Paralegal / Legal Assistant

While lawyers assume ultimate responsibility for legal work, they often delegate many of their tasks to paralegals. In fact, paralegals–also called legal assistants–continue to assume a growing range of tasks in the Nation's legal offices on private, corporate, Federal, and State levels.

A legal assistant may perform any function delegated by an attorney, including but not limited to the following:

• Conduct client interviews and maintain general contact with the client, so long as the client is aware of the status and function of the legal assistant, and the legal assistant works under the supervision of the attorney.
• Locate and interview witnesses.
• Conduct investigations and 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 legal assistant status is clearly indicated and the correspondence does not contain independent legal opinions or legal advice.

Professionally, a paralegal's time for substantive legal work (as opposed to clerical or administrative work) is billed to clients much the same way as an attorney's time, but at a lower hourly rate.

Paralegal education programs are offered in many formats and lengths, including onsite and online paralegal courses. Various kinds of public and private institutions offer paralegal education, including community colleges, four-year colleges and universities, business colleges and proprietary institutions. These various institutions make it possible for persons with diverse backgrounds to enter the profession. The most common types of programs are Associate Degree Programs, Bachelor Degree Programs, Certificate Programs and Master's Degree Programs.

The legal assistant profession is projected to grow by 33% by 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Employment Projections. Compared with other occupations, this is an above average growth rate.

Private law firms are the largest employers of paralegals, but a growing number of other organizations are beginning and continuing to hire them. These organizations include corporate legal departments, insurance companies, real estate and title insurance firms, and banks.