Carolina Paralegal News

For Mary Powell, there’s something special about August 22. In 1988, that was the day she was promoted from paralegal to office manager at Faison Law Group in Durham. Twelve years later, Aug. 22, 2000, she noticed that her quote-of-the-day calendar said, “You don’t manage people; you manage things. You lead people.”

Powell, now a paralegal manager, tore off the quote from U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Grace Hopper and hung it next to her desk, where she sees it every day. It has become the philosophy she seeks to live by.

“If I can’t do what I’m asking somebody else to do, how can I be an effective coordinator or supervisor?” she said.

The question rings true for many paralegal managers, most of whom started out as paralegals, knee-deep in day-to-day details and case deadlines. Those who move into the ranks of management find themselves in a variety of situations: working managers who continue handling cases, full-time managers who solely supervise paralegals, directors who oversee multiple offices.

Whatever their duties, paralegal managers seem to agree that being a supervisor is more than just an advanced form of paralegal work – it’s a different scope of responsibilities requiring distinct skills. While a strong paralegal background is generally considered a prerequisite, equally important are being able to effectively manage people, coordinate caseloads and serve as a liaison among paralegals, attorneys and clients.

Paralegal managers also are closer to the nitty-gritty of office politics, deciding who deserves a promotion, and counseling and firing difficult employees. It’s not a job for the faint of heart, but those who succeed in this role say it’s deeply satisfying – the reward comes in keeping everything running smoothly.

The Georgia-based International Paralegal Management Association, the primary professional resource for paralegal managers, will offer a seminar for new managers on April 20 in Atlanta.

According to the IPMA’s 2011 salary survey conducted with ALM Legal Intelligence, average salaries for managerial positions are $86,548 for a paralegal coordinator, $93,152 for a working manager/supervisor and $114,834 for a paralegal manager.

IPMA President Stacie Straw began her career as a paralegal, but is now the director of human resources for O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles. She believes the ability to adapt and multi-task is a manager’s most critical skill.

“Law firms are such intense environments and a lot of things come up at the last minute. If your staff is busy, it’s going to take some juggling to make it work,” she said. “Having strong interpersonal skills is important when those emergency requests come up.”

Unlike other kinds of businesses, where managers might have final say on how to handle their staffs, in a law firm that typically falls to attorneys, Straw pointed out.

“You have to be able to…be diplomatic in working with them and working through any difference of opinion you have,” she said.

She noted that new managers often face an unexpected adjustment when it comes to navigating office dynamics.

“People sometimes get frustrated because they think, ‘Okay, I’m going to come in and supervise paralegals and get all these great things done,’ but once they get into the more political side of management, they see they may not always accomplish what they want to accomplish,” she said. “They might have to draw other people in and get buy-in for their ideas before they can make them happen.”

Mary Powell, Paralegal Manager/Office Manager, Faison Law Group, Durham

Powell keeps tabs on all the medical malpractice cases handled by her firm’s attorneys, four in-house and one of counsel.

“I’m responsible to make sure that all of the requirements are met by all of my paralegals for particular cases they are working on,” she said. “I’m sort of a safety net.”

Since joining the firm 25 years ago, Powell worked as an administrative assistant and paralegal before taking on greater responsibilities. Today, she supervises three paralegals and six staff in accounting and administrative support, though she has supervised up to 30 people.

“Supervising the size I have now is relatively easy,” Powell said. “When I had a larger group of paralegals, one of my most difficult responsibilities was balancing the case load.”

To assign cases to paralegals in a way that gets the job done without overly burdening anyone, a manager must be familiar with case deadlines, depositions and discovery flows, and how they will affect the work load as the case progresses.

“If you do it right on the front end, it does not involve a whole lot of changing, but it does require a little bit of juggling every now and then,” Powell said.

She is copied on every case-related e-mail so she can track key milestones and assist paralegals when they have questions. She also ensures that attorneys get what they need, when they need it. The role of being a coordinator appeals to her: “What I enjoy most is seeing it all happen – getting questions and being able to smooth the way so that everybody’s needs are met and it all gets done with as little stress as you can possibly put on someone.”

The key difference between her role and paralegals’ is that they focus on day-to-day details, while Powell watches the big picture. Sometimes, that means doing something few managers enjoy: giving constructive criticism in a way that leaves paralegals cooperative, not defensive.

“It is much easier said than done,” she said. “The first several years when I would have to call someone in to talk to them about something they were not doing right, or ways they could improve themselves, I spent hours getting ready for it.”

Early in her career, Powell took a management skills seminar, which she recommends to anyone new to supervising.

“Anytime you want to manage one person or 100 people, learn from anybody and everybody you can how they were successful in doing the same thing,” she said.

Brad Baber, Director of Paralegal Services, Troutman Sanders, Atlanta

As the director of paralegal services for Troutman Sanders, Brad Baber manages 100 employees in 14 offices, including Hong Kong and Shanghai. His team has mostly paralegals, but also fiduciary accountants, legal nurse consultants, assistants and others.

Baber started his career in 1988 as a paralegal, but was soon promoted to a paralegal recruiting and training coordinator position and then paralegal manager in 1999. One of the trickiest parts of moving up the ranks was adjusting to a new dynamic with coworkers, he said.

“One day I’m just like everybody else, every other paralegal, and the next day I have some management and supervisory responsibility in the group,” he said.

At his previous firm, Baber was the first paralegal manager, so most of his peers welcomed the idea of having someone dedicated to their needs. But a few paralegals were suspicious of Baber’s new status, he said; it took time to convince them he was committed to creating a better work environment.

Serving as that advocate, in fact, can be one of a paralegal manager’s most valuable roles. Too often, Baber said, paralegals get overlooked between attorneys and support staff.

“We work in a world where there are attorneys and non-attorneys, and so paralegals get lost in that mix,” he said. “Having a paralegal manager, I think, helps to bring the focus onto them a little bit more and demonstrate to the firm the value of a manager and the value of a paralegal.”

In 2001, Troutman recruited Baber for a unique opportunity – serve as the firm’s first paralegal manager and build a paralegal development program. In doing so, Baber has spent significant time on human resources: hiring, training, performance reviews, work assignment and team-building.

“It’s important to me, even though I have 100 people, that I have a good working relationship and open communication with everybody, even if it has to be primarily over the phone because of the distance,” he said.

But paralegals aren’t the only ones with a stake in a manager’s performance – a good manager also must work well with attorneys.

“Attorneys are smart, they’re strong communicators, they’re strong personalities, and I think you need to bring those qualities to the table to be able to interact successfully with attorneys,” Baber said. “Oftentimes, you are trying to persuade an attorney to make a certain staffing decision or to work in a different way or try new things.”

