Legal Assistant Firm: The Next Generation

By Judith Bandel

Let’s face it, you have to love doing what you do to be good at it! Over the years I’ve spent as a legal assistant, I’ve seen many colleagues come and go. Some move onto law school, others left for a completely different profession leaving behind those of us that had a vision of something more than the traditional law firm environment paralegal. Like myself, many of my colleagues started to branch out in the mid to late 1980’s as freelancers. We formed companies to provide our services and while more and more attorneys sought to take advantage of the financial benefits paralegals provide, we sought to test the boundaries of freelancing.

Simply put, a Paralegal/Legal Assistant Firm can be an individual or a group of independent paralegals forming a firm and providing both traditional and non-traditional paralegal services.

In 1988, after almost 10 years of law firm experience, I formed Paralegal Consultant Associates, a multi-dimensional legal assistant firm specializing in Corporate, Securities, Contract, Entertainment and Litigation areas of law as well as providing non-traditional legal assistant services. In 1976, Shelley G. Widoff (Paralegal Resource Center, Inc.) “had four years of traditional law firm experience under my belt, akin to a lawyer apprenticeship.” She specialized in corporate, real estate and probate practice. “Armed with this knowledge and experience I established a paralegal service and developed a lawyer clientele. My fee for services was commensurate with my experience, rather than relying on a rather static salary with insignificant raises.” Fran Chernowsky started Litigation Resources & Consulting in 1985 and had “wanted to do more with computerized litigation support and knew I had credentials in 1985 that were unique and would help me get work.” In 1998 Peggy Brown (Brown Holdings LLC.) knew she “had a lot to offer and felt under appreciated based on a title then a true evaluation of my worth.” In 2003, Marian H. O’Brian (Braverman Finklestein) had done quite a bit of freelance work prior to leaving fulltime employment. She “eventually realized that few, if any firms really want to pay the upper range of salaries, and decided that if I were going to take a salary hit, I would rather have my life back in return.” 

How has the advent of legal assistant firms helped shape the profession or has it? “Paralegals as a profession are more ubiquitous and in some cases command more respect than in the early 1980s.  Attorneys are now more apt to retain a paralegal with credentials rather than only hire them as employees.  I think the existence of so many free lance or contract paralegals who operate businesses help to foster the respect that is overdue to all competent paralegals.” Chernowsky claims. Widoff feels, “Technology and legal specialization is now the driving force behind the paralegal profession. The traditional paralegal was a generalist.”  Much in the same way as attorneys, Widoff believes, “paralegals must specialize in one area of law to be valuable.  And within this area of law, they must be experts on the computer utilizing whatever software programs make them most efficient.  In addition, paralegals must be savvy with web based technology and internet and intranet research.”  Chernowsky and I both have teaching experience and have incorporated training into both our practices. Having the knowledge and understanding the needs of attorneys helps us both to teach both attorneys and colleagues when necessary.

If you had to tell someone what type of legal assistant would be interested in working in a freelance environment or create a legal assistant firm type of environment, what type of education, experience or background do you believe they would need to branch off in this direction?

Chernowsky : I would tell a paralegal who wanted to freelance the following:  1.  Get the most and varied experience you can before you go out on your own.  2.  Get involved with local paralegal organizations and develop a reputation as a professional.  3.  Attend frequent continuing educations courses in  your specialty and some outside  your specialty  (e.g.  take a real estate course if you work in litigation - it will come in handy when you get assigned a real estate litigation.  4.. Become the best you can in what you do and you will be successful.  5.  Work for the respect you will get as a serious business person; the money will come from that respect.

Bandel: I think one of the most important things you need to develop an independent practice is the desire to expand your horizons, use what you’ve learned and continue to grow.  I’m sure we all can tell you what’s important in the beginning – clients, money in the bank, marketing skills and superior work skills, but it’s the desire to grow and explore new options that ultimately can help you create a successful paralegal firm.

