Industry: Law Firm / Law Office (United States)

I have been with my employer for 10 years. I was his first permament full time legal secretary since he started his own private practice. He practices estate planning, family law, contract law, corporate law and a little landlord/tenant law. I took his new practice which had no structure and created office policies, procedures, Word templates for our forms, client intake sheets, billing procedures, trial procedures and step by step procedures regarding collection work and fee arbitrations according to current law. I always felt confident and secure in my job as he never had one complaint and complimented me on my performance. Then, out of nowhere and completely unexpected, he took on some heavy federal litigation and civil litigation cases (which he is not familiar with litigation timelines and strategies), hired an associate who just passed the bar, on a contract basis, to assist him with his extra work load as a result of these litigation cases. To date, the only work he has given her is 75 percent of my job that I was performing just fine and none of his extra work except for an occasional hearing he let's her sit in on. He is still stressed out, if not more now, than he was before she was hired. We have made mistake after mistake on discovery deadlines and have some upset clients we never had before. I no longer feel like the successful legal secretary I was before our associate was hired and my job moral has hit an all time zero. He has not paid her for hardly any of her work performed, my work load has doubled, and has not even given me a cost of living salary increase for over 5 year. It makes me feel like his intention is to have an assistant with a law degree, not a legal secretary and a contract attorney on the side for his overload work. His office is all set up now with structured policies and procedures, and he now has an eager associate attorney willing to do my job instead of any contract work. The advice I have to give is the following: 1. Always put yourself first before your boss; 2. Do not allow your employer to use you to his advantage; and 3. Walk out with what you walked in with that was outside the scope of your job description.

I performed an in-depth telephone survey of 10 collegues I've worked with as legal secretaries who have been employed approximately the same length of time I have. I requested their general salary within a certain range based on length of their employment, as well as any employer-provided benefits, i.e. vacation, pension and insurance packages. I also researched and printed my County's wage analysis as well as local private industry wage reports for my area. I approached my employer with a figure I believed was a fair and reasonable raise expectation, due to my in-depth research.

It took a month of discussions, but I was awarded a $5 hourly raise including addl. benefits due to my thorough and professional legwork. If you take the time to research your job description, local industry and County wage analyses, as well as job description and performance expectations, don't be afraid to shoot for the moon and win.

I did.

I worked as a paralegal for 20 years and had a BS degree in Business Administration. I went back to school and got a degree in paralegal and web management for NVCC. This helped me learn things that made me more competetive than the other paralegals in the office.

I believe that job security is an important thing to have because it is what supports my family. As long as I do the best I can do within my job, to the best of my ability and show up every day, I believe that I will continue to stay within my job. Unfortunately, job security is not a sure thing as anything could happen at any time, so be prepared as well that way the "shock" of having to possibly look for a new job is not so overwhelming, have your ducks lined and always be prepared to look out for "you" because no one else will be doing that for you.

I don't think I'm being paid fairly because I perform more duties than I am being paid for.

As a newly certified Paralegal I found that none of the search firms wanted to talk to me as I do not have any experience. I then sent a cover letter and my resume to 61 Law firms and had a job offer within 2 weeks.

I set a precedent the first time I had to ask for a raise. Previous raises had come pretty much automatically until the about the 6 year mark. I needed life insurance so I drew up a proposal showing a 7% raise compared to 3% raise plus quarterly life insurance premium payments. They jumped at the 3%, of course, but I got an added benefit. It was not an elaborate proposal just three columns: a current column (with date of last raise as a header to show them a raise was due), and two more columns with the percentage used as a header. I left this on their desks in the evening and the next morning asked if they had seen it and what did they think? Now I use this approach each time.

I first started in the firm as a legal assistant because there was not a paralegal position. within one year I was transferred to a paralegal position. I not only am responsible for my work but have to supervise and instruct the legal assistant. I also have to make sure all work is done whether it be mine or not and if it is not done I need to do it.

You must sell your qualities and work ethic.

I worked for a mid-size law firm for two very busy female litigators. I would usually arrive 1/2 hour early in the morning and begin work. My work load was so heavy, I felt guilty about taking a lunch hour, so I usually sat at my desk and devoured a sandwich while continuing to work. I would always complete any job assignments each day if possible, even if it meant staying over to do so. I volunteered for overtime to help other secretaries along with working overtime for my own attorneys.

The day before my six month probationary period was over, I was fired. I was told it was because of poor attendance. I did miss time from work due to illness and emergencies, but I did not exceed the time allowed for that. Thus, I did not receive any vacation time that I had accrued and was not able to collect any unemployment benefits. I have since used my two prior attorneys as references since they both felt I was let go wrongfully.