One strategy is to make sure attorneys recognize paralegals’ value. Accordingly, Baber devotes a good deal of time to tracking, analyzing and reporting his department’s contributions.

“I spend a lot of time in spreadsheets and financial reports and productivity reports, so being able to move fluently in those areas and with those technology tools, I think, is critical,” he said.

When the pieces come together through a combination of good hires and good coaching, it’s rewarding to see paralegals with the right skills and the right attitude, he said.

Joanne Mayopoulos, Paralegal Supervisor, Duke Energy, Charlotte

In addition to supervising paralegals at Duke Energy, Mayopoulos also serves as the co-chair of IPMA’s Carolinas Chapter along with Cathy Boette, director of paralegal services at Nelson Mullins in Columbia.

Mayopoulos came to Duke Energy four years ago as a paralegal in the environmental health and safety area. When senior management decided to create a paralegal supervisor position, Mayopoulos applied for the job. She now supervises 25 in-house and six contract paralegals in Charlotte, Cincinnati, Houston, Austin and Plainfield, Ind.

Since managing her team requires most of her time, Mayopoulos seldom works on cases, although she does initial reviews of complex litigation to determine which paralegal should handle it.

“Litigation is fast-moving in most instances, so I try to farm out the work appropriately,” she said. “There’s that period of time when it requires a lot of attention, then it will peter out for a while, so I try to balance workloads between paralegals.”

While Mayopoulos is responsible for far-reaching decisions, such as hiring and promoting, she said some of her most useful skills are the simplest – being a good listener and letting her employees know she understands what they are going through.

“I think in order to be an effective paralegal manager, you have to have worked as a working paralegal for many years prior to taking on the management piece,” she said.

Simultaneously advocating for her paralegals and responding to attorneys’ needs takes finesse, she said. As the voice “in the middle,” Mayopoulos tries to be diplomatic and to find solutions that work for everyone. She supports attorneys by addressing performance problems with her staff, but she also serves as a buffer for her team: “It’s nice for them to have a paralegal manager to go to and say, ‘I’m overloaded. Can you get me some help?’ without having to turn to the attorney.”

Watching her team evolve has been rewarding, but Mayopoulos acknowledged that it took time to adjust to her new role. As a new manager, she recalled seeing paralegals working on interesting cases and wishing she was doing the same.

“I loved being a paralegal. I loved doing the work, being hands-on with clients,” she said. “Once you become a manager, you’re not as hands-on with clients anymore. You’re supporting different people. So make sure you’re ready to take that next step.”

Theresa Coalson, Director of Operations, Womble Carlyle, Winston-Salem

Theresa Coalson joined Womble Caryle in 1985 as a paralegal and since 2003 has directed operations for the firm’s Case Management Facility, which uses state-of-the-art technology to organize mass tort litigation documents for attorneys within the firm and across the United States.

Coalson’s team supports the complexities of large-scale litigation, whether that’s preparing thousands of trial exhibits, creating secure Web sites to share case documents or tracking deadlines for counsel. It takes a lot of paralegals to manage the workflow: 85 of them, alongside eight attorneys and seven paralegal managers.

Because Coalson’s paralegal managers are the liaison among attorneys, technology vendors, clients and paralegals, they serve a pivotal role as the hub of communication and coordination. Their major duties include training paralegals and ensuring resources are deployed effectively.

Given the unique nature of the facility, paralegal managers need not only strong managerial skills and an expert understanding of litigation, but also competence with databases, software and other technology resources used by the firm.

“You have to have…the ability to pick up and keep up with all of the changes that are ongoing and be able to manipulate that,” Coalson said.

Most of her paralegal managers were promoted from within, but Coalson said being a great paralegal is not enough. A great manager offers a well-rounded package of managerial, communication and people skills, legal expertise and technological savvy.

“Sometimes the most outstanding paralegal here is not necessarily the person that would become the next manager,” she said. “It is a combination of all those skill sets that are analyzed.”

amy.burroughs News, NEWS & FEATURES

It’s still too early to predict exactly what the big news will be in 2012, but it’s a safe bet that the following 12 topics will be on everyone’s radar.

1. Social media

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is keeping its focus on disciplinary actions surrounding electronic communications and social media.

“Acting general counsel has directed that any case that has to do with social media in the workplace be sent to the central office in Washington so there is consistency in the opinions,” said Erin Behler of Nemeth Burwell in Detroit. “It will need to be litigated to get a bright-line rule. Right now, there isn’t one.”

Recently, the NLRB has sided with workers who took to social media pages to gripe about work and their employers. But because those workers had complained about wages and working conditions, even if it was peppered with criticism and even name-calling of their supervisors, the NLRB said that they were within their rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. The section provides that workers have the right to engage in concerted activities.

There are fine details yet to be figured out, Behler said.

“If it’s a mere gripe on Facebook and a non-work friend ‘likes’ your status, that is not protected. But as soon as a co-worker comments or ‘likes’ it, that might be protected,” she said. “I’ve been telling clients that they need to step back and not react too quickly to these things.”

It’s been catching employers off guard that the NLRB is not only stepping into these very public communications issues, but also that the board is doing it at a growing number of non-union workplaces.

“And none of these employers want to wind up being a test case as the NLRB is clarifying these issues,” Behler said.

2. HIPAA audits have begun

All entities covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have to get ready, if they haven’t already, for audits which are now under way, following the 2009 HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act. Before the end of 2012, 150 health care providers, health plans and health care clearinghouses will be audited.

The Office for Civil Rights calls the initial round of audits a “pilot program,” adding that the focus is on prevention and education rather than penalizing covered entities. The audits will be completed by December 2012.

3. IP reform

In 2011, Congress approved the most significant patent reform the country has seen in 60 years, and many of the provisions will go into effect in 2012.

The good news is that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s funding will be higher, said intellectual property lawyer Eric John Sosenko, of Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Ann Arbor.

And, Detroit is getting the first of the USPTO satellite offices.

Sosenko is staying focused on helping his clients with preparing for a “first-to-file” system, which will replace the current “first-to-invent” system in March 2013.

“Patent attorneys need to help their clients get their disclosures in. You need to get filed and considered before that switches over,” he said.

Further, in September, the new post-grant review provision will start.

“You need to be aware that you may be pulled into ‘litigation light,’ and it’s going to be fast,” Sosenko said.

4. Health care challenge going to SCOTUS

The Supreme Court of the United States will have its say on the constitutionality of the federal health care law’s individual mandate, and the entire law along with it.

Few cases have ever had as much potential to impact the economics of nearly every person and business in the country.

