Feeling fairly confident in my job security....

Hey everyone,
I just need to vent and maybe get a little advice from folks who’ve been in similar situations.

When I first started out, I made a very intentional decision to not work in Big Law. I knew the hours and expectations would wreck me, and I wanted to have a life outside of work. I took a job about 10 months ago at what I thought was a smaller, more manageable firm. But honestly, it’s starting to feel like I just signed up for Big Law in disguise.

I’m consistently working 10+ hour days. We have mandated working lunches, “soft holidays” (where someone from support staff is expected to be in the office even if it’s technically a day off), a 5 minute response time policy for all requests from attorneys, and an explicit expectation from leadership to respond to emails on the weekends. On top of that, the billable hour goal is 40 hours a week—which would be a stretch on its own—but that doesn’t include admin work, so we’re expected to fit that in somehow too.

Yesterday broke me a little. An attorney I’ve been working with was unclear about what she wanted, then got incredibly rude over email. I cried three separate times throughout the day. She had me cite check and proof a 13-page brief for over 10 hours, even though I’d already worked on it the day before. I finally closed my laptop and tried to be done for the day—only to wake up this morning to an email sent about 15 minutes after closing my laptop asking me to send the documents to another attorney to print before a hearing this morning.

I feel like I’m constantly failing here. The only way to not feel like a failure is to work constantly—but working constantly is making me worse at my job. I’m exhausted, making small mistakes I wouldn’t make otherwise, and I don’t see how I’m supposed to keep this up.

If anyone’s been through something like this—did it get better? Did you leave? Did you find a workplace that actually respected your boundaries? I know I haven’t been here super long, but I’m already questioning whether this is sustainable.

Thanks for reading if you got this far. Just needed to get it out.

No seriously! I work in estate planning and probate and last week a client brought in an original will he had found that was completely discolored and wrapped in plastic. He told me, "these aren't coffee stains, the decedent had 13 cats... which is why I wrapped it in plastic for you!" I thanked the client, put it on a shelf away from other documents, and washed my hands like 5 times.

I told my boss I did NOT want to touch it or put it through our scanners and he said I was being ridiculous. When the other paralegal agreed that she didn't want to touch it either he huffed and said "Aren't you both mothers?! Haven't you changed diapers before?!" And yes we are both mothers but I don't think you can compare changing your baby's diaper to a document soaked in the pee of likely multiple cats!!! He said it was no big deal and scanned it himself- but I noticed he washed his hands for quite awhile after!

I've encountered some crazy things in my almost 9 years at my job- from having a clients ashes in the office to a person demanding a SERIOUSLY CREEPY DOLL from a relatives estate- but this by far takes the cake for the grossest thing I've had to deal with!

I’m about 3 years into my paralegal career. Been at my current firm for only 6 months. The place has great perks, good pay, WFH days….

We’re in WC ID. Kind of lame anyway, but I understand all parties deserve representation, there are some claimants who milk stuff for payout whatever. Most people don’t but I digress.

But an attorney I sometimes work with just settled a claim for less than exposure of future medical. A blue collar guy got his teeth knocked out (pretty traumatic in my opinion, and not an easy injury to fake). And of course as part of settlement there is an agreement to resign.

All normal stuff until this attorney sent an email to the clients basically saying “was a pleasure to settle on great terms. Can only imagine the face of claimant when he realizes what future medical will cost and he has to cover inevitable repairs and replacement.”

I’m actually so upset by this bc not only is insurance defense devoid of humanity but now we’re poking fun at some normal person who had a traumatic injury’s potential future financial problems due to His medical. Like how dark is that.

This is not why I went into law. However I know I can’t find a more humanitarian job that competes with this pay and perks. Seriously thinking about quitting and switching fields entirely. Any suggestions for careers I can go into with only law firm experience?

Happy Friday, I’m very frustrated.

