Anyone Here a Paralegal? Or Friends with Paralegals? Or Employ Paralegals? -- Please Spill Your Guts

my brother is a paralegal at a fancy firm and he has just a bachelor's degree. but he graduated in the past couple years from an ivy league school and i think that's what they were looking for. they wanted someone young who was only going to be there a year or two and go off to law or grad school, not a tired old fogey i guess. he works many many hours and went to omaha for like 6 weeks recently. i am a lawyer and i am confident he makes much more than i do. it's sad!

the phone stuff varies a lot. some places have receptionists and secretaries to do that, some places make paralegals/legal assistants do everything in the world.

paralegals are on the phone all the time at the firm i work at but we're pretty small

I realise that this isn't really on topic, but what is it that a US/Canada paralegal does? In the UK, a paralegal is (broadly speaking) a person isn't legally qualified and who carries out non-advisory (but sometimes client-facing) legal work, but I am getting a sense from this thread that this description doesn't match the nature of US paralegal. Also, there seems to be a bias on this thread towards court-related activity - is this representative?

From here: http://www.paralegals.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=788

As defined by the National Federation of Paralegal Associations, a Paralegal is a person, qualified through education, training or work experience to perform substantive legal work that requires knowledge of legal concepts and is customarily, but not exclusively, performed by a lawyer. This person may be retained or employed by a lawyer, law office, governmental agency or other entity or may be authorized by administrative, statutory or court authority to perform this work. Substantive shall mean work requiring recognition, evaluation, organization, analysis, and communication of relevant facts and legal concepts.

As a paralegal I did everything from non-advisory, client facing stuff to transcribing stuff that the attorney dictated to filing things at court, plus a lot of legal research and writing. What you do really depends on where you work.

As a paralegal I did everything from non-advisory, client facing stuff to transcribing stuff that the attorney dictated to filing things at court, plus a lot of legal research and writing. What you do really depends on where you work.

Pretty much my 2000 - 2003.

Thank you, carl agatha.

As a paralegal I did everything from non-advisory, client facing stuff to transcribing stuff that the attorney dictated to filing things at court, plus a lot of legal research and writing. What you do really depends on where you work

Like I said, I work at a very small firm and things are a little quirky here, but my duties are:

Paralegal stuff:
- Writing - motions, affidavits, subpoenas/riders, memos, some discovery, some letters. Tidying up documents. Abstracting depositions.
- Keeping up on certain rules of civil procedure, local court rules, judges' standing orders, agency rules. The attorneys don't like dealing with procedural stuff or mundane rules.
- Filing court papers electronically and in person. Occasionally going to court to present a "routine motion" (which doesn't require an attorney).
- Docketing deadlines, hearings, etc.
- Maintain case document logs.
- Some research. I am going to try to do more.
- Keep clients calm and informed. And paying.

Non-paralegal stuff:
Tons of random stuff. Reception, personal errands for the partners, unjamming the copier, working with tax accountants, fixing iPhones and laptops. I'm the go-to "tech guy" here b/c the IT contractors bill hourly. Walk the office dog.

So musicfanatic, what did you decide? Mayor jingleberries and other paralegals still at it? Anybody else want to share?

I'm now finally in school getting a post-bacc certficate and it great so far. I'm at a certain well-respected Jesuit-run university with an ABA-approved program that seems to get a lot of love from employers. Teachers are mostly (all?) practicing lawyers and paralegals. I am fighting the urge to beg one of my teachers for a job at her firm. She's great and the firm sounds really functional.

Current job is hard and the workload is crazy but they are allergic to overtime.

My school is expensive. I just read today that Duke University has an online paralegal cert. program that is only $7,000. That seems like it could be good all around. It's online, but it's Duke, so....