Thus far, lower courts have split as to whether the Commerce Clause grants the federal government the power to order private citizens to engage in affirmative acts under the penalty of law.

5. Affirmative action for veterans

For the first time ever, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), a sister agency to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), is going to start requiring contractors who work for the government to establish hiring benchmarks for veterans.

“The OFCCP is going to start collecting data about data in the workforce to set benchmarks for hiring veterans,” said Jeffrey S. Kopp, of Foley & Lardner LLP in Detroit. “You’ve got 200,000 people being released from active duty annually, and a higher number of unemployed people.”

And the number of unemployed veterans is a concern, he added.

Further, the OFCCP recently reported that between 20 and 30 percent of government contractors are falling short on outreach efforts to attract veterans.

“Part of that is just a function of the economy, but unemployment among returning veterans is really high, and the EEOC wants to do something about that,” Kopp said.

6. Hot practice areas

The legal market continued to be challenging through 2011, and unemployment — particularly among new lawyers — is discouraging. But lawyers in high-demand niches fared better, and were even growing. Among those niche practices:

• Health care, where demand is rising for legal advice due to changing regulations and the growth of the health care industry as baby boomers age.

• Labor and employment is hot in part as the result of the poor economy. Clients need help in conducting reductions in force, and more than ever they need help with collective bargaining and increased unionization efforts.

• Intellectual property is going to be booming as clients need help with major IP reform legislation, much of which goes into effect this year.

• Financial service is growing as a result of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and how those reforms are affecting day-to-day practices in banking and financing and lending.

• Consumer bankruptcy, for better or worse, is still busy.

7. Who will be the

next SCOTUS justice?

If President Barack Obama is able to do again what few other presidents have — appoint a third justice to the U.S. Supreme Court — chances are he will turn to a candidate who will have an even easier time winning confirmation than the president’s first two picks: D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland.

His reputation as a smart jurist whose judicial philosophy is neither particularly controversial  nor too liberal for Senate lawmakers makes him an easy pick when partisan divisiveness remains high.

Ed Whelan, a former Justice Department official during the Bush Administration, said that Garland “may well be the best that conservatives could reasonably hope for from a Democratic president.”

8. E-discovery’s new challenges

E-discovery continues to evolve, posing new challenges for litigators. Keep an eye on the following trends:

• Death of metadata: As judges have become more sophisticated about electronically stored information, parties are having an increasingly difficult time convincing them that every single piece of metadata is needed in discovery. So courts are resisting a soup-to-nuts request and will clip your wings if you’re being too aggressive.

• Data changes: The method of storing data continues to change. The rising use of tablets and mobile devices results in more data, which can complicate the discovery process with issues like identifying, collecting and preserving the necessary information.

Predictive coding and pricing could lower the cost of e-discovery. It uses software to sample electronically stored information in order to create specific searches that will help locate the most relevant data.

9. Arbitration bill

In the wake of AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the proposed Arbitration Fairness Act has the potential to change the legal landscape by banning pre-dispute binding arbitration clauses in consumer and employment contracts.

Supporters of the bill, S. 987, say that Concepcion strips consumers and workers of their power to seek redress in court because it gave teeth to companies’ ability to include binding, pre-dispute arbitration clauses in the fine print of many agreements and contracts.

Business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform, oppose the bill, saying that arbitration encourages fast, cost-effective resolution of disputes.

10. Apps you need

You’ve got a half-million apps to choose from, and more being added to the market every day. So we’ll make it easy on you, and recommend a few must-haves for lawyers:

• TrialPad: It lets you present various types of documents as exhibits for trial, as well as annotate, highlight or redact relevant portions ($89.99).

• Evidence: It’s an image presentation app, intended for cases with 200 or fewer documents ($9.99).

• GoodReader: This is an iPad app for managing a variety of files, including photos, Word documents and PDF file ($4.99).

• iAnnotate: This app will help you with that red-pen craving most lawyers have by making it easy to highlight and mark up a PDF.

• Noteshelf: This is a new note-taking app for turning your iPad into a legal pad. It has a zoom mode, a bookshelf and folders for organizing, and you can export handwritten notes as single or multiple page PDFs to Dropbox ($4.99).

• RogueTime: For iPhone and iPad, tracks time for billable hours, integrates with the iPhone address book to create a client list, and allows lawyers to enter standard billing rates for phone calls or to enter a different rate for specific clients ($6.99).

• Tap2Track Mileage: Calculates your mileage using a GPS system and allows you to copy prior trips ($3.99).

11. Legal writing in a wired world

Whether your client communications more closely resemble the latest Ashton Kutcher tweet or “Moby Dick,” we all need to learn how to best communicate in the digital age, whether it’s in email, on social media sites or in a blog. A few tips to adapt your writing style:

• Lead with your conclusions: Every paragraph should represent one thought and the opening sentence should tell the reader what the paragraph is about.

• Use plain English: Avoid legal terms except when referring to a specific principle for which there is no easy equivalent, like habeas corpus. Use active verbs and short sentences. And when it comes to syllables, less is more. Show off your vocabulary somewhere else.

• Don’t make it too simple: Plain does not equal simple. Even though the structure of writing is a little different in social media than in print, techniques of good writing are universal.

• A little quirkiness is just fine: Social media is to writing what casual Friday is to your wardrobe. The goal of social media is to allow a little of your personality shine through, and to establish online relationships that convert to face-time relationships later.

• Formatting is your friend: Look at the layout of a social media page, and learn how to use the various tools, fonts, colors, boxes around content, etc.

12. Discarded laptops

A Florida Bar opinion late last year reminds lawyers in every state of their ethical duty to sanitize their storage devices when they’re being discarded. BlackBerrys, flash drives, laptops and copiers and iPhones all store documents that need to be wiped clean when the device is being replaced.

Ethics Opinion 10-2 states that reasonable security precautions include obtaining meaningful assurances from vendors that discarded or leased machinery has been wiped clean of sensitive records.

The opinion also says that lawyers who use devices in public places should inquire and determine whether use of such devices would preserve confidentiality.

The American Bar Association’s Ethics 20/20 Commission is considering a rule change that would add a section to the Model rules, requiring lawyers to make reasonable efforts to prevent unintended disclosure of, or unauthorized access to, information relating to the representation of a client.

Writer Carol Lundberg of Michigan Lawyers Weekly and Dolan Company (parent of Lawyers Weekly) staff writers and editors Correy Stephenson, Esq., Reni Gertner, Kimberly Atkins, Esq., Tony Ogden, Pat Murphy, and Sylvia Hsieh, Esq. contributed to this story.

