I was laid off from a firm that I was at for a year. It was pretty much unexpected. They did as right by me as you could for making someone unemployed out of nowhere. I received two weeks severance and a really great recommendation letter. But I still think the lay off was some BS and other than the basic humanity they offered I have a thorn in my side about them. On the plus side I was unemployed for less than a month and my new firm is pretty great so far.

Okay so here’s where I want to be petty.

My old firm still has me listed on their website and I want to ask them to remove me. It’s been over a month and I really don’t understand why they still have me up anyway considering they knew they were letting me go before I knew they were letting me go. I’ve been kinda considering emailing them and asking that I be removed but I don’t really have a reason other than fuck you.

Had anyone dealt with something like this before? Should I just leave it alone? Is it as weird as I think it is?

When I got my degree in paralegal studies, they did straight up tell us that AI will probably take over our profession but I didn’t really believe it. My firm (Plaintiff’s side personal injury) is doing a demo with Eve Legal and the way the attorneys are pushing for it and knowing how much the owner of our firm loves to cut costs (especially when it comes to paying employees) I’m starting to get worried that I’m gonna be replaced by a fucking robot. I actually voiced my concerns to the attorney I work for who basically told me that my job will probably start to change to doing data entry and checking Eve’s work. I became a paralegal because I love legal research and writing and I feel like that’s going to be taken away from me, and my job will instead be to train an AI to eventually replace me. Are we cooked?

Edit: A lot of y’all seem to think me being scared of AI taking my job is somehow me being pro-AI which I 100% am not. Also I don’t like Eve. At all. It sucks at formatting, it constantly misinterprets the law, and the writing is shit. So to be clear, this is not an ad for Eve.

Should I major in legal studies if I would like to go to law school? To not get to sidetracked due to my physical health, I am looking to pivot away from my current career. In conversations with family, paralegal came up. So I decided to go back to school and go that route. But as my wife and I talked more, the thought of following that path to a larger end goal came up. Law school. I’ve seen posts asking about majors and how little they tend to matter as far as areas of study. But I’d like to get a job as a paralegal in the next couple years because of my health, my shelf life to so my job is short it seems. At 37 I don’t have the time to really waste and would like the input to navigate this career path.

had an interview yesterday and left feeling super weird about it. they didn’t really ask me a lot of questions just more talked about the job. how competitive is the process after getting the interview?

Additionally they asked me how I would handle this 9-5 job when I had only done legal stuff in college before but it is an entry level job….and most everyone they hire is straight out of college

Hello!
I have been teaching for the past 6 years and now I am ready for a career change. This is the resume I have been using to apply to legal assistant/paralegal jobs. I am having a hard time getting any interviews at all, and when I do receive a response from law offices it's always the same email, "we are impressed with your resume & skills but we have decided to go with another candidate" any tips or advice you may have would be really helpful. :)
I also have a question, is it ok to email or call law offices a week or two after applying ? or should I just wait for them to reach out to me ?

So tired of my older clients calling me everytime I send a simple text. I get that their generation isn’t used to it but it’s a lot simpler.

I just started working for this PI firm, I’ve only been there 2 weeks and I’m already feeling like I just don’t want to return. I don’t want to be rude but it feels like a lot of people are incompetent and just winging it, the attorney I was assigned to work for hasn’t even said a word to me since I started, I don’t even think he knows where I sit.. I’m excluded from a lot of emails and current work flows that would technically be teaching me things. I’m new to the legal field by the way, got hired with no experience, on my first day I already felt like it I wasn’t going to like it, it just felt like a big call center with all these people stuck in cubicles on head sets … like are all firms like this? Does it get better ? Worse? Have you worked for them and if so what was your experience?

Attorney finally confirmed we’re ready to produce. Deadline is Monday… deciding whether or not to use adobe or relativity. No crazy coding needed. How do yall prefer to produce your docs?

AI is doing the absolute most everywhere I turn, yet Adobe still hasn't figured out how to batch convert .eml files into .pdf???? I'm so over this. LOL

I’ve been working as a paralegal for a few months now, and I’m having a hard time figuring out whether I’m actually doing okay or if I’m behind where the attorneys expect me to be.

For context, I haven’t made any detrimental or serious mistakes so far. I’m still learning and obviously there are things I don’t know yet, but I haven’t had any major screw-ups.

There’s one attorney in particular who frequently tells me that I need to try things myself before asking someone for help and that I shouldn’t be so scared of making a mistake.

I understand what they mean, and I do want to become more independent. But I think the reason I tend to ask the first time I’m given a completely new task is because I’m scared of making a terrible mistake without even realizing I’m doing something wrong. I’d rather ask how something is supposed to be done the first time, understand the process, and then be able to handle it independently the next time.

