Many persons could qualify for paralegal and legal Assistant staffing jobs. One of the fastest-growing areas of professional temporary employment is that of paralegals and assistants working for law firms, corporate legal departments, and the government.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the use of paralegals and legal assistants has expanded over 100% in the past decade and now exceeds 100,000 jobs. While some states are now considering licensing requirements for paralegals, paralegals and legal assistants are usually non-licensed personnel who perform routine tasks for lawyers. For example, paralegals interview witnesses; prepare documents such as real estate closing statements, Uniform Commercial Code filings, litigation checklists, and trial exhibits; prepare bankruptcy schedules; and perform other work that allows the attorney to devote her or his time to more complex functions. Many paralegals graduate from a paralegal school. Usually no college degree is required, although it may be helpful. If you choose to attend a paralegal school, make sure it is certified by the American Bar Association or the American Association of Law Schools, as that may help your job placement opportunities.
Lawyers, assisted by paralegals and legal assistants, act as both advocates and advisers in our society. As advocates, they represent one of the opposing parties in criminal and civil trials by presenting evidence that supports their client in court. As advisers, lawyers counsel their clients as to their legal rights and obligations, and suggest particular courses of action in business and personal matters. Whether acting as advocates or advisers, all attorneys interpret the law and apply it to specific situations. This requires excellent research and communication skills, and frequently the research and initial preparation will be assigned to a paralegal.
In-depth research is performed into the purposes behind the applicable laws and into judicial decisions that have been applied to those laws under circumstances similar to those currently faced by the client. While all lawyers and paralegals continue to make use of law libraries to prepare cases, many supplement their search of the conventional printed sources with computer software packages. Software can be used to automatically search legal literature and identify legal texts relevant to a specific case or problem. In litigation involving many supporting documents, paralegals will use computers to organize and index the material. Law firms specializing in tax law are increasingly using computers for making tax computations and exploring alternative tax strategies for clients.
Paralegal temps report to the lawyers about their research and the lawyers then communicate to others the information obtained by research. They advise what actions clients may take and draw up legal documents, such as wills and contracts, for clients.
The majority of paralegal temps are in private practice where they may assist lawyers on criminal or civil law. In criminal law, lawyers represent individuals who have been charged with crimes and argue their cases. In civil law, they assist clients with litigation, wills, trusts, contracts, mortgages, titles, and leases.
Paralegal temps are often used by lawyers who are employed full-time by a single client. If the client is a corporation, the lawyer is known as house counsel and usually advises the company about legal issues related to its business activities. These issues might involve patents, government regulations, contracts with other companies, property interests, or collective bargaining agreements with unions.
Paralegal temps also work for government legal staffs, and attorneys employed at the various levels of government make up still another category. Lawyers who work for state attorneys general, prosecutors, public defenders, and courts play a key role in the criminal justice system. At the federal level, attorneys investigate cases for the Department of Justice, Department of the Treasury, or other agencies. Also, paralegals assist lawyers at every government level to help develop programs, draft laws, interpret legislation, and establish enforcement procedures on behalf of the government.
Other lawyers work for legal aid societies-private nonprofit organizations established to serve disadvantaged people. These lawyers generally handle civil rather than criminal cases. Government funding for legal aid organizations has been slashed in recent years, so, like private law firms, they are trying to curtail their costs by making more use of staffing services.
Temp Employment
There should be steady growth in the future for temporary legal jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates that there will be faster-than-average growth in the legal market. Traditionally, the demand for legal temps is constant or expanding, since when the national economy is growing there will be a need for legal services to help businesses grow and when the national economy is stagnant there is an increased need for bankruptcy and debtor-creditor legal work.
