Paralegal Internship

¶ … legal office that I work in handles exclusively civil cases. The particular attorney that I work for handles civil cases as well with a primary focus on divorce. My supervising attorney works closely with the staff even though he is a full partner in the firm. The firm is not large by area standards. It has five practicing attorneys and two paralegals. In addition, there are two support personnel working in the office as well. They are both legal secretaries with many years of experience.

One works for the four partners while the other reports directly to the attorney who started the firm. The legal work that my particular supervising attorney does involves divorce cases. It is interesting to note that he also handles personal injury cases as well. The divorce cases that he handles are the cases that look like they are going to have a custody and property battle. He does many divorces per year and is well-known in the area for getting the best deal for his client.

The division of responsibility in the office depends on what is happening at the time. For the most part the secretaries answer the phones and handle most of the word processing duties. They are also charged with calling clients and setting up appointments as well as ordering office supplies. The paralegals are the staff members who assist the attorneys in their search for information.

Paralegals in this office are often asked to find cases of precedent so that the attorney can prepare the case he or she is going to present in court when the time comes. Paralegals are also asked to locate assets and other information about the client's soon to be ex-spouses. The paralegals divide the work between all five attorneys with one handling the divorce cases and the other one handling the law suit cases.

The paralegal that does the law suit cases has to interview client witnesses and do other duties that help protect or strengthen the case of the client. The work I performed was with an attorney. I was not asked to interact and work with the support staff of the office. The work I was asked to do consisted mainly of preparing briefs using the attorney's notes and also searching for assets of the client's prospective ex-spouses.

The level of work I performed would be considered entry level even though there was some mid level expectations involved as well. The preparation of briefs was mainly drafted using copies of old briefs and then the current case notes. This was good training however for future work. In addition I was on the telephone a lot trying to verify bank accounts and other assets that were claimed on the asset papers of the spouses in the proceedings.

I was also asked to set up appointments with child therapists and other experts who would later testify on behalf of our clients in the divorce proceedings. I enjoyed this part of the work because it allowed me to interact with the client, their children and the experts involved. A derived benefits from the paralegal program that assisted in my work at the internship. One of the areas where the program provided me the skills I needed was in research methods.

These classes taught me what I needed to know to be able.