Empowering Clients: The Vital Role of Paralegals In Family Law

Kati: My new role is titled Paralegal Operations Manager. This is a new role to MFL and it was created to assist the paralegals and work hand in hand with the operations department. As I step into this position, my main priorities are to create relationships with the paralegals to assist them with their day-to-day needs, address potential errors with billing, and assist with professional development with the help and support of our learning and development team. I work closely alongside our operations department assisting them with various tasks as well as Jessica McKeel, on our Learning and Development team to work on new pieces of training for our new hires and existing employees and potential support that is needed for current employees.

Kati: Paralegals are involved as soon as the client hires at our firm. As soon as a client hires the paralegal sets them up in our system, sends them an email, and/or gives them a call to introduce themselves and outlines what the client should expect within the next 24-48 hours and what we need from them to get the case moving forward efficiently. Our paralegals contribute so much to each case individually, most times they are the front line speaking with the client prior to the attorney, pre-drafting documents, doing legal research, and various other tasks that are needed throughout a case lifeline. Our paralegals are some of the best in town, their dedication to their clients is something I’ve never seen before.

Kati: MFL takes a team approach to every case. All paralegals and attorneys are in constant communication to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Caroline: Effective communication is crucial when working closely with attorneys. What strategies do you use to ensure that paralegals and attorneys stay on the same page throughout the legal process?

Kati: Open communication is the key to any effective team. Our teams utilize different apps to connect throughout the day. I always tell the paralegals that they need to be open with their attorneys, if they need something they need to speak up because the attorneys don’t know what they don’t know if there isn’t open communication.

Kati: Our paralegals are amazing. They are the front line of most communications with clients, they assist the attorneys in keeping their calendars and deadlines up to date, assisting in pre-drafting legal documents, legal research, and maintaining the client’s file here at the firm. In addition to all of the above, the paralegals are also the case experts for our once-weekly meetings to discuss the case, they can quickly pull up any information the attorney wants and give accurate updates about upcoming deadlines, mediations, appearances, or phone calls to move the case along.

Kati: Our paralegals are our case experts and are in charge of maintaining the client’s file in our case management systems. Our firm is “paperless” and we are remote, so everything that is done is done electronically. Our paralegals pre-draft and send it to the attorney who finalizes it, then the paralegal files it with the Court or sends it where it needs to go and saves it into the client file.

Kati: We have an entire team dedicated to learning and development for our legal professionals. Many of our team members are part of organizations for paralegals in their states where there are weekly/monthly/quarterly meetings where updates are given about new policies and procedures. Other team members lean heavily on their Managing Attorney/Partner to assist them with new policies and procedures.

Regarding firm-specific practices and procedures, the paralegals and I meet every Tuesday to discuss the week, any changes to our policy and procedure and address any need for assistance from our Learning and Development team.

Kati: Compassion and listening go hand in hand. Day in and day out our paralegals are listening to our clients, crying, venting, and sometimes even screaming.

Kati: As the manager one of my main goals is to improve the paralegals ability for legal writing and research. I believe this tool is one of the most important as it will make you even more invaluable to an attorney. In addition to legal writing and research, I’m currently working on ensuring the paralegals are able to work on as much of the case as possible therefore maximizing the billables for our team and lowering the bill for our client.

Kati: Family Law is not easy, some people can’t handle the pressure or the high conflict cases. It’s easy to “take your work home”. Being a paralegal in any capacity but especially in family law, you need to know how to create healthy boundaries, effectively communicate and most importantly, be organized.