If you were about to hire a paralegal, would it matter at all to you that he/she was also a certified court reporter?
I’ll be a paralegal come May, but I’m wondering if there are other skills I could pick up to make myself more attractive to a law firm. The other idea I have besides court reporting is learning to do video depositions (work the camera, etc.).
Can a paralegal that works for you also do the court reporting for the depositions for your cases? Is it considered a conflict of interest?
[Cave-Man Lawyer] Your questions about paralegals frighten and confuse me. I do not understand the inner-workings of your modern-day law firms. But, one thing I do know is that my client, Abbie Carmichael, is entitled to a cash settlement of not less than one million dollars, and additional punitive damages of not less than one million dollars. [/C-M L]
I am of the opinion that the more skills that you can bring to the table, the better. It’s not a conflict where I practice for the paralegals to participate in the depositions, though in the depositions I’ve been involved in, freelance court reporters were brought in to do the transcription work.
Start networking in your local paralegal association, and good luck to you after you graduate.
Not a lawyer, but I am a paralegal. Work at a small firm in NYC. No certificate. Just a B.A. in poli sci. Learned everything from the ground up. We hire out our court reporters.
So if you had a paralegal who had applied to work at your firm, would you hire them because they could do court reporting (as well as everything else paralegals are supposed to do), or would it just be a nice fringe benefit that you would just take into account?
In New York courts, the court reporter in the deposition cannot be an employee of the lawyer for one of the parties, so court reporting skills would probably be of no direct benefit.
On the other hand, the more skills the better in general.
As far as I know, your marketability as a paralegal wouldn’t be enhanced by court reporting certification. I think it’s a one-or-the-other type thing. I’ve never known of a law firm that has in-house court reporters. By the way, AFAIK, court reporting isn’t really a skill you can just pick up – you have to go to school for it, you need to have a machine to practice on (I think they might be expensive), and – maybe each state is different – in CA, it takes a couple of years. My sister-in-law is going through it right now.
IAAL in NYC, and if we were looking for a paralegal, court reporting skills would be very superfluous. In fact, in my mind, I would ask, “what do you want to be a paralegal for, court reporters make more!” Court reporting school takes a couple of years, and is expensive. If you want to be a court reporter, do that instead, but my advice would be not to “combine” the two, because, in NY at least, you can’t.
We use our paralegals like secretaries, so the best extra skills for a paralegal to have would be to take shorthand, or be a really fast typist. You could take a Westlaw course and get certified from them (if they offer certification; I have no idea if they do); that would be very useful, and an additional added skill to bring to the table.
Other than that, I might suggest you take a course on West Virginia Practice at either your paralegal school or a local law school, if they’ll let you. That would show more marketability, because you would know the practicalities of drafting a complaint, filing a motion, etc. If you can show the person you’re interviewing that you “get it,” meaning, you understand how law works in the area of law you’re trying to be a paralegal in; that is the best thing you can offer, because then they can throw more and more complex work at you. My secretary doesn’t get it, so she’s just a secretary.
I’ll have a BS soon in Criminal Justice/Legal Studies so I’ve got the education part covered. I type about 80wpm.
Court reporting school here takes anywhere from 18 mo to 30mo, depending on how fast you’re booking it through the program. Not terribly expensive, though.
I just made pretty good grades on an appellate brief and a Motion for Summary Judgment that I had to write for my classes this semester. Should I hang on to them?
Not sure what the laws are in your state, but have you thought about hanging your shingle out for routine legal stuff like simple wills, divorces, powers of attorney, and that sort of thing? There are some independent paralegals who got their notary public certificate and who do routine paperwork for pro-se parties.
I see a lot of talk above about having a bachelors degree. I know this isn’t required as a friend of mine is a paralegal, and she doesn’t have a degree. Are you a paralegal by certification? Or by Experience? (ala computer programmer)
*Yeah yeah, I know, there are some that make a zillion dollars a year, and there are some that make next to nothing. I’m curious to know what an experienced paralegal makes, say, down here in GA. 45K? 50K? 30K?
Yes, absolutely hold onto your papers. They will be your writing samples that prospective employers will look at. Make lotsa copies.
And go right ahead, make the corrections on them that your professor marked up. The person looking at them will never know!
But seriously, if you’re interested in court reporting, you should definitely do that over being a paralegal. I believe court reporters earn more, especially if they hustle.
In our office, our paralegal actually works more as a legal secretary, but mostly because she chose to do so when she was hired (said she was tired of doing attorney work and getting paralegal pay). However, a good friend of mine is a paralegal at a law firm that treats her the way we treat our law clerk–she mostly does research, case evaluation memos and witness prep. She also drafts complaints, answers and the occasional motion of some sort or another, and does a lot a different stuff with evidence (requesting, sorting, authenticating, etc.).
I’d say research and writing skills are what differentiates a paralegal from a legal secretary, so I’d recommend you keep any briefs, memos or complaints you’ve written in class and become very, very familar with Westlaw, Lexis and the various other internet sites that cater to the legal profession. Sell yourself as more than a typist (although you should make sure they know that as well). Besides research and writing, be able to interview potential clients to evaluate how good of a case they may have, and witnesses to find out what they really know–these are a time-consuming and unglamorous part of the legal profession, so it’s just the type of thing we want to assign to someone else!
Good luck to you–just promise to fight for the good guys, okay?
I am a lawyer in a large firm in Atlanta. I have worked in mid-size firms and for sole practitioners. The answer to your questions is: it depends. It depends on the practice area, it depends on the firm.
I am in litigation, so I can really only speak to what a litigation paralegal does. Some paralegals do research. Personally, I wouldn’t want a paralegal to do legal research beyond pulling a case that I gave him or her the citation for. Most paralegals do a great deal of factual investigation. They also do some preliminary drafting.
As far as certification, in Georgia, there is no mandatory certification so you have paralegals that run the educational gammut from advanced degrees to highschool diplomas. A paralegal’s salary, like lawyer’s, depends on the type of work he or she does. Big firm paralegals make in the six figures. I’m sure some paralegals make as little as $6 an hour.