A lawyer’s take on the benefits of increasing paralegal utilization in law practice
Article by William T. McClure, Published by BarNews
Without paralegals, my practice would implode. Handling dozens of medical malpractice and complex personal injury cases requires a skilled and knowledgeable team to keep cases moving forward. Paralegals ensure tasks are completed on time, provide unique perspectives on a case, and do the heavy lifting to keep clients informed. As attorneys, we know the value paralegals bring to the practice every day. The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Paralegals has quantified this value in a recent report, The Economic Benefits of Paralegal Utilization (Thomas E. McClure, Standing Committee on Paralegals, The Economic Benefits of Paralegal Utilization (ABA 2d ed. 2022).
As a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Paralegals, I work with attorneys, paralegals, and educators to develop and promote policies relating to the education, employment, training, and effective use of paralegals. Notably, the ABA approves paralegal education programs to ensure that future paralegals entering the field are equipped with the skills and tools to be successful in today’s legal environment. (ABA approval of a paralegal education program is different than a designation bestowed on a paralegal who has completed a voluntary certification process through a professional association). Washington has five ABA-approved paralegal education programs: Edmonds College, Highline College, South Puget Sound Community College, Spokane Community College, and Tacoma Community College.
Educating Paralegals
Adam Tenenbaum is the director of the South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) Paralegal Education Program in Olympia. The SPSCC Paralegal Program has 40 to 60 students enrolled at any given time. To Tenenbaum, the “overarching goal for the program is to graduate paralegals and legal assistants I would have hired when I was in practice.” These students learn from practicing attorneys and receive a foundation of legal subject matter knowledge in topics like torts, contracts, property, and estate planning.
Tenenbaum emphasizes the practical experiences provided to students. The program offers comprehensive legal research and writing instruction that has students drafting legal memoranda, case briefs, and letters. SPSCC offers courses like Technology in the Law Office where students train on software designed to simulate a law firm’s document and file retention systems. The SPSCC program also requires students to complete a legal internship in which students actively work in the legal profession by performing substantive paralegal and legal assistant work prior to completing a degree. Recent paralegal graduates from SPSCC filled positions with law firms in the area, the Attorney General’s Office, and even the Washington Supreme Court. Legal organizations that hire a graduate of a program like SPSCC’s will get a paralegal who is ready and capable of assuming substantive legal duties without extensive in-house training.
Assigning the Right Work to Paralegals
Aside from a firm’s increase in brain power when hiring graduates of our state’s ABA-approved paralegal programs, there’s economic evidence of paralegals’ benefit to the practice of law and to the services we provide to our clients. Paralegals are a key element in fostering the cost efficiency for a legal team. They know the facts, the witnesses, the issues, and keep cases moving in the right direction.
Like other states, Washington paralegals typically work under the supervision of a licensed attorney but are prohibited from practicing law. General Rule 24 defines the practice of law, and Washington’s RPC 5.3 sets forth attorneys’ ethical obligations regarding the supervision of non-lawyers that attorneys employ. Within these parameters, paralegals can perform a wide variety of tasks to support attorneys and clients. In fact, mid-level paralegals and first-year associates oftentimes perform similar work.
Lawyers, particularly junior associates, are largely overqualified for many of the tasks they are assigned. Law-related memes frequently emphasize the lack of legal prowess needed for junior associates to circulate a conference call dial-in or sit silently on Zoom while others handle a substantive discussion. Although bordering on absurd, some of this social media sentiment is fair—newly minted associates tend to have a portion of their time devoted to tasks that do not require a J.D. Attorney time is better spent in court, giving legal advice, planning case strategy, conducting depositions, and generally doing work that is clearly outside of the Venn diagram of “legal work” that could be completed by either a paralegal or an attorney. Shifting non-J.D. work to a qualified paralegal serves the long-term interests of a law practice.
Maximizing Efficiency and Profits
By allocating paralegal and attorney responsibilities wisely, a law firm can not only devote more time to a client matter but can also decrease costs for that client. For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that an attorney bills at $300 per hour, a paralegal bills at $125 per hour, and the case is a fairly straightforward matter. We can compare two scenarios: first, where all work is completed by the attorney and second, where significant work is delegated to a paralegal.
