I'm in the process of hiring my first paralegal. I have some candidates who sound great on paper but I've never been on this side of a job interview. Aside from the obvious questions about experience, what less-obvious questions should I be asking?

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I give all prospective paralegal hires a test. It has basic questions about timing/calendering, proofs of service questions, basic court rules, and then I give them a file and ask them to sort out what they think they need to do next and what the potential issues are. It’s been very effective.

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Can you answer the questions without looking at the answers? This is basic stuff I expect every type of assistant to know. Don’t get caught up by the title. Also the point of my response was to share that I no longer take people’s word for what they claim to know. You can write whatever questions you want for the role.

While the paralegal should know a great deal, don’t be dissuaded if there’s a few things they don’t know. You can always take the time to teach a few necessary things. The majority of attorneys work paralegals in different ways. So your instinct will go a long way here. A great paralegal will bring you lots of success.

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Find out if they can do or have done page line summaries, summarized depo transcripts, summarized discovery. Ask for a sample. It can be trained, but I’ve found it’s important to know ahead of time if this training will be necessary.

Strangely, most claim they know how but when the time comes, they often do not, and delay until I realize don’t know how. Which is not ideal.

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I agree with LP1. Attorneys work paralegals differently. Give them scenarios and ask them what they would do. Be clear on what tasks/duties you want them to handle. A paralegal may be capable of handling legal secretary tasks but those are two different positions. I’ve been a paralegal for 10 years. I don’t handle POS or calendaring. We won’t have cut off dates memorized off the top of our heads, the basics yes but again that is the secretary’s responsibility (from my experience). Simple tests are also good.

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