Dolan Media Newswires News, NEWS & FEATURES Facebook, HIPAA, IP, Social media

In the game of baseball, the goal of the batter is to hit the ball. Now, you can get into all kinds of discussions about what the “real” goal is — perhaps scoring a run would be better. When it comes to a popular game, you can probably figure out what the goal is.

For the average person, on the other hand, I can tell you that, by far, the hardest question to answer is, What are you trying to make happen? It never fails that when I first visit a law firm and ask, “What is your vision?”, I get blank looks. My first reaction is that they must not know what a vision is, so I ask, “What is your purpose?” and then “What is your goal?”

No matter how I phrase it, it often is difficult for people to answer that question.

The first step in any journey or project is to identify what you want to accomplish. Your mind is an amazing thing that will move you unconsciously toward whatever future you believe to be real. You can’t start to address what is real until you have some idea what you are talking about. This is true for your law firm, your job and your life.

In our last column, we talked about having a balanced life. Now we are talking about some of the tools and actions that can help us develop the life we want. The simple reason I believe this works is that a vision or a purpose gives us something to strive for. It allows us to see opportunities that we might miss without such a vision. Sometimes terminology scares us because we don’t always know what the terms mean. However, it really doesn’t make any difference if you call it a vision, a purpose, a preferable future or a goal. Fleshing out your vision in more detail, however, is better as a general rule.

For example, let’s say that you are a paralegal in a law firm and your goal is to become a lawyer. Or you are a paralegal in a law firm and your goal is to become a politician. Or you are a paralegal and your goal is to make money to pay your bills. Each person will develop a different path even though they started at the same point and the same job. Some people will end up at the end of their journey lost and wonder what happened to life. Some will end up just where they aimed. The difference is the level of detail they had to define their vision and the amount of passion they had to realize it.

I have seen people and law firms that had no vision. They were totally driven by reacting to interruptions and great at creating stress. I have seen businesses and individuals remove stress and become very successful after they took time to define what their goals were.

I had a lawyer tell me once that the goal of his firm was to make money. When I asked him what he wanted the money for, I didn’t hear a great answer. When I looked at his life, I saw an individual who was totally stressed out, what most would call a workaholic. I’m sure we’ve all heard a reference to the lawyer who will die in his office chair.

Having a balanced life is a great idea and I am all for it. More importantly, I think there should be a purpose for all the hard work. After considering this concept of purpose or vision for several years, I have come to the conclusion that it can’t be just about money or recognition. It must contain some element of contribution. If you are working as a paralegal, what are you contributing to the law firm? Does your contribution benefit the firm’s vision or hinder it? The same theory will hold true for your life. What are you contributing to this world, your community or your family?

Over the years, I have heard lots of interesting explanations for the goal of the paralegal: to make the lawyer look good, to provide client service, to close cases, to do whatever is asked. All that is interesting, but if you could visualize the ultimate goal and how you fit into that picture, I think that is the first step to developing a passion for the job. If your vision goes no further than the end of the day or the next paycheck, you have put such a limit on what you could accomplish. You miss all kinds of opportunities because you are not looking for them. You have no opportunity to develop any passion for anything. You become driven by interrupts and eventually you just give up. When you realize that you have not been on a journey to anywhere, you crash and burn – the old mid-life crisis.

Figure out where you want to end up and define a path to get there. Each day you will learn more, refine your vision and make progress. Don’t wait until you retire to figure out what you want. I tried that and it is no fun. I started a second career with a vision in mind and 12 years later, I am still having fun. Why spend all your time helping others achieve their goal without helping yourself along as well? The alternative is that one day you wake up and see that everyone around you is successful and you are lost. Been there, done that, didn’t like it.

Email Dave Favor at dwfavor@catalystgroupinc.com. Tell us how you are living a balanced life and, if not, what you think needs to have a course correction. We love to hear from people.

Dolan Media Newswires Features, NEWS & FEATURES Goals

MILWAUKEE, WI — It should have been an easy strike.

The Foley & Lardner attorney with tasseled loafers and a sport coat with elbow patches screamed conservative, said personal injury plaintiff’s lawyer Paul Scoptur, and that was the type of person he didn’t want on his jury in a minor brain injury case.

But Scoptur’s wife, an attorney who was taking notes during jury selection for the 2005 case, persuaded him to keep the Foley lawyer on the jury.

“I remember the judge calling me over after selection,” said Scoptur, of Aiken & Scoptur SC, Milwaukee, “and saying, ‘Pretty risky keeping the lawyer,’ which isn’t what I wanted to hear.”

But the gamble paid off for Scoptur, who won the case and found out the attorney on the jury was an intellectual property lawyer with a background in organic chemistry.

A scientific background was what Scoptur wanted on the jury to make it easier to consider his argument that brain injuries are not limited to those that show up on an MRI.

“He was my ideal juror,” Scoptur said. “But I didn’t know that because I was fixated on the fact that he was a lawyer from Foley & Lardner.”

Successes such as Scoptur’s are the exception to the rule that attorney jurors are often toxic, said jury consultant Alan Tuerkheimer of Zagnoli McEvoy Foley LLC, Chicago. He said the prevailing philosophy when dealing with attorneys during voir dire is to proceed with caution.

“Most people think it’s risky,” he said. “There is a good chance attorneys could be overly influential or persuasive to a jury.”

Federal prosecutor Scott Campbell experienced firsthand in December how attorneys are treated when they’re in the jury pool. He was struck as a juror from two different criminal cases in Milwaukee County.

“I’d like to think they were preemptive challenges and not for cause,” Campbell said. “I think I can fairly and impartially consider evidence.”

But, Campbell said, he knew the prosecutor in one case and the defense attorney in the other, and those relationships could present the perception of bias.

Those professional relationships also can have the opposite effect. That happened to Madison criminal defense lawyer Stephen Meyer, of Meyer Law Office, when he served on a federal drug and gun case in the 1990s.

“The prosecutor left me on the panel,” Meyer said, “because he knew I would be offended by the defense lawyer’s conduct in the case.”

The evidence supported a conviction, Meyer said, but his inclusion on the jury was a strategic play by the prosecution. It paid off, but it just as easily could have backfired, he said.

Still, Tuerkheimer said, it will take more than a few fortuitous jury choices to persuade lawyers to welcome colleagues to the jury box.

“It is a gamble,” Tuerkheimer said. “But it’s about digging deeper than simply making a decision based on the fact that the person went to law school and is a practicing attorney.”

Dolan Media Newswires Features, NEWS & FEATURES Jurors

Teri Bowling’s first day of teaching was almost 20 years ago, but she remembers it well. Bowling was an experienced paralegal when she agreed to teach a six-week introduction to title searches at Meredith College in Raleigh, but teaching was new — and so nerve-wracking she was almost sick to her stomach.

