If you’re like many paralegal graduates, you might have had to take any position you could just to get your foot in the door after completing your paralegal certificate program.
I’m seeing this first-hand inside my Litigation Boot Camp, more so in the recent enrollments when we were open in January. In fact, I was a little surprised at how many this time around were working as legal assistants or receptionists at a law firm, and they joined the Litigation Boot Camp to better prepare them for when they do get the promotion. They don’t realize that by taking the course, they’re already giving themselves a leg up to get that promotion.
However, I know not everyone is in litigation, and not everyone can join me in the litigation paralegal training program. So, I thought I’d give you some actionable strategies to help you get promoted to a paralegal position if you’re currently working at a law firm in another role.
Listen to the audio instead?
4 Steps For How to Get Promoted to a Paralegal Position
1. Exceed their expectations in your current role.
No matter what your current title is now, whether it’s file clerk, legal assistant, docket clerk, or receptionist, the most important thing to do is to exceed their expectations. If you were the firm’s receptionist, you should be the best receptionist that firm has ever seen.
I was chatting with someone a while back who was frustrated that she’d been at the firm for six months and hasn’t been offered a paralegal position yet. I asked how she was doing in her receptionist position and she said “OK, but you know, I didn’t go to school to be a receptionist and I’ve never been one before. It’s harder than I thought it would be.” Yes, it is harder. The receptionist is on the front lines of the law firm.
You’ve also never been a paralegal before. So what you’re showing that firm is that you’re not good at taking on new roles that you’ve never done before. That’s not good.
Regardless of the position you were initially hired for, you should go above and beyond what is expected of any position that you’re hired for.
Free Guide for
Personal Injury Paralegals
Are you ready to be a rockstar personal injury paralegal?!
Our free guide shares the 8 steps you need to take to get you there. If you’re ready to start standing out at your firm, sign up below, and get started now!
2. Take on paralegal projects while you’re in this “other” role.
The best way to prove to someone that you would make a good paralegal is to do some of the work that paralegals are doing.
Two things to be careful with this strategy:
- If you’re going to do a paralegal project, do the best possible work that you’ve ever done. Leave no stone unturned when coming up with the project. I think that’s a given, but it had to be said.
- Don’t neglect or sacrifice the duties of your current position to do the paralegal project.
I’ll give you a perfect example of how that could come back to bite you.
I was consulting at a personal injury firm a while back. They had a receptionist with a paralegal certificate, and she was doing what I’m talking about here. She needed a job and had no experience.
The firm didn’t have a paralegal opening, but they were hiring for a receptionist position. So she took the receptionist position.
She was bright and personable, so the paralegals would give her projects when they were busy. She did a great job on these projects.
Fast-forward six months, and there’s a paralegal opening at the firm. The attorneys said no.
They said that at least twice a week, they’d walk into a conference room with a client, and coffee cups and water bottles were still on the table from the previous meeting. Either that or a client would tell the attorney that they were tired of being sent to voicemail.
The attorneys were oblivious to the fact that the paralegals were giving the projects to the receptionist. They just thought she wasn’t a very good receptionist.
Now, before you start feeling bad for this young woman, let me fast-forward to a happy ending for you.
I was able to explain what was happening behind the scenes to the attorneys and tell them some of the feedback from the paralegals on the great job that she did on those projects. The attorneys agreed to a 90-day probationary period as a paralegal, and she ended up passing that with flying colors.
3. Get additional training beyond your paralegal certificate.
Regardless of the role you’re hired for as your first position, you really need to get additional training beyond what you received in your paralegal certificate program.
Notice I said training, not CLE.
It’s not that the CLE webinars are bad, but I’m talking about getting additional paralegal training that you can add to your resume. Talk to the office manager about when you’re asking for that promotion.
Putting “Attended Monthly CLE Webinars through local paralegal association” on your resume is not going to grab the office manager’s attention.
Let’s say you’re a legal assistant who wants to be promoted to a paralegal position. You’ve been working at the firm for a year and you hear about a paralegal position opening up in the litigation department.
When you go talk to that office manager and say, “I received my paralegal certificate a year ago, and I’d like to be considered for this paralegal position,” you want to be able to walk in there with something other than just a paralegal certificate.
For example, if you’re a receptionist at a plaintiff’s personal injury law firm, you have a paralegal certificate and you’re hoping to be promoted to a personal injury paralegal position. Look at personal injury courses that can expand on what you learned in school.
Free Strategy Guidebook for
New Litigation Paralegals
Are you ready to fast-track your litigation paralegal career?!
Our free guidebook reveals three powerful strategies that will set you up for success in your journey. If you’re ready to seize this opportunity and thrive as a litigation paralegal, sign up below, and get started now!
