Tips & Info

If the world of law fascinates you and the idea of being paid to learn more about it sounds enticing, becoming a paralegal might be the ideal job for you.

Even though you won’t need to attend law school like attorneys, you will need to complete a few requirements before you can enter the paralegal field.

This mini guide will tell you everything you need to know about how to become a paralegal.

How to Become a Paralegal: 3 Things You Need to Do

Becoming a paralegal may be more of a reality than you might think.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that paralegal and legal assistant employment will grow as much as 15% between 2016 and 2026, which is a higher than the combined average for all occupations.

Truthfully, there’s no better time to consider a career as a paralegal. Here’s how you can start your journey:

Step 1 – Complete a Paralegal Studies Program

Before a law firm will consider hiring you, you will need to have a paralegal certificate, at the minimum. There are several options for completing paralegal program requirements, many of which can now occur completely online.

Some paralegals receive a certificate or associate’s degree, while others will earn Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees. Your choice depends on how much money you want to earn and how much you wish to advance your career.

Step 2 – Find the Right Employment

Becoming a paralegal in the field looks a bit different than it does in the classroom. Once you satisfy your program requirements and receive your certificate or degree, you’ll want to seek employment with a law firm that provides on-the-job training to transition you into a real paralegal role.

Step 3 – Earn Your Paralegal Certification

To become a fully certified paralegal, you will need at least one year of experience on the job and must be able to pass an accreditation test.

How Long Does it Take to Become a Paralegal?

Knowing how long it takes to become a paralegal depends on your career goals. Earning the minimum certificate will not take as long as completing a Master’s degree program.

In general, you can obtain a certificate in just a few months. An associate’s degree will require four semesters, while a Bachelor’s degree will take eight semesters from start to finish. If you decide to pursue a Master’s degree, you should tack on another four semesters.

In Closing

Becoming a paralegal can be an exciting, rewarding career. Take some time to review your options so that you can make the best decision for your future.

For more helpful insights into the legal field, visit our blog resources.

Legal teams are seemingly drowning in paperwork at every angle. Storing it all isn’t the only issue. How do you find what you need when you need it? How many copies do you keep on hand for clients?

Wading through piles of data isn’t just time-consuming, it’s also costly.

The digital age has brought us paperless capabilities to help combat the war on paper. However, the word “paperless” for law firms isn’t as self-explanatory as it seems. In fact, if you eventually achieve a completely paperless office, you may have performed the impossible.

Let’s look at what it means to go paperless in your law firm and see how paperless solutions can help you run a better practice.

What Does a Paperless Law Firm Look Like?

We now live in a world where just about any piece of information you want is available within a few keystrokes and clicks. And, thanks to the increasing use of the smartphone, this information is readily available wherever you are. People are exchanging digital data through email, text messages, and file sharing programs like Dropbox.

Because of this widespread availability, it simply doesn’t make sense to keep paper records on hand. Digital files are already part of a lawyer’s daily business, and keeping unnecessary paper in the mix can complicate your ability to serve your clients.

However, having a paperless law office doesn’t mean eliminating all paper. Rather, think of it as significantly reducing your paper usage, limiting yourself to printing only what’s absolutely crucial and keeping the rest in the digital world.

For law firms, this means managing cases and documents from your computer rather than a paper file. It’s emailing documents rather than using the postal service. It’s using eFiling to help you meet deadlines.

In short, investing in a paperless solution can give you the flexibility to manage every area of your practice – even if you’re not in the office.

Taking Your Law Practice Paperless

There are several benefits to adopting a paperless practice. For starters, you’ll save money on paper and toner by keeping files on the server. You can find and retrieve documents easily to serve your clients faster. It’s a smaller impact on the environment. And it offers more security than having papers scattered throughout the office.

Before you commit to taking your law firm paperless, there are a few things you should look for:

Cloud Storage

Cloud computing has given data management a boost by relieving you of maintenance and associated costs. It’s safe, secure, and makes it easy to share information between team members rather than having documents residing on a single computer.

Accessibility

Your paperless solution should eliminate the security concerns of paper records. By ensuring only authorized eyes are able to access certain information, you’re protecting your clients’ private data and your firm’s best interests.

Organization

You should look for flexibility to ensure you’re investing in a system that works how you want it to. Having a customizable approach can help reduce your learning curve so you can start enjoying the benefits faster.

In Closing

The world continues to gravitate toward digital solutions, and law firms are stepping up their adoption rates. Once you make the transition and see how much it’s improved your practice, you’ll wish you’d started sooner.

For more helpful tips visit our blog.

LinkedIn has long been the social network of choice for lawyers wanting to present a professional image. But many law firms are finding success in the social media world by establishing their brand on multiple channels.

