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Paralegal Career Tips: 3 Personal Skills That Contribute to Success as a Paralegal
Paralegal Career Tips: 3 Personal Skills
That Contribute to Success as a Paralegal
Are you pursuing a paralegal career? In addition to paralegal training, there are a few personal skills that can help ensure success in your career as a paralegal. Here are three personal traits that can prove valuable in the legal field.
1. "Sticktoitiveness"
While most word processing programs may not even recognize this skill as a real word, it does in fact exist, and can be of real benefit to those pursuing a paralegal career. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines sticktoitiveness as "dogged perseverance" or "tenacity"—it is basically the determination to persevere and accomplish a goal no matter what obstacles, setbacks, or difficulties you are faced with.
Working in the legal industry can often require long hours spent on tedious tasks like research. However, quality research is the backbone of any legal case, and while spending hours, days, or even weeks sifting through files and database entries may not be the most exciting aspect of the job, it can make the difference between a client receiving a positive outcome, or a negative one.
2. Communication, Communication, Communication!
This trait is so important, it deserves repetition! In order to secure a career as a paralegal, you must have the ability to communicate effectively. Communication is vital to virtually every aspect of a paralegal career. Whether you need to provide lawyers with comprehensive research that will stand up in court, or draft a legal argument that clearly and succinctly proves the intended point, your written communication skills (or lack thereof) can make (or break) a case.
In addition to written communication skills, you will also need to communicate orally in a clear and concise way. Paralegals are often called upon to interview witnesses, and you must be able to ask questions that are straightforward, to the point, and leave no room for misinterpretation.
3. Personal Ethics & Professional Responsibility
Throughout your paralegal career, you can often be faced with situations that call upon your personal ethics and professional responsibility. Basically, it comes down to the fact that people from all walks of life will be coming to you for assistance with a variety of issues—and no matter what your level of personal interest may be in a particular case, you need to understand that it is of great importance to your client. Therefore, you need to uphold both your personal ethics and your sense of professional responsibility in order to serve clients to the best of your ability.
Renowned legal clerk and environmental activist Erin Brockovich said it best during an interview with Jungle Magazine:
"In every aspect of law, somebody's coming to you because something is a big deal to them. They've been in a car wreck, they're getting divorced, they've been injured on a job, they drank poisoned water. In every case, there is a person on the other side who is passionate about what is happening to them. It's not just about the book and the law that you're reading. It's about the person."
If you are committed to cultivating these personal traits while gaining the necessary post-secondary education to pursue a paralegal career, take your first step today by browsing this guide to paralegal training programs!
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