Widoff: The education needed would be a college degree; working experience as a paralegal for a minimum of four years, and some background in business administration and technology.  As important as these credentials are, the successful individual must have excellent communication skills, drive, superior organizational ability, professionalism and ingenuity.

O’Brian: You need education, experience in a wide range of matters within your field (emphasis), cash in the bank, contacts, and patience. Not necessarily in that order, mind you.  I would especially emphasize broadness of experience within your field.  The more skills you have, the more things you can do to “bring home the bacon.” Never turn down a chance to learn a related skill in your field—attend seminars, ask people you work with how to do things you know they know, and you don’t   There is no shame in saying, I have never done that, can you teach me how. There is a lot of shame—and wasted time—in saying you know how to do something, and you don’t.

Brown: First and most importantly, if you are a legal assistant/paralegal going to work in a freelance situation, get the legal ramifications and ethical issues down pat. This is not a part-time home based business that you can successfully work with kids at your feet.

Next, be ready for hard work. If you aren’t a work-alcoholic, starting and maintaining your own business probably will not work for you.  If you are a work-alcoholic, you will probably enjoy being master of your own destiny, being rid of office politics and being appreciated for who you are and what you do.

When you are on your own, there isn’t any hand holding.  No one will tell you what to do and when to do it, so being a self starter is crucial.

I can’t imagine someone who has not actually worked in the trenches in a law office and doesn’t already have both experience and resources at hand would be very successful.  When you set yourself up as a professional, everyone rightly expects you to know your stuff and do it well.

Why do you believe law firms or others utilize your services as opposed to in-house paralegals?

Bandel: Law firms and solo practitioners will call us when they’ve tried other avenues and just haven’t been satisfied with the results. Our reputation for getting the job done right the first time goes a long way to helping us get more clients. Our staff is made up of experienced paralegals in the areas of service we provide.  And still, we don’t hesitate to tell you that we can do something when we can’t. We’d rather point you the right direction and possibly gain a project from you in the future, than take on a project we have no hope of completing with skill.

Chernowsky: I am called in when I have special expertise (e.g. computerization, large case management, trial experience) and/or when there is too much work which would consume the time of in-house people, forcing paralegals to sacrifice some other work that is equally important to the firm.  Often I am hired by other paralegals who know their case load,  what is possible to accomplish, and when more "hands" are needed.  The best work situations involve the in-house paralegals requesting assistance.  That makes for an enhanced team approach involving the in-house paralegals, the attorneys and my firm.

Widoff: Law firms outsource whatever projects they have to my firm, because it is the most cost effective and efficient way to handle the matter at hand.  I am able to understand and assess their needs, evaluate the qualifications of the paralegals required to perform the assignment, and then employ these paralegals on an as-needed basis.  As a matter of fact, it is often the in-house paralegals who confer with me for this temporary paralegal service…. or permanent placement service…. or in-house training program.

O’Brian: 1.  Cost.  Many smaller estates need expert administrative help, but can’t afford the rates of a full-time paralegal, in addition to the fact that the in house paralegal may not be able to prepare income tax returns.  If I am assisting with the administration of the estate, I already know what needs to be done in terms of the preparation of tax returns. 

2.  The other is that I firmly believe in returning telephone calls within 24 hours—and that can really matter.  Clients want to believe that someone is paying attention to them.

If you’ve branched into other areas involving the legal profession (ie., training, other forms of support), how has your paralegal training impacted on this?

Brown: For the first two years after setting out on my own, I worked part-time with a local attorney on a major probate case that gained national attention. After that time, I’ve pretty much stayed out of the legal arena other than continuing Katsuey’s Legal Gateway (http://www.katsuey.com).  My full attention has been directed towards my web development business.

However, I believe that I’m able to assist my web development customers in thinking about legal issues that may develop through their web site. Hopefully my training has also helped me consider legal business issues that may affect my business.

