Product Description Introduction to Paralegalism, seventh edition, explores the dynamic of working in a modern law office setting, and provides new paralegals with the hands-on skills and real-world context necessary to succeed in the field. Foremost attention is given to the rules of ethics, including rules from all fifty states and the District of Columbia, and in particular, the ethical guidelines that lawyers and paralegals must follow. Introduction to Paralegalism, seventh edition, also provides students important insight to the efforts underway to regulate the profession in legislatures, courts, bar associations, and paralegal associations. Ten critical skills are covered in the book: identifying legal issues, breaking rules into elements, applying rules to facts, interviewing clients, investigating facts, digesting discovery documents, providing litigation assistance, researching the law, drafting documents, and representing clients at administrative agencies where authorized by law.
YOU SHOULD AVOID WORKING FOR ATTORNEYS November 25, 2008 I gave this book one star, not because I read the book but because I used to be a paralegal and came across this book when ordering books online in preparation for my career change.
I would strongly recommend against any profession in the legal arena unless you want to become an atty. Working for attys is unpleasant to say the least. The hostile environment of a law firm is stressful, and I've seen a few legal secretaries go out on stress leave. Many attys are hard to please no matter what you do, and sometimes it can be hard to hold onto a job, not because of your work performance but because many attys will find something to criticize no matter how well you do your job. There's more than one way to do a certain task. You chose one way, and he criticizes you for not doing it the other way. If you ask him which way he'd like it done, he's angry that you bothered him. Most paralegals/legal secretaries will get fired once or twice in their careers. Again, it has nothing to do with poor job performance. I was fired once in 8 years that I worked in this field. In those 8 years, I worked at 4 firms and temped at 3. Only one of those firms had a decent environment. None of them, however, gave yearly raises that kept up with the going rate despite my great employee reviews.
Demand is usually there, not because the number of available jobs is increasing but because more and more paralegals and legal secretaries are fed up and leaving the field. I live in a large metropolitan area. I know of at least two community colleges in my area who discontinued their legal secretary programs because not enough people enrolled to keep it open. The word must be getting out - stay away from this field.
And as far as pay goes, it's not that great. It's dead end because there's no ladder of success to climb. If you are young and single, it might be a good way to generate some work experience, but as you get older and want to advance your life, it's not a good choice. If you're an ambitious person who wants a career with promotion opportunities, this isn't for you. If you are an independent thinker and a natural leader, this definitely isn't for you.
Another thing, I can't emphasize the attorney maltreatment of staff enough. If you are single and middle-aged, i.e., no husband with a good job to fall back on and too old to go back home with the parents, that gives the firm leverage against you. They see you as someone less likely to quit, and they might stick you with the more undesirable jobs (difficult atty), and your raises might not be that great. If you're a single mom (like me), that can give the firm yet more leverage. They would expect a single mom to be someone who most needs a job and most willing to put up with the most crap to keep it. My last employer was shocked when I walked in and told them I was leaving. Unlike most people my age (believe me, I'm older than dirt), I moved back home with my kid.
Yelling, slamming doors, things slammed down on desks are normal occurrences in law offices. If you stick aroung long enough, you will see an atty throw a notebook at a staff member and maybe even see physical confrontation (it happened at my firm once, but i missed it because I just happened to leave early that day for an interview at another firm!). Best case scenario - you will be spoken to condescendingly every now and then, and you won't get too much overtime. That's another thing. They don't respect you and think the world revolves around them. So get used to an atty putting projects that take 3 hours to complete on your desk after 4pm and telling you he wants it complete and on his desk before you leave that evening.
One more thing about pay-The only way to maintain a decent salary is to change jobs every 3 years or so. Year-end raises might meet cost of living, but it's very rare for them to stay with the going rate. Newly hired paralegals and Legal secs get brought on board at the going rate; so they usually make more than those with seniority, believe it or not. This is another way the firm uses its leverage with its employees. They know that most people don't like change and would rather keep the same job - it's scary to start over elsewhere. So the firms know that a paltry raise usually isn't enough to send a lot of its employees packing; so why should it pay good wages when they get the same quality employees for less??
Intro to Paralegalism November 10, 2008 This book was in excellent condition and I was happy it arrived sooner than the estimated shipping time indicated. I would buy from this seller again.
Excellent Purchase September 23, 2008 This book is a must for those considering a paralegal career. The book is very detailed, with good examples and offers several excercises. You'll want to keep this book when the semester ends; no need to do a re-sale on this item.
Truly Excellent Source Book for Paralegals May 30, 2007 2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I don't understand the negative reviews of this book. I think the reviewers confused it with another book. This is a big solid book full of information for paralegals and paralegal students. We used this book in three different classes at WOLI (Washington Online Learning Institute) where I attended paralegal school. We used it in the intro class, where we learned all about the paralegal profession, the legal research class, which we used in conjunction with learning how to do legal research via the computer on Westlaw, and also in the ethics course. I know WOLI uses this book also for some other courses that I did not take, but other students do. I think this book is very well written and is chock full of interesting and useful information. I recommend it highly. I really enjoyed studying from this book, and now as a working paralegal (litigation and trial prep work at a Manhattan law firm; I also worked in the corporate dept. for a few months) this book has a prominent place on my library shelf and I still pick it up and read it quite frequently. A very good book.
A students perspective... February 10, 2007 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book is a wonderful source of information and is organized in such a way that it's easy to read right through and not feel lost by lack of verbal explanations. But, the font size is very small which makes it difficult to study or read for extended periods withough resting your eyes. It's also thick and very heavy. We use this book in our Paralegal class at George Mason University.
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