How to Hire a Great Paralegal
I’m going to share my magic hiring process for finding and hiring perfect paralegal candidates.
Ready? Here it goes…
…..
There isn’t one. Are you kidding?
People are adamant about believing there is a one-size-fits-all formula for everything. The truth is, there isn’t a secret combination of interview questions, screening, etc. that could make you only hire the best candidates.
You’ll have better luck saying “Beetlejuice” three times with your eyes closed in the hopes that all of them will funnel directly to you and be there when you open your eyes.
When we’re hiring people, we must remember the fact that they are PEOPLE, and people have what we like to call in the hiring industry “situational qualities.” Situational qualities are why some people interview GREAT but perform horribly once hired.
Here’s what to focus on instead:
ONE | How They Communicate Through the Interview Process
Pay attention to how responsive they are. You can find the most highly qualified paralegal in the world but if their lack of follow up, communication, and general showing of interest isn’t present, they will never let that skill shine through in the way you need it to. They need to be driven and “hungry” for the job you are offering, and they need to show that.
I can say with full confidence that I have never regretted a hire with someone that was overly communicative during the interview hiring process.
Great communication traits will lead to a paralegal that follows up on medical records requests without you having to ask, will call the client to gather the discovery requests long before they are due, will give you “ticklers” when they know an important motion deadline is approaching, and will always check in with you and push you (professionally) to offload more work to them. The more they ask and perform well, the more confidence you will develop in letting go of your work load, knowing it is in good hands.
TWO | How they respond when you discuss the entirety of the job role
Facial expressions and body language speak volumes so pay attention to that. No matter what their pay grade is, they should be willing to take on tasks that may seem “beneath their pay grade” as it is a huge indicator, they are a team player. A perfect response to this discussion (for me) looks like this: “I actually insist on doing the admin tasks, client relationship, calendaring, etc. portion of the case, because it helps me to stay at the heart of each case. This leads to less roadblocks in a case that I could have seen ahead of time had I been involved to some degree in the entire process.”
The best paralegals look at their work as more than a job. They have a deep understanding and appreciation that the work they are doing directly affects the lives of the clients. This understanding and wholehearted appreciation leads to clients feeling a sense of security and comfort, knowing that someone is staying on top of their matter and working their best to get them through the process with the least amount of resistance and turmoil.
As an attorney, you need more people supporting your cases from a place of sincere care than just you. You cannot reasonably take the emotional burden alone. Your clients will love your firm for it, and the word-of-mouth referrals will flood in because of it.
THREE | Their attitude and response to taking on new areas of practice they maybe haven’t done before.
I have worked with paralegals, for instance, with 15+ years of specific CA conservatorship experience that have gotten into the systems and just brought zero passion and drive. I have also worked with a general litigation paralegal with 7 years of experience that has never touched conservatorship (in any state) that has blown my clients away with their attention to detail, willingness, and drive to dig in and figure the processes out, and their general professionalism and solution-based work. We need to dig past the resume/CV and find those solution-based paralegals. In law firms, there isn’t a month that goes by where even the lawyer isn’t faced with a problem they have never had to solve.
The job of the paralegal is to help solve those problems, so we must uncover that solution-based attitude.
Tip: ask them to break down their own step-by-step process for solving a legal issue, for instance, that they have never been faced with. Better yet, you know if you choose to venture into another area of practice that you have a paralegal that will help you navigate it. This opens so many doors for your law firm and truly brings added excitement to the table knowing you can steer your practice into whatever direction you’re being called to.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, of course when we are hiring a paralegal, we want to make sure their skill set is appropriate for the job in which you are hiring for at the salary you are offering (you get what you pay for). However, time after time I find my clients approaching the job market too “stuck” on the resume and direct/specific experience that they fail to recognize these three core qualities that make a great paralegal.
Our team goes through a stringent hiring process and it all starts with developing our paralegal network. These three qualities are the gate keeper that determines whether we will even entertain discussing the specific experience. These three qualities is what divides the great ones from the “good enough” ones.
