Legal Assistant Roles & Responsibilities Have a strong understanding of legal terminology, attending meetings and taking notes for attorneys present, Transcribing, reviewing and filing legal documents before the deadline, managing travel logistics for one or more lawyers, answering phones and receiving messages, manage schedules. Paralegals play an essential role in the day-to-day operations of the law office or legal department. They help with case management, document preparation, calendar maintenance, communication with clients and court officials, and help with lawyers' needs. Parole assistants must have excellent communication skills and great attention to detail.
They should also feel comfortable working independently and as part of a team. A paralegal performs the necessary routine tasks on behalf of an attorney. The work often includes elements of administration, customer service, and coordination. Join this tour on August 18 to see why more than 150,000 legal professionals use Clio's leading cloud-based legal software.
A paralegal often works as a legal secretary, since both perform administrative and general duties for lawyers. Examples include interacting with legal clients, preparing legal documents, conducting interviews, assisting in trials, and more. A paralegal is a professional who conducts legal research, writes documents, emails, and signatures for lawyers when they can't. A high school degree is required to become a paralegal and most paralegals have an associate's degree or a certificate in paralegal studies.
To ensure success, paralegals must be experts in multitasking, intuitive, and excellent communicators with a keen interest in providing accurate and insightful support to lawyers and legal teams. With this in mind, if you are a lawyer who often wastes time on time-consuming administrative tasks, working with a paralegal can take essential but non-billable tasks off your shoulders. If your company uses Clio Manage, adding additional users, such as paralegals, to your office administration workflows (here's a simple step-by-step guide) makes collaboration on administrative tasks such as billing, scheduling, and document management smooth and efficient. With more knowledge about what a paralegal can actually offer, you can make more informed decisions when considering adding a paralegal to your team.
Adding paralegals to your cloud-based practice management system makes it easy to work with paralegals, whether they're in the office or working remotely. Legal assistants may not, under any circumstances, practice law, provide legal advice to clients, or present themselves as lawyers. Legal assistants support attorneys in a variety of tasks, including conducting legal research, drafting and reviewing documents, communicating with clients, preparing hearings, trials and meetings, and organizing and maintaining files. Conversely, while paralegals also work on behalf of lawyers, they focus more on administrative support tasks.