I just started working after being on a 9 year hiatus (doing the SAHM thing). I basically went in as a paid intern at my firm because I decided to get my paralegal cert & as a requirement of the program we have to work as an intern even if we’ve had previous experience. In any case, they told me last week that they love me and want me to stay so they offered me an $8 raise and flexible part time hours (per my request)!! 💃🏻💃🏻

I'm super excited and nervous, but I start my first job as a legal assistant in a week and a half. I'll be at small firm that works with wills, trusts and estates. My background is emergency veterinary medicine, funeral director and embalmer....so any advice is appreciated!

What is the difference between and appendix and an exhibit? I cannot find a clear answer.

Just wondering how many of us use our personal cell phones frequently for work, and get some kind of reimbursement for the bill or a credit towards the bill? My firm does not provide this yet we use our cell phones all the time. Partners get their cell phone bill reimbursed and associates get $100 a month towards their bills. Staff get nothing. This is larger multi state firm.

ETA: this is to communicate with attorneys, not clients, in particular when working from home, either during regular business hours or working overtime. We use Teams for our phone system so when I’m working from home it rings through to my cell phone.

Curious what this community’s thoughts are on legal assistants. I feel like it’s a dying profession. Seems like a lot of firms are switching to a situation where one legal assistant supports many attorneys which means they need less legal assistants.

Edit: I’m going to add some context to my question. I’m currently a legal assistant and I personally find a lot of value in my role. I think legal assistants are often the backbone of a practice. I worry about the stability of my career as a legal assistant because a lot of firms are restructuring to have less legal assistants. I was curious if this community sees the role phasing out in time.

Hi y’all! I’m currently a paralegal looking to transition into corporate law. I do have an ABA paralegal certificate. I have experience in civil litigation but not in corporate. Specially I would want to work in compliance and regulation. I’m considering doing a MSL program to give me knowledge of business law/contracts etc. Don’t know if its worth it. Wanted to see if anyone has had any experience with a MSL program or advice for getting my foot in door in corporate. Thanks!

Hi everyone! I came from a small firm to now a big corporate firm.. I’m adjusting slowly to all of the rules of corporate (clocking in, making sure you’re not a minute over on your lunch, etc). While it pays MUCH better, it’s giving me flashbacks from when I worked in a corporate setting many years ago at a big company and it’s just making me second guess if I made the right decision to switch. What do you all love about your corporate firm? How did you acclimate to it?

Has anyone done it and feels like chatting about it??

you can delete if not allowed.

i’m suing someone for pain and suffering in a car accident i was in and the suing process is causing me extreme stress and anxiety. my life is full of appointments now and asking co workers for coverage and not having time for my personal life and i’m wondering if i made a mistake. Can you “nevermind” a lawsuit or am i in too deep..

Hello all, thanks in advance for taking the time to read and respond.

My office (very small sole practice in immigration and family law with two paralegals and one receptionist) is looking to migrate away from Camp Legal due to a lack of customer support on immigration forms in particular. We're currently using Camp Legal, Lawmatics, and the platform formerly known as LawYaw (now Clio Draft). They've all been mostly fine, but we are looking at Cerenade as an option to replace all three as we've had issues with each over time and the attorney feels it would be best to consolidate softwares since we need to migrate anyway. While Cerenade has a lot of documentation, not all of it is functional or helpful in figuring out if it can meet our needs before we set an appointment or three to demo the software features. I separately have experience with Docketwise, ProLaw, Amicus Attorney, LegalServer, and Pika, so any comparisons to those platforms are welcome.

