One thing that is certain when you are a paralegal is that every day is different from the next.  Sometimes your day will start out with a half hour of fairly mundane tasks, clearing the decks to prepare for the week, straightening up to get ready for a real estate closing, gathering papers to assist with the forming of a new business partnership, or finalizing last week’s spreadsheets for tax purposes, etc. and unexpectedly a Last Will and Testament execution needs to be witnessed by you or you are needed to review video for investigative purposes for a conference that is taking place at that moment. 

The Six O’clock News May Determine Your Workday Tomorrow

As a paralegal, you can walk off the elevator into your office and be told, before you even get to your desk or before your secretary brings you your coffee (yes, some paralegals have secretaries!), that you have to leave the office to go and meet an attorney in court, or run to a high-profile celebrity client’s luxury hotel room to retrieve the smoking gun document, or hop a company car out to your town’s International airport to take a witness’s signature (if you also happen to be a notary public), etc. 

You may be at home one Sunday mentally planning your workday or work week, and while watching television something on the six o’clock news substantially impacts one of your cases, your client, your judge, your firm or the law and suddenly, your entire workday, week or month changes, beginning with tomorrow morning!

For example, a judge in your case could be indicted, your firm’s adversary can be disbarred, your client could say something incriminating that is replayed on the news, the outcome of an adversary’s client’s related case could impact your firm’s preparation on your immediate case and this news comes to you in the middle of your Sunday dinner.  It happens.  It’s the dynamic life of many paralegals, particularly business, corporate, criminal defense, litigation and family law paralegals.

“Routine” Has a Totally Different Meaning in a Paralegal’s Workday

There will be routine, day-to-day tasks; however, because the projects, laws, procedures, facts and people outside the office will change so often, and because surprises that impact the normal flow of things are not uncommon, the context in which the day-to-day tasks are performed will be colorful and thus the feel of the day will be more exhilarating than the average professional’s workday.  This is true for specialized areas and with general law, whether you work for a sole practitioner, a large law firm, for the legal department of a corporation or a community organization.

Routine and basic tasks of a paralegal are very important and therefore require your full mental engagement.  Of course, the exact types of assignments you will have will depend on the field of law you are in.  If, for example, you work at a firm that specializes in Family Law, you may be required to perform routine duties that include intake sessions (Q&A with clients), conducting legal research, processing and filing (in court) the legal documents required for obtaining a divorce or separation, managing the law library, proofreading motion papers, preparing files for trial, digesting deposition transcripts, monitoring law journals (daily legal news publications), informing the lawyers of new laws and court procedures, logging and keeping track of the all the deadlines and court or pre-trial-related dates concerning your firm’s various cases on a docket (i.e., calendar), and organizing, indexing and maintaining pre-trial legal files. 

There are always unique assignments to perform, different records and facts to deal with, and there is always an interesting array of people with whom to interact.  It is never boring, which makes working as a paralegal very attractive and a good fit for the individual who enjoys a stimulating work environment.  Even as routine as your task may appear on paper, in actuality, it is not. This is also due to the fact that some of the things you are exposed to as a paralegal are better than fiction! You couldn’t make some of this stuff up, if you tried, and if you did, no one in their right mind would believe you.

There are not many professions where every workday feels like a fresh adventure, resulting in rare experiences, yet providing a complete sense of accomplishment and contentment.