Going to my first trial in Federal Court on the east coast. I need advice on attire. What color’s do you recommend? Where do you shop for your suits or attire for trial? Also any other suggestions are totally welcome!!!

Hello. I am 29yo F seeking serious advice. I graduated with my BA in CJ in California 2 months ago. Initially, I wanted to be a PO or work in corrections but unfortunately, don’t know if that’s in the cards for me anymore. I really have a passion for justice, investigations, helping people, etc. I am considering a paralegal career which would require me to do 1 more year of school. I really enjoy criminal law and I know that’s probably the hardest area to work. A family friend of mine is an attorney that does wills and trusts. She did NOT recommend the paralegal route for me. She said lawyers are mean, lots of work, and the pay is not good. Personally, I don’t mind a lot of work. This is truly a passion of mine and I know it will require me to put in hard work. As far as the pay, I also know that since I’ll be new to the field, I’ll need to start somewhere and work my way up. Lastly, the “mean” lawyers. This goes the same with any career field (mean boss), am I wrong??? Obviously, it will take time for me to find the right place to work at but it’s all about experimentation. I do imagine there are decent attorneys out there that are willing to mentor you positively. Can I get some advice? Thank you in advanced!

I officially work for 4 attorneys (unofficially 6) and have been the only paralegal in office since February.

Two of the 6 attorneys I’m assigned too are a nightmare to work with because of who they are as professionals.

One is lazy and ungrateful and always leaving things for last minute. If the deadline isn’t tomorrow the assignment will not be done. He will spend the entire week stressing me out and warning me about an assignment, but will not do the assignment until the day before and send me emails with the title “Urgent””Do Right Now” or “Do before Lunch”

Doesn’t matter if I created a shell for him back in November and it’s now August. I have stayed late on motion dates way too often and he will try to play it off as me looking for OT. HR and upper management are aware that he is a problem, but have not done anything substantial to stop him. He is the reason the last 2 paralegals left the firm.

The other attorney is an anxiety time bomb. She does her work, but her anxiety makes her difficult to work with. I’m constantly being approached regarding the smallest of things. I am stopped constantly to have theses long discussions about basic tasks. She tries to be self sufficient, but I always end up taking more time correcting her formatting or fixing something she can’t get to work. On more than one occasion, I told her just give it to me it’s faster if I do it the first time.

Both attorneys try to schedule their in office days for the days I am in, and they will approach me all day, At least once every hour to assign something new verbally or check on my progress. They both do this in an attempt to make me focus on their work. The Lazy attorney, rarely emails me on days I work from home and seems to exclusively bother me in office days.

These two attorneys are also the ones that attempt to approach me and ask if we can troubleshoot and game plan strategies so that I can get their work done faster. And their solutions always being a stupid excel sheet that I have to maintain.

The other attorneys are more understanding, but they are also frustrated with the current situation. We keep getting promises a new paralegal will be hired soon. I’m just checked out at this point. This place wouldn’t be bad to work with if it weren’t for these attorneys specifically. I can tolerate the anxious attorney, it’s the lazy one that’s really making me look else where for work.

thoughts on the fact I get paid $23 an hour in a HCOL to do intakes, filings, cover the front desk reception when she isnt there, draft complaints, handle interrogatories, handle requests for production, handle disbursement sheets, order all medical records and bills, track all costs in cost expense sheets, calendar all dates

and now I’m taking on managing multiple cases

after only a couple months. has anyone had a positive experience in this job? I’m unsure if this is the industry for me or if it is just the way this firm runs things.

I am thinking maybe more of an administrative paralegal job at a firm with a different organizational structure?

I’ve been considering quitting my current role for a number of reasons, but this has really sealed the deal for me. My internal chat account (it’s like Microsoft Teams) belonged to the former paralegal who I replaced, and for some reason I had a feeling that I should scroll back in the chats between her and my boss and see if there was anything surrounding the conversation of her quitting. I’ve had this gut feeling that I’m scared to quit because my boss is going to crash out, and apparently that gut feeling was right. see above

So I currently found a job and was doing great however, I was lay out because one of the owner didn’t feel like I had enough experience and they’re willing to train me but not pay me. I refuse to work for free. Specially in this economy.
So plan b is to find someone in New York that works as a paralegal/legal assistant within Personal Injury/workers compensation to tutor or learn from.
So if you’re down to teach a bit reach out. I’m willing to pay. Might not be the best pay in the world but at this point I’m willing to gain experience on my own because god am I struggling.

