay them a bunch, which means you work with clients who pay a bunch, which means they make your life miserable).
Late to the party here, but is it possible some commenters are conflating "paralegal" with "secretary" or "assistant"? My understanding is that sometimes a "paralegal" at a smaller firm has similar responsibilities to what would be called a legal secretary or legal assistant in a biglaw (and "paralegals" in those firms do specialized work that is sometimes also done by associates).
You need to have hiring power of your paralegals - then it can be a chance of getting useful one.
I have heard a lot of advice to befriend a paralegal, that they are better than junior associates, and so on. I have never seen one actually able to live up to any of it. I do believe they are out there, though. There is too much smoke on this point for there not to be some fire.
Every paralegal I have ever had has tried to compete with me not help me. On the other hand, I have always been blessed with good legal secretaries/assistants. I wonder why.
Ouch! Yeah, sounds like you’ve had some bad experiences.
Wow. Some are sure triggered easily.