As any legal administrator or partner knows, paralegals are a crucial part of any legal team. They have the education, training and experience to bring a competitive edge and improve overall efficiency. Paralegals benefit your practice in a multitude of ways – the most significant of which is enabling lawyers more time to focus on billable work.
Let’s take a quick look at the top five reasons to celebrate and appreciate the paralegals working in your firm or legal team.
5 Advantages of Paralegals
Paralegals do a lot for your firm or legal department and help your organization improve in many areas. It’s one of the most cost-effective solutions because paralegals can help you save time and money.
1. Focus on research
When it comes to building a case, evidence needs to be collected and research needs to be conducted to obtain critical information and documents for a successful case, i.e., discovery. A paralegal can help conduct this research and categorize documents to assist the team’s attorneys. This takes time off the attorney so they can focus on other tasks. The research support also helps speed up the discovery process, making this phase more efficient.
2. Improve client experience
Busy attorneys are juggling many cases and projects and sometimes may not have sufficient time to devote to client service. This is where paralegals can step in and improve client communication by giving them more time and an opportunity to connect with the firm. Paralegals can help answer any questions and be there for clients as needed when attorneys are unavailable.
3. Promote time management
Paralegals are able to focus on other projects at the firm including administrative tasks, research and other support needed. This helps with improving time management in the firm and allows attorneys to focus on billable hours and moving cases forward. Paralegals can conduct interviews, work on legal documents, and track the status of cases – a huge help to lawyers and which frees up time for them to put toward their cases.
4. Increase firm stability
Because paralegals are such a big help at a law firm, attorneys can focus on what they do best and hopefully find more work-life balance. This helps the team feel more engaged and less burned-out, and to function more efficiently overall. In a situation where there are not enough attorneys to cover a case or if an attorney leaves in the middle of a case, backlogged work can build up. Paralegals can keep things moving forward. This helps the firm stay above ground and on top of the workload until they are able to hire someone new.
5. Boost practice profitability
It costs less to hire a paralegal than a lawyer, and a paralegal can perform some of the tasks a lawyer can do, too. This includes gathering evidence, organizing client files, preparing legal documents as well as assisting during closings and trials. This can lower overhead costs while boosting productivity and efficiency. In turn, this improves overall outcomes and helps you gain a positive reputation among clients and prospective clients.
Paralegals are extremely helpful for a practice we want to celebrate and acknowledge all the hard work and support they provide to attorneys and law firms. Pursuing a career as a paralegal has become a popular choice, attracting bright minds who are passionate about the law but may not want the time and expense involved in obtaining a law degree. Those who run law firms know paralegals can be the secret to efficiency and success.
Are you looking to hire or ready for a new opportunity? Contact our recruiters at Adams & Martin Group, today!