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]
Bookkeeper to paralegal seems like a fair comparison. A bookkeeper can generally do everything a CPA does except sign a tax return as preparer (unless they obtain additional certifications/education requirements), provide attest services (issue an audit opinion on financial statements), and represent a Client in front of the IRS. That leaves a lot of accounting/bookkeeping type tasks that can be performed. Accountants without a CPA designation often do most of the “grunt” work while the CPA takes the credit/assumes risk for work performed and is out bringing in more work for the “grunts” to perform.[/quote]If that’s the case, skerzz, I hope your bookkeepers are paid well. We used an “enrolled agent” to do our taxes for many years and she was very competent. We had no need for a CPA.
