No legal requirements to become a paralegal?

[churchpest]

Originally Posted by L210

I worked for a school where students did internships at law offices and were sometimes hired if they proved to be good employees. If attorneys only hired friends, there wouldn't be so many job ads for paralegals and legal assistants. .

I've had people, both attorneys and other types of professionals, tell me that they feel pressured by their friends to hire them, or hire someone in their family.

[churchpest]

Originally Posted by joe from dayton

Are they hiring these people as paralegals or as office help?

Good point. I don't know, they might just call themselves paralegals but they're really office workers.

[charlygal]

Paralegals are nothing more than legal assistants or secretaries. The official professional association confirms this: https://www.nala.org/about-nala

[churchpest]

Originally Posted by charlygal

Paralegals are nothing more than legal assistants or secretaries. The official professional association confirms this: https://www.nala.org/about-nala

Okay. Thanks.

[detshen]

Originally Posted by charlygal

Paralegals are nothing more than legal assistants or secretaries. The official professional association confirms this: https://www.nala.org/about-nala

The terms Legal Assistant and Paralegal are used interchangeably.They are not the same as secretaries who perform ony basic adminstrative tasks. Paralegals/Legal Assistants perform specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible. They cannot give legal advice or represent in court but much of a lawyers work product is copleted by paralegals. That is why a good, well trained and experienced paralegal can earn 50-75K depending on the market and those who work up to managing positions earn 6 figures.

What Do Paralegals Do?
Working under the supervision of an attorney, the paralegal’s work product is merged with and becomes part of the attorney work product for a client. In communications with clients and the public, the paralegal's non-lawyer status must be clear. Paralegals cannot give legal advice or perform any duty specifically reserved for licensed attorneys.

The NALA Professional Development Committee published a compilation of job descriptions in a former Career Chronicle edition of Facts & Findings. If you are looking for a variety of job descriptions, this is a great start.

Typical duties of a paralegal include but are not limited to the following:

Conduct client interviews and maintain general contact with the client.
Locate and interview witnesses.
Conduct investigations, statistical and documentary research.
Conduct legal research.
Draft legal documents, correspondence and pleadings.
Summarize depositions, interrogatories and testimony.
Attend executions of wills, real estate closings, depositions, court or administrative hearings and trials with the attorney.
Author and sign correspondence provided the paralegal status is clearly indicated and the correspondence does not contain independent legal opinions or legal advice.
Within a law firm setting, a paralegal's time for substantive legal work (not clerical or administrative work) is billed to clients much the same way as an attorney's time, but at a lower hourly rate.

[detshen]

Originally Posted by churchpest

Many lawyers just hire anyone they want. You don't even need a high school diploma to work as a paralegal. It is not a prestigious occupation, per se. It just seems easy to get into if you know the right people. I don't know any lawyers looking to hire a paralegal right now. They all hire their friends, many of whom have no legal experience at all or paralegal training.
Legally, you have to have certification to work as a teacher, nurse, healthcare practitioner of any kind, plumber, even hairdresser or barber. You have to jump through hoops and pass tests.

I don't know where you live but in my city there is a large demand for paralegals and no decent firm will hire anyone who is not trained and certfied. It may not be considered prestigious but a certified paralegal just starting out in my area will earn 45-50K and with years of experience it only goes up from there. Any decent law firm understands and respects the work of paralegals.