“I just have this vivid recollection of walking into the classroom and having my notes, and being so nervous I talked so fast that I was done in only half the class time,” she recalled. “I said to myself, ‘I’ve got nothing. I don’t know what else I’m going to say.’ I’m sure I let the class out early.”

Bowling soon found her footing and is now a seasoned instructor of a semester-long real estate course that meets three nights per week from 6 to 9:30 p.m. By day, she is a real estate paralegal at Manning Fulton in Raleigh and serves as the Continuing Paralegal Education (CPE) chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Paralegal Division.

Balancing teaching with a full-time job can be tough, said Bowling, estimating that every hour in class takes about three hours of preparation. But for her, the rewards far outweigh the challenges.

“The enthusiasm and energy of the students keep me interested in what I’m doing,” Bowling said. “I think it makes me a better paralegal.”

Instructors said they thrive on sharing their professional passions and experience; the intellectual challenge of staying up to date in practice areas; and engaging with students and colleagues. The extra income is nice, too.

But prospective teachers also should consider the less appealing aspects, instructors cautioned. Beyond the time commitment, teachers must deal with the occasional difficult student, the growing role of online learning and, for those new to the classroom, learning how to teach.

“I think that a lot of would-be instructors think that expertise is the most important component — but being good at what you do is not enough,” said Marisa Campbell, director of Meredith College’s Paralegal Program. An attorney, she also is past president of the American Association for Paralegal Education. “You cannot just tell stories from your experiences and think that is sufficient. You need to be able to teach well and be interested in constantly improving your teaching skills.”

A love of learning

Camille Stell, director of client services for Lawyers Mutual, spent many years as a paralegal and taught at Meredith College from 1990 to 2005. Despite her dedication to teaching, she left when it became difficult to balance with her full-time position. Like Bowling, she tested the teaching waters by starting with a six-week class.

“I had no idea if I was going to be good at it or if I was going to enjoy it,” Stell said. “Once I got in there, there were so many things about teaching I loved.”

First and foremost, she loved being a paralegal — and she was fired up to share that passion with students. “I really welcomed the opportunity to be one of their first touchpoints with the profession and say, ‘You have made an excellent career choice.’”

She also valued the push to continue learning, to ensure she was maximally prepared for class: “You never know anything as well as you know it when you teach it.”

By far, one of the most common reasons paralegals take up teaching is a desire to share their enthusiasms. Bowling said she could talk about real estate and title work for hours — and in the classroom, she gets to do just that.

“I really have a passion for real estate and so I want to try to pass on that passion to young students and get them as excited about it as I am,” she said. “I’ve taught some other short courses and I didn’t enjoy those as much because they weren’t on subjects that were my true passion.”

There’s also an element of “giving back” that Bowling finds satisfying. Recognizing the paralegals and attorneys who have mentored her over the years, she believes it’s important to do the same for the next generation. She gets a boost, too, she said.

After a really great class, “I’ll be pumped up driving home because either the students were pumped up and you feed off their energy or their lightbulbs came on — concepts we discussed finally click and they’re excited about it.”

In Goldsboro, Jackie House is a litigation defense attorney for Walker, Allen, Grice, Ammons & Foy. She started her career as a paralegal, graduating from Johnston Community College in 1992. Houser planned to teach “just one class” at the community college in 2000 and still enjoys the role years later.

The best part, she said, is engaging with students as they parse legal issues: “If they take Position A, I’m going to take Position B. We’re going to banter it back and forth whether we’re working out a problem, working through pleadings, or trying to think of defenses to a crime — just getting the juices flowing and thinking of all the possibilities.”

Because many instructors do value that interaction, prospective teachers should consider whether they are a better fit for in-person or online classes, a growing part of many curriculums. While online learning is convenient, it changes the teaching experience dramatically, according to Houser, who has led both types of classes.

From paralegal to instructor

For those who lack experience but want to try their hand in the classroom, Campbell recommends getting involved in professional organizations, particularly in leadership and continuing education. Planning CPEs and being a guest speaker both boost a resume.

“Once you have developed your teaching skills, contact your local paralegal program and ask if there are any teaching opportunities there,” Campbell said. “If you already have developed a reputation as a good speaker and teacher, being hired as a teacher in a paralegal program becomes much easier.”

Teaching a short course is a manageable way to gain experience, or new teachers can volunteer to speak to classes as a guest lecturer or panel participant.

“If you’re in litigation and your specialty is toxic tort litigation, say, ‘I would love to come talk to your class about leaking underground storage tanks,’” Bowling suggested.

Speaking at CLE and CPE programs is another way to gain experience in public speaking, preparing lecture notes and fielding questions. Opportunities may be available with local and state paralegal associations, as well as CPE providers like HalfMoon Seminars and the National Business Institute.

Pulling off the balancing act

Veteran instructors said that no matter how much they enjoy teaching, the time commitment can be daunting. “It’s hard to balance if you’ve got 30 students, you’ve got 30 tests to grade, 30 students to counsel, 30 resumes to review,” Stell said.

Those considering the classroom should take a hard look at that reality, Campbell said: “It is important for instructors to really acknowledge if they really do have the time to teach — and teach well. The legal profession can be very demanding and when you add family and community involvement, it is important to ask yourself if you have time to teach right now.”

That said, she acknowledged that when the time is right, there is definitely excitement in being part of the learning process as students grow into colleagues.

For some instructors, the biggest challenge is simply learning to teach. Creating test questions may sound easy, until the first time you hand out an exam and students have countless interpretations of your questions.

“It took me a number of years of trial and error to be very specific in my test questions,” Bowling said.

Keeping material fresh also matters, according to Stell, who recommends rotating class projects and incorporating speakers and new activities. “If you’re doing the same thing today that you did five years ago, you may think your students don’t know because they’re a fresh batch every time, but I bet they do,” she said.

For Campbell, one of the best things instructors can do is put themselves in students’ shoes: “One factor that instructors — even seasoned ones who are terrific — can often find difficult is remembering that the students are usually seeing the material for the first time. …. I think that can help when you are looking at a sea of blank looks when you discuss the essential elements of a contract for the first time.”

Once teachers have educational strategies in hand, they may need to conquer one final hurdle: the nervousness of public speaking. For one who lacks confidence, well-prepared material or both, a three-hour class can seem very long.

“Once you’re up there, it’s kind of sink or swim,” Bowling said.

Her tip is to avoid the number-one fallback of the nervous teacher: avoiding students’ eyes by hiding behind lecture notes and merely reading out loud. “It’s been my personal experience that nothing alienates a class faster than someone reading primarily from the material.”

