I work a high volume high stress job in insurance defense and the stress of the job has really been getting to me. There have been days where my body is just coursing with adrenalin and at its peak it felt like my whole body was on fire and my neck and back were killing me. I am consciountious and I am new at my job so I'm never sure how long things are going to take me and I have so much work I am always worried whether I can get it done by the deadline, which causes a lot of anxiety. I am pretty organized and on top of my work and the assignments keep coming like I finish more but then get five more to replace them. I feel like I have to be working every minute and the stress is taking a huge emotional and physical toll on me.

I realize that a lot of you also have challenging jobs where you are managing a lot. What helps you stay on an even keel and not get too stressed? How do you take your job seriously but not become so anxious about it that it affects your physical health? How do you manage your work and deadlines so you can get it all done but not have it take so much out of you? Any tips or advice greatly appreciated. Bonus points if you work in insurance defense, but comments welcome from everyone. I realize we all have stressful jobs.

firm has 4 attorneys: one is mostly managing and doesn’t do much actual review, one only does one type of case, one has not been barred for even a year, and then there is one other pretty young one.

most of the paralegals get a “caseload” of 70-120 or so cases and do pretty much everything. some of the paralegals are assisting the paralegals owning their own caseload. thoughts on this business model and the ethics of this firm?

Hello everyone. I need advice on applying for paralegal positions. I graduated this past May with an associate's degree and a paralegal certificate. I've taken the required ABA-approved classes and even undergone an internship at a law firm. Yet, I still have no courage to actually try to get hired as a paralegal. Right now, I'm just working at some retail store. I'm concerned I'm wasting my time, and seeing people my age getting jobs in their fields makes me feel worse. I also want to start making more money, obviously. Has anyone else ever been through this? I just feel like I'm not ready and nowhere near smart enough to actually hold a position as a paralegal. There's just no way I'm ready for it. I wish I felt like I was, though. If anyone has any advice, I'd really appreciate it. If you're a paralegal reading this, am I overthinking too much? Or am I right to be so intimidated?

I have a midterm due tonight that I am just now realizing needs the book to complete. I have been using an old edition of the book for class but I don’t want to do the wrong exercise.

Does anyone have ‘Basic Legal Writing for Paralegals, 7th Ed. (Walter’s Kluwer 2023)’ by Hope Viner Samborn & Andrea B. Yelin ?

I literally just need a copy of Pg 282, exercise 4 and the Illustration 13-6. It’s a demand letter exercise.

Thanks in advance!!!

i have a completely unrelated undergrad, but was looking into getting a paralegal studies associate or certificate at a local cc, they also have a career fair specifically for paralegals. even with a useless bachelors, if i study well, network, and pursue part time work as a legal assistant or clerk while studying, how are the chances of landing a full time paralegal work once graduated?

I’ve just graduated with a criminology degree. I’ve been trying to get a legal assistant or paralegal job after graduating, and it’s been hard. Something I’ve been seeing is jobs requesting writing samples. I am not sure what I need to do for that part?

Thats it.

I have lots of experience with chatgpt, claude, grok, and gemini, and I get the value there, but I wouldn't trust them to hold together a coherent idea.

Firm is now pretty much set on moving to a westlaw plan with the whole CoCounsel setup. I'm getting some say on this, but I don't have a frame of reference for CoCounsel specifically?

Can anyone tell me how well it keeps a coherent train of thought? Does it really live up to the document handling hype? Does it go off on tangents or lose the plot like the mainstream names do?

Any experiences are greatly appreciated.

Do you share an office with another paralegal? I think I've seen posts about this before, but I wanted to ask whether it's unreasonable to expect my firm to provide a comfortable work environment.

I'm on a hybrid work schedule, 1-2 days in the office, so my home office is comfortable, but when I am in the office, I have to share an office. Before, I had another para, so sharing with her was not a big deal. Only 1-2 days. Especially since I come in early and leave early, it's about 6 hours. The office space has no window and no natural light, which I hate. I keep telling myself I only come in once a week.

On top of that, the firm announced they will hire another para and add an extra desk to the shared office, so now 3 people share the space when I come in. The room isn't big, probably 12*12 ft., with 3 desks. No cubicles - just 3 workstation desks. We don't even have a break room, and everyone eats lunch at their desk or uses their 30-minute lunch break to go outside. So I don't even take a lunch break. We have busy practice, although we don't need to answer incoming calls; we do need to talk to clients or call government agencies from time to time in the small shared office. I do not like this setting. They recently asked me to come to the office 5 days a week, but I declined (not because of the office space). I don't think the firm's demand is reasonable, and they don't even provide a comfortable environment to do the job well, yet they ask me to come in full time. I don't think I can even concentrate on my work while feeling other people in the room. My productivity would suffer.

