Office Manual | Law Firms\' Office Manual

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law firms' office manual

Office Manual

Office Manual for Law Firms

In this paper, we will prepare a section of a law firms' office manual which will deal with the procedures the firm has set up for hiring and training of new employees, specifically the paralegal. We will take some references from other office procedure books as well but firstly let's focus on the hiring and training part.

Hiring and Training

The basic process of hiring and training in a law firm is much similar as compared to other occupations. Here, the initial application may come towards the candidates by newspaper, e-mail and so on. Experience matters a lot in this field, therefore the firm may give out priority to those individuals who are more experienced than others. Success is also a major factor, here the firm should go for those employees who are more successful in their cases as compared to others or which are more promising in the future.

Fresh graduates should also be allowed to have a chance to apply but strictly based on their merit. Discipline is one of the foremost principles which lead the law profession therefore every individual who applies for the firm should be given clear and concise overview of what the firm stands for and what they expect from their employees. Besides this, some other key factors which are included in the process of hiring are as follows. Interviewing candidates for hiring comes in among the foremost steps in the hiring process, the interviewer must be very clear on what it wants from the employee and what are the rules and regulations regarding the law firm. All other points such as salary range, additional benefits can be dealt here as a part of the interview.

Here, the credibility of the interviewer is also very important, always hire those individuals which have the best experience, the most knowledge and the best communication as well as negotiating skills for the interviewing process. After the selection, the candidate should be required to make a formal written job offer which includes the complete description of the job as well as salary. Besides these internal candidates, the firm should also search for external candidates, here the purpose is to develop a pool of many diverse applicants to choose from. Online social media also plays a very important role in giving publicity to what the firm has to offer. The firm can use tools such as Twitter and LinkedIn.

Now, let's have a look at some of the training methods which can be adopted by the law firm. Here, there are five main points which should be noted and acted upon very clearly and accordingly to the needs of the firm itself. These five points are analyze, design, development of materials, implementation and evaluation. Let's focus on each one of these. The analyzing portion allows the "needs assessment" to be done, here it is very crucial for the law firm to identify the information which must be addressed within itself. The current or newly recruited employees can be asked of any significant course, procedures or anything else which they are unaware of and which is a necessity requirement by the firm. The law firm can then work on providing the required training based on the analysis.

The design phase is the part where we interlink all the needs assessment into the existing curricula. At this level all the assembling of information is done which is related to every program objective.

This is the phase in which the actual blueprints of training are drawn based on the received specifications. This phase also includes the process of operational considerations of entire program.

Next comes the development of materials phase, this includes creation of materials which can assist in fulfilling our training requirements. One main point here is that it should be noted the information organized earlier for the development of materials should be easy in understanding for everyone. Let's say the law firm wants to offer a program in which it would like every one of its new recruits to go through a survey, the development of materials needed for the conduction of this survey should be according to the budget as well as to the right quantity. "Quality should never be compromised and the firm should do everything in order to maintain its standards." (Muir, 1999).

Implementation is the next phase, this is where the actual training process takes place. Few points which can greatly improve the implementation process are practice/experience, leadership abilities and facilities management. "Experience can help in coping up with situations where resources are scarce and time is short, leadership can help where the working team is difficult to manage." (Ingraham, 1987).

Finally, let's have a look at the evaluation process; every system output directly reflects the given inputs, adjustments and the processes. Here the training procedure is not different. If outputs are less than what is desired then the changes required become necessary. In our case the law firm can asses this by observing the employees which go through the training programs. If the learning procedure is effective then it will be clearly visible else change is imminent for the sake of proper standards.

Now, let's focus on the paralegals in this whole process.

Paralegals

Paralegals are paraprofessionals which assist the qualified professionals at their tasks. They can handle many of the routine assignments especially at their time of inexperience. With the gain in experience they usually assume greater responsibilities as well as involvement in various different tasks. The standard work time of the paralegals is about forty hour per week, most of the paralegals work the entire year.

The training process here guides individuals to be a paralegal which is a different branch as compared with the other branches of the law firms. There are many ways to be paralegal, a very common training process includes training through any community college which offers paralegal programs and gives out the respective associate degree. Another method which suits those individuals which are already going through studies in college is applying for courses or earn a certificate at the paralegal studies.

There are some schools as well as colleges which offer different degrees in the field of paralegal studies. If any of this is not possible then the individual should try to contact different professional employers which train in becoming paralegal on the job. There are various qualities of the paralegal training programs with many that include the job placement services. The prospective students should always check on the experience level of recent graduates from the institute before formally enrolling at the paralegal program.

In most cases the training program includes courses in the field of legal research as well as legal applications of computing devices. Many other training programs offer internship where students can gain much needed practical experience by working at any private law firm for many months.

Hiring a paralegal mainly depends on the experience, knowledge and management capabilities of the individual. It is commonly noted that many employers do not seek certification in order to hire a paralegal. If even needed one then there are many other national as well as paralegal firms which offer different paralegal certifications by allowing the students to pass the respective exams. Many different organizations even give certifications by allowing the individuals to meet a certain criteria like education or experience.