In fact, some data shows that nearly a quarter of lawyers who are using social media confirm they’ve retained a client because of their efforts.

If you want to be among them, take a look at these four easy ways you can put social media to work for you:

#1 – Promote Your Blog

If you don’t yet have a blog for your law firm, there’s no better time to start. The number of legal blogs has been steadily climbing, with just over a quarter of firms actively blogging in 2016.

Your blog can accomplish many goals, from offering information to prospects seeking answers to helping clients find you through online searches. You can promote each blog post on your social media channels, which can ultimately give your website traffic a boost.

If you’re lacking inspiration for your blog, think about different questions your clients ask, then craft articles around those topics. When you can solve a problem, your audience is likely to remember you for it.

#2 – Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader

Your blog and social media channels aren’t just to provide information to your clients. They’re also prime opportunities for you to position yourself as a leader in your field.

Truth be told, people have a multitude of options when it comes to choosing an attorney. They need to know what makes you the best choice. This isn’t to say you should spend all your social media airtime talking about your case win/loss ratio, community awards, or significant achievements.

Rather, you can promote yourself by creating blog posts and other content that solves problems, answers questions, and gives people something to think about.

Showcase your work with other professionals in your area. Talk about industry news, such as new laws that have been passed. Give helpful tips, such as how to avoid court filing rejections. Above all, remember that anything you share or post should hold some significance to your audience, not just your personal agenda.

#3 – Earn Reviews

Client reviews are digital gold when it comes to professional services. People want to know they’re partnering with someone who is committed to their needs.

Social media reviews, such as those found on Facebook, are the online equivalent to word-of-mouth marketing, except these reviews aren’t reserved for the client’s family and friends. Once a user posts a review on your business page, everyone who visits your page can see what others had to say about you.

It’s not unethical to ask satisfied clients to leave a review and share a few words on their experience. Even one bad review isn’t usually enough to dent your reputation, especially if you have plenty of five-star ratings to overpower it.

#4 – Avoid ‘Advertising’ in Your Posts

Your social media business page should be geared for building relationships, not transactions. The more you talk about yourself and the services you offer, the more likely your audience will think you’re hungry for business. This is a huge turnoff for many users.

Instead, spend your time on social media providing helpful, insightful information to your clients. Most companies follow the 80/20 rule, where 80% of the posts revolve around information and the remaining 20% is spent promoting your firm.
If you want to advertise your services, you’re better off using ad-specific features rather than a status update.

For more great tips on growing your legal practice, check out our blog.

The California courts will be closed in observance of the following holidays:

• New Year’s Day: Mon, Jan 2
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Mon, Jan 15
• Lincoln’s Birthday: Mon, Feb 12
• President’s Day: Mon, Feb 19
• César Chávez Day: Fri, Mar 30
• Memorial Day: Mon, May 28
• Independence Day: Wed, July 4
• Labor Day: Mon, Sept 3
• Columbus Day: Mon, Oct 8
• Veterans Day: Mon, Nov 12
• Thanksgiving Day: Thur, Nov 22
• Day after Thanksgiving: Fri, Nov 23
• Christmas Day: Tues, Dec 25

See the updated page with California Court Holiday Schedule

If you find yourself frequently visiting a website you can add it to your Favorites or Bookmarks bar for quicker access.

The Rapid Legal login page would be a perfect example of a website you may want to bookmark so it’s just a click away when you need it.

Add a bookmark to Chrome

• Open up the login page here Rapid Legal Login
• Click the star in the URL box. A box should pop up
• Click Done

Add a bookmark to Internet Explorer

• Open up the login page here Rapid Legal Login
• Click on the Favorites menu and choose Add to Favorites
• Click Add to save the website as a favorite
• Done

Add a bookmark to Apple Safari

• Open up the login page here Rapid Legal Login
• Click on the Bookmarks menu and choose Add Bookmark
• Click Add
• Done

Add a bookmark to Firefox

• Open up the login page here Rapid Legal Login
• Click on the Bookmarks menu and choose Bookmark this Page
• Click Add
• Done

Now that we’ve covered our first three ways for legal professionals to boost their productivity, let’s discuss the fourth way as we continue this blog article series.

Curtail multitasking.

What?! You might be asking yourself. But I’m the master multitasker in the entire universe! Yes, I used to brandish that false badge of distinction until I learned I was but a mere mortal. In fact, when the vast majority of us multitask, our brain is simply switching from one task to another, not actually juggling both at the same time. The truth is many of us confuse multitasking with actual distraction.

