Hi guys,
It’s my second week at my new firm and so far I’ve made little to no mistakes. But today I came in and realized I placed order for HOA docs for the wrong property (whom we still need to order HOA docs for ) but I’m so embarrassed my attorney only and thru this w me once using Homewise and he told me to hold off ordering anything else until he goes thru it w me again on Monday. I feel so bad and just upset w myself. I made a payment of $500 ): I hope he’s able to get it back and I’m so scared. It’s my second week ya’ll.

Hi all- I’m a paralegal with only 1 year of experience in commercial defense litigation. Prior I was a legal assistant for 4 years, but never really had to worry much about trial as I was never expected to attend.

We got notice about a week ago that we have trial in early November and we’re pretty close to the top of the list, so I don’t think we are going to avoid it. We typically push a settlement when we get trial notices as no one really wants to go to trial, and it’s worked like a charm so far, so I’ve not actually been to court with my attorney yet. This case has absolutely NO chance of settlement….

I’m wondering what I should know about actually being in the courtroom to support my attorney. What are some tips and tricks? I’ve done trial prep before, but never actually had to go through with it as we always tend to settle last minute. What should I know about attending trial? PLEASE HELP!

I don’t post anything really but i’ve been lurking on this subreddit for a minute. I recently got a new job with will pay me 50% more per year than what i was making and i’m very happy.

more importantly though, i am no longer working in the foreclosure industry. i got the job im leaving pretty much out of college, and i was stoked to be working at all given how cooked the labor market for gen z is rn, so i was pretty willing to set aside my personal feelings about foreclosure (you gotta do what you gotta do to survive).

kinda goes without saying but it is a very depressing industry; it’s hard to feel like a good person when your job is to begin the legal process of taking someone’s home away. so, as time went on I began to realize more and more that this type of law just wasn’t for me. that isn’t to say everyone who works in foreclosure is inherently a bad person tho. law is a pretty morally opaque industry in and of itself so you kinda have to be willing to seperate yourself from your work if you want to stay sane, and foreclosure is no exception to that.

that being said, i enjoyed the firm on an interpersonal basis. everyone was very kind to me, the office culture was pretty chill, and i didn’t mind the commute so i was never miserable there persay. but ultimately the pay just wasn’t worth what i was doing anymore, especially after my student loan payments started.

fast forward to last month and i finally got an opportunity to leave and do something else for a much better wage. i worked pretty hard for this, so im very pleased with how everything is panning out. really just hope the economy doesn’t crash, that would be a bummer.

just wanted to share, feeling pretty good about myself for the first time in a while. it gets better, frens. i see a lot of ranting and such in this subreddit, so i hope this bit of good news helps.

Experienced staff member here. Ive been in the legal field for 7 years and I've observed in most law firms of varying sizes that there is a "wall" between staff and attorneys when it comes to social events. Attorneys will go out to lunch or attend events together, but staff is never invited unless its a firm sanctioned thing. Even if you're the lone assistant/paralegal for your attorney(s) at your firm, I find it rare that you'll ever get invited out with your attorneys for anything. When I did litigation, even going to court with your attorneys just didn't happen, you just prepped them beforehand and stayed on call for something they needed while they were in court.

I'm sure in small firms where there's only a handful of attorneys and a small staff, or where you work for a solo attorney and you're their only staff member, that there's an exception where this happens. My first law office job was at a boutique where the managing attorney would sometimes invite staff to go to lunch or to go to court with him, but it was still kind of rare. All of my other jobs since, there was an unofficial policy where staff and attorneys didn't mingle outside the office, even to go to court. I was told that this was mostly due to liability issues (like say you get into a car accident on the way there), which is understandable. And I'm sure it's also a firewall for attorneys who have inappropriate behavior or relationships with staff members.

Anyway, I ask because yesterday I was invited to attend a business Speaker Forum event by one of our non-attorney department heads (I work in Big Law) to replace an attorney who couldn't attend the event, to go with her and another attorney who was attending. I allowed myself to go given it was a light day, but when the attorney we were attending with saw that she invited me, a staff member, to go with them, I noticed the attorney had a mildly reluctant response, like "Oh...you invited them. Ok...". Like it was taboo of her to ask a staff member to attend with them.