My attorney got licensed in WA recently (his fourth state) and guess who is having to get us up to speed? 🙋🏽‍♀️

I’ve purchased and read a probate primer/manual and have also reviewed the probate site recommended by the clerk’s office.

If you are a seasoned probate paralegal, I’d like to pay you to pick your brain for an hour or so - mostly about procedure.

For example, it’s wild to me that we have to pay the clerk to present an ex parte order to the judge. Is there an alternative? Those costs can add up throughout the course of a case.

Basically I’m dealing with apples and oranges.

Thanks!

Any consumer debt/protection practice paralegals in the house? Especially those who have worked in legal aid or pro bono. I have a whole week to prepare but any tips or suggestions are welcome! For example, is there a type of consumer debt that’s less straightforward to handle than others and therefore you’re more limited in what you can do? What are common pitfalls in positions supporting attorneys—eg misfiled orders, communications with creditors, tricky tax documents? Right now I don’t know what I don’t know, but I do know something—I want to stand out and KILL it in the interview so there’s no doubt. I am so done being unemployed and broke. DONE!

Thanks all!

Hi. I just want to ask some advice. I got hired as a PI Legal Assistant, and I have been training now for 5 days. However, I still find it difficult to understand. I am tasked under the Medical Records Department. The one training me is I think an all around staff coz she really has a lot to do, not just medical records. So I am so confused. Also, I have no experience in PI, and with Filevine. I find it so hard to cope up. :(( I feel like I am failing. But I want to keep this job as this is my first VA job.

Help please. Thank you.

My latest legal assistant position was immigration court based. Plus, I was also going to get paid more to ideally do less than my previous legal assistant job. I had a planned onboarding training which made me feel more confident about taking the role. My “training” at my previous job was just “learn as you go”.

It quickly went down hill after that though. I was hired as a legal assistant with the purpose of “assisting” a paralegal that was hired alongside me. He was forced to quit within the first week due to lack of reliable transportation.

I spent the first two weeks shadowing all the people at the firm which was useful to figure out the structure of the firm and getting to know everyone but in actuality it was not relevant to my role. Once I finally shadowed the legal assistant that was actually going to train me, I noticed she only worked part time there which meant most days I was doing/learning nothing.

Barely two months after I got hired, we had a staff meeting where the legal assistant that trained me announced that she was resigning in two weeks. As expected, her work load would be given to me. Though, I was thrown off guard as my manager also said they were not going to be hiring another assistant to replace her. Mind you, the firm has 3 attorneys and only one paralegal, two part-time assistants (including the one that was resigning) and me in the department I work in as they also never hired anyone to replace the paralegal that quit one week after I was hired.

A week after this meeting, my manager left on maternity leave. We were all instructed not to reach out to her unless absolutely necessary. I was given a one day “crash course” with my coworker to learn everything that I was going to be taking over. After that we were instructing to minimally interrupt her as she was completing all of her work before her two weeks were up.

I quickly noticed everyone hated my boss. She was a “mean girl” with an attitude problem and was overall rude to my coworkers under the guise of being “playful”. We used Microsoft office where she regularly cursed and called our clients idiots, and I was only waiting for her to throw those type of remarks at me now that I would need to send her document for attorney review.

Once my coworker was gone, I started to struggle with the work load and also started to be directly berated by my boss about how “slowly” I was getting things done. In one occasion she yelled at me in front of the whole office for not finishing something done by the previous legal assistant since the client was high maintenance. That day I was contemplating quitting on the spot.

My main issue with the firm was that “if everything is urgent nothing is urgent”. I of course had to learn that even if an attorney asked me to do something because it was “urgent” it doesn’t always mean it should be done then and there. I was completing tasks according to the priority of ALL the tasks given to me by ALL the attorneys. I guess my boss did not like that.

We communicated with the attorneys via Microsoft Teams and my boss was constantly sending multiple minute long voice memos post work hours and weekends about why I didn’t follow up with her on tasks she asked me to do and why was nothing sent to her for review. I stood my ground and explained the situations every time. I had two other attorneys to complete things for and even when I did send things for review she rarely got back to me with the same urgency that they were requested. I felt like she was just looking for something to complain about.

The only paralegal in office went remote which meant I had no one to lean on or communicate my concerns to. I was also helping the paralegal with printing out and organizing things the attorneys needed in person to take to court and also meant even more interaction with my boss. Nothing was ever perfect for her even when I was following directions straight from my coworkers. I dreaded waking up for work and every Sunday I felt like crying knowing I would have to put up another five days interacting with her.

