Job Outlook for Paralegals

By all accounts, the future outlook of the paralegal profession should be extremely favorable. The legal industry has changed in recent years, moving from a “learned” profession to what is now considered a business, according to the American Bar Association. To ensure their future success, lawyers must manage their ever-increasing volume of work by delegating tasks for which they are overqualified to non-lawyers, specifically paralegals. By delegating work to qualified paralegals, attorneys will be able to increase production and remain competitive in a very challenging market.

But attorneys need to utilize paralegals not only from a business standpoint but from an ethical one as well: to effectively meet current client demands and keep the costs down. Clients are increasingly scanning their legal bills and demanding answers to questions regarding high attorney billing rates for tasks that could, and should, be completed by paralegals at a significantly lower cost. That should keep the future for paralegals and legal assistants very bright.