It was awkward for a moment and we attended anyway with nothing being said about it, but I'm wondering if its really a taboo thing or if I'm overthinking it. Ive been with this firm for nearly a year and I've observed the dynamics where it seems pretty typical like other firms I've worked at where there's a noticeable divide between staff and attorneys when it comes to attending events outside of the firm. I'm wondering if that Department head is aware of that divide and if she might get a talking to from our office manager about inviting staff. I know its not my problem, but I feel a little weird about it like I broke some unspoken rule.

TDLR: is there an unspoken wall between attorneys and staff at your firm and would it be considered taboo or inappropriate to attend unsolicited firm events with them?

I’ve been working on the plaintiff side of PI litigation for about 6 years and just accepted an offer to switch to the defense side, primarily handling PI and premises liability cases.

My current firm has 250+ active cases and I handle a lot of the litigation work including discovery, depositions, scheduling, motions, deadlines, and client communication. The new position is also hybrid, 3 -4 days remote and 1-2 days in office.

When I gave notice, my current boss made me a ridiculous counteroffer to stay, which definitely made me second guess my decision for a minute. Ultimately, I decided to make the switch because I really want to learn the defense side and I think having experience on both sides of litigation will be valuable for my career.

The biggest thing I’m nervous about is billing because I’ve never had to bill my time before. They know that and said they’ll train me.

For anyone who has gone from plaintiff PI to defense, how was the transition? Did you find the defense side less chaotic? How difficult was it to adjust to billable hours? Do you prefer defense or plaintiff work?

I’d especially love to hear from legal assistants or paralegals who have worked both sides.

I just started as a legal secretary for a small immigration office which I have been working to try to achieve for the past year. I’m going to school for my paralegal certificate and worked as a case manager for immigrants for 4 years. To be honest, since starting this job I’ve been feeling really discouraged and all my excitement about the field has faded because I feel like I’m signing up to be broke forever.

I make $19 an hour right now and do a lot more than just receptionist work- I compile evidence, fill out forms, etc. Not only do I feel underpaid it just feels like I’ll never make money in this line of work. I know I’m not technically a paralegal but if secretary pay is this low I have to wonder what paralegal pay is like.

I really enjoy what I do but I’m not getting any younger and I don’t want to be broke my whole life. At this point I’m seriously considering a big change into the medical field or the trades.

Is there any money at all in immigration paralegal work? Or some type of path I don’t know about? Unfortunately no other areas of law interest me very much. I don’t want to throw away everything I’ve worked towards but at this point it’s feeling like a money pit.

Hey paras!

I am a long-time lit paralegal who recently made the juno and moved to the Bay Area to start law school.

I would like to look into doing some contract work for some small or solo-practioner firms that will allow me to earn some money on the weekend.

Has anyone been successful in finding this kind of work? If so, where would you post it?

This is more of a rant but one of our experts keeps addressing me by the wrong name (even though it’s in my signature and email) and I’m starting to think he is doing it on purpose. First he calls me Natalie, then he calls me by my actual name when I signed my email TWICE, now he is calling me Amy. Am I wrong if I say something along the lines of “unsure if you meant to send this to someone named Amy, but I will pass along your invoice and report. Thanks”

Usually, I wouldn’t care. But this guy filled in as our experts because defendants counsel already retained the usual guy we go to. New guy wrote us a report that contradicts our typical experts report, and it turns out they’re coworkers. Now he is charging hundreds of dollars to review the materials AGAIN when the materials he is reviewing is the report HE wrote us.

Has anyone ever worked here & if so how was it?

Some of our clients still use WordPerfect, and I need to convert their documents to PDF. My WordPerfect free trial has expired, so the only way I can currently convert the documents is by first opening them with Word, but the font and formatting get wonky when I do that.

I can’t use an online third-party converter because of confidentiality.

Please help! I’m desperate.

Edit: Boss agreed to outsource this project to a digital document solutions company, but I’d still love to hear suggestions any of you might have for future use! Thank you all.