Learning on the job

Some lessons are best learned on the job. For instance, how do you handle the student who monopolizes class with rambling comments? What about the student who complains about unfair grades, on every assignment? What will you say to students who text-message during your lectures?

The first time Stell encountered a student who monopolized class time, she knew other students expected her to address the problem, but she wasn’t immediately sure of the best way to respond. She found a way to tactfully acknowledge the student’s contributions, but firmly pull the conversation back to class material.

According to Bowling, real estate law and family law have a particular tendency to bring out students’ personal stories, because most people have bought a house or dealt with family tangles.

“It’s amazing to me how quickly other students don’t have patience for that, because you can see other students starting to roll their eyes or disengage when someone else is monopolizing classroom time,” she said.

Other students spend class time texting or even Facebooking. Bowling recalled one student, sitting plainly in the front row, who spent much of the class looking down at her phone and tapping out texts with the eraser end of her pencil.

“If they’re not paying attention, that’s a problem in and of itself, but it’s also a distraction for me once I notice it,” Bowling said. “It’s hard for me to get back on track because I’m appalled somebody would do something like that.”

She now addresses smartphone use on her syllabus and in person during the first class.

For those who discover a love of teaching, such challenges are part of the job — and long-time instructors agreed that experience is, indeed, the best teacher.

“There’s an art to being a teacher just like any other career and there’s a learning curve on figuring that out as well,” Stell said.

Amy Burroughs is a freelance writer in Baltimore. Please contact her at amyeburroughs@gmail.com or visit www.amyburroughs.com for more information.

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MILWAUKEE, WI — Attorneys who teach paralegal courses have the ability to apply for continuing legal education credit, but a vague Wisconsin Supreme Court rule has discouraged any from trying.

A petition filed with the court last July sought to clarify the issue, but the state justices on Nov. 7, 2011, dismissed the proposal prior to scheduling a public hearing. The court argued that because the Board of Bar Examiners already has the authority to grant CLE credit on a case-by-case basis, no explicit rule granting credit for ABA-approved paralegal classes is necessary, as was requested in the petition.

The problem with that logic, said attorney and co-petitioner Kathleen McDaniel, is the current rule doesn’t provide any incentive for paralegal instructors to apply for credit. Supreme Court Rule 31.05(3) specifies in part that “teaching a course in a law school approved by the American Bar Association,” is worth one hour of CLE credit for each hour of presentation.

“My reading of the rule is that I always assumed it would never be covered,” McDaniel said, “because it’s not a law school class.”

McDaniel was one of a dozen lawyers that filed the petition seeking permission to receive one hour of CLE credit for each hour of teaching a legal specialty court in an ABA-approved paralegal program.

State Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack said the current rule allows the BBE to evaluate applications for credit based on criteria including if the program increases the individual’s competence as a lawyer.

Part of the reason the justices denied the paralegals’ petition, she said, is because no one in the state has yet tried to get credit under the current rule.

“If the first one gets approved and they start applying,” Roggensack said, “they will know what types of things the BBE will and will not approve.”

The court unanimously dismissed the petition for a new rule, she said, because it didn’t want to open the door to a flood of other rules requests to include additional forms of non-attorney instruction.

“Attorneys get credit for teaching other lawyers,” Roggensack said. “Whether you can get CLE for instructing paralegals or a group of bankers of whatever, that should be looked at on a one-by-one basis.”

In a Nov. 1 letter to the court, Jacquelynn Rothstein, BBE executive director, said she also preferred a case-by-case review of applications to determine if the paralegal teaching qualifies for CLE credit. She could not immediately be reached for additional comment.

“That approach is far more preferable,” Rothstein said in the letter, “than having attorneys petition the court to create a new type of CLE category each time someone fails to find an approved one in the existing rules.”

Attorney Richard Opie, author of the dismissed petition, argued that paralegal instructors are not an obscure population of attorneys looking for a BBE exemption, however. There are six ABA approved paralegal programs in Wisconsin and approximately 30 attorneys teaching legal specialty courses, he said.

Opie, coordinator of the paralegal program at Lakeshore Technical College, said he was surprised the court and BBE preferred to handle the issue on a case-by-case basis. He and McDaniel said they now plan to apply for CLE credit for their paralegal teaching.

“I would have thought that amending the current rule to include us,” Opie said, “would be more efficient than having to review individual applications, but I guess we will see.”

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MILWAUKEE, WI — On an average day at the office, Wausau Tile Inc.’s Steven Schinker works with everyone from division managers to the founding father of the company as a “one-person law firm.”

Reviewing legal contracts, developing business opportunities and assessing risk are all part of Schinker’s responsibilities as corporate counsel at the Wausau manufacturer. A majority of what he does falls under the classification of “document review,” an often misunderstood aspect of legal work.

“I don’t think any attorneys are calling themselves document reviewers. It suggests they aren’t licensed and anyone can do it,” Schinker said. “It doesn’t give what we do justice and can be misconstrued by the public and other attorneys.”

Despite its sometime negative connotations, document review work is in demand now more than ever as firms grapple with an increase in litigation that has followed the economic downturn. All of the materials that are part of filing a lawsuit require some review.

“After the recession sunk in, everyone was trying to hold off on litigation,” said Chad Schmidt, director of marketing and communications for Counsel on Call, a professional services company. “In the past years, we’ve seen a surge.”

Document review work’s stigma has a history, said James Martin, managing director of DHR International Inc., an executive search firm.

“(Law firms) used to hire many associates, more than they really needed,” he said, “and used document review to weed out the good lawyers.”

The practice may be outdated, but the perception that document review involves only tedious, mindless review of legal documents persists.

“I would be cautious about document review work on a resume,” said John Mitby, managing partner of Axley Brynelson in Madison. “I can see how people would see document review as willing to settle with a lesser position.”

The work Schinker and other document review lawyers do involves much more than just reading materials, however, he said.

“What we actually do is go through a slew of decisions on a daily basis,” Schinker said. “Document review suggests someone else has done the complex work and takes away the presumption that there wasn’t any complexity in the job function.”

While review is the initial part of his role, Schinker then takes documents to the next step, he said, where he assesses risks and opportunities for the company. As he’s reading, he is analyzing each file looking for things that may not have been covered or parts that may seem one-sided, he said.

The work is a lot like “making a piece of art,” said attorney Seth Goettelman, a solo document review practioner.

Because his review of the document is typically the first time someone is taking a look at the contract, Goettelman said, he has to structure the document and then rewrite it.

“If you’re saying there is nothing to worry about and then overlook something, that is your fault,” he said. “A great paralegal could do half of what I do and a great litigator could probably do the other half.”

