Are you a relatively new paralegal who has been given no direction as to what you should be doing during your downtime?  Occasionally, paralegals are hired at firms during periods that are slow in certain fields (e.g., August tends to be a slow month for litigation practices).  Below are 6 fairly innocuous, but very productive, tasks you can begin working on during your spare time at the office until things pick up:

1.  Look, listen and learn.  Listen out for repeated complaints or concerns from the attorneys with whom you work. If missing deadlines is a common complaint, start and circulate a weekly docket.

2.  Go through the exhibit tab drawer and do an inventory.  Place an order with the office manager or order it yourself if that is your responsibility.

3.  Do an inventory of the stock of office supplies, acco clips, litigation backs, etc. you use at crunch time and make sure you are well stocked, especially on those items that you can improvise with or run to Staples or Office Depot for, like pre-printed Memo of Law Covers.

4.  Register for free services that your office could really use but don’t have, e.g., e-law.com, (online access to courts and dockets and comprehensive directories for NY and NJ) or your State’s equivalent, Googlescholar.com, (a method for broadly searching for scholarly literature in articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites., etc.).

5.  Make a list of the judges the attorneys in your firm appear before or are likely to appear before, and look up and printout the judges’ court rules.

6.  Register for free legal publications, some of which publish updates of laws, court notes, calendars, etc.  Many legal publications charge a fee, but still have valuable complimentary services and features.

During certain seasons, paralegal work can slow down, depending on the area of law you’re in. Take advantage of this time and add something of value to people with whom you work. It will help you in the long run and can make your paralegal experience that much more rewarding.