The office manager will receive dozens of resumes the first day that the position is posted externally to Indeed, LinkedIn, or wherever. Most of those resumes will be from people who might have 3-5 or seven plus years or more of experience.
Why should the firm consider you?
You might be saying, “Well, I work here already; why wouldn’t they consider me? Yes, that’s a huge plus, but only if you’ve been doing #1 and #2 that I mentioned.
If I was that office manager, the first thing I’d ask is:
Well, so I see you’ve been out of school for one year. Have you taken any additional paralegal training that would help you succeed in your new role?
That person will be impressed when you say to them, “Yes. As a matter of fact, I did some research last year and I talked to a few of the paralegals here who suggested I learn everything that I can about XYZ. So, I found a highly-rated online course about XYZ, and I took it on the weekends so that when a position opened up here, I’d be best equipped to handle the new role. Also, throughout the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to help out with several big projects for the paralegals.”
Then, you list what skill or experience you’ve gained with each project. List them all out. If you’re not already writing this stuff down in some type of journal, start doing that now.
I’ve said this before, probably dozens of times, just in podcast episodes alone, but I’m going to keep saying it because it’s so important for new paralegal graduates to understand.
Your paralegal certificate program did not train you to be a great paralegal.
You must get additional training specific to your practice area and then put the training into practice.
4. Ask for the promotion!
Last but not least, I almost say this is one of the most important ones. You have to ask for the promotion.
Even if you told them when you were in the interview for that receptionist position that you had a paralegal certificate, you still have to ask for the promotion.
Even if you told an attorney or two throughout the last year that you have a paralegal certificate, you still have to ask for the promotion.
Even if you told every paralegal who works in the firm that you have a paralegal certificate, they know that they’ve been giving you some projects here and there. Even if you did that, you still have to ask for the promotion.
You can’t assume that just because they know you have a paralegal certificate, they will walk into your office one day when there’s an opening and say, hey, do you want to be promoted to a paralegal position?
I don’t care if you’ve told every person in the firm at one time or another that you have a paralegal certificate. It doesn’t matter.
You have to ask for the promotion.
You must step up and ask. And I want you to do this now, right now, even if there’s no opening at the current time. Here’s why. Behind the scenes, there could be someone who HR or the office manager knows they’re going to be letting go next month, or there could be a paralegal who put in their notice, and it’s just not been made public yet to the rest of the people at the firm.
This is not the time to casually remind them that you have a paralegal certificate when you ask. This is the time for you to go to your attorney and the office manager and ask to be promoted to a paralegal position.
If you don’t advocate for yourself, no one else will.
You might be thinking, but what if they say no?
Then they say no. Remember Kim Barrett on the podcast? She said if you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
You might be thinking but and what if they say no?
Then they say no. Remember Kim Barrett on the podcast? She said if you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
It might just be a “no, not at this time, because we don’t have an open position and we don’t have the budget to add on another paralegal position.” At least now you’re on their radar, and you’ve made it clear that you want the next position that’s opened.
How do you ask?
Simply say “I would like to be promoted to a paralegal position. Do you have a few minutes to talk about that?”
Then you tell them why. Like what I discussed earlier. Why you would be qualified what you would be saying right when you’re talking to HR. If they say no and it’s because of the budget or there’s no position etcetera, then I want you to ask them follow up and say “is there anything specific that I can do between now and the next opening that would increase my chances for promotion to a paralegal position?”
And whatever they tell you, go start doing it right now. If they say. You should get training on E discovery, on drafting discovery, on preparing for trial, whatever it is – you write all of those things down and you immediately start working on it, just as if it’s a career checklist.
Litigation Paralegal Boot Camp
Are you tired of being the Panic Mode Paralegal who spends your days playing whack-a-mole with last-minute rush projects because you’re waiting for someone to show you what it takes to be great litigation paralegal?
This is the only program of its kind that provides litigation paralegals with all of the tools to master litigation cases from the complaint through the trial, and everything in between.
You will be the Confident Case Strategist faster than you ever imagined possible.
More Paralegal Resources For You
Meet the Author
Ann Pearson is the Founder of the Paralegal Boot Camp, and host of the Paralegals on Fire! Podcast Show, and passionate about promoting the paralegal profession.
Ann spent 20 years working as a paralegal manager and a litigation paralegal before opening the Paralegal Boot Camp in 2010.
Ann’s training programs focus on adding immediate value to a paralegal’s career and bridging the gap between what a paralegal learns in school and what they actually do on the job.
Visit the About Us Page to learn more about why Ann started the Paralegal Boot Camp.
