Cba Legal Assistants' Committee Survey Report

• Jurisdiction: Colorado,United States
• Citation: Vol. 9 No. 3 Pg. 482
• Pages: 482
• Publication year: 1980

9 Colo.Law. 482 Colorado Lawyer 1980.

1980, March, Pg. 482. CBA Legal Assistants' Committee Survey Report

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Vol. 9, No. 3, Pg. 482

CBA Legal Assistants' Committee Survey Report

by Phil J. Shuey

Phil J. Shuey is Chairman of the CBA Legal Assistants' Committee.

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Being a paralegal is different from being pregnant. In the case of pregnancy either you are or you aren't. But if you're a paralegal, no one knows what you are. Quoted from New England Magazine,

November 6, 1977.

In 1978, the Colorado Bar Association Legal Assistants' Committee surveyed the Colorado Bar to investigate the definitions and utilizations of the paralegal-legal assistant. Approximately 970 responses were received and the data from these responses are summarized in this article. Full data will be made available upon request to the Committee.

GENERAL RESULTS

The smaller the firm, the less likely the firm is to have any legal assistants. This is true regardless of the size of the community. As expected, the larger the firm the larger the number of legal assistants employed. The utilization of legal assistants appears to increase as community size increases. The only difference seems to be that firms with from five to nine attorneys seem to make more use of the legal assistant concept.

Almost every type of practice indicated a use of legal assistants. There was, however, a great deal of difference in the definition of a legal assistant. The descriptions included a legal secretary, a "girl Friday" and the more accepted view. For example, "a legal assistant is a non-lawyer, employed by the lawyer and who performs limited legal work under the supervision of the lawyer" [Jack Freese, "Legal Assistant to the General Practitioner," Law Notes (ABA General Practice Section, Spring, 1979)].

Use of Legal Assistant Versus Secretary

There was also a wide range of variation in the qualifications of present employees who were designated as legal assistants. Everything from a bachelor's degree to on-job training was mentioned in responses submitted. The answers, however, were weighted toward formal-type education. With regard to those persons who were performing legal assistant duties without the designation, on-the-job training seemed to be the most important single qualification, with legal secretaries being cited most often as the persons performing such functions.

The tabulation of the duties of the legal assistant vis-Ã -vis the legal secretary are quite diverse and a ranked order of job function for both the legal assistant and

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for the legal secretary have been attached as an appendix to the article. In light of the result of this survey, this ranking might prove interesting both in terms of attorneys' use of members of both professions, as well as in terms of those areas of nonuse

Raw data indicates that in all population areas, more attorneys use legal secretaries than paralegal assistants. Further, in those areas in which the attorneys seldom use support personnel, if support personnel is used at all, it will more likely be the paralegal. For example, the random sample based on 250 responses indicates that the attorney rarely uses either the paralegal or the legal secretary to prepare SEC documents; however, when support personnel is used in this area, the paralegal is four times as likely to do it as the legal secretary.

The separate billing for time of the legal secretary appears quite rare. In contrast, the separate billing for time of the legal assistant appears to be used on a three to one basis.

Effect on Attorney Fees, Efficiency

Survey results indicate overwhelmingly that the legal...