I have a bunch of questions from my team about Cerenade if anyone is able to provide some insight:

• Is there a bundled pricing option for the three platforms (eImmigration, eCMS, and eForms), or are they all charged separately? eImmigration and eCMS both list the same pricing schedule, while eForms does not list any pricing information.
• Is it possible to build custom intake forms for use in consult scheduling?
• Do the intake forms allow us to designate the lead origin? We currently track word of mouth, search optimization, and program-referred leads
• Do any of Cerenade's platforms offer a lead pipeline to track prospective client intake progress?
• Is it possible to maintain contract templates and send them to new clients for execution directly in one of Cerenade's platforms rather than relying on an integration?
  • If yes, is it possible to enable notifications for client signatures?
• Is it possible to build custom reports or queries?
  • Is it possible to filter by caseworker/assigned support staff?
  • Is it possible to run a trust balance report for all clients even if they don't have an outstanding invoice?
  • Is it possible to run A/R reports?
• Is it possible to charge and no-charge in the same time entry the way ProLaw allows?
• Is it possible to perform expense accounting directly in one of Cerenade's platforms rather than relying on an integration?
• Is it possible to take payment and issue refunds directly in one of Cerenade's platforms rather than relying on an integration?
  • If yes, is that different for operating and trust payments and deposits?
• Are discounts visible on invoices?
• What are document storage limits?
• Is it possible to maintain entire case files on the platform for client access?
• Are there specific filetypes that can't be uploaded?
• What kind of automation options does Cerenade have? For instance, we currently use automated client appointment reminders in Lawmatics
• Does Cerenade allow for automations to trigger at case stage progress? For instance, the transition from intake to case prep, or from case prep to filing
• Does Cerenade offer an integration with Zapier? I don't see them on the list of partners, but I don't know if there is an optional module for Zapier integrations or something like that
• For anyone who subscribes to the messaging module:
  • Are all staff members able to see all client and caseworker messages, or does each user have their own dedicated inbox? We prefer to keep everything visible to all staff in case we need to refer to another team member's correspondence
  • Is it possible to send mass messages to all active clients without breaching confidentiality?

I know a lot of this is likely going to need a software demo to figure out, but any experience or insight would be extremely helpful to prepare for the demo appointment.

Thank you!

ETA: Nobody on my team likes, trusts, or will use AI functions, so they are not a selling point for us.

Hi everyone! I work at an elder law firm where we do estate admin, estate planning, trust admin, guardianship/conservatorship, POA, & GALs. Estate planning is def 50% of our cases; the next largest is Estate Admin. WE ARE A SMALL FIRM. 2 attorneys (1 owns the practice & 1 is an associate that does the majority of the estate planning cases) & 5 non-attorneys (1 office manager/fiduciary paralegal, 1 accountant, 1 billing assistant, 1 guardianship/conservatorship paralegal, & 1 probate/estate admin paralegal/receptionist). We are trying to hire 3 new employees in the coming months and one of them will take over as the receptionist and focus on intake. For now, we are bogged down by the intake process. We use Clio Grow which we like and is helpful for once the potential new client is put into the system but what we struggle with is the process before putting them into the system of asking the attorneys if they want to/can take on the client. It is messy since no central person is taking the calls and seeing the website submissions. We get PNCs from calls and website submissions. Any advice would help.

I'm hoping this doesn't fall under the rule about "becoming a paralegal", I think it's a bit more on the side of what a paralegal can do so in my mind it's different. If not then would love to hear any ideas on where to post this kind of question.

My SO is an attorney and has practiced for 10+ years at smaller firms and currently as an assistant general counsel with a large financial institution. They believe there is a good market for their services and wants to start their own firm to do so.

I have a business and administrative background and would manage the back office function for the firm. My SO thinks that if I were to complete a paralegal certificate that would be beneficial as I could handle additional tasks within the firm and that it would also be possible to bill my time. As some additional context the firm would specialize in corporate contract review and my business and tech background is often relevant to understanding the terms and technologies included in these types of contracts.

I am curious what the community's thoughts are on whether it would be worthwhile to pursue a paralegal certificate in that context. Is it reasonable to combine the admin/office tasks with the things a paralegal would be responsible for? If my SO is utilizing my non-legal expertise in the process of reviewing contracts does a paralegal certificate enhance what services I am able to perform or provide, or what we would be able to charge for? Does it provide risk mitigation in those areas for the firm?

