What Exactly Does a Corporate Legal Assistant Do?
Corporate legal assistants are among the highly specialized support professionals employed by corporations to meet a myriad of increasing business and legal service demands. The most prominent characteristic of corporate legal assistants is the depth and breadth of their expertise in business details, knowledge of corporate law and business regulations acquired from extensive on-the-job training and experience.
Background and education: Corporate legal assistants commonly hold either an associate or bachelor’s degree in business, paralegal studies or a related field. They may also have relevant industry certifications such as paralegal certification from the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) , or the American Alliance of Paralegals (AACP). They may also be Certified Public Accountants (CPA) or hold other business-related professional designations.
Core responsibilities: The primary duties of corporate legal assistants require keen business acumen and operating knowledge related to business operations, policies, practices and legal structures, such as: Corporate legal assistants work closely with management, legal staff and advisors to develop and implement corporate business policies, including compliance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements.
Core Competencies for Corporate Legal Assistants
The daily responsibilities of corporate legal assistants can vary substantially. Depending on the size of the company and the industry, the core duties may include everything from preparing affidavits, drafting correspondence, and maintaining financial records to monitoring and analyzing files, conducting research, and organizing materials. Given this wide range of tasks, it comes as no surprise that there are some essential skills that all corporate legal assistants must possess.
Communication
Not only must corporate legal assistants have the ability to process and record information, but they also must have strong communication skills. A corporate legal assistant will regularly draft memos, letters, declarations, and other correspondence for distribution within the company and to outside parties. Also, corporate legal assistants frequently prepare meeting minutes, which must be clearly typed and organized in a manner that is easy to access and reference. So, whether they are dealing with clients, colleagues, senior lawyers, or outside parties, corporate legal assistants must be able to communicate legal material effectively.
Organization
On any given weekday, a corporate legal assistant might be asked to conduct research, write reports, organize files, maintain databases, and manage calendars. In addition to these daily tasks, there are usually deadlines and commitments for different projects that require careful tracking to ensure timely completion. This is why being organized is an imperative. Not only must corporate legal assistants be able to prioritize and be highly organized, but they also must accurately maintain files. Whether a document is physical or electronic, it needs to be organized in a way that makes retrieval of information quick and easy.
Technology
Today, technology is nearly always used to streamline processes, and corporate legal assistants are no exception. All tasks, whether administrative or more technical, require one to become knowledgeable about how to use certain software, tools, and computer systems. In this digital era, let’s just say that it’s crucial for a corporate legal assistant to be up-to-date on the latest versions of Microsoft Office programs and other relevant software.
Research
To be a successful corporate legal assistant, you have to be curious. To carry out his/her duties, a corporate legal assistant is regularly asked to research facts, statutory rules, regulations, and case law. Therefore, the ability to research and analyze legal information is an absolute must.
Academic Programs and Certification
Corporate legal assistants typically hold an associate degree in paralegal studies or a related field. Both the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) and the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) offer registered and certified paralegal programs, respectively, that instruct students in family law, civil litigation, administrative law and corporate law.
Many schools offer a corporate law or business law concentration that covers the regulations and procedures that describe how corporations function. Many of these programs also cover the areas of practical communication, research and writing, which are essential to succeeding as a corporate legal assistant.
Some states, such as Illinois, do not require a paralegal or legal assistant certification, while others do. It is common, however, that employers prefer to hire corporate legal assistants who have earned the designation of certified paralegal (CP) or registered paralegal (RP) from NALA or NFPA, respectively.
Job Prospects and Career Growth
As with any profession, the advancement opportunities for corporate legal assistants are abundant and dependent on a multitude of factors. After gaining some experience in a corporate legal assistant position for a few years, legal secretaries typically have the option of moving into a managerial role. In this managerial role, they will be in charge of organizing and staffing delegating responsibilities as well as conducting annual performance evaluations. Legal secretaries may also become paralegals or legal analysts. A paralegal assists the attorney with clerical and administrative duties. A legal analyst is a newly created role that extends all the work that a paralegal does and may include getting involved in the budgeting process .
Corporate legal assistants have the opportunity to specialize in certain areas of law. Advancing their education by attending relevant coursework, such as employment law or bankruptcy, will solidify their qualifications for other opportunities. Legal administrative assistants have the option of specializing in corporate bankruptcy, labor and employment law or civil litigation. Each area of specialization involves additional training, extra coursework, obtaining certain certifications and getting an advanced degree. Those who plan to manage or work in human resources must understand employment law and take applicable classes in this area. Those who plan to work in civil litigation must have a strong grasp of civil procedures.
Difficulties and Hurdles for Corporate Legal Assistants
As previously mentioned, corporate legal assistants are a firm’s backbone and play an essential part in the legal process. Because of this, they often juggle a lot of different responsibilities at once. With so much information requiring their attention, staying organized and productive is a necessity. Handling a heavy workload is not without its challenges. The most common challenge for legal assistants is the trend toward lean staffing. While some law firms have chosen to reduce staff in response to the declining demand for legal services, others have adopted the ‘do more with less’ approach. This means that legal assistants are now asked to take on more responsibilities, manage more cases and take on the work of non-legal professionals in some cases. Greater demands for increased productivity and efficiency push legal assistants to pick up the pace. The constant pressure can make spending time on a task a luxury that isn’t often enjoyed. Because of this new normal, legal assistants must play the balancing act between quality and quantity. In order to manage their time wisely, corporate legal assistants must develop a work system that works for them and the firm. Implementing best practices, effective time management skills, and basic knowledge of software and technology can help fulfill the demands of being a corporate legal assistant. Finding areas to save time such as planning a realistic daily schedule, prioritizing tasks, and knowing the department’s filing system can help legal assistants become more efficient.
Technology’s Role and Relevance
Technology has a significant and multifaceted impact on corporate legal assistants. At the most basic level, a variety of platforms allow them to input confidential information into a secure database for later retrieval. All of them will have a Microsoft Office Suite with preference for all docs to be in Word rather than other documents. A few companies use Adobe Acrobat when sending out documents to clients. Other than that, some may use other products such as Google Drive, Zoom, Onedrive or Citrix Sharefile.
Most will also have an integrated service from a known company such as Thomson Reuters Practice Point, iManage or NetDocs that allows them to easily store , transfer and retrieve documents. Security is a key concern when it comes to the cloud. Cloud services are highly desired because they allow employees to sign in from any device. Multi-factor authentication also helps to prevent unauthorized access.
Cloud-based research tools are also prized. One of the most widely used is Westlaw by Thomson Reuters. Due to legal billing rules, they track every attorney’s time down to six minutes and they don’t bill just for time spent reviewing documents but also for the time spent using Westlaw. This ensures that corporate assistants get a competitive rate for their diligence and this keeps them in demand.