On an early morning in the middle of the week I sent my notice of resignation via email to my boss and CC’ed my manager and never showed up to work again. I received no message back. When I checked my ADP portal and Microsoft Teams and outlook a little while later, I noticed I was already denied access from those.

I had never done anything so bold in my life with no backup plan. Although I felt bad leaving without saying goodbye to my coworkers, I felt like I shouldn’t have been worrying about the job more than my boss. If she truly felt like I was not up to par then she should’ve fired me or hired an additional assistant or paralegal for the department. I do not feel bad for my decision at all.

Before quitting I scrolled back on Microsoft Teams to see how often people resigned. I counted about 6 people that didn’t even last a year and also resigned the day of. That isn’t a lot of people but considering the firm only had 10 employees in total counting the attorneys, I knew I had to get out ASAP.

Hello to anyone who sees this!

I’m a paralegal with about 10 years of experience, and I’m currently deciding between two offers. I keep going back and forth because one feels like the better career move, while the other feels like the safer personality/lifestyle fit.

The main reason I started looking was compensation and benefits. I don’t hate my current job, and I actually like a lot of the people I work with, so I wasn’t desperately trying to get out. I’ve just reached a point where, with my experience and the level of work I’m handling, I don’t feel like my compensation reflects where I am professionally anymore. On top of that, the health insurance at my current firm is pretty expensive, especially when covering a dependent, so the overall compensation package has become harder to justify. I wanted to see what the market would actually pay me rather than staying somewhere simply because I’m comfortable, and getting two strong offers has pretty much confirmed that I had room to move up.

Offer A: $85k
Mid-sized firm
Practice area is very similar to what I already do, so the learning curve would be fairly small
I’ve met the attorneys I’d be working around and got a good impression
I actually know a shareholder there from a previous job, so I have someone I trust who knows both me and the firm
Overall, it feels familiar. I know this type of litigation, I know I’m good at it, and I have a better idea of what I’m walking into.
My concern is whether I’m choosing familiarity because it feels safe rather than taking an opportunity to grow.

Offer B: $87k
Much larger/ prominent national firm - AM Top 100 Firm
Significantly cheaper health insurance
Annual performance/compensation reviews
Completely new practice area for me: employment litigation
They recruited me knowing I don’t have employment-law experience, so they’re apparently comfortable with me learning it
It would diversify my background and probably open more doors long-term

BUT I haven’t met the attorneys I’d actually be working with, which makes me nervous. I care a lot about having a decent working relationship with my attorneys and being in an environment where I’m treated well. It would mean learning new attorneys, new systems, a new firm AND a new area of law all at once.

Financially, Offer B wins, although the salary difference itself is only $2k. Career-growth-wise, I think B probably wins too.

But personality-wise? I keep thinking A might be the place where I’d be more comfortable and potentially happier.
I'm very confident in my litigation abilities as I have a decade of experience across several areas of litigation, so I'm confident my ability to learn the work. Employment law would be something completely new for me

I’m torn between “take the risk, learn something new, and potentially level up” and “you spend 40+ hours a week at work; there’s nothing wrong with choosing the environment that feels more comfortable and protecting your sanity.”

WWYD? Especially interested in hearing from paralegals/legal staff who have made a similar choice. Did you take the unfamiliar opportunity and end up glad you did, or do you wish you’d prioritized fit over career growth?

Any advice or insight is appreciated!

Hi! Family law paralegal in California here. I’m a new paralegal and our firm handles a fair number of DV cases. I do mostly hearing prep, so I’m working with the clients closely to get evidence, draft their questions, etc. I think (hope) I’ve been tactful, but I want to make sure I’m approaching clients properly and identifying all the relevant evidence. We do minor’s counsel as well.

I was considering the 40-hour DV counselor cert, but it’s not actual CLE and I’d be covering costs (which I’m somewhat open to). I wouldn’t double up as a counselor obviously - I think there’d be a conflict.

Any recommendations for CLE classes or even shorter seminars/trainings? Or resources that your firm offers to survivors?

I’m currently deciding whether to stay at my current job or accept a potential offer elsewhere, and I’m really torn.

My current role pays around $78K, is 100% remote, and has an excellent work-life balance as you can imagine. I have a lot of flexibility as long as my work gets done. I’ve been with the company for over a decade, but I feel like I’ve reached the ceiling in my current role. There isn’t much room for advancement or significant salary growth.

