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Do small law firms have paralegal managers?
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I was approached by a recruiter for two law firm positions. They were both contract work for 3+. They also had the job posted in their website. When I asked the employers (during the interview), I was told it's for a senior position and they have to make sure it's the right fit. Meanwhile, the staffing company, will not pay for holidays (federal) and no PTO accrual. These law firms are paying way less also. So needless to say, I declined both. lol!
Yeah I wouldn’t touch those positions unless I was already unemployed and any job would be better than no job. What happens at the end of the contract or temporary period?
I’m a living hybrid of both your comments.
I had a pretty long break from working in the early 2010s and needed to break back into the workforce so I temped back in. It’s definitely not for everyone and you have to be okay with some uncertainty, so it’s hard not to agree with the post saying only take it if you are currently unemployed and looking to minimize gaps in your work history.
An exception to this would be if the agency offered you a “salaried professional” position. This is temp in terms of working for various clients, but not temp in that you’ll be a full-time employee of the temp agency - eligible for the same benefits as a recruiter or finance or client relationship manager or whatever.
Agencies sometimes hire people with broad, marketable experience to clients who need a long-term temp worker for various reasons - trying to see if they can afford it permanently (they can “buy you out” of your contract for a fee, and then hire you) , or maybe they are conducting a nationwide search for a replacement candidate and unsure how long that process will take, or they have a project (on their side) that will take a full time worker away from their typical duties, so you have to cover their workload.
When the client is done with you, you go “on a bench” for up to five weeks until the agency (your employer) places you with another client. That’s a job - you’d be a full-time consultant paralegal.
What I would watch out for though is that 1) there’s like, no training time (for any temp position, not just SPS); you’re expected to be a self-starter and hit the ground running, so trying to learn litigation technology for a temp employer would be a trial by fire, though it can definitely be done. And then 2) what I’ve seen agencies do lately is get around hiring workers as SPS by offering them a “temp-to-perm” position, which pays less and has fewer benefits - this is a gamble, and IMO the odds are generally not in your favor.
Look up the day and temporary services labor act in your state to get a better idea of your rights, but basically, the employment contract is a meeting of the minds between the agency and client (your defacto employer) and you may or may not get told the truth about it really being an option to get hired at the end.
And chances are your recruiter won’t necessarily know they are misleading you about the opportunity - it’s more like a game of telephone.
See, your recruiter is one half of a pair, the other being a client relations professional who works with the businesses, or “clients.” Your recruiter, who is just trying to do a good job and meet their quotas in a highly competitive sales role, will get get their description and understanding of the opportunity.
The CRP may have offered the client the option to list the role as “temp-to-perm” in order to save money on fees (costs more to use SPS, and to buy them out if you want to keep them) so it might start as a negotiation where the CRP says, after the client balks at the initial quote “hey, you think you could maybe see yourself hiring someone permanently for this role?” And even if they say “no, probably not” the CRP will try to convince them that “hey, they never know, and if you leave the possibility (technically) open, the cost to you is less.”
So what’s communicated is the employer is willing to convert “the right person,” playing fast and loose with the truth, and by the time it gets to your recruiter (who is selling job opportunities) they talk it up to you as “a great opportunity to get your foot in the door with a Fortune 500 company” or whatever. This happened to me, and it was devastating.
I also have been converted to an employee sometimes, so people sometimes do
get converted. But the misleading use of temp-to perm is a trend I’ve been seeing more and more of (and got so mad about I wrote my governor about it).
If you take a gamble on a temp-to-perm role, you have to double-down on prospecting for other jobs - either direct hire or through other agencies. If a client really does want to try out a temp before hiring them, the time frame is generally 2 weeks to a month. This is to save on agency fees - whatever hourly wage you make, the agency makes the same - so that’s a markup they are eager to get rid of.
If it’s taking longer than that, odds are the client is not going to hire you. You’ll either be replaced short by either another temp or an external candidate. Or they will string you along for years and years and years, content to pay the markup because it’s still cheaper, somehow, then establishing business operations in the state you are in (this happens a lot with import/export business - there are counties where 8/10 workers is a “permatemp”, and it’s sucking the money out of those areas. Municipalities are defaulting on infrastructure improvement loans because the “good jobs” that were promised never came. That’s just dipping a toe into a conversation best saved for another time.
So this is all food for thought.
It is a great opportunity to learn new skills and even break into new industries. I know my title says litigation legal paralegal but lately I’ve worked a lot in finance and even software development. I learned these skills working on diverse projects through SPS, so i maintain my original position that an SPS role would actually be worth it.
I would NEVER leave a permanent position for a temporary position as there is no guaranty that they will keep you. F that.