For attorneys who can do the variety of work document review encompasses, the money can be good, said Billie Watkins, regional vice president of Robert Half Legal in Chicago. Attorneys employed through her agency can make up to $200,000 doing document review, she said.

Watkins said she has seen an increase in document review opportunities every year for the six years she’s been with the company.

People can sign an agreement for just about anything, Goettelman said, and all of those documents need legal review.

“A few months out of every year I have to turn down work,” he said. “In the legal world, when it rains it pours.”

Lawyers interested in pursuing document review work will have to learn to sell themselves, however, Mitby said, to overcome confusion about what the job entails.

“If you have a lawyer trained with document review and law, that’s all a plus,” he said. “But, that needs to be described on a resume.

“I don’t know what document review is. It doesn’t really mean anything. It just says someone can help with a lot of documents.”

Schinker acknowledged the need for a bit of salesmanship when it comes to reversing the negative document review reputation.

“If you say you only do document review, that suggests you don’t do complex tasks,” he said. “If it’s an accurate assessment of what you truly do, so be it. But clarify your skill set to potential employers.”

For lawyers who are able to make that distinction, the work will be available for years to come, Schinker said.

“It’s a necessary component of our business structure,” he said. “It’s necessary for any business transaction. It’s essential.”

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PORTLAND, OR — A recent Oregon Court of Appeals case highlights the trouble that employers may encounter if they don’t deal with issues related to stalking at the workplace.

Maria Beauchaton worked as a legal assistant/paralegal for the St. Andrew Legal Clinic in the Portland-metro area for almost 11 years. The big problem was that a male supervisor began to pay an inordinate amount of attention to her in odd ways.

According to Beauchaton’s claim, the supervisor frequently visited her office, touched things on her desk and used her phone, but never spoke to her. She asked to be reassigned away from him and she got her wish; the employer also warned the supervisor to stay away from her.

For years that arrangement seemed to work well, but Beauchaton became concerned again when she spotted the supervisor driving past her house several times at a very low rate of speed. She reported the incident to the police, who said they could not arrest him. She also reported it to her employer, which said it would handle the problem.

A month later, however, the supervisor again drove past Beauchaton’s house, which was the final straw for her. She immediately quit her job in hopes that it would stop the stalking, and filed for unemployment benefits. The employer challenged the unemployment claim, arguing that it was Beauchaton’s decision to quit her job, and the employment appeals board denied her claim.

But in early November, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the decision and ruled that the employee may very well have had “no reasonable alternative but to leave work” because of the stalking. The court noted that Oregon’s stalking laws evidenced a desire to protect victims, and that the employment appeals board should have done a better job of determining whether Beauchaton was reasonably concerned about her personal safety when she made the decision to quit work.

Oregon employers that learn of stalking situations at their workplaces have certain legal obligations that need to be taken into consideration.

First, note that under Oregon state law, “stalking” refers to repeated and unwanted contact that alarms victims into reasonable concern over their own personal safety. As mentioned above, if an employee quits a job because of stalking concerns involving supervisors or co-workers, the employee may be entitled to unemployment benefits. Of course, employers should be much more concerned about the many problems that could arise if stalking remains unchecked.

Employers may be on the hook for negligent supervision or negligent retention of an employee if they fail to effectively supervise and monitor the workforce to prevent such troubles. In the worst-case scenario, where actual injury results from such behavior, employers may be liable under a vicarious liability theory for assault and battery.

For these reasons, employers need to take reports of concern seriously and monitor them just as they would any other reports of possible workplace violence. Swift and thorough investigations are required when concerns arise, and preventive training and effective policies can help eliminate concerns before they even arise.

If an employee reports a stalking concern about a non-employee – an ex-spouse or a jealous boyfriend, for example – employers should be equally concerned and should work with the employee to ensure the workplace is a safe environment. Cooperate with law enforcement authorities, place a picture of the stalker at the front desk to warn first responders, and inform managers about possible problems to mitigate the risk of incidents escalating in the workplace.

Beyond these measures, Oregon law provides substantial protections for employees who are victims of stalking (as well as domestic violence and sexual assault).

First and foremost, stalking victims are entitled to protection from job discrimination based on their status as victim. An employer can still enforce its normal disciplinary policies and expect quality work from employees, but it cannot either fire an employee or retaliate against the person because a stalking problem exists.

Second, employers must provide reasonable workplace safety accommodations for stalking victims. This might include transfer or reassignment to a different position, a modified schedule, changing a work station or phone number, or other similar measures designed to address employee safety concerns.

Finally, Oregon law requires that most employers (those with at least six employees) provide employees with reasonable unpaid leave from work to address safety matters related to stalking. The employee should provide advance notice of the leave when possible to reduce workplace disruption, and even though the leave is unpaid, employees need to be allowed to use accrued paid leave to cover their absences.

Rich Meneghello, the managing partner of the Portland office of Fisher & Phillips LLP, is dedicated to representing the interests of management. Contact him at 503-205-8044 or rmeneghello@laborlawyers.com.

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Read the November 2011 issue of Carolina Paralegal News online.

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Faced with layoffs, freelance paralegals reinvent themselves as business owners

By Amy Burroughs

When Tina Marie Hilton was laid off from her paralegal job in 2007, she hit the job market for a new position. But after fruitless searching, it sunk in that she wasn’t going to find one in the down economy. She still remembers the miserable weekend she sat down to make a list of her marketable skills and research employment opportunities.

One term kept popping up on her Google searches: “virtual assistant.”

“I could do that,” she remembers thinking.

Four years later, Hilton is doing exactly that, and doing it profitably. Her successful at-home business provides paralegal and website support to attorneys and other professionals around the country.

For paralegals who want to utilize their expertise and have the skills to run a business, virtual services offer a viable adaption to recession-driven layoffs. Given online tools like Skype and secure document sharing systems, Hilton believes such arrangements will only become more common.

“Everybody is trying to downsize and this is a way they can do it and do it well,” she said. “They still can have access to very knowledgeable staff.”

The freelance lifestyle is not for everyone. Some workers feel isolated at home, while others have no interest in marketing and accounting. For those who dream of a home office, however, becoming a virtual paralegal can be a way to survive and thrive.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook for 2010-2011, in-house and off-site paralegals are poised to enjoy a healthy job market. Employment of legal assistants and paralegals is expected to grow 28 percent by 2018, up from approximately 263,800 jobs in 2008. Offsetting that increase, though, will be heated competition as more people enter the profession.

Stephanie Elliott, a paralegal at Gray, Layton, Kersh, Solomon, Furr & Smith in Gastonia, N.C., said she would miss office camaraderie – not to mention benefits such as health insurance – if she worked at home. But she acknowledges that virtual services can be a solution for recession-driven layoffs.

