Corporate paralegals regularly work on issues like acquisitions, mergers and lawsuits that are typically brought against a large corporation.
The majority of paralegal professionals will work in a law firm in support of an attorney. However, if you want to become a consumer paralegal, you can offer your services directly to clients or you can be hired by different types of businesses.
An immigration paralegal will work directly with attorneys to assist immigrants navigating the complex process of citizenship. They will perform many legal tasks related to immigration, including learning about new laws and rules as they are developed. The biggest advantage in seeking a career as an intellectual property paralegal is the multiple opportunities for employment.
Paralegals that enter into this field can be employed by large corporations, law offices and even the government. Despite what the name of this profession may suggest, working as a law clerk is a very advanced and highly competitive position. Although many people become legal secretaries through advancement, you can also receive training meant to prepare you for this profession.
The variety and challenge for paralegals working with non-governmental organizations NGOs is endless. By their very nature, NGOs are oriented to specific missions and goals. A skilled paralegal who has an area of special interest is bound to find a like-minded organization. For example, the Red Cross helps people with health issues and in times of disaster, and Save the Children helps children around the world through shelter, food, immunizations and other needed assistance.
There are also environmental and educational NGOs. Community-based NGOs may be focused on helping the poor or assisting immigrants. A small community NGO may set up a family legal clinic to help families with financial challenges in navigating routine legal issues that seem insurmountable to them. Paralegals can help these people with filing legal papers related to issues such as child custody, divorce and visas.
Paralegals working for these organizations need to know how government regulations affect the work that the NGO is doing. They need to be familiar with laws that can be used to further the cause, so that the right actions can be filed properly.
Their work could involve pleading for a temporary injunction to prevent the building of a damn that may irreparably damage a canyon environment and endangered species, or fighting an injunction that blocks the re-naturalization of a damned waterway that currently keeps salmon from returning to spawn. These are high-stakes, high-profile cases.
As you can see, these cases are fraught with emotion, and millions and even billions of dollars hang in the balance. The issues championed by special interest groups vying in a power struggle that can affect thousands of people, or the future of our planet. In other types of NGOs, paralegals may need to know international law to help facilitate shipping medicine to children in remote villages, or to get the proper paperwork for visas that allow medical personnel to enter refugee camps on the border of warring nations.
No matter which NGO a paralegal works for, it is bound to be a challenging, demanding, unique and rewarding experience. Paralegals in the judicial environment can work in a number of roles. Some work for judges, where they help with legal research and may even have the opportunity to help draft aspects of decisions. This is an excellent position for a paralegal who has possible aspirations of continuing on to law school. Every department and agency in the government has need of legal services and most of them need paralegals.
One powerful piece of evidence that demonstrates this need is that the District of Columbia has the highest employment rate of paralegals in the country—higher than any state. Individuals who find employment as government paralegals will find that they need a solid working knowledge of the area of law in which their particular agency specializes.
For example, they may need to be familiar with HUD, as mentioned earlier, or with insurance regulations, such as Obamacare. Admittedly, this can be a legal minefield, but these regulatory and other government agencies are a another area to consider when planning your paralegal career and looking for jobs. Both parents were pulling out all stops and slinging, in some cases manufacturing, as much mud at each other as possible to win custody. Our client confided in one of our paralegals that she had an affair years ago right after the couple was married.
The client begged the paralegal not to tell anyone because it only happed once and it was a terrible mistake that caused him great embarrassment. The paralegal felt sorry for the client and used her own judgment to reason that the affair occurred roughly 22 years ago.
If the spouse were going to find out about the affair, she would have done so by now so the paralegal never divulged this information to anyone until after the final hearing. Did the paralegal use good judgment? Absolutely not. Paralegals are not attorneys — we do not have law degrees nor are we licensed to practice law. We support the attorney as they practice law in the representation of a client. As a paralegal we receive thousands of pieces of information that we must process.
Some goes to the attorney but some does not. Another word for ingenuity — resourceful. Great paralegals are resourceful and innovative. If you see something that needs to be done, be assertive and independent enough to tackle the problem before the quarterback hands you the ball. Ingenuity goes a few steps further than simply grabbing the ball. Once you have the ball, run with it. Be resourceful and inventive when searching for solutions to the problem.
However, use your good judgment to know when to stop running down the field and reset with the quarterback attorney to confirm the play is legal. This ability ties directly into the personality traits for being logical and having persistence. Imagination will take you everywhere. Paralegals must deal with the abstract, complex, and ambiguous elements of the law. A great paralegal must be able to think logically and analytically to identify and evaluate key concepts and facts related to a specific case.
Again, paralegal courses and other educational or coaching courses can help a person develop their logic and reasoning skills. A paralegal who is able to use logic to carefully analyze the case, remove the irrelevant factors, and concentrate on what is truly important is an asset to the firm.
Some people give up when they run into an obstacle i. They refuse to continue to search for a key i. A great person will light another candle, and another candle, and ten more candles until there is sufficient light to locate the key.
Clients would be thrilled if we could settle their cases in a day or two rather than a year or two. Paralegals who are always searching for the easy, quick way to handle a case or a problem often quit when things get really tough. On the other hand, great paralegals keep going regardless of how tough it may seem right then.
Quitting is not in the vocabulary of a great paralegal who is persistent. If all else fails, a great paralegal will draw on their personality characteristics of logic and ingenuity to find a other ways to solve the problem. Persistence also breeds consistency and commitment.
A great paralegal is one who is committed to the law firm, the attorney, and the client instead of being committed to the job. The job is what we do because we need to earn a living. People get on my nerves in general but difficult people are the worst.
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