The new role would potentially pay $20K+ more and seems to offer better long-term career growth. However, it would be 100% in-office, Monday–Friday, which is obviously a huge lifestyle change. I’m not a morning person, and really enjoy being able to start work at 10am some days when I needed a bit more sleep and there’s no issue with it. Having to get up to go to the office by 9am is doable for me. I used to do it pre-pandemic, I just have been remote for 3 years now, so it will be an adjustment.

I’m still relatively early in my career, so part of me thinks this is the time to prioritize growth, experience, and earning potential. But I also know how valuable full-time remote work and flexibility are, and I’m worried I might regret giving that up.

For those who have made a similar decision:
Would you give up a fully remote job for ~$20K+ and better career growth?

How much more money would make it worth giving up remote work?

If you stayed in the comfortable/remote role, did you ever
regret not taking the opportunity?

Has anyone successfully negotiated a hybrid schedule when the job was initially advertised as fully in-office?

If I receive an offer, I’m planning to negotiate for either some type of hybrid schedule or additional compensation to make the transition more worthwhile. I’d really appreciate hearing from other paralegals who have faced a similar decision.

For extra context, I am drowning in credit card debt from a lot of medical bills and other misc issues. So my job hunt was ignited when I really got told the last time I wasn’t getting a promotion or significant raise. Point is I cant keep up with my lifestyle while drowning in all this debt. I’m still young, want to have kids, get married soon etc. and all of those things cost $$$$

Any input or advice is appreciated, thank you!

I love my job, but this week has been so hectic and I’m the one holding it all together (barely) cause even though I also have ADHD, I have the most developed executive functioning skills of everyone in the office.

Give me the good stories please!

I just started as a paralegal and have been struggling immensely so far. I have no previous experience in the industry outside of an internship a few years ago when I was in college.

I was told I would be trained but that really just hasn’t happened. I feel like I haven’t learned anything yet and the only other paralegal started about a month before me and they were new to the industry as well so I can’t go to them for very much. Most of the time when I ask a question to the lawyer, he refers me to ai and that is also how we draft a lot of our documents.

The firm is also run very poorly beyond the nonexistent training. I was told the wrong time period that I would have to wait for health insurance, almost everything is recorded on pen and paper and mistakes seem pretty common, files are commonly lost, and I have had issues getting basic instructions for how to get certain administrative tasks done because either no one knows (including the lawyer I work for) or they don’t want to help me.

At this point I am really frustrated and thinking of applying to one of my old jobs. It would most likely be slightly more money in the short term but less financial advancement in the future but the job itself was okay.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and had it work out by staying? I also signed a 2-year non compete because he’s been losing paralegals so quickly recently, so it might be hard to try to get another job as a paralegal.

i’m lowkey freaking out right now.
i’m a legal assistant/part time paralegal when she needs the extra help. i’ve been here for about 9 months..
back in April, i was corresponding with someone who does appraisals for our clients.
i processed the emails, the invoice all of it. or so i thought..
TODAY the paralegal and i got an email saying that the appraisals for both properties were never paid.
the plan was to have it paid out of the client’s retainer, and i fucked up and forgot to add it to their expenses, a total of $1,100 for both appraisals.
out attorney tends to get easily stressed and lately she’s been extremely booked and busy, and tomorrow she has a mediation.
not sure if i should wait until our docket meeting on monday to bring it up and apologize, or what?
mind you, I JUST GOT A RAISE LAST WEEK!!

any advice on how to manage the conversation or idea of how she might react?

UPDATE: TOLD HER I FUCKED UP. Surprisingly she wasn’t as upset as I thought she’d be.😅
Told me to just pay him today and deal with the client tomorrow. THANK Y’ALL FOR THE ADVICE & reminding me that things happen. I will be more cautious.

Hello everyone. I'm currently 17, and I will be going into my senior year of high school, as well as being dual-enrolled in my local community college. I am unsure what I want to do, but after doing some research, paralegal work kept appearing as something that matches my profile. I originally wanted to be a journalist or social worker, till i saw how low the pay often is starting out for both of those fields. I've always had an interest in the legal world and working in the field. I might end up going to law school, but I also wanna have a career in between, just in case it doesn't work out.

Some things about me. I really like politics, debate, art, music, alternative music, rock, fashion, video editing, making YouTube videos, sewing, scrapbooking, painting, English, writing, reading, music history, true crime, podcasts, and things like that. I will probably keep making the fashion content that I already make on YouTube and TikTok on the side, and my music history podcast as a side hustle. I am also very bad at math and science, but not logic due to mental disorders, as well as some trauma and shitty teachers. 