“If you find yourself without work, you can evolve and take what you know and do something else with it,” she said. “That’s the essence of being a paralegal, is learning to roll with the punches.”

‘No Looking Back’

Before starting her business, Hilton spent several years as a full-time real estate paralegal. But when the bottom fell out of the market, her employer closed that part of his practice and she found herself out in the cold.

“Nobody was hiring,” she recalled. “After a while, it started to get scary, and then I realized, you’ve got to do something.”

Hilton thought back to her experience as a paralegal in Maine, when she often had to work from home because snowstorms made it impossible to drive to her office. Knowing she could work remotely clinched her decision, she said: “I opened my business and there was no looking back. It’s been pretty successful for me. Sometimes you have to hit the bottom before you open your eyes and see a way out.”

Hilton, who lives near Hickory, N.C., opened Clerical Advantage Virtual Assistance Services in 2007 to provide paralegal, administrative, website and social media support. She prepares documents and real estate closing packages, performs electronic filings, creates blog posts and websites, and designs PowerPoint presentations, to name a few of her projects.

Four years in, Hilton is well versed in the pros and cons of running a business. While calling the shots sounds like a dream job, being your own boss can be stressful.

“You always feel like you’re a client or two away from being in that dark place again,” Hilton said, even though she has about 25 active clients and has worked with 80. Located from California to Washington, D.C., most of Hilton’s clients have never met her in person.

One of her clients is Chris Tymchuck, who practices family law and estate planning in Minnesota. Before opening her practice, Tymchuck worked in a large firm with a full-time assistant, but said she has not missed that support. A new business owner herself, Tymchuck likes paying for help only when she needs it.

“You don’t have to commit to a specific salary or paying somebody and worry about bringing in income for that,” she said. “I guess the trade-off is that clearly, you’re not only person [Hilton] works for. You might not be her first priority that day, but I’ve never had something I couldn’t get back in the time I wanted.”

For people savvy about virtual tools, Tymchuck said there are definite advantages to using a virtual assistant. “I highly recommend that solo or small firms consider it,” she said.

Hilton agreed that many clients hire her because they don’t have to pay for office space, equipment, payroll taxes or workers comp. Dawn Draper, a virtual paralegal in Michigan, promotes those savings on her website with a chart comparing in-house versus virtual staff costs.

“You’re not paying for me to go on vacation or do anything but the time I spend on your project,” Draper said.

Despite that argument, a new virtual paralegal often encounters skepticism.

“That can be a challenge when you’re first starting out, is trying to get people to understand what it is you do and the fact that you’re not one of these people from overseas that are $4 an hour,” Hilton said. “You come with experience and expertise and it is going to cost them something, but they’re really going to get a good return on their investment.”

Also challenging are the distractions – and loneliness – of working at home. To overcome the lack of camaraderie, Hilton occasionally works at coffee shops and has weekly phone sessions with a “business buddy.”

For Hilton, another hurdle was her reluctance to promote herself. She took advantage of her social media skills to blog and tweet her way to a steady clientele, but she still had to sell her services.

“You have to get past that thing where you’re afraid to toot your own horn,” she said.

As for income, Hilton said that while it took a couple of years to regain her full-time income, her business was self-supporting within a year and covering all her bills.

“A lot of people think it’s an easy business because if you have a computer at home and you have the know-how, it is a low-cost startup,” she said. “But it’s still a business and it still requires time, energy and money to build.”

Hilton’s current project is creating Virtual Assistant Survival School, a three-part online course for people who want to start similar businesses; she hopes to launch before year-end.

‘Not for Everybody’

For paralegals who have invested 10 or 20 years in developing their expertise, finding a way to use those skills is often more appealing than starting over in a new field, said Elliott, who is president of the North Carolina Paralegal Association and an instructor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

“You have to reinvent yourself,” Elliott said. “I think [the increase in virtual businesses] is the result of evolution and people needing to continue doing the same type of work, but in a different way.”

Elliott herself, however, prefers going to an office and working in person with her attorney, coworkers and clients.

“It’s not for everybody,” she said. “I’ve known people who thought they could do it, but they couldn’t make a go of it because they didn’t want to be a collection agency, they weren’t organized enough, they couldn’t work from home because there were too many distractions.”

Alyssa Mozingo of RDU Paralegal in Raleigh, N.C., also prefers in-house work. When Mozingo’s full-time position was eliminated in late 2008, it was a rude awakening: “When I first started working in the legal field, I thought ‘This is recession-proof. Our jobs are always going to be secure.’ I never thought that would happen to me, but it does, unfortunately.”

For the first several months after her layoff, Mozingo worked for a former employer on a contract basis and gradually picked up more assignments. Contract work may be full- or part-time and last for varying lengths of time, but the worker is not an employee and does not receive benefits.

Mozingo now provides on-site and remote services through her business, RDU Paralegal. While she has enjoyed many of her assignments, she still has her eye set on a full-time permanent position.

‘The Freedom to Choose’

Draper, on the other hand, said the perks of freelancing outweigh the drawbacks. After more than 12 years as a full-time paralegal, she found herself unemployed about three years ago. Today, she works for 17 attorneys and a handful of other professionals across the U.S. through The Virtual Paralegal, which she runs from her home in Traverse City, Michigan.

Before launching, Draper spent about six months researching, designing her website, improving its search engine optimization and marketing online. Business came slowly, but surely.

“I can do everything I could do in your office except file,” she said. “I could actually attend court with you over webcam if you really wanted me to.”

At least three of Draper’s clients have their own virtual practices, but she has been hired by large-firm attorneys who lack funding for a full-time assistant. Though she has clients from coast to coast, including one in South Carolina, she has never met a single one.

For Draper, the best part of self-employment is being able to work anywhere. That means in the summer, you can often find her – and her laptop – on her 23-foot power boat.

“The biggest thing to me is the ability to have the freedom to choose the work that you want to do, and where you want to work, and how long you want to work,” she said.

The flip side is that it takes extreme organization to support so many clients in so many jurisdictions. Just as each state has its own legal requirements, each attorney wants documents in a certain font size with specific margins. Draper uses spreadsheets to keep track of it all.

Even though Draper works fewer than 40 hours per week, she said her income is better now because her hourly rate is higher. According to Draper, $35 to $40 is a typical hourly fee, with some virtual assistants charging up to $65 per hour.

“There’s no way I would have made that much working for an attorney,” she said.

Both Hilton and Draper recommend that a paralegal have two to five years of in-house experience before embarking on a virtual career.

“You really need to know what you’re doing,” Draper said. “These attorneys don’t expect anything different from me as they would hiring somebody in an office.”

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