A place for legal office professionals to share their experiences with legal administrative assistant students at South Central College. Feel free to comment on posts. We'd love to hear from professionals from all over the country.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Position Titles
What other job titles are used in your office? ...for the legal secretary as well as other jobs.
Most of the staff in my office are called legal assistants because of our experience level and the variety of duties we perform. We have two people who are called paralegals, but I really don't see the difference between them and legal assistants. We have a young man who worked for our office as a runner during college and continued to work here part-time as a law clerk during law school. As soon as he passes the bar he will become an associate attorney here. We have a wonderful receptionist who does many things besides answer the phone and greet clients. We also have a runner who does errands and deliveries, copy jobs, and mail.
Our legal office professionals are called legal secretaries and have completed a training program such as the one offered at SCC. We have a receptionist/secretary. Most of our paralegals have a 4-year degree or over 10+ years of secretarial experience with the firm. We also have an Office Clerk which does filing, copy projects, errands and mail. We hire part time students for this job.
In our office we have several different titles than private bar offices. We have a volunteer attorney program coordinator. Who recruits private bar attorneys to do pro-bono cases for some of our clients. We have an AmeriCrop* Vista Volunteer who helps our housing attorneys with investigation and research. We also utilize interns and volunteers to help do research, copy jobs and errands. We have the normal titles like paralegals and attorneys. The support staff's individual titles are legal secretary.
Do the legal assistants and receptionists usually have degrees in the field? In your office would an employer usually prefer a degree or experience in the position applied for?
Most of the support staff in our office are called legal assistants as well. Most, if not all, have completed a program such as the one you are attending. We also have paralegals and all three have a 4 year degree. Legal assistants and paralegals do some of the same tasks but there are also some tasks that one does and the other does not. The attorney I work for, the paralegal that does most of his work, and I are a very close "team" and operate that way.
As for the attorneys, we have "partners" and "associate attorneys" - attorneys that are not partners (or decision makers) in the firm. At various times we also have had law clerks who are usually attorneys just coming out of law school and looking for experience.
In our office, the secretaries have the title of Legal Support. We also have attorneys, paralegals, a receptionist/Legal Support, an accountant, an Office Manager, and a runner.
Emily - Each attorney has different preferences about needing assistance at trial. Usually they will take a paralegal or associate attorney with them if they need help. If you are quite familiar with the file and have done a lot of work on it, you could let your attorney know that you would like to attend the trial to see the procedures involved, and you could offer your assistance if needed. It is fun to go to part or all of a trial or deposition now and then and just watch what goes on. Each office or attorney has their own preferences, and sometimes it is just too busy to allow staff to be gone from the office. It is a valuable learning experience, however, if you can get permission to do that.
9 comments:
Most of the staff in my office are called legal assistants because of our experience level and the variety of duties we perform. We have two people who are called paralegals, but I really don't see the difference between them and legal assistants. We have a young man who worked for our office as a runner during college and continued to work here part-time as a law clerk during law school. As soon as he passes the bar he will become an associate attorney here. We have a wonderful receptionist who does many things besides answer the phone and greet clients. We also have a runner who does errands and deliveries, copy jobs, and mail.
Our legal office professionals are called legal secretaries and have completed a training program such as the one offered at SCC. We have a receptionist/secretary. Most of our paralegals have a 4-year degree or over 10+ years of secretarial experience with the firm. We also have an Office Clerk which does filing, copy projects, errands and mail. We hire part time students for this job.
In our office we have several different titles than private bar offices. We have a volunteer attorney program coordinator. Who recruits private bar attorneys to do pro-bono cases for some of our clients. We have an AmeriCrop* Vista Volunteer who helps our housing attorneys with investigation and research. We also utilize interns and volunteers to help do research, copy jobs and errands. We have the normal titles like paralegals and attorneys. The support staff's individual titles are legal secretary.
Do the legal assistants and receptionists usually have degrees in the field? In your office would an employer usually prefer a degree or experience in the position applied for?
Most of the support staff in our office are called legal assistants as well. Most, if not all, have completed a program such as the one you are attending. We also have paralegals and all three have a 4 year degree. Legal assistants and paralegals do some of the same tasks but there are also some tasks that one does and the other does not. The attorney I work for, the paralegal that does most of his work, and I are a very close "team" and operate that way.
As for the attorneys, we have "partners" and "associate attorneys" - attorneys that are not partners (or decision makers) in the firm. At various times we also have had law clerks who are usually attorneys just coming out of law school and looking for experience.
In our office, the secretaries have the title of Legal Support. We also have attorneys, paralegals, a receptionist/Legal Support, an accountant, an Office Manager, and a runner.
Do Legal administrative assistants get to sit in the court preceedings or is it just that paralegals who get to do that?
Emily - Each attorney has different preferences about needing assistance at trial. Usually they will take a paralegal or associate attorney with them if they need help. If you are quite familiar with the file and have done a lot of work on it, you could let your attorney know that you would like to attend the trial to see the procedures involved, and you could offer your assistance if needed. It is fun to go to part or all of a trial or deposition now and then and just watch what goes on. Each office or attorney has their own preferences, and sometimes it is just too busy to allow staff to be gone from the office. It is a valuable learning experience, however, if you can get permission to do that.
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