Paralegal Studies News & Events
Paralegal Studies Information Session
Tuesday, April 10
5:30pm-7:00pm
SF State Downtown Campus
835 Market Street, 6th Floor
(@ Powell Street BART/Muni Station)
How to find us
A special information session for prospective paralegal students will be held at the SF State Downtown Campus. Program graduates who are practicing paralegals, representatives from the San Francisco Paralegal Association, and members of the program staff will provide information on the program and more.
Please RSVP online here!
For additional information, please contact brahman@sfsu.edu.
SFPA Estate Planning Section Meeting
Timothy P. Kneis, Probate Examiner, San Francisco County Superior Court, will speak about "A View from the Probate Examiner’s Desk."
Thursday, January 12
12:00 noon-1:00pm
SF State Downtown Campus
835 Market Street, Room 610
(@ Powell Street BART/Muni Station)
How to find us
Reserve early. Seating is limited.
Please contact Claude Anyos at claudeanyos@yahoo.com for reservations and questions.
A message from the director, Pat Medina: There is no charge for Paralegal Students who wish to attend this SFPA meeting. This is an important meeting regarding changes in the law for 2012. It is open to all SF State students and is particularly important for those students and graduates who are working now or hope to be working in the Probate field.
SF State Career Fair
Increasing Your Paralegal Marketability
Thursday, January 19
6:00pm-8:30pm
SF State Downtown Campus
835 Market Street, 6th Floor
(@ Powell Street BART/Muni Station)
How to find us
This event will provide information on how to obtain and succeed in a paralegal career. A panel presentation by legal professionals will provide you with access to the inside knowledge you need to succeed.
Bring copies of your résumé!
Topics include:
I. Market Trends - Where the legal market is and where it is going
- Hot Specialty Areas - What Employers are Looking for Now!
- Temp-to-Perm Job Placement
- Skills in Demand
- Trend Predictions
II. Resume Do's And Don'ts - How to make the most of your résumé and avoid common pitfalls
- Biggest Blunders or What to Leave Off of Your Resume
- Generic Résumé: A Wise Choice?
- Cover Letters: First Writing Sample for Employer
III. Interview Skills - What to expect and how to make the most of your job interview
- The Interview: Making a Positive Impact
- Telephone Screening Interviews
- What Questions to Expect
- How to Answer the Tough Questions
- After the Interview- Now What?
IV. Learning the Firms - A view into San Francisco's legal community
- Law Firm Cultures
- Non-Traditional Legal Jobs
- Internships as stepping stone in your career
V. Pro-Bono Work - How to gain legal experience while helping those in need
- The Volunteer Legal Services Program of the Bar Association of SF
VI. Soft Skills
- Business Communications - Telephone Skills
- Co-worker Issues
- Traditional Communication v. The Electronic Age: When to Utilize Each
Panel members include*:
Kim Clancy, Managing Director, Hampton O'Bannon Partners
Patricia Jones, Business Development Manager, Nelson Legal
Marimart Paulbitski, Legal Practice Director, Mergis Group
Panel moderated by Pat Medina, Director of the Paralegal Studies Program
This is a free event for SF State Paralegal Students, Prospective Students and Graduates.
*Panel subject to change.
News
Capitol Weekly: Paralegals Could Help the Attorney General's Office Increase Savings
"Should AG hire more paralegals?"
Capitol Weekly
April 28, 2011
By Malcolm Maclachlan
In the months since he became governor, Jerry Brown has aggressively targeted waste in an attempt to make the state government more efficient. This includes a bill he signed last month, SB 78, designed to get state departments to more efficiently manage the money they use to get legal services from the office he used to run as the state’s attorney general from 2007 until this January.
This, in turn, raises the question of how efficient an operation he left behind. Like all state agencies, the Department of Justice has sustained significant budget cuts. Over the last three fiscal years, the AG’s office has had to reduce costs by a cumulative $110 million.
But there appears to be one cost-cutting trend in the legal industry that the AG’s office has not kept up with: hiring more paralegals. These are lower-cost employees who can do much of the support work for attorneys, including some tasks that are often carried out by attorneys.
“There has been a push, and clients have forced the push, starting in the early or mid '90s to lower the costs of their legal bills and use as many lower-level, inexpensive people as they can,” said Tom Chase, owner of Chase Legal Professionals Inc. in Folsom.
“Paralegals are definitely part of that process,” added Chase, who is not an attorney but has managed four different law firms. He also taught a course on law firm management at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge Law School from 1989 to 2004.
