The Empowered Paralegal

I do not know anything about Jodie Padak’s work in the office, but I suspect it is top-notch. As this story from The Buffalo News relates, Jodie shows traits of a true professional – the ability to identify a problem, the ability to plan and the drive to initiate a solution, the ability to take charge, and the ability to create a team:

Regular folks making this a better place

Donn Esmonde

COMMENTARY

December 30, 2009, 6:47 AM

Julie Padak— No one better than Padak proves that anyone can make a difference. She is a 29-year-old downtown paralegal whose duties include dog-walking the office pet. The route included neglected streets and pocket parks behind Pearl Street near St. Joseph Cathedral—the prime byway between downtown and Erie Canal Harbor. Distressed by the trash and weeds, she launched a cleanup campaign and called owners of surrounding businesses and city officials for help. The subsequent crusade beat back the blight and showed that, yes, Buffalo, we can.

In a myriad of ways, professional paralegals make law offices better places for both the attorneys and the public every day by using this same traits in their work.

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Several readers have arrived at this blog by searches including the words “paralegal” and “stress.”  Certainly paralegals, like all professionals, are subject to multiple professional stress factors in addition to those arises from private life such as spouses, children and finances. This is especially true in situations where they are overworked.

Stress factors include time pressure, workload, docket control, client management and relationships with co-workers including attorneys. The bad news is that there is no way to eliminate these factors. They are part of any profession and of many non-professional careers. The good news is that they can be controlled by paralegals rather than the paralegal being controlled by them.

The primary factor in controlling stress lies in the way the paralegal approaches any and all aspects of paralegal practice. It is a proactive rather than reactive approach. It seeks to understand and manage even those aspects of practice that the paralegal cannot control. This principle involves taking a rational empowered approach to time, file, workload, calendar, client and attorney relationship management.

While the specifics are different with regard to each stress producer, the paralegal can identify the areas of concern, analyze each aspect of that concern, set priorities that address those concerns, obtain a greater understanding of the area of concern, investigate solutions and barriers to those solutions, and establish procedures for implementing solutions and removing or overcoming barriers to those solutions. This can, and should, be done in a direct, rational and professional way – a way that honors our own need to be efficient, effective and empowered, and honors the interrelationships and responsibilities of the legal team.

When a paralegal applies these principles, that paralegal becomes empowered. The empowered paralegal is an essential member of the legal team in any office. In particular, the empowered paralegal not only survives, but thrives in the American law office.

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