Put simply, Paralegals do legal work but are not lawyers. There are around 300,000 paralegals in total working in solicitors’ firms, industry, both central and local government and the not-for-profit sector.
As a result of the government’s continued efforts to free up the legal profession, there are now over 4,000 paralegal law firms. They operate as commercial organisations that offer legal services to business and the public without the involvement of lawyers.
Paralegals are not yet a distinct profession (although it is going that way). What unites the 300,000 is that they all do significant amount of legal work that would previously have been (or often still is) done by solicitors.
It is difficult to define exactly who paralegals are as the terms covers legal secretaries all the way through to qualified and experienced overseas lawyers working in the UK. As a result, many paralegal jobs do not have that title: caseworker; adviser; legal assistant; housing officer; trademark manager etc.
As the definition of ‘paralegal’ is so broad and there are no unifying requirements around qualifications, experience or training, the paralegal profession has been slow to develop in certain areas.
Despite this, things are now changing fast because of three developments: – The continuing increase in the number of paralegals. Employers in all sectors realise that there are many legal jobs that do not require a solicitor or other lawyer. As such, Paralegals are now filling these posts. There are already circa 60,000 paralegals working in solicitors’ firms: more than all the associate, assistant and consultant solicitors combined.
If this trend is to continue, there will be more paralegals working in solicitors firms that solicitors within seven years. Such as significant increase is coming about as ever more complex work is delegated to paralegals.
The professional body for paralegals, the not-for-profit Institute of Paralegals (www.InstituteofParalegals.org) has introduced a national career path for paralegals which leads to qualification. The route to qualification turned a job into a career, and an occupation into a profession.
James O’Connell
Institute of Paralegals
15-09-2009
Provided by AllAboutLaw.co.uk – The Law Careers Website
