No Shame in Being a Paralegal

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..."