Job Search Manual

Paralegals are the professionals who work under a lawyer.  Their job is of legal assistant, which is more or less equal to a lawyer. Lawyers are mostly dependent upon their assistants to make reports, study the case, narrate them the terms, sanctions, cases, judgments etc.  The only difference is that they cannot present the case in the court and hence cannot charge their fees separately. 

Their main role is to analyze and organize the information.  They make draft presentation for the lawyers with pleadings, arguments etc.  They assist their attorneys during trials by obtaining necessary documents from the client like affidavit, statements etc.  In all, they do the whole preparatory work.

In addition to that they also help in making contract agreements, mortgages and other legal instruments, tax returns etc.  They have to co-ordinate with other offices and obtain the information to be used by his attorney in the court. 

So, their job role is quite vast and depends upon the employer.  By doing a  number of activities, they can become specialists also in a particular field as some are good in property matters and others are in shares and marriage matters.  For doing this, they have to keep themselves update with the changing government regulations from time to time.

Their job role is different in different organizations depending upon the size of the firm they are working with.  If it is a big public sector unit, they have to maintain files, case history, doing research in law books etc. 

It is also essential for them to know the use of computer because they have to do lot of their work on computers.  There are certain software’s which are helpful to them to retrieve the data like judgments, articles, etc.  Tax calculation through computer is so convenient that it takes only minutes to work out the final return.

Working Conditions

Their working conditions are quite similar to other employees in the unit like they have to work for forty hours a week.  Some units engage even part-time assistants or temporary assistants also depending upon the volume of work.  They have to work overtime also for which they are suitably rewarded.  Their job is a desk job and they have to work in some law libraries to find out about the cases, articles, judgments etc.  They may have to do outdoor jobs also to complete the report and to collect the relevant data from the clients, depending upon his experience.