As a paralegal, confidence is key to your role and making a meaningful contribution to your legal team. Whether you’re a seasoned paralegal or just starting out in your career, developing, and maintaining confidence can impact your professional success. With the right skills, mindset, and strategies, you will become a confident paralegal.
What is confidence?
Confidence is borrowed from the Latin confīdent-, confīdens “trusting in oneself, assured, presumptuous,” from the present participle of confīdere “to put trust in, have confidence in, be sure.”(Source)
How important is confidence for a Paralegal?
A paralegal’s self-confidence is extremely important. Your legal team is counting on your confidence to prepare documents, talk to clients, and conduct legal research. They must be able to trust your judgment.
Sometimes you feel like you have no other choice but to fake it like you know it. At least until you feel the self-confidence that everyone else sees in you. Gaining confidence is about going out of your comfort zone and embracing the learning curve.
Here’s why fake it till you make it is a bad idea.
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How to Take Action?
The first action step to increase your confidence is admitting to yourself that it is a work in progress. The second action is implementing the below practical tips to help you create habits to develop your confidence. Finally, implement the tips.
Here is a 3-step plan for litigation paralegals to accelerate their careers.
Practical Tips to Be More Confident as a Paralegal
Here are practical tips to help you be more confident in your role as a paralegal:
1. Arm yourself with knowledge.
Be a sponge and know the ins and outs of your legal field, from case law to court procedures. When you can be an expert in your area of law, you will have your co-workers take notice. So, ask as many questions as possible, and take more education classes to become an expert in your field.
2. Dress to impress.
When you dress to impress either for an interview or the law firm you feel more confident in yourself. Dressing to impress gives the interviewer and the law firm the impression you are the paralegal for the job. Which implements confidence in you.
3. Body Language
Pay attention to your body language. Your body language can communicate a lack of confidence or exude confidence. How I boost my confidence using body language is sitting up straight and looking the person in the eye when speaking with them. My confidence is boosted immediately.
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4. Embrace your systems
Keeping up with the deadlines, and clients like an expert can be overwhelming, but prioritizing your tasks, staying organized, and tackling them one by one will help.
The more systems you can create to help you with your time management throughout the day, the more you will feel confident in your abilities to complete the tasks that are accepted by you.
5. Embrace technology
Building your skills in technology from Adobe, Excel, Microsoft office suite to eDiscovery, e-filing, online research, billing systems etc. helps you to build your confidence to take on projects which leads to your legal team having more confidence in you.
Find out if you have the foundational technology skills to be successful.
6. Be a team player
Collaborate with your coworkers, this will build strong relationships and boost your confidence at work. After all, teamwork will be an integral part of your paralegal career.
Get tips on how to transition into your new paralegal role smoothly.
7. Communication is key
Whether it’s drafting emails, writing legal documents, or speaking with clients, clear and concise communication is key. Don’t be afraid to share your ideas with your team or attorney. Your opinions are important and can make a significant impact on the legal strategy of the case.
8. Fine-tuning your listening skills
Being able to listen actively, will help you communicate with others. Listening is not simply hearing what the person is saying, but being able to relate the information you are receiving to the purpose of the conversation or the case. Fine-tuning this skill will give you the confidence to do your job effectively.
9. Networking
Networking can be a challenge no matter where you are in your career. Building strong professional relationships can provide support and opportunities for your career growth. Networking doesn’t have to be boring. So, jump out of your comfort zone and attend legal events, or connect with other fellow paralegals on social media.
10. Embrace your unique strengths
Whether your strengths are legal research, writing, computing programs, or client relations, identify what makes you stand out as a paralegal and use those skills to soar in your work.
Your confidence will raise when you know and embrace your own abilities. Your legal team will trust that you can complete the task assigned to you when you’re a confident paralegal.
11. Handle challenges with elegance
You will have your fair share of challenges and setbacks, but confident paralegals know how to handle them with elegance. The key when faced with a difficult position or a mistake, own up to it, learn from it, and find solutions. Also, be mindful that we can be emotionally charged. Taking control and owning who you are is what draws opportunities.
Take the approach to all situations with a positive mindset and elegance, and your confidence will gleam through you even in tough times.
Find out how failure can benefit your paralegal career.
12. Stop Comparisons
Many paralegals compare themselves to other paralegals, although this is common, it is not productive. Remember your career is a journey. Not everyone’s journey is going to be the same and you all are heading a different path.
You will get to your path and feel confident in your own respective time. Making a concrete plan of your path will give you the confidence you need to focus on what you need to do to get through your journey and eventually stop comparing.
13. Celebrate your successes
Finally, don’t forget to celebrate your success. Whether it’s completing a task, receiving positive feedback from a client or attorney, or achieving a breakthrough in your career, celebrate your successes.
Indulge yourself and share the news with family and friends. Recognizing your success will boost your confidence and motivate you to keep moving forward.
Learn how to find your confident voice.
Conclusion
You won’t see self-confidence as one of the qualifications on a paralegal job posting, however, having confidence is a mindset that can be nurtured and developed over time.
By gripping your unique strengths, continuing to learn, and believing in yourself, you’ll be a confident paralegal superstar in no time!
Find out everything there is to know about becoming a litigation paralegal.
Meet the Author
Lillie Ackerman is an ABA-certified paralegal and a graduate of CSU with a Bachelor’s in business management. I have been a paralegal for 16 years. The majority of my experience is in all aspects of Family Law litigation. My years of experience in Family Law gave me an understanