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What Being A Freelance Paralegal Means?
A freelance paralegal, also known as a contract paralegal, is no different than a traditional paralegal except to the extent that s/he is not employed by an attorney in a traditional setting such as a law firm, governmental entity or corporation. Rather, a freelance paralegal is retained on an as-needed basis by many supervising attorneys in these settings.
Freelance paralegals are educated and qualified to perform paralegal work just the same as traditionally-employed paralegals.
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A paralegal is a non-attorney who works under the supervision of a lawyer. Paralegals have many job duties, including drafting motions and subpoenas, document review, and filing papers with courts. Paralegals have traditionally dealt more with procedural law than with substantive law. Related jobs that share synonymous titles are legal secretary and legal assistant.
A freelance paralegal may be retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation or other entity for the purpose of performing specifically delegated substantive legal work on an as-needed, per-assignment basis.
Benefits of Being a Freelance Paralegal?
First of all, the experience may help you figure out what to do with your life. For instance, it might help you decide:
* Whether you want to be a career paralegal.
* Whether you want to go to law school.
* Whether you want to avoid the legal profession entirely.
Second, being a paralegal might help you get into law school. Admissions officers may think that your experience as a paralegal demonstrates that you have carefully considered your decision to enter the field. Also, if you can befriend and impress an attorney or two at your firm, their recommendations could be huge. Remember: work hard and impress.
Third, being a paralegal may help you get another job. If you work as a paralegal at an investment bank, an insurance company, or any other major business, there are opportunities to move laterally within the company. So if your stint as a paralegal teaches you nothing other than the legal profession stinks, the years you spent working in it won't have been a waste.
Reasons Clients Will Use Freelance Paralegal Services
Some of the reasons are:
* The cost of paralegal services may be passed along to the client for reimbursement.
* The attorney is freed to concentrate on billable time and efficient profit management of the legal practice.
* No training costs.
* No workspace issues.
* No supplies or equipment to provide.
* Only have to pay the hourly fee.
* No federal income taxes to pay.
* No Social Security taxes to pay.
* No unemployment taxes to pay.
* No workers compensation taxes to pay.
* No vacation or sick time to pay.
* No overtime to worry about.
* No commitments; retain by assignment as-needed.
Getting Started
Most of the freelance job sites offer freelance paralegal jobs as well.
As for articles, check out www.nolo.com
as well as these associations:
http://www.aafpe.org/
http://www.nationalparalegal.org/
http://www.paralegals.org/
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