The legal industry was influenced by the 1992 roll-out of the “DuPont Model.” Seeking to lower their legal costs, the chemical giant increased the number of paralegals on their legal staff from six to 40, and radically changed the ratio of attorneys to paralegals, going down to two-to-one.
According to a 2009 report by Tracy Wymer, senior research director at the Pennsylvania-based staffing firm Knoll Inc., current industry ratios generally call for no more than nine attorneys to one paralegal, though four is close to the ideal for many firms - and some have as few as two attorneys for every paralegal.
The ratio of attorneys to paralegals is often more of a “cultural” issue within a firm than just a practical matter, said Wymer when reached at his office in San Francisco. It can also involve mundane considerations such as office space, since law offices must have meeting spaces and keep huge volumes of paper records around.
“I wish there were industry standards you could say you were above or below, but that’s really not the case,” Wymer said.
As of July 1, 2010, the AG’s office had 149 legal analysts or senior legal analysts, their equivalent of paralegals, and 1,122 attorneys, according to figures from state controller John Chiang’s office. This ratio of 7.5 attorneys for every paralegal would place it within industry norms, though likely on the more top-heavy end.
These figures also cover both filled and open positions, so they may not reflect the true ratio within the AG’s operation. There are also individual units of the AG’s office that have much higher ratios. In an Oct. 4 letter to the California Medical Board, senior assistant attorney general Carlos Ramirez noted that the Health Quality Enforcement Office (HQE) in Los Angeles had three supervising attorneys general, 22 deputy attorneys general - and a single paralegal, meaning the office had a ratio of 25 to one.
According to a spokesperson for the AG’s office, the state has a hard time competing with private law firms to hire paralegals at the approved pay rates. A legal analyst for the state makes a salary of between $46,000 to $56,000. A senior legal analyst tops out at $67,400.
But, according to 2008 figures from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, this places the state well within industry norms for the profession. The national median salary for paralegals was $46,120, though most of these people worked in areas with a lower cost of living than California. Paralegals in the federal government actually had a higher median salary, $58,540, than those in corporate firms, $55,190.
A lower salary scale than the private sector is also an issue when the AG’s office needs to hire lawyers. A beginning deputy attorney general can make as little as $56,000 annually, with the top scale going up to $94,000. With a few years of experience and a couple promotions, they can move up to $126,000, according to job vacancy data listed on the AG’s website.
Attorneys also face three years of graduate-level schooling to get a degree and student debt loads that can easily top $100,000 - putting them under pressure to make money. And they must pass a bar exam that is widely considered the nation’s hardest. In 2008, 46 percent of first-time test takers failed, the highest rate in the country. Several notable people in California political history failed their first time out, including former Stanford Law School dean Kathleen Sullivan, whose name has come up in connection with U.S. Supreme Court openings under the Obama administration, and Brown himself.
By contrast, the 33 paralegal programs in California that are recognized by the American Bar Association generally take about a year for applicants who already have a bachelor’s degree. And even though the Bureau of Labor Statistics recognizes paralegals as one of the fastest-growing jobs in the country, with openings slated to grow 28 percent between 2008 and 2018, new graduates often have a hard time getting their first job, Chase said. Paralegals aren’t usually a hot commodity in the private sector until they have some experience, he said.
There are 10 job openings currently listed on the AG’s website, but only one for an attorney and none for paralegals. The agency lists three spots for criminal supervisors in the investigative branch, and two for legal secretaries - a job that sometimes has overlap with paralegals, according to Chase.
The spokesperson for the AG also said that the litigation-heavy nature of their work limits the numbers of paralegals they can use. Many law firms do most of their work outside of court—filing real estate or tax documents, or other work that does not involved the inside of a court room.
But Chase says the law firms that hire a lot of paralegals are often the same ones that do a lot of litigation. Paralegals often sit in on depositions and summarize them, or organize exhibits for trial.
It’s not that the AG’s office is expensive compared to a comparable law firm. The Department of Justice charges $170 an hour for an attorney. Private rates for attorneys with comparable education and credentials can be significantly higher. While there’s no set industry standard, rates at many firms can easily run $225 to $300, though many firms are lower - and some are higher.
The AG’s office charges state agencies $120 for an hour of a paralegal’s time. In 2004, the rate was $132 an hour for attorneys and $91 for paralegals - meaning the hourly rate for each has grown by about a third over that time.
ABA Journal: Paralegal Is Better Job than Lawyer
Paralegal Is Better Job than Lawyer, Ranking Says
ABA Journal
January 6, 2011
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A paralegal job outranks lawyer in a new rating of 200 jobs by a career website.
The job of paralegal assistant is in 13th place, while the job of attorney is in 82nd place on the list by CareerCast.com. The ranking is based on five criteria: physical demands, work environment, income, outlook and stress.
Stenographer/court reporter is ranked 31st, while judge is ranked 53rd.
CareerCast.com lists an income figure for each job that is based on estimated midlevel income and income growth potential. For paralegal, the income score is $47,153. For lawyer, it is $113,211. The website also lists a hiring outlook that is based on expected employment growth, income growth potential and unemployment data. For paralegal, the hiring outlook is 23.53, while for lawyer it is 10.11.
The top-ranked job is software engineer, with a hiring outlook of 27.40 and midlevel income figure of $87,140, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. Last year’s top job, actuary, dropped to third place, behind mathematician. The lowest-rated job was roustabout.
California Alliance of Paralegal Associations Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of Business and Professions Code 6450 + Earn MCLE Credits
Learn the background of BPC 6450, and why California paralegals should be proud of this legislation, in the following article:
"CAPA CELEBRATES BPC 6450’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY" (PDF)
By Carolyn Yellis, ACP
(You will need Adobe Reader to view this PDF file.)
It is the responsibility of California Paralegals, to obtain and maintain their MCLE credits. The minimum requirements (4 hours of ethics and 4 hours of generalized or specialized law) must be met by December 31, 2010. You can come and join CAPA in its 10 year celebration of Business & Professions Code 6450 et seq. Earn your MCLE credits and join in the fun of meeting paralegals from throughout the state. For more information please go to www.caparalegal.org.
Congratulations to Judge Ruth Astle!
Paralegal Studies Instructor Judge Ruth Astle has received a senior Fulbright grant to teach international law at the National State Tax Service University in Ukraine for three weeks this fall. She has also been awarded the 2009 Fellowship from the National Association of Administrative Law Judges to deliver a paper on Ethics: Problems and Solutions in Orlando, FL in November at their annual meeting. SF State Extended Learning congratulates Ruth and wishes her the best for her upcoming adventures.
Paralegals: Unlikely Beneficiaries of the Recession
Learn about how paralegals are gaining as law firms cut costs in this article from Law360.
Associate Losses May Be Paralegals' Gain
By Anne Urda
Source: Law360
Law360, New York (May 05, 2009) -- As associates fight for their survival, law firms are looking to paralegals to help them ride out the economic storm at a fraction of the price, some legal experts say. With law firms determined to cut costs and prepared to let go of associates in order to keep up with client demands, paralegals are among the unlikely beneficiaries of the recession, according to Alan Miles, the founder and principal of California-based legal recruitment firm Alan Miles & Associates.
"Along with the contract attorney arena, you are going to see a boom in the paralegal business," he said. "Everybody is de-leveraging and the whole model is upside down. Under the old model, you have three to four associates to every partner. Now because money is so tight, clients don't want to pay for extra people."
Consequently, firms are likely to start hiring back paralegals first or to just expand those ranks rather than bring on more associates, according to Miles.
"Paralegals are going to decimate the junior associate ranks," he said. "The work these associates were doing is going to be replaced by the paralegals. You have the associates earning $170,000 or $180,000 a year and the paralegals making $70,000 or $80,000 a year."
The expense of employing a paralegal is much lower overall when compared to the overhead associated with a junior associate for a firm.
"It is cheaper to keep a paralegal than a lawyer," he said. "With the latter, you have to have word processing, get them secretarial help, etc. - you're probably spending upwards of $200,000. With a paralegal, you are not only cutting salaries but also expenses related to that position."
But the move is not just about the bottom line. Paralegals often bring more to the table than a first- or a second-year associate, according to Miles. "An experienced paralegal should be worth his or her weight in gold," he said. "A paralegal that has been there for 10 to 15 years knows exactly how things are done. The learning curve for a 10-year paralegal is a lot shorter than for a second-year associate."
Charles Volker t, the executive director of legal staffing agency Robert Half Legal, also says that the challenging economy has created a highly competitive climate where "I think all firms are trying to figure out how to operate more efficiently, and part of the key to that is infrastructure," he said. "We are seeing a high demand in both law firms and corporate legal departments for paralegals with three-plus years of experience in the hot practice areas like bankruptcy, litigation, and ethics and corporate governance." Paralegals who are technically savvy and experienced in e-discovery and various litigation matters can command a premium these days, with law firms hotly seeking out candidates with such skills. "You are seeing higher salaries for those paralegals that understand those tools," he said. "Now more than ever, law firms need to be more prudent and strategic."
While every law firm is built differently and each outfit knows what it needs to handle its case load, Volkert has seen more and more paralegals taking on increased responsibility. "They are taking a case A through Z in some firms," he said. "A lot of those duties that maybe an associate would also do are now being done by experienced paralegals, and they are having a lot more interaction with clients."
But while they may be able to take care of many of the tasks asked of junior associates, paralegals are still limited in the work they can do, given that they are not barred attorneys, Volkert said. "Obviously they are not licensed attorneys and are not running down to the courthouse filing motions or conducting depositions or anything like that," he said. "Associates and attorneys are still such a valuable piece of the overall structure."
Gary Klein, founder and president of legal recruiting firm Klein Landau & Romm Inc., expressed skepticism that legal assistants would be in a position to potentially usurp associates' duties in most law firms.
"I would think that a law firm would have to be convinced that even a talented legal assistant was a reasonable substitute for a first- or second-year associate," he said. "Law firm training is quite different. Law school is all about thinking in an analytic way, and I'm not sure legal assistant training is the same."
Klein concedes, though, that paralegals could be more in the mix these days, pointing to changes that have taken place in the intellectual property arena as an example of firms' willingness to cut costs where they can.
"Right now, we are seeing a lot of IP lawyers use patent agents," he said. "They are paid significantly less than associates and work at a very high level in the patent arena. It would seem logical that if you had a very talented legal assistant that could support the case at a significantly lower expense, in these times you would use them."
But Klein warns that firms need to be wary of outsourcing too much, urging them to evaluate the staffing situation on a case-by-case basis. "I think the employment of legal assistants or contract attorneys very much depends on the project and the specific task that the partner is looking to have fulfilled," he said. "While they are both talented, legal assistants may or may not be a valid substitute. If the project requires sophisticated, analytic legal thinking, firms need to be very careful as to who you assign that task."
Volkert contends, though, that having well-respected paralegals as part of the firm works to everyone's advantage, helping to free up the attorneys to tackle matters that only they can handle.
"It allows lawyers - whether they are associates or partners - to focus much more on the higher level, strategic legal tasks at hand," he said. "At the end of the day, law firms are asking themselves, how can we do things more economically? The use of paralegals in that realm has certainly been an aspect that they are looking at."
Firms will continue to explore ways to restructure operations in the wake of the economic crisis, and paralegals will look more attractive as the days march on, Miles said.
"Firms for the most part are going to adopt a one-to-one leverage," he said. "The rest of the work is going to be picked up by contract attorneys and paralegals. You are not going to see the Latham model anymore where you have three to four associates for every partner. The general counsels don't want to pay for three or four associates to learn on the job."
While the firms' relative austerity may not last forever, Miles predicts that for now paralegals stand to be among the big winners of the recession.
"If the volume of work [returns] that you saw in 2005, 2006, 2007, maybe you will see the firms go back to the Latham model," he said. "But right now, firms are being bare-bones and scrutinizing their bills. Clients are asking for cuts, deferments, different terms - it's a whole new ball game."
Program Director Pat Medina Profiled in SFPA's At-Issue Newsletter
Paralegal Studies program director, Pat Medina, was profiled in the February 2009 At-Issue newsletter, published by the San Francisco Paralegal Association (SFPA). Learn more about Pat in the article below.
A Paralegal in Every Criminal Court
Source: AAfPE Information Exchange Listserv
"Some positive news coming from Houston - the new Harris County DA is seeking to place a paralegal in every criminal court (22 felony courts and 15 misdemeanor courts). A paralegal would replace one of the four prosecutors in each court. There is an organizational chart showing this, so it's more than a rumor. The plan needs approval of the Commissioner's Court."
Additional information from the AAfPE Information Exchange Listserv:
"The general UPL rules do apply in Texas - giving legal advice, representing client, etc. is a crime under the Texas Penal Code. I do know all the prosecutors currently do things a paralegal could do, — contact witnesses, legal research, prepare documents, etc. My guess is that under the new plan, the paralegal would free up the other three prosecutors to perform attorney duties - picking juries, trying cases, etc."
What Paralegals Do
(and What Lawyers Shouldn't Do?)
Source: AAfPE Information Exchange Listserv
"Several years ago I found the attached article when doing some Internet searches on paralegal tasks. Some of you may find this interesting and useful. It was compiled by a group of in-house lawyers. If memory serves me, the purpose was to alert other in-house counsel to what they should be paying outside law firms to do at paralegal rates, rather than at associate attorney rates."
Statistics Showing Demand for Paralegals
The Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics is a good resource. Their 2008-09 Occupational Outlook Handbook describes the following about the outlook for the paralegal profession:
Despite projected rapid employment growth, competition for jobs is expected to continue as many people seek to go into this profession; experienced, formally trained paralegals should have the best employment opportunities.