In the first example, the attorney works 32 hours on the case, without paralegal assistance. The client receives a $9,600 invoice. In the second example, the attorney works 12 hours on the case, with the paralegal spending 32 hours. In this scenario, the client is billed $7,600 for 44 hours of work. Incorporating the paralegal into the case resulted in client savings of $2,000, or over 20 percent of the total cost when no paralegal was involved. Accordingly, even where there is some duplicative effort, like when the attorney and paralegal both interview the client, and despite more hours being billed, the client nevertheless saves money when the firm utilizes a skilled paralegal.
Even in a fixed fee or contingency fee matter, paralegal utilization offers benefits. In a fixed fee scenario, every hour of work performed by a paralegal rather than an attorney lowers the investment in the project. Similarly, in a contingency fee scenario, shifting a material portion of the work to a paralegal increases the potential for profit and decreases the chance of losses. Additionally, paralegal time can be recoverable alongside plaintiff attorney fees in certain actions in contingency fee matters. (Missouri v. Jenkins, 491 U.S. 274, 285 (1989) (paralegal fees awarded in a 42 U.S.C § 1988 case). See also Thomas v. Cannon, 2018 WL 1517661 (W.D. Wash. 2018) (paralegal fees awarded in a 42 U.S.C § 1983 case).
Consistent with the previous example, even if the firm devotes more hours when a paralegal participates in the project, the project nevertheless generates a higher profit than when only attorneys complete the work.
Additionally, when seasoned paralegals gain subject matter expertise, firms will continue to increase profits. When a paralegal is more familiar with specific case law and an attorney’s style of practice, everyone—the firm, the attorney, the paralegal, and the client—benefits. What’s more, increased use of paralegals can allow an attorney to raise her own billable rate while continuing to maintain client satisfaction. For example, an attorney could raise her billable rate by 10 percent and at the same time direct that a significant portion of the case workup is shifted to a paralegal. There, the client will nevertheless save money overall based on the paralegal’s lower rate, while the attorney still increases her personal profitability.
Amplifying the Return on Investment
Typically, paralegals become profitable immediately, whereas junior associates frequently take a few years to begin realizing profits. We’re all painfully aware of the lack of law school curriculum focused on the everyday tasks of attorneys. The post-bar-exam learning curve is steep, leading to tempered expectations for a junior associate’s initial performance. As a result, there is obvious short-term profitability in hiring a paralegal over a recent law school graduate when the paralegal comes into the firm with real-world training or experience.
Paralegals also bring with them long-term profitability because, over time, they will become more efficient and knowledgeable while continuing to learn habits and preferences of their supervising attorneys. This only increases their profitability. Conversely, once associates regularly generate profits, they seek partnership to share in the firm’s earnings or they look elsewhere for different opportunities. Contrast these revenue-generating associates with paralegals, who cannot become partners and, assuming they are compensated at a competitive rate and are otherwise happy to remain as employees, can continue to produce profits for your firm for their entire careers.
Increasing Client Satisfaction
As shown in the examples above, increased utilization of paralegals for substantive tasks can lower a client’s bill while still providing quality legal services. But it isn’t just about the money; a paralegal assigned to a case is typically more accessible to the client than the attorney. This allows for better communication from a person who has material knowledge regarding the status of the client’s matter. Combining economic benefit with interpersonal benefit, substantial paralegal involvement fosters a higher likelihood that the client continues to bring business to the firm.
Improving Attorneys' Quality of Life
Integrating paralegals into a more substantive part of a law practice can enhance attorneys’ quality of life. Not only is there a higher level of profitability for the partners, but associates will be happier to focus their energies on attorney-only tasks like depositions and court appearances. Conversely, attorneys may resent completing tasks that non-attorney staff can and do complete. In that regard, firms may decrease associate turnover when associates are able to spend more time learning the art of lawyering. Additionally, increased paralegal use can support the firm’s pro bono efforts, either by allowing more attorney time in that area or by paralegals substantively assisting attorneys on pro bono matters themselves.
Taken together, the benefits of increased paralegal utilization are unmistakable. The firm can maximize profitability. Associates can shift their workload to tasks they went to law school for. Clients will be satisfied with smaller invoices and better communication. By including paralegals in substantive roles, law practices will reap multifaceted rewards.
About the Author
William T. McClure is an attorney at Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC in Tacoma. He can be reached at wmcclure@pcvalaw.com.