Widoff: My formal paralegal training was a good introduction to identifying what types of legal practice lawyers performed and what was expected of a” lawyer’s assistant”.  Thereafter, on-the-job training had the most impact on my ability to develop and grow in the field.  Being mentored by attorneys and exceeding their expectations was the catalyst that enabled me to branch out into other areas, albeit keeping within the paralegal profession.  In my case, paralegal education, paralegal staffing, and management consulting. 

Chernowsky: In addition to running a paralegal business, I have done quite a bit of teaching and training over the years.  Since I had a career as an educator before I became a paralegal, this was a natural progression.  My paralegal training prepared me well for the traditional paralegal tasks, however.

O’Brian: I use it in surprising ways.  When I began working with the CPA firm, I thought I would do purely court accountings and taxes.  Much to my surprise, I am assisting a lot of solo practitioners with probate matters, and drafting documents for overwhelmed attorney/executors.  They have access to a person who can draft, and knows the courts.  I didn’t expect this.

Bandel: In the last several years, I’ve worked more and more with attorneys, corporations and law firms providing training.  My experience as a paralegal helps me understand better the needs of attorneys and paralegals as well as support staff to provide the best training that they need.

How has legal technology impacted your freelance business, and what key technologies do you use to improve efficiency?

Widoff: The document retrieval services we used to do on foot, can now be retrieved on line by most of my clients, right from the governmental source, so we no longer specialize in such services.  Instead we concentrate on permanent and temporary paralegal placement to which the technology of choice is a website, email and a database of resumes.

Chernowsky: I have always been interested in computers and had worked with main frames computers before PCs were invented and before becoming a paralegal.  I then merged my paralegal career with computer consulting and instruction.  My last job before freelancing involved setting up the discovery and trial databases for access during one of the first wholly computerized trials in the mid-1980s.  Since going independent, I have worked to keep up my skills in computer software and hardware up to date.  I use several computer application programs on a daily basis and learn others for fun.  I have learned about website programming and have even put up two sites - one for my own freelance business (lit-resources.com) and one for a part time clothing business I share with another legal professional (accordionclothing.com). Most recently, I taught a group of legal professionals about one of the newest waves in litigation - electronic discovery.   I am as proud of being a geek as I am of being a (para) legal eagle.

O’Brian: I really can't work without it.  Without the web, I am out of business, since many of the services--CCH, Lexisone, etc. that I use frequently are purely online.  This helps enormously during such things as subway strikes, etc.   Some programs don't move--they are installed in one place--but that is the exception rather than the rule.  I email files back and forth from home to work, which saves or reduces dragging documents around.  I don't use a laptop since I have tendonitis issues, and don't care for the blackberry etc.  I have a cell phone, voicemail on all my phones, and various email addresses.  I am always reachable, just not always a la instant.  And I can't use some of this stuff in court, anyway.

Bandel: The biggest thing I’ve seen is the significant increase in legal websites that offer research capabilities that you couldn’t get without computer access or working in the law firm or corporate environment.  For me, legal technology has made it easier to get my job done faster, while still providing my client’s with the services they need. In the past, corporate transactions I worked on required reinventing the wheel every time large filings needed to be done or research was needed.  One of the things I hated most was pouring over the CCH Securities Books to find out the information I needed while making sure it was up-to-date.  With technology now, I still have to do research, but it’s faster and I create my own databases that can be more effectively kept up-to-date and accurate, thus saving time and money which would have been charged directly to the client.  When you are working with people whose attitude is “time is money,” being able to quote a client a price that is not only cost-effective but accurate for the work that needs to be done, makes my life easier, as well as the client’s because they can more effectively utilize my services to their client’s in a more cost effective manner. In addition, when I started training legal software applications, the experience I had working with these applications as a “user” was and still is an invaluable tool to helping others to use these applications effectively and efficiently. Being able to resolve problems for client’s while still showing them how to effectively use their software applications still gives me a thrill. I’m called a computer geek by some of my client’s, but I look at it much as Fran does – I love being able to combine both!

©2006 Judith Bandel