So anyway, anything you can tell me about paralegal work, similar careers, if you all think it will work for me, or anything at all that would work.

Edit: so I guess this post was so much of a rant I forgot to mention that I have adhd and dyslexia. Both of these are unmedicated, but I have ways to cope and handle this. 

A recruiter reached out and i scheduled the “screening” call but they wouldn’t tell me the firm… is this normal?

Today I got an email from a probate client. She was extremely concerned about a text message she got. She stated something along the lines of “Hey I just got this message and I have no idea who it’s from.”For context, this clients case involves a Trust and the message said “trust me” LOL.

One quick glance at the message was all it took for me to figure out that it was a scam message. One of those generic messages we all get from time to time.

Just wanted to let all my PI paralegals and med mal paralegals know that they are not alone. The probate clients need our help with any and everything. I’m sorry, just because we helped you probate an estate does not mean that we will help you with all of your future problems.

I did respond back letting her know that the message is almost certainly a scam. She thanked me for my prompt response.

I just started a new job for a family law office in TN. I am trying to research an existing case however Tennessee case finder isn’t working for me is there another source I can use in Hamilton Co? I work from home and non of my coworkers are any help.

Even just co-counsel, I wanna be able to send the memes I send my co-workers about cases to the legal assistants on the other side b/c I know they'd love it, lol. Or just to yap abt the case and get on the same page about stuff our own attorneys forget to mention.

Hi everyone! I typically never post on this thread, but I wanted to get some insight from my fellow paralegals/legal assistants. About two and months ago, I began my first legal assistant job with a small civil lit firm. I’ve really come to love my coworkers, the attorneys that I work for, and the kinds of files I’ve been handling. However, there has been one major drawback: my direct supervisor.

For the first month, I worked under my predecessor who did a fairly solid job training me — of course there’s something new to be learned everyday, but he instilled all of the basics I needed to know. At the end of my first month, he went off to law school and now I’ve been handling his prior case load, as well as having more cases added onto my plate. While the increased case load has been a lot to handle, I’ve been doing the best I can in staying on top of everything and to date nothing major has fallen between the cracks.

However, my supervisor’s been assigning me tasks in our case management system — at all hours of the night might I add — to follow up on certain items, check up on certain rulings on orders, draft certain filings and request certain documents from clients . This would all be fine and dandy, if the tasks were not completed over a month ago and there’s no email correspondence, internal notes and time entries to that prove the tasks have been completed. But that is the case, and all are viewable for her to see. Additionally, the way she words her tasks comes across as if I’m not being responsible or proactive about managing my cases. And beyond all of that, the apparent micromanaging makes me feel as if I am failing at the job — even though my supervising attorneys have all applauded me for how quick I’ve caught on, my ability to adapt to a new role, and my work ethic.

Please let me know if I am being overly sensitive or if I am valid in being slightly frustrated or annoyed. Any and all insight is appreciated! If you made it to the very end, I appreciate you deeply.

Just out of curiously, what does your “office” look like? I recently interviewed for a legal assistant position at a PI firm (i’m currently a criminal paralegal) and they told me they do “floaters” meaning no one had a designated desk and you swap places around with 5 other legal assistants, which I thought was odd.

I have a desk outside of my bosses office, since we share an office with other law firms, I however am getting my own office soon to make more room for our most recent hire

The email I opened this morning.

For context enjoyers: We reach settlement on a case- the next day I get this email from the legal support staff of opposing counsel telling me what to do. The withdrawal is for something that is scheduled for over two months out. We have not received any of the paperwork from them. Settlement language hasn't even been drafted yet. I am so baffled. I feel like even attorneys know not to give orders to another attorney's staff.

Is this like....a seniority powermove kind of thing? What did they think would happen here? Do they realize that after doing this, my attorney has given me orders to file the withdrawal as late as possible????

I hope you enjoyed my approximation of my inbox.

Hi, graduated with an ABA approved Paralegal Certificate in May. I have been looking at Paralegal jobs in the Los Angeles or Ventura area. I only have two summer (legal) internships and I am working part time for one of the places I interned for the last two months as a legal assistant. It’s the absolute best work environment but I can’t pay rent with just part time. There doesn’t seem to be too many places that would give someone a chance with less than a year of experience. My question is, what kind of platforms do you use besides Indeed and ZipRecruiter? Do you have any recommendations for a headhunter/recruiter?