Paralegal purgatory

Paralegals are extremely valuable assets. I can recall from my time as a trainee solicitor, rotating teams every six months, often finding myself working alongside paralegals more experienced and more proficient than I,
a fresh-faced trainee straight
out of law school.

In fact, I often found that paralegals stayed late and went far beyond what was expected of them. They had billing targets and strong client relationships, yet for some reason they were paid less and received far less attention from learning and development programmes than the cohorts of trainee solicitors. The focus was on trainees, considered to be the partners of tomorrow. There was very little focus on the paralegals.

In two years, the trainees would qualify as solicitors, receive a practicing certificate from the SRA and a generous pay hike. A paralegal of two, three or even four years could look forward to training the next intake of trainee solicitors on tasks they could do with their eyes closed.

A huge oversupply of Legal Practice Course graduates
has resulted in paralegal roles becoming almost a rite of passage into a training contract. A rite of passage which comes highly recommended by careers advisors and law schools as a way to gain valuable legal experience and develop key skills, while earning a wage and beefing up the CV. Thus, for the majority of paralegals, the end goal is to use paralegal experience to either secure
a training contract with the firm that employs them or continue their applications for training contracts in the hope that another firm will recognise their invaluable paralegal experience. On the one hand, the increased recognition that initiatives such as the paralegal register bring is positive for those paralegals who find themselves in the no man’s land of working their socks off but somehow still unable
to secure a training contract.

However, is it but a consolation prize? Cementing their position as a paralegal
in the eyes of the powers that
be means any ambitions of portraying ability and potential as a solicitor being offered that elusive training contract become even more hindered. For paralegals that do just as good a job, if not better than trainees and some junior lawyers, to confine them to
a register of paralegals is somewhat insulting.

Of course, to the career paralegal, the individual who enters the legal profession with an ambition to progress a paralegal career, increased recognition and support is likely to be welcomed with open arms. None of the above is intended to relegate career paralegals but, unfortunately, as it stands, the vast majority of paralegals are paralegals by way of a stepping stone into a training contract, and therefore increased bureaucracy and formal recognition structures are likely to benefit the minority at the expense of the majority. SJ

Luke Murphy is a solicitor at DLA Piper and author of Legally Started: Tried and tested strategies to break into the legal profession

@legal_luke