Is there a bright future for Paralegals? The Bureau of Labor Statistics is out with their 2020 Occupational Outlook for Paralegals and Legal Assistants. Bottom line – it’s not a bad time to be in, or to be getting into, a paralegal or legal assistant position*. Consider these findings: o Median annual pay is $51,750, compared with $39,800 for all occupations in the US. o 80% of paralegals and...
Just about every week, the question of whether to license paralegals comes up. What never comes up is the real "why". Oh sure, you'll hear ramblings on and on as to the pros and the cons. The reasoning includes how paralegals are supposed to come under the supervision of attorneys anyway (as though this relieves them somehow of major responsibility); whether it should...
It's a sure-footed, absolute and positive, no mistakin' it gamble. Switching specialties, that is. Bored with what you're doing? Fed up with a paltry salary? Peeking over the fence to see who makes more money? Seeking that enigma: better challenge?
Tonya Pierce addresses the topic today. She's making some good points. The main one being: THINK before you leap (and other relevant...
Licensing paralegals has been talked about for years. And years. And years. It’s been pushed back as long as I can remember. One objection is that paralegals do not practice law and therefore do not need licensing. They are supervised by attorneys and it is the attorney’s license on the line.
Another issue was there were no standard requirements to enter...
It seems that suddenly, law firms have woken to the fact that the corporate world has a whole new technique out there to manage projects. Simply called Project Management, the area is booming. And, as always, the legal field tends to be the last to get in on the bandwagon. But for argument's sake, let's just say it arrived.
Legal Project Management by Steven...
I was reading The Empowered Paralegal blog the other day and a paralegal was discussing the superior status she thought she had over paralegals who did not have paralegal degrees. In particular, she brought up the Erin Brockovich story and the subsequent movie that was made. Ms. Brockovich, she stated, was not a "real" paralegal because she did not have a paralegal...
Not so good news out here in the paralegal world. The new 2010 Salary Guide from Robert Half Legal just published, shows that paralegal salaries are dipping. The salary guide is a review of actual starting salaries in 2009 and an extrapolation of these trends into 2010. Salaries have dropped from between .02% and 3.7% nationwide. Senior Paralegals (7+ years) are...
The toy recalls coming out of China apparently have more consequences than U.S. citizens seem to realize. According to an article written in YaleGlobal online, not often noted in the uproar was that the toys shipped from China are mostly made by Hong Kong firms using cheap labor in China. Their factories in China make toys for big brand-name companies such as Mattel and Disney based on...
I bet! In fact, I've often thought that being a law librarian would be a most interesting job. Just think about everything you would learn!"Librarians are curious people. We like to skim magazines and books, we like to surf the Web and we have some interest in a lot of topics. A former co-worker used to say that librarians are 'trivial' in that we are always picking up trivia -- a definite...
Found this interesting post at the morepartnerincome blog which is sponsored by Juris,Inc.:"Hildebrandt’s Rees Morrison passes along a simple but clever technique for encouraging attorneys to improve efficiency by finding delegable tasks for non-lawyer members of the team. The idea comes from the corporate world but should work to everyone’s benefit in a law firm as well. The law...
