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        "html_text": "<p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\"><strong>What is a paralegal?</strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">The term &ldquo;paralegal&rdquo; is incredibly broad. Ultimately, whether a role is - in essence - a paralegal role will depend more on the job description than the job title.</span></span></span></p><p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">For example, you may hear job titles such as legal assistant, legal advisor, legal secretary, compliance assistant, contracts specialist, document reviewer, and so on, which apply to roles that are identical to other roles which happen to be labelled as paralegal roles. For this reason, some people don&rsquo;t actually realise that they&rsquo;re already working as a paralegal!</span></span></span></p><p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">As a generalisation, paralegal roles typically involve some degree of legal work, perhaps with slightly more focus on administrative and repetitive tasks (at larger firms at least). The work often mirrors the work carried out by trainee solicitors, with the main difference being that trainees are often on a recognised fixed path towards qualifying as solicitors, whereas paralegals are not.&nbsp;</span></span></span></p><p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Note that paralegals are legally allowed to carry out many of the same activities as a qualified solicitor, except for a limited range of &ldquo;reserved activities&rdquo;. Accordingly, paralegal roles can involve work that&rsquo;s more akin to that carried out by junior associates (especially at smaller firms).</span></span></span></p><p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Note that the term &ldquo;lawyer&rdquo; is not a regulated term. Accordingly, paralegals can technically refer to themselves as lawyers. However, law firms tend to require paralegals to use more specific job titles in practice. &nbsp;</span></span></span></p><p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">In contrast, &ldquo;solicitor&rdquo;, may only be used by individuals who have completed the relevant steps to qualify as a solicitor, for example passing the SQE and completing a training contract.</span></span></span></p><hr><p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\"><strong>Paralegal roles at different types of firms</strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Paralegal roles can vary wildly depending on the type and size of the firm you&rsquo;re working at, and the firm&rsquo;s approach to allocating work. There is no objective distinction between large and small firms, but &ndash; as a generalisation &ndash; I&rsquo;ll now summarise the personal experiences of our instructors</span></span></span></p><p><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><strong>Small firms</strong></span></p><ul><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Working as a paralegal at small law firms &ndash; for example, single office &ldquo;high street&rdquo; firms &ndash; may not involve recording time and working towards billing targets, especially if the work is often fixed fee rather than hours based. By &ldquo;billing targets&rdquo;, I mean a specific number of hours of client work that paralegals are expected to complete per day, month and/or year. Note that many small firms still do require you to record time however.</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">In addition, working at smaller firms can afford regular client contact and opportunities to get involved in substantive legal work at an earlier stage. This is because smaller firms tend to work on matters which are less complex and involve fewer risks, meaning juniors can be trusted to get more involved. </li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">In addition, such matters tend to attract lower fees, meaning it may not be financially viable to staff a hierarchy of solicitors on them, which leaves firms more reliant on paralegals &ndash; who tend to have lower hourly rates. This means paralegals can often take on a more integral role in running matters.&nbsp;</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Paralegals may also have the chance to get involved in a greater breadth of work, especially if a small firm only employs a couple of paralegals and expects them to support on matters spanning a variety of practices (e.g. wills and probate, personal injury, residential conveyancing, and so on). Conversely, paralegals might be expected from time-to-time to cover non-legal roles such as handling post and reception.</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Even if only working in one or two teams, smaller firms tend to work on a high volume of short-term client matters, offering the chance to work with a greater variety of clients and see matters through from start to finish.</li></ul><p><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Large firms</strong></span></span></span></p><ul><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Working at larger firms &ndash; for example regional and international firms - is more likely to involve billing targets (and the associated pressures).&nbsp;</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Larger firms often charge much higher fees than smaller firms, so tend only to be engaged to carry out more complex legal work.&nbsp;</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">As a result, larger firms tend to have more experienced solicitors &ndash; as well as trainees - staffed on client matters, which for paralegals can mean less client contact and fewer opportunities to work on substantive legal tasks (as the more interesting tasks are likely to fall to junior associates and trainees). However, as you become a more experienced paralegal, there may be opportunities to take on more complex work.</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">The volume of work needed for each matter also tends to be much higher. For example, some disputes handled by large law firms can last many years and involve reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents. Paralegals at larger firms can therefore find themselves working on a small number of large-scale projects, rather than a high volume of short projects.</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">It can however involve working for much higher profile clients, on groundbreaking matters. Plus as larger firms often have dedicated business support teams, paralegals often focus only on legal work.</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Larger firms tend to have specialist teams which focus on specific areas of the law. If a paralegal is hired by a specific team, then they&rsquo;ll likely be focusing only on that team&rsquo;s area (for example, real estate, or dispute resolution). Some large firms do take a different approach however, employing paralegals who are based within a centralised hub which offers support across all the firm&rsquo;s teams as and when it&rsquo;s needed. This can offer exposure to a broader range of practice areas and work.</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">Either way, you&rsquo;re more likely to be part of a large team of paralegals at larger firms.</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">At a larger firm, there may be more dedicated training on offer (the cost of training is more viable if spread across dozens &ndash; or hundreds &ndash; of paralegals), as well as opportunities to get involved in pro bono work and business development, better access to legal technology, and even secondment opportunities.</li><li style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\">However, working hours can be less predictable, you may have to work unsociable hours (especially if working across different time zones), and you may be under more pressure at times. This is partly because working in larger teams means you are likely to have more potential supervisors who can hoover up your capacity. A real challenge in this context can be saying no to work when you&rsquo;ll be unable to make proposed deadlines).</li></ul>",
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