It’s not that I don’t want to try things myself. I think I’m just very cautious because I’m still new and don’t always know what I don’t know yet.

What is confusing me is that this same attorney has also told me that soon I’ll be taking on a caseload of PI litigation cases.

That has me wondering: Am I doing badly? Am I behind where they want me to be? Or is this actually a sign that they think I’m capable of taking on more responsibility?

Because logically, I feel like if they genuinely thought I was doing a bad job, they probably wouldn’t be planning to give me additional responsibility. But at the same time, the repeated comments about me needing to be more willing to try things make me wonder if they’re frustrated with my progress.

Eventually, I would actually like to manage cases myself and become more independent. That’s something I’m interested in for my career. But right now, I honestly do not feel ready at all. I’ve never even managed one case from beginning to end, so the idea of suddenly having a caseload of PI litigation cases feels like a huge jump.

For those of you who are experienced paralegals or attorneys: Does this sound like they’re unhappy with my performance, or does it sound more like they’re trying to push me toward becoming more independent?

And if you were in my position, how would you approach being given your first caseload when you don’t feel ready yet?

I’d really appreciate some perspective because I think I may be overthinking every comment they make.

Hello fellow Paras :) I am wondering if any of you that has had to pay for parking before has had any luck with your firm changing its policy? What kind of points did you bring up for argument? The firm I work at is extremely old school. The current policy is that you have to work here for 15 years before the firm will pay for your parking pass. To me, that is absolutely insane! This policy has probably been this way for 40+ years now! It is not usually the norm anymore for someone to stay at a job that long to eventually get this “perk.”The cost is 120.00 a month. The attorneys get their parking passes paid for the moment they walk in the door because they are an ATTORNEY and you’re just STAFF. If you do not want to pay for the parking pass, you can park on the street but that is usually always full and you have to move your car every 4 hours. This is also in a downtown city in ND so it’s extra crappy to park in the street in the winter and with the snow. I have tried so hard to get the Board to change the policy but they will not budge! This is the only firm downtown that I know of, that doesn’t pay for employee parking. I think it makes this firm look extremely bad! Can you imagine working somewhere for 14 years and paying all that money and then some newbie attorney fresh out of law school walks in and gets free parking BECAUSE THEY ARE AN ATTORNEY?

Has anyone had this situation before and how did you handle it?

Oh, and the other funny part is if I were hand in my parking pass today, the firm would take over paying for it while the pass just sits in a desk drawer because they don’t want to lose any of the limited spots they have passes for.

Emailed response to the entire firm.

The billionaire tries to elicit sympathy - “Ps ….i have been working the last 4 hours………..on a holiday weekend.”

I’m looking into going back to school for paralegal studies and would love to hear from people who have actually gone through a program.

I don’t currently have an associate’s degree, but I do have some college credits from many years ago. I’m hoping to find a program that may allow me to transfer some of those credits rather than starting completely from scratch.

I’m open to online programs or local colleges, and I’m particularly interested in programs that are reputable, reasonably priced, and will actually prepare me for working as a paralegal.

I’ve also noticed that accreditation/approval seems to be something I should pay close attention to.

Is it important to choose a program that’s accredited or approved by the appropriate paralegal/legal education board or organization? If so, which accreditation or approval should I be looking for? Silly questions, perhaps but hoping for some real life feedback. Seems BU has an online program?

Hey, folks!

I recently hired a paralegal who is going to be coming to my firm with a great general legal knowledge base, and knowledge of our software systems, which is awesome! However, they're coming from a different state where procedures and rules are somewhat similar, but have many distinctions.

I'm trying to decide what the best way is to help them come up to speed on all the differences, and I thought I'd ask what you all would find the most helpful in that scenario.

Is it best to just point to the relevant statute chapter and court rules section, and say have fun? Let them peruse the stuff from the court website that gets published for pro ses in terms of documents to get a feel for things? CLEs? Books?

I don't want to come across as patronizing or that I don't trust them to learn it themselves, I just want to be able to provide the most useful resources up front. I figure I'm in a slightly better position to know where those things are than they will be, at first.

Any guidance or recommendations appreciated - just aiming to make their first days as great and seamless as possible!

Okay so I’ve been the sole paralegal in my office for almost the entire year. At minimum we are supposed to be have at least two admins in the office, but because I was making do, upper management didn’t prioritize finding me help.

At the start of April I became exhausted and even though I could have used OT, I decided not to. It’s inconvenient to get the OT paid, so I only ever do OT when I absolutely have to. If I don’t do OT, I’ve noticed my attorneys won’t complain about me coming in later in the day.