According to studies conducted by cognitive psychologist and attention expert, David Strayer, 98% of the population lack the cognitive abilities to juggle simultaneously two demanding tasks without pauses or errors. Other studies have even observed a fall in participant’s IQs when multitasking.

So what can you do? Focus on one thing at a time until it’s fully completed before moving on to the next.

To learn how, Download our eBook: 5 Ways for Legal Professionals to Boost Productivity.

Now that we’ve covered our first two ways for legal professionals to boost their productivity, let’s discuss the third way as we continue this blog article series.

Minimize distractions.

Distractions are par for the course in the fast-paced, deadline driven legal environment, so learning to manage them is key. In fact, academic studies have found that office workers are interrupted or self-interrupt roughly every 3 minutes as a result of various digital and human factors. Worst yet, it can take up to 23 minutes for a worker to return to the original task. Another study conducted by McKinsey Global Institute found that office workers spend an average of 28% of their time reading and answering emails. That translates to over 2 hours per day or roughly 27 days per year. Yikes!

We all experience it: you get a text on your smartphone, you hear a ping on your computer marking the arrival of a new email, you get a phone call and it’s a client who wants an update on their case; yes, distractions abound and they will never be eliminated.

However, there are certain things you can do to manage them rather than allow the distractions to manage you.

To learn how, Download our eBook: 5 Ways for Legal Professionals to Boost Productivity.

Let’s discuss the second way to improve productivity in the industrious legal environment as we continue this blog article series. To view our first post, click here.

Introduce structure – and eat the frog first.

You’ve probably heard the expression, “work smarter, not harder.” Why? Because many of us fall into the trap of doing things the way we’ve always done them. Yes, our habits become our routine; good or bad, efficient or inefficient. We’ve often found that without a plan or a schedule, firefighting becomes the norm, things get dropped, procrastination sets in, productivity plummets and stress encroaches.

Introducing structure to your day such as creating a schedule – a to-do list doesn’t count – will help you stay organized and on task. For instance, if you’re a paralegal, your workday schedule might look something like this: answer emails and make phone calls, block out time for planning and legal work such as conducting research or drafting correspondence and pleadings, block out one hour for unexpected requests, check email again, phone calls again, then done for the day. Your calendar is a great place to do this.

Indeed, scheduling your day by putting tasks into your calendar enables you to get more done and set expectations about what can be accomplished with the amount of production time you have available. As Matthew Toren of Entreprenuer.com says, “when you focus too heavily on the act of doing over the brilliance of planning, you can be spinning your wheels with a lot of extra activities that are highly inefficient or aren’t driving any real results.”

And what about those frogs? There’s an old saying, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Brian Tracy, in his book, Eat That Frog!, shares that you should eat frogs – the most important tasks or things you don’t want to do, but actually need to – first thing in the morning to fuel your energy and momentum for the rest of the day. Yes, frogs are often the ugly, unpleasant tasks.

Have more than one frog? Conquer the ugliest one first lest it become victim to procrastination. Plus, eating your frogs first leaves you free to do the things that you enjoy doing.

Interested in reading more tips on productivity? Download our eBook: 5 Ways for Legal Professionals to Boost Productivity.

Distractions. Interruptions. Time stealers. Let’s face it, whether or not we realize it, we all experience these pesky diversions to productivity. Look around you – you’ll likely be met with stacks of papers, ringing phones, incoming emails, chatty co-workers and more. Indeed, distractions abound.

So how do you improve your productivity in the industrious law firm or legal department environment?
In this blog article series, we offer 5 foolproof ways to get started:

1.  Focus on the right things.
2.  Introduce structure – and eat the frogs first.
3.  Minimize distractions.
4.  Curtail multitasking.
5.  Leverage technology.

Which leads us to…

Focus on the right things.

Learning to become really efficient at completing a task doesn’t matter much if that task doesn’t help you meet your goals or drive results. In other words, any tip here is virtually useless if you’re not focusing on the right things. Does internally filing documents throughout the day or responding to emails as soon as they hit your inbox help to move your law firm practice forward, help you meet your goals or really make a substantial impact? Probably not. That’s why this step – to focus on the right things – is so critical.

Consider this sage advice: perhaps the most productive thing you can do, if nothing else, is to eliminate non-value add “filler” tasks that don’t contribute to driving results. Audit your to-do list or take an inventory of your daily habits and routine to discern whether or not you’re focused on the right things. If you’re saying, “but it’s my job to do some of these things” then your goal might be to reduce them or better manage them by scheduling these tasks during a time that you typically experience a productivity lull, say 3 o’clock in the afternoon…

Interested in reading more tips on productivity? Download our eBook: 5 Ways for Legal Professionals to Boost Productivity.