How Paralegals Can Train Attorneys to Use Them Effectively
Well, I dug into the annals for help with this blog. Help came from a 2007 article published by the American Bar Association.
Here are three steps that paralegals can take to assure that attorneys, and especially attorneys new to the firm, called associates, use their services.
- Do excellent work; be competent. If you are properly educated and trained, you are most assuredly going to do excellent and competent work as a paralegal.
- Continually convince attorneys to delegate work to you. Often, attorneys get so immersed in the many matters and legal issues before them, that they get overwhelmed about having to spend time delegating to paralegals and then supervising them. Show them that you can help ease their load, leaving them with time to do that.
- Train attorneys about what tasks they do that you can also do. Many are not aware of the depth of understanding a properly educated paralegal has of the law and legal processes. So, it’s your job to ask to take on small projects to demonstrate your capabilities. Take the initiative, while helping attorneys supervise your substantive legal work along the way. Don’t wait for them to come to you.