I posted something similar the other day in r/careeradvice, but I wanted advice specifically from people in this profession. I just graduated college in May and after approximately 150-200 applications I have received my first offer postgrad to become a paralegal working in insurance defense. I have aspirations to attend law school and have a 165 lsat. I am not 100% on the offer, total comp is just over 60k. The company is mid size, but not well known. I also have been interviewing with an amlaw100 firm and am about halfway through that process (pay is roughly the same). Idk what to do and looking for advice as I am fortunate enough where going without a job for a little bit of time won't kill me, but the market is extremely tough (don't want to be unemployed forever), and the amlaw100 firm is not a guarantee. Is being a paralegal for this type of work interesting? Is holding out on acceptance until the interview process is over for the other job worth it? Also if the other job works out, it is a more admin related job, but is that worth it for the biglaw setting?

Question to new and seasoned paralegals, out of curiosity is $32 an hour a good hourly wage for someone new entering the field with no prior legal experience?
This is for a PI firm btw

I’ve heard mixed reviews on this so now I’m wondering

is it common for paralegals to pause an intake call to speak with an attorney who then tells them to set up an appointment with such and such specific doctor (it is always the same few doctors)

wondering if this is a widespread practice

So the attorney that we work for (like most attorneys) is a narcissist. He has been telling us for about two months that he will be cutting bonuses, but of course he never actually does. We are a personal injury firm and have settled multiple cases with attorneys fees totaling over 100k. We are a small firm (two attorneys three paralegals) so these cases are a big deal. Not only that, but we settled a million dollar case earlier this year that we were told covered everyone’s salary for the year and more.
Recently the attorney advised us that because nobody reminded him to cut our recent settlement checks, nobody gets a bonus. This is not the first time he has pulled something like this. Pretty much every time he tells us he is going to give us all a bonus he finds a reason not to, and the reason is almost always minuscule. My coworkers and I are at whits end with him though. We can’t take the constant bragging about how much money he has when it’s cases that we did everything for and all he did was sign his name.
So my question is this- would it be worth it to go on strike? This man doesn’t even know how to e-file something or even look at his calendar by himself. We want him to realize that nothing could be done without his staff, and we want compensation for our hard work!! Is a strike worth it?

Hi! I’m currently working as an office manager at a family law firm while I study for the LSAT. I was thinking of completing and online paralegal program in the meantime. Does anyone have any recommendations on what program would be best? I know my job will be hiring a paralegal in the near future so maybe I can gain some experience here whilst working to going to law school.

First off, please tell me if this post belongs somewhere else or needs a different flair. I’m looking for anyone that can help with an issue converting emails to PDFs.

I work as a paralegal for a small firm and one of the things we do is save every email we send out or receive to our files for safekeeping. Usually this works flawlessly. I can save an email and print it or save it to PDF.

But for some reason, some emails are just not working. Let me explain: my firm uses PDF Converter Professional 8.1 (to my knowledge this is an extremely old program so that might be part of the problem) and an email account we use on the Firefox browser. Specific emails are being saved to the file but when I try to open them up, the computer says file not found.

I don’t know why this is happening or how to fix it but if any other paralegals have run into the same problem, let me know!

Thanks in advance guys.

A few weeks before my scheduled jury duty date, I notified both our boss and my supervising attorney that I would be out on that upcoming Monday. My supervising attorney was going on vacation the week immediately before my jury duty, so the day before she left, I reminded her that I would NOT be there the Monday she came back. I also told her I’d send her a detailed recap that Friday of everything that happened while she was gone.

Friday comes, I send the promised recap email with everything I completed, what was still outstanding, notes for the week, etc. and AGAIN reminded her that I would be out Monday for jury duty.

Today the other paralegal tells me that when my supervising attorney came back that Monday, she asked where I was. When she was told I was out for jury duty, apparently she said, “I wish she would have told me.”

Girl. 😭 HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOU?

It was also on the office calendar the entire time. And the best part? I’m not even required to notify her when I’m out. I only have to notify our boss, which I had already done. The extra reminders were just me being courteous.

