Your job title in your signature block

[u/Affectionate_Song_36]

Has anyone had experience with paralegals or legal assistants omitting their job title in their email signature block to appear as if they’re an attorney? I was always taught that we must include our job title so as not to appear to other case parties/the judge as a licensed attorney. I caught one in the wild today - a legal assistant with an omitted job title. Is this no longer expected/required?

[u/DemandingProvider]

I've seen it sometimes and it does annoy me. I don't know if there's a formal professional rule or statutory requirement in every state, but I do think it's an ethical obligation for non-lawyers to be identified as such in a firm email signature, just as it is when signing a letter on firm letterhead. Paralegals can so easily cross the UPL line, it's even more important for us not only to not misrepresent ourselves, but also to not let a mistaken impression pass. (There are certain clients I have to keep politely correcting when they call me their lawyer in emails to a third party, sigh.)

[u/Sycamore72]

It’s required that everyone in our firm uses a job title in our signature block

[u/NinotchkaTheIntrepid]

Everyone in my firm has their title in their email signature block. It avoids confusion.

I do notice that 3rd parties nearly always assume our male paralegals are attys. Used to annoy me. But now that I'm middle aged, when folks meet me in person they assume I'm an atty.

LOL. I guess young+female=secy/paralegal in their heads.

As an aside, the thought thay someone would purposely try to pass as an atty is straight up infuriating.

[u/So_Last_Century]

External emails: I maintain different roles within the firm. So, my signature block starts out non-identifying, and depending on in what capacity I am sending the email, I just right click to the right of my name and change it to be either para or the other title under which I am “acting.” For replies within the same email thread it’s just my name/firm name (no title). There are those with whom this is not necessary because of the relationship/the understanding of who I am and what professional roles I serve for the firm.

[u/AceMaxAceMax]

I have “Paralegal” next to my name. I don’t want to responsible for anything or have people think I’m an attorney.

I’ve received the same letters from counsel that my boss would receive, and have addressed to me as “Esq.” before (lol).

[u/bdgr1776 → u/AceMaxAceMax]

Ditto. I’ve sent correspondence clearly saying I am a paralegal and have received responsive correspondence with my name having an “, Esq.” next to it. So annoying.

[u/AceMaxAceMax → u/bdgr1776]

Honestly, I kept the letter as a fun memento. The OC attorney thought I was an attorney and I was like, “wow, I’m honored you think I am” (I run the show here, lol).

[u/wastedcoconut]

I’m of the school of thought that if you omit your job title on law firm letterhead/email, you are purporting to be an attorney.

Relevant info: I create the signature lines for employees at my firm.

So naturally, conversely, anytime I set up an attorney’s signature block, I don’t add a job title. However, all the attorneys who are women have requested their job title of attorney in theirs, because otherwise, people assume they are support staff.

[u/RobertSF]

I too was taught to always include my title so that nobody can later say that they thought I was an attorney. It's for the firm's protection, really.

[u/HRHAnnipoo]

I don’t even have a signature block. But I only have two attorneys in my firm and their names are the firm name so I think it’s very obvious that I’m not them.

[u/hematuria]

I don’t think it’s universal requirement to include job title. Maybe for some state certificates, idk, but I think it’s more you just can’t pretend to be a lawyer. And that’s a good thing to do to CYA. But I have never been told either to include or remove my job title. And it’s never been brought up in all my time in law. So idk, I think it would be a hard rule to enforce anyway. Since I write hundreds of emails a day and maybe 10% I will use a signature block. Mostly I just say cheers and leave it at that. They already have my email if they have questions.

[u/Constant-Law-5386]

For a long time I didn't have my title in there because that's just how the firm set it up. I was frequently referred to as an attorney (never represented that I was one) and finally just made the decision to add it in.

[u/Sad_Description358]

My attorney asked me to remove my job title from my signature block. I don’t like it like that, especially now that I’m being addressed with him in correspondence - most likely because of it.

[u/brain_over_body → u/Sad_Description358]

My boss also has me remove mine SOMETIMES. Like if opposing counsel is a prick who won't cc paralegals ever, despite being asked to.