No Shame in Being a Paralegal
People ask me in court "are you a lawyer?", my
response is always "nope, I work for a living"...and then after a
small chuckle... the truth is I wish I was, who can afford Law School?
Some paralegals are proud of their profession, some wish
they were lawyers, some are ashamed when they have to admit that they are
"only" a paralegal...and some have mixed feelings of all or any of
the above, plus a few other reactions thrown in.
I even have some friends who are shy about my profession,
and call me a lawyer, to which I correct them with "no, I'm a
paralegal".
Paralegals have not yet reached the height of prestige that
they probably should. It's a good idea to keep in mind that Ontario is the first jurisdiction to
regulate it's Paralegals in the same way that Lawyers are regulated, and
(hopefully) many other jurisdictions will soon follow suit.
Unfortunately, for now, most of the general public does not
even know what a Paralegal does, or can do, here, rather than anywhere else in
the world.
I "hung out my shingle" nearly 2 years ago, after
a few years working for a law firm. It felt like the right move to set up my
own shop, and I haven't regretted it yet.
The law firm that I was at previously was one that
specialized in family law, and I was told that it would provide me with lots of
work, as the lawyers in the firm wouldn't want to bother with the
"small" files that came through the door. I was told wrong. Well, not
wrong, just not correct to a certain degree.
I was the last one in the line. The lawyers got their pick
of the files, and even if a file was in Small Claims or Criminal, if it was a
tasty file, I didn't get it.
I was affiliated with the law firm in a "eat what you
kill" capacity. I wasn't being paid to sit on my behind, I only got paid
if I billed a file.
To give an example, the firm would get a call from someone
who had a claim for $15,000, and a lawyer could get a few thousand in billing
out of it - they'd scoop it up.
Most of the calls that would trickle down to me were silly
wastes of time, like someone asking "I had a collection agency call me for
$600, what can I do?", or some such thing.
So I had to go out and find my own files. Atop of not having
any files given me from the firm, I didn't have my own office, I had to
"hot-seat" it, by using any available space when it came up, and
otherwise use a terminal tucked way in the back of the office. I soon realized
that it was foolish for me to split my billings with a law firm if I had to
find my own files, but I didn't couldn't afford to start out on my own. I had
to save up.
Saving up was hard to do, because of my low billings. It took a long time, a couple of years. Finally, after saving up a bit, I took the plunge, and
rented an office. I then ordered business cards and created a website, and put
up some ads on Kijiji and Craigslist.
It's too early to tell yet, but the only real proof of success
is that I'm still here, after almost 2 years. They say that most businesses, if
they fail, will do so in the first 6 months (I'm not sure who "they"
are, but I've heard it a few times).
Here's to being "still alive and kicking..."