You’ve just landed your first legal assistant or paralegal position and want to know what to expect. This question often comes up on Reddit. I have experience working at a small firm handling plaintiff cases as well as in corporate law on the defense side.

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein

My first day as a paralegal I was thrown into the deep end with no life raft and told to swim. These are my insights on what makes a good paralegal and while nothing will prepare you for your first legal position these insights can help smooth your entry to the legal profession.

In my first role, I was hired as the sole paralegal for a solo attorney whose previous paralegal had left two months earlier. On my second day, the attorney asked me to file a complaint in Georgia State Court by the statutory deadline. Having never filed anything in federal or state court before, I ended up filing the complaint incorrectly. Since the attorney rarely checked his email, the error went unnoticed for almost a week.

At that moment, he could have fired me, or I could have felt so overwhelmed that I quit. Instead, he told me to fix the mistake. I called the clerk of courts in DeKalb County, Georgia, and was transferred to the county supervisor. A big thank you to this kind and helpful woman who patiently worked with me all day to correct the filing and backdate it to meet the original statutory deadline.

Lesson number one: always be courteous to the clerk of court who assists you. Generally, federal court clerks tend to be more helpful than state court clerks, though this can vary depending on the state.

Wrapping Up with Key Insights

The most important skill for a paralegal is problem-solving. Everyone makes mistakes, even experienced paralegals. The important thing is to learn from them and not repeat them. In my first paralegal interview, I was asked how I handle mistakes. I said, “I don’t make the same mistake twice.” This means I look into why the mistake happened and find ways to stop it from happening again.

In my first job, I created word templates for common legal documents. This helped me work faster and made me a more valuable employee.

Here is a free step by step guide to get started: