Comprehending the Paralegal Job Description
Although you may not be sure if you’re right for the job, it’s best to at least fully understand the paralegal job description before you devote your time, money, and effort to training for the work. If you think of a paralegal as an attorney’s assistant, you don’t have a thorough grasp of the extent of the paralegal job description. The paralegal job description is actually quite similar to an attorney job description, with a few key differences.
The basic foundation of the paralegal job description is indeed to assist the attorney or attorney(s) for whom the paralegal works. Nevertheless, although the paralegal job description may include some work such as organizing files, most of the paralegal job description requires a thorough and up-to-date understanding of law. While presenting cases in court, giving legal advice, and deciding legal fees are not in the paralegal job description—and are in fact, not tasks licensed for paralegals to perform—there are a number of instances where the attorney job description and the paralegal job description intersect.
The paralegal job description includes researching law and preparing paperwork for an attorney’s case. The paralegal job description may also include assisting an attorney in filing lawsuits and preparing arguments for court. This means that the paralegal job description requires you to be nearly as knowledgeable about law as a lawyer, as the attorney will expect you to make intelligent, insightful contributions to drafting arguments for cases. The paralegal job description may also ask you to show up for court in order to assist the attorney as she presents her case.
The paralegal job description will differ slightly from practice to practice, as you could serve as a paralegal for only one attorney or for multiple attorneys. You may also work in the government, as a temp worker, or in the legal department for a business, which will impact your individual paralegal job description as well. You may be able to work regular office business hours or you could even set your own schedule as a full-time or part-time worker. Sometimes the paralegal job description may implicitly require overtime, so you should prepare yourself to expect long hours at some places of employment.