The Role Of Paralegals

In the legal field, it is very important to be organized and stay informed of the constant changes of the law, that’s why lawyers need paralegals, who are professionals with legal proficiency, and are constantly acquiring new knowledge. The main role of a paralegal is to “help people”. Even though they might have some administrative tasks, paralegals are highly trained professionals who usually work for attorneys, and most of the time assume good part of the attorney’s workload.

Paralegals are responsible for doing legal research to help lawyers preparing for trials and cases. Legal research consists on researching case law, statutory law, and other legal sources to gather the most information there is about a case; it is one of the most important

Over the years, the role of legal assistants has changed as they took on more and more responsibility.

A legal assistant must love the law and acquire a vast legal knowledge; they work as hard as a lawyer and must understand law as much as a lawyer does. Attorneys would usually rely on their paralegals to perform their tasks impeccably. But it is important to acknowledge that the knowledge required to become a lawyer is different from the one needed to be a paralegal. A lawyer makes important legal decisions, while paralegals participate in the practical steps leading to these decisions.

I see a paralegal as a detail oriented, excellent communicator, and great “issues solver” professional, a paralegal’s main duty is to facilitate the lawyer’s job by drafting and organizing documents, gathering information and all other back up tasks needed for any case (setting appointments, registering documents, organizing calendar, and so on). Also, another extremely important trait that must be added to the list of competences of a paralegal is: Ethics. Paralegals must be aware of not infringing the law, as legal professionals they are able to perform many activities, but, they are not lawyers and they have to keep this in