Paralegal Skills
Some personalities and particular skill sets are better suited to the paralegal profession than others.
Today’s paralegal needs to be computer savvy and be able to stay on top of new programs and technologies as they come out.
An effective paralegal needs to be outgoing without being overly chatty.
Being highly organized and attentive to small details is an absolute must for paralegals A good legal assistant doesn’t overreact under pressure. A good paralegal will quickly be able to find flaws in documents, assist with billing and other functions, to keep the law office on track and profitable. They are expected to catch errors made by others and to make sure everyone who needs to know, is aware of important dates. Excellent spelling, grammar, and the ability to check these is a must. Paralegals are expected to be good writers and editors.
Common Mistakes Paralegals Help Lawyers With
With such an emphasis put on paralegals to be detail oriented and efficient, one might think that lawyers are meticulous about these. The reality is that both lawyers and paralegals make mistakes. Some lawyers make more mistakes than other lawyers the same way some paralegals make more mistakes than other paralegals. A difference though between the mistakes of paralegals and those of lawyers is typically, paralegals need to clean up their own mistakes even if means staying late and working long hours. When lawyers make mistakes, paralegals are often the ones charged with cleaning them up which often means staying late and working long hours.Failing to Appear
Legal Hyperbole
Good legal writing is clear and concise. Lawyers and paralegals often work as a team on legal briefs, passing them back and forth to one another to write and edit each other’s contribution. When a lawyer is not a very good writer, especially when they try too hard, their writing will probably not hold up very well in front of a judge. Even though a lawyer is a paralegal’s boss, the paralegal is often the one that needs to put a lawyer’s bad writing someplace where it won’t ruin their case.