Employment change. Employment of paralegals and legal assistants is projected to grow 22 percent between 2006 and 2016, much faster than the average for all occupations. Employers are trying to reduce costs and increase the availability and efficiency of legal services by hiring paralegals to perform tasks once done by lawyers. Paralegals are performing a wider variety of duties, making them more useful to businesses.
Demand for paralegals also is expected to grow as an expanding population increasingly requires legal services, especially in areas such as intellectual property, health care, international law, elder issues, criminal law, and environmental law. The growth of prepaid legal plans also should contribute to the demand for legal services.
There is Projection Data, as well, with detailed specifics available in a zipped spreadsheet/data file and also in .pdf.
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos114.htm#outlook
"Baby Boomers” Open the Door for Graduating Paralegals
An estimated 78 million “baby boomers” will retire in the coming decades, reshaping market demand and creating new job vacancies. That means new opportunities for newbies and those of us still in our working years. According to projections by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the paralegal career is one of the 10 careers that will see dramatic growth through 2016, in addition, the increased demand for legal services will benefit paralegals and lawyers.
Every day, more than 7,900 baby boomers reach retirement age. Public sector careers are already experiencing the effects of mass retirement, especially in areas such as education, public administration, and criminal justice.
Paralegal jobs should increase 22%, whereas lawyers can expect an 11% growth rate.
Excerpted from www.carolebrunoparalegalsauthor.blogspot.com, 09.07.08
A Follow-Up to "The Paralegal Puzzle" – Read the Article "Focus: Billing Paralegals Revisited"
Learn more paralegal billing in the San Francisco Daily Journal article, "Focus: Billing Paralegals Revisited" (PDF). (You will need Adobe Reader to view this PDF file.)
Market Opens Up As Baby Boomer Paralegals Retire
From the Estrin LegalEd Notepad
"As baby boomers retire, opportunities should open up for next generation paralegals. Paralegals and lawyers can expect to benefit from a combination of retirement vacancies and increased demand for legal services.
According to Yahoo! Education, paralegal jobs should increase 22%, whereas lawyers can expect an 11% growth rate. With so many paralegal schools offering an online paralegal degree, the transition for mid-career professionals is easing. Brick and mortar schools are adding interesting programs such as Intellectual property and technology and institutions such as George Washington University are adding prestigious Masters Degree Programs in Paralegal Studies.
An interesting development with probate and trust and estates paralegals: many of these paralegals have held positions for 30 or more years and are now retiring or on the brink of retiring. Few, if any, paralegal schools offer substantive training in this arena. The dearth of trust & estates and probate paralegals is a very serious concern among employers. If you are seeking a new field or want to cross-train in an area offering some stability, this might be your baliwick."
ABA Approval News and Graduate Placement
The SF State Paralegal Program has just completed a required application for re-approval. All ABA programs are approved for five year terms and then must apply for re-approval. As part of the application, we were required to survey our graduates for the last two years. I am happy to report that from fall 2005-fall 2007 we had 232 graduates, and 72% of respondents are working as paralegals. The full report with exhibits is 1,093 pages and is available in our paralegal office for interested students. I am very proud of our faculty, students, and graduates, and especially proud of the fact that our program began in 1975 and that our tradition of and commitment to excellence continues.
Pat Medina, Program Director
SF State Extended Learning in Small Business Exchange
Small Business Exchange covered SF State Extended Learning in an article about businesswomen bringing their expertise to the classroom. Read about Ruth Astle, instructor and administrative law judge for over 22 years, and other top women teachers. View the article here (PDF). You will need Adobe Reader to view this PDF file.
Paralegal Studies Launches Online Job Board
Post a job or find one on the Paralegal Studies program's new job board.
"Paralegal Pitfalls" Explains Employment Law
The article "Paralegal Pitfalls" (PDF) by Mireya A.R. Llaurado (The Recorder, May 30, 2007) explains the need for all organizations that hire paralegals and legal assistants to understand paralegal-related employment practices & laws. Download "Paralegal Pitfalls" (PDF). (You will need Adobe Reader to view this PDF file.)
"The Paralegal Puzzle" Explains the Need for Qualified Paralegals
Three recent legal decisions make it more important than ever for law firms to hire well-trained paralegals. Learn more in the Daily Journal article, "The Paralegal Puzzle". (You will need Adobe Reader to view this PDF file.)
Paralegal Studies Director Profiled in SF State CampusMemo
Learn about the director of the Paralegal Studies program, Pat Medina, in the SF State CampusMemo. "Pat Medina – Running the best" is featured in the "People on Campus" section of the May 24, 2004 issue.
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