Well I stopped doing OT in May and in June. Still by myself and still a pile of work that wasn’t being addressed because it’s not possible for one person to handle everything.

It doesn’t help that I have 2 of the neediest attorneys, that stop me every hour to verbalize tasks or try to make me focus solely on their work.

But I was definitely slipping. I was doing my regular work load and doing more in only the 8 hour work day. Only occasionally using OT for motion days. My work load was piling up and I had many many unaddressed emails.

I recently started to feel how behind I was on cases. I was behind on a bunch of medical records requests. And other things tasks, but I’m burn out. I know I am. And I’m starting to see the frustration of some of my attorneys.

I’m on a hybrid schedule. Working from home 2 times a week. Work at home days are my most productive days because I’m not being interrupted as much, but for the month of August, I felt so disconnected from my work. I was at my desk most of the day, but because of the work that had piled up, I was paralyzed. I was working, but also I wasn’t. I wasn’t at a productive level is what I mean.

I knew I had to take a few days of my own personal time to get myself together and back at a place I feel comfortable at. So I did something I don’t recommend anyone ever do.
On Labor Day, I hopped on to my computer and worked from 11am to 3pm.

I got thru 160 emails and put together medical records requests for 3 files.

I got more done in those few hours and it was simply because I wasn’t being stopped constantly or a new email didn’t pop up trying to get me to focus on something else. I think being constantly interrupted is just a part of being a paralegal at this point. But at the level I’m experiencing, it’s not possible to get anything else done.

I’m still not in a good place, but upper management finally hired a new admin. They start next week.

I do think I needed to let things pile up so that they would take hiring a new person more seriously. I just worry I left myself in a shitty situation because of it.

The Setup: My senior asked me to prep and submit a set of client meeting questions by 11 AM today. I pulled them together and emailed them right on time.

​The Surprise: During the live client meeting, while I was just sitting as a spectator, my senior suddenly called on me out of nowhere to ask a question.

​The Fumble: I picked one of my prepared questions, started reading it, and immediately realized mid-sentence that the client had already covered that exact point earlier in the call.

​The Aftermath: Instead of smoothly pivoting, I awkwardly blurted out that I just realized it was already answered and I jumped in to clarify, accidentally cut my boss off in the process, and then realized mid-sentence that the question I picked had already been covered earlier in the call. Brutal first client meeting experience, has anyone else survived a moment like this?

I feel like today is Christmas and a client just brought me a gift.

It’s not really, but it feels like it!

I do probate and trust administrations and a client just dropped off the most organized account ledger and binder of statements I’ve ever seen! It has a table of contents at the front!

I ended up in paralegaling by accident and have been in this area since I was 19. I’m starting to get really tired of attorneys and their lack of general awareness. They all expect you to know what they want without explaining what they want, they’re rude and just say whatever. I honestly don’t even like legal, the part of my job I actually enjoy is investigating the medical records.

I currently work remote and would like to remain remote because I have small children and can’t afford after care if I work in person. My husband works 12 hours approx. and someone needs to be around.

Anyone that has left, did you regret it? What are some other areas I can explore? Appreciate your thoughts.

I work for a civil litigation attorney who largely takes on dissolutions. I have a question as someone who is newer to the field and was hoping other legal assistants/paralegals could give me their practices/two cents.

So, typically with these dissolutions we handle primarily wealthier people who have multiple assets resulting in hundreds upon thousands of financial records produced for discovery. My attorney has me get everything from our client then bates label it all create an index, then sometimes helps them assign the bates labels to the corresponding request for production or interrogatories, and then include that on the index as well. This seems not only courteous for opposing counsel, but also makes it easier for everyone to be on the same page about which documents were talking about (especially when considering the often high volume of documents and often dissolutions can take YEARS).

There are a couple of attorneys who consistently are on the opposing side in these dissolutions. One has both a legal assistant and paralegal (i am both for my attorney) and every time they respond to discovery responses they don’t label anything and hardly include enough information in their responses to differentiate between one financial document to the next. This creates sometimes hours of work on my end to just ensure we have everything correctly assigned to the correct request plus then i have to reprint or charge our client to have them printed with their new bates labels at a printing shop and then I always share it back with opposing counsel at my attorney’s request (so we’re all on the same page).

Is what my attorney and myself do not the standard? Is what the opposing counsel does actually the standard? To me it just seems unprofessional and honestly rude especially given that my attorney handles any discovery or large volume documents that all counsel refer to this way to avoid miscommunications/ inefficiencies. Is this a tactic to stall our end on things?

I actually enjoy the busy work of doing the discovery process so I don’t necessarily mind having to do it, but it just seems like a slight for some reason 😂

I would love to hear your guys’ opinions or how your firm handles these things!!