[quote=bearishgurl][quote=yamashi] . . . I also question your last statement about your ability to pass the bar exam. I’m sure their are very good paralegals, but you can’t compare that to someone that has been practicing. I also hope that you didn’t tell that to people when you interviewed with them. It probably would be akin to a bookkeeper saying they could pass the CPA exam because they’ve been doing journal entries for 30 years.[/quote]H@ll, no. I would never say that in an interview and it wouldn’t help me, anyway cuz I would be applying for a paralegal job with no upward mobility to an attorney position. As it should be.
You can’t compare the work of a paralegal to a “bookkeeper making journal entries.” Paralegals actually do all the work attorneys do except depose witnesses, negotiate settlements and explain their terms to the party(s) and appear before the court. Often when an attorney goes into court to argue a motion, a paralegal wrote the motion and filed it and served it after the attorney looked it over and signed it. If a paralegal’s attorney trusts their research skills and the paralegal provided them with the cases they will be arguing with good notes and possible objections, they’re not going to spend hours (and $100(0)’s of their client’s money) “researching the paralegal’s research.” Ditto for trial prep, deposition prep and witness prep.
Umm, paralegals are frequently the invisible “grunt-worker attorneys” in the back room doing all the work and the “real (licensed) attorney” is in the front room taking all the credit for it.
As it should be :=)[/quote]
I’ve never seen what you describe – however, I have always practiced IP Law, which is relatively specialized. What you say may be true for run of the mill personal injury, residential real estate, etc. but in our office paralegals kept (thousands of boxes of) documents in order, maintained exhibits and deposition transcripts, and did other very useful tasks but not one ever wrote a brief, memo or anything that was filed with the court. If I’m paying a lawyer I expect a lawyer to do the work.