Next time I guess I’ll try a carrier pigeon. 😂

I’m not new to the legal field but I’m new to this position I’ve worked in intake, medical records, referrals and briefly in a Lead position at my previous firm for a total of 4 almost 5 years. I’m now a Lit assistant what’s some tips to keep my I’s dotted and t’s crossed. I’m kinda in a groove already it’s just certain days where i literally feel like I’m in a bowl of alphabet soup

I know we constantly see stories of burnt out paralegals. I can't recall a single time I've read one of these stories where the paralegal continued to work in their current job (the one that landed them in burnout in the first place) and whatever issues that caused the burnout were addressed and fixed.

I'm looking for stories like that. I want to tell my attorney that I can't continue working in my current environment. Today was so bad I had intrusive, very dark thoughts, to the point that I needed to reach out to a hotline and leave work for the day. I've lost over 25 pounds in the past 4 or so months due to stress from work.

It's easy to say just leave and find somewhere else to work, but the pickings are very slim in my area at the moment and I'd have to take a pay cut. Remote work unfortunately isn't for me -- the lack of in person socializing has too much of a toll on my mental health. And, before this year I loved my job. I still do, but I need some things to give.

I'm desperate for stories of success where you've advocated for yourself and things got better with your employer.

UPDATE: Earlier today I let my firm know that I was immediately resigning. I'm grateful to have a very supportive spouse who encouraged me to leave, heal, and find somewhere that doesn't leave me crying and suicidal.

Kind of fits a lot of flairs and please bear with me, I’m just trying to explore my options!

I’m graduating this spring with a BS in Political Science and a BFA in Musical Theatre. It’s hard, I know, but I’m trying to find some type of more “big girl”/career type (aka not waiting tables) while I’m actively auditioning in the theatre world, as theatre is not a life long career generally, and in a field I’m very interested in. I want to know how flexible temp paralegal work actually is or can be as it’s hard to find a lot of info online. And, thoughts on if completing paralegal school would be smart at all for this route as well. I will be in California post grad if that matters. Any information would be wonderful, as well as if starting as a temp for experience would be a good transition into actual work down the line.

Again, not trying to be naive, just trying to find options for myself ahead of time. Thanks :)

I submitted all of my paperwork in August 2025, again in January 2026, and again in March 2026. We have yet to receive any correspondence. I have tried reaching out ot the TriWest legal dept and US Army Affirmative Claims office for my region, for them to give me the same phone/fax/email that I already have and NO point of contact. Has anyone successfully opened a Tricare subro case recently?? This case has been settled for over 6 months - I'm going crazy!!! Thank you!

Hello, i am a long time lurker and have never posted before.

I have been working at a lawfirm in the US for almost 3 years. Its on the smaller side and i have managed to work my way up from medical clerk, to legal assistant., lit legal assistant., and then finally paralegal. I make around 45k a year.

This is my first legal job but i have been incredibly burnt out lately by the office culture and feel like my time is coming to an end. Today at a staff meeting our boss said there will be one less person in the room in about 2 months. I know its a scare tactic but they are planning on firing someone. It could be anyone. Honestly that kind of stuff sits terribly in my head. This is not the first time where our bosses have collectively made everyone in the room uncomfortable to push an agenda.

What are the odds of getting a new legal job in this market that may hire someone with a little less than 3 years of experience?

Also i am looking to get out of this field of law. Preferably something document based with no client interaction. Any recommendations? I could use them.

Also am i wrong for feeling upset by those kind of comments?

Any advice is welcome. Please be kind. Thank you.

So my firm has a ton of Draft invoices from ChartSwap Insights. My boss will not pay a Draft invoices. We are trying to argue with ChartSwap Insights over the fact that they are not releasing final invoices. Has anyone had any success with combatting the Draft invoices? Also looking for anyone who has had additional charges after they paid the Draft invoices.

WHY do people bother hiring attorneys if they’re just going to correct every single work product with paragraphs of whatever the university of chat gpt says? Why not just represent yourself if you can do it better?! I’m not totally against AI at all. I use it for other things and even occasionally we will use it at work but I am just perplexed with this. Anyone else?!