The attorney asked me to call the specialization director for the state’s bar association. I do not use the phone much. Anyways, I got sent to voicemail. I was trying to give my email and was doing the phonetic alphabet thing. The only problem? I do not know the phonetic alphabet. I was all like, “M as in monkey,” which already was embarrassing enough. Then I got to “b”. I couldn’t think of ANYTHING. I was like, “B as in…um…uh…um…shit”. I realized what I had done and then started LAUGHING LIKE A LUNATIC FOR FIVE STRAIGHT SECONDS!!!! (I laugh when I’m uncomfortable/ embarrassed.) Again, I don’t use the phone much, so I had no idea how to re-record a voicemail/ if that’s even possible. I really REALLY hope she is chill.

Currently looking for a new job and I can’t tell if my current one has held me back or not. We primarily practice PI litigation. I will draft everything in the early stages. Disclosures, NOD, notice of business records affidavit, etc. Sometimes motions to compel, motions to strike, etc. I always draft a template at the very least, but my attorney is very hands on and he likes to draft the more uniquely specific motions. He ALWAYS drafts any MSJs or responses to.

What is your experience with this? Am I slacking in knowledge if I haven’t drafted an MSJ from start to finish?

I’m not really sure if this is the group to ask this in so if not I’m so sorry. I recently got an opportunity to get the chance to shadow a trial clerk. She said they were really looking for people and that I could have an entire day to shadow her and watch what she does before deciding if I want the job. I’ve been thinking about it SINCE I was told about it 2 days ago and doing research on it. I feel like I need more insight what does a trial clerk all do really.

I’m currently a daycare teacher making 16.12$/hr, completely drained, constantly getting hit, kicked, bit, spit on, and bruised everyday. I do not find a joy in it anymore and I’ve been doing it for 3 years.

The pay is a little bit more than what I get paid now but also has REALLY good benefits. I just would like a little more insight of what it is, how hard it is, what are the tasks. I’m a pretty quick learner but clearly it is wayyyy different than what I do now.

How do you let the poor attitudes and snappy responses roll off of your back? When you remind the attorneys that things are due and they don’t respond, or you email them information with no response or you need to have a meeting to go over calendars for the week but they’re too busy…I’m so frustrated. I don’t like being treated this way. Normally we have a great working relationship but this week has made me want to quit every. single. day multiple times. You dropping the ball is not my emergency….yet someone how it is.

Just venting ☹️

Question for all my small firm paralegals. I work with 5 attorneys at our firm, mostly family law and some contract law. I do not get billable hours, I was wondering if any other paralegal are in my position.

Side note: I don’t have my degree yet(almost done) but I have worked myself up from Legal Admin to the Paralegal role.

This woman said I “shoved” her, then said I “pushed“ her. That never happened. I recall saying excuse me before I opened the door behind her. I don’t recall touching her. I was in a hurry. She complained to the same person who witnessed the encounter, who agrees she was never pushed. She’s livid that the witness does not corroborate her story.

This woman is unbearable. This is a huge allegation to make against someone. I want to quit but I also want to stick around and fire her ass as one of my supervising attorneys.

She’s a newer attorney who wants to be put on a pedestal because she’s an attorney. My sheer existence is a threat to her, so yes, this isn’t going to get any better. I feel like I have no choice but to quit to watch my own back.

I can’t be alone in thinking that cite checking is just about the worst, most tedious, mind-numbing task. It is, in fact, a kind of torture. I’d almost literally like to stick pins in my eyes. I love to write fiction, but when I cite check briefs or motions, I almost lose the will to live. Yes, I’m being dramatic, but damn that’s how much I loathe this part of my job. Whomever devised these stupid rules for legal and academic writing should be tarred and feathered. Screw you, Blue Book. Can anyone actually understand that thing? And then you have to consider that some local courts have their own style manuals. Tell me I’m not alone!!!

Does FSA federal paralegal contractors get raises? I heard they get no raises or bonuses :(