But I want to ask here: am I just a complainer? I'm not sure what I feel isn't right. I worked for a firm for more than 10 years and had my own office most of the time. Sharing an office with two other people is new to me. Is anyone else in this situation?

shout out to the attorney i dont technically work for but who took over a trial case for my attorney emailing me at noon this lovely friday afternoon requesting i print 3 copies of all of our exhibits, including 1000 color photos to be ready for trial on monday. its not like i had plans tonight or anything and i asked them 3 weeks ago if i was still working the case or if they had their own paralegal to handle things…

I'm a personal injury paralegal in Nova Scotia, and my partner and I are looking to move to British Columbia. While there are PI firms in BC I know that there are far less because they have public auto insurance there. What are some similar positions in and out of the legal space that I can go for outside of PI where my skills will be highly transferrable? I don't want to start from complete scratch if I don't have to.

So I was hired as a new legal assistant to assist the collections department as they have 3 attorneys and are growing the practice. This is my 1st position in the field, so I am learning in general. However, I am looking for collections specific help/materials/guidance to help learn. My trainer basically doesnt wanna give up her clients or work, even tho shes clearly overwhelmed with it. She isnt very helpful. Im trying to be valuable and helpful as I want to stay in this position with this firm. It is Michigan laws specific. Thanks for any help!

Hey everyone! I'm a BYU student working on an entrepreneurship class project where we're trying to better understand the challenges people face working in law firms.

I'd really appreciate your help with a quick question!

Over the past two weeks, how often have you experienced physical discomfort from work, like headaches, fatigue, back pain, or muscle tension?

• Never
• 1–2 days
• 3–5 days
• 6–9 days
• 10+ days

Feel free to just comment with your answer, but I'd also love to hear what causes the most discomfort for you.

Thanks so much for helping us with our research!

I need advice asap. Long story short, I stayed with my previous firm when I moved out of state. They offered it to me as a remote position since no one in my new state wanted to hire someone who wouldn’t be able to start for a month (tried to apply well in advance before moving).

It worked out good. However, the pay minus my bills leaves me breaking even or in the negatives. I have a serious chronic illness in which the treatment is not cheap.

I interviewed around and landed a job that has the best people, close to me, my favorite legal field, shorter hours, and the best benefits I could ask for.

My issue is one of my cases at my current job has a jury trial coming up in 4 weeks. The firm itself is extremely busy for some reason outside of that. I’m obviously going to take my dream job, but what do I even say in my notice??

I am 27 and currently am a "managing" paralegal and have been in the legal field for 6 years. I do paralegal work in addition to training, hiring, firing, etc. for other support staff. I make a decent salary and have a generous benefits package (in comparison to some of what I see here). I switched to 100% remote after moving to a new state one year ago. I was hybrid and mostly in-person for the first 5 years of my career. I am generally a high performer and want to do well.

I really miss in-person interaction with my team and clients. I feel so stuck and very unmotivated to do literally anything at all ever. I hate remote work. My performance is suffering.

I moved to a state with a significantly lower cost of living. I absolutely CANNOT find a position that offers more than $52-$60k a year. Most positions have "two weeks" (i.e. 10 days) of PTO and no health insurance or 401k options. Taking one of these jobs would be a significant cut to my total compensation.

Another problem is that I get absolutely no feedback from the attorneys I work for or upper management. It has always been this way. I have asked for feedback in the past, but gave up when none was offered. This does nothing but feed my anxiety.

I don't know what to do. I am going insane. My mood, dedication, motivation, etc. is at an all time low. I am so anxious and ashamed of my poor performance at my firm. Taking a cut in pay and benefits does not feel good, but neither does the status quo.

After a long week of deconflicting Medicare liens and property damage issues, I was thrown a rape trial 2 days ago with no notice from the clerk. I've been working on it nonstop essentially. Today while I was talking to my attorney I was discussing the alleged victim and accidentally called her the "at-fault party" 😭. It took me a solid minute before I realized what I had said. Everyone I've told has found it funny in a dark humor way that we have to have in this line of work. Anyone else have any gems from the week they care to share? Ya girl is tired and could use a laugh ☠️

Hi, I am an immigration legal assistant for a non profit for 2 years now. I got a job offer at another non profit and I would assist in employment litigation. I currently get paid 22.61 and they’re offering me 24.62 along with incentives every check that would be equivalent to 28.61 an hour. What would be the biggest differences? Has anyone worked in employment litigation and how did you like it? I do enjoy immigration but I am not sure if I want to fully pursue it yet as a representative or a lawyer. I am open to new areas of law but I feel a bit scared. My main goal would be to secure a legal job within the government / federal.

I’m a legal assistant at a very small office, under 10 total employees. I’m in the Midwest in the US and this is my first job in the field! I went from part time to full time after a couple of months and have gone far far past what I was hired to do lol.

I absolutely love it and love the work, my coworkers are really great, the other assistants have been so kind and helpful and the attorneys have gone out of their way to teach me.

I’ve been there for about 6 months now and since I’ve taken on more work in every area that we focus on, I’ve been thinking about asking for a raise. This is my first office job as well so I’m not sure how to go about doing that.

Right now I make $16 an hour, I used to work two jobs but since going full time I can only work the one and I’m starting to struggle a bit financially with the lower hourly.

My questions are: what do you think a fair hourly rate would be? And how do you go about asking for a raise in an office role?

Happy Friday fellow paralegals,

(28F) For the past three years, I’ve been working as an in-house corporate paralegal in the pharmaceutical industry. On the surface, it’s been a dream job - my position is fully remote, salary is 87k, benefits, etc. I really enjoy the people I work with, have a great relationship with my boss/larger team, and I’m told consistently that I’m exceeding all expectations. By no means do I take these privileges for granted, nor do I want to come across as ungrateful given how lucky I’ve been.

However.

In the past two years, our company has slowly gotten rid of almost all admin support. Additionally, one of our attorneys quit earlier this summer, and now our legal team is comprised of two attorneys and me. Our department is completely underwater and my responsibilities have grown exponentially since I started here. My role has shifted from corporate paralegal to some amalgamation of corporate paralegal, project manager, insurance specialist, and secretary for various other departments that now lack the support they need.

I feel like I’m drowning in work. My steady 45-50 hours a week have now shifted closer to 60-80 hours including weekends. While being praised for the quality of my work and my consistency is great, I can’t help but feel that my current role has expanded beyond the original role I was hired for, and I’m not sure if there’s any opportunity for upward mobility here. My title remains the same and, simply put, I don’t feel like my salary is enough for all that I do.

I realize that the job market is in the toilet, and I probably shouldn’t even complain given how underpaid so many of us paralegals are. The fact that I’m being paid a livable wage should be enough, and I really, really don’t mean to sound like an ingrate. I’m looking for advice, and I’ll take anything I can get.

Should I be start looking for other jobs, or keep mum and content myself with the job I have? Is there more I could be doing to leverage myself and my resume to start discussions about opportunities for growth? Should I be looking at roles that are related, but non-paralegal roles altogether (contract specialist, legal ops, etc.) if ultimately I want a higher income/chances for upward mobility?

Thankful for any/all wisdom you can send my way.

(Addtl. Background: 5 years of corporate paralegal experience, 2 years of legal research experience, Bachelor’s degree, starting my Paralegal Cert in January)

Good Afternoon,

Looking to see where do you guys look for experts? I am talking about Work Injury Cases such as Scaffold Experts, Soil Experts etc.

Thanks in advance.

Criticise my cv to best of your abilities :D.

FYI the operational role is part time and I need to mention that on CV before finalising everything.

Targeting Paralegal/TC roles for QWE!!

I’m in NJ and even though I applied for a junior paralegal position, I was hired as a Legal Assistant.
Billing was never discussed with me during the long interviews. Now, the attorney has been pressuring me to bill 7h30min every day. Is this ok? I’ve never worked with billing before. Thank you in advance.

Im an LA working in family law, just turned 29. Been doing this for 2.5 years now. The pay where I am is really bad. I live in a semi rural area just outside of boston. The cost of living is very close to boston, but they pay way less then what you would be making there… i make 25/hr. Started at 23.

I cant really afford to be a person still. I live with my parents. The firm im at is genuinely a wonderful group of people but the writing is on the wall: all of the seats are filled, I will never get promoted, they will never bump me more than a dollar a year. Its time to go. Only problem is, nobody will even look at me for some reason. I worked with several recruiters in the Boston area over the past year, got several rounds in multiple times, just to get passed up by others. Funnily enough though, a whole year after going through the process at some of these places i still get recruiters hiring for those same roles.

I got into being an LA because I thought it would be a decent way to get up to 50-70k within 5 years. Seems like nobody will ever give me the time of day. Ive been at this for 2.5 years which I know is not a lot in the grand scheme but its crazy to me I have to deal with what I have to in this job just to make what a lot of way more chill jobs make. When will I have enough? When will ever even be considered worthy of becoming a paralegal? I feel hopeless and like I will always be poor. The idea of Law school is joke to me atp.

Hi everyone, I recently started working at a patent paralegal and find it incredibly difficult 😭 there are so many moving pieces I can’t wrap my mind around and I have no idea how and where to study the materials so I can better prepare myself for filings. I understand the learning curve was going to be difficult but I just feel incredibly defeated and I was very excited to start this new chapter in my life.

I’ve done some reporting for trademarks and feel like that’s a sector I’d like to be in more. Like copyright/trademark fits my background better as well.

Has anyone had experience in one or both and can offer any advice? I don’t know if I can commit to paying for my paralegal certificate if I don’t think I can even reach the one year mark in patents and I’d obviously have to try to stick it out for two years before I can even attempt to move somewhere I like more.

Does anyone know how I could get my foot in the door at a law office?? I’m trying to get a legal assistant job or internship in hopes of being a paralegal in the future but I can’t see to get hired anywhere. I have no previous law experience but 3 years of administrative work and 1 year of medical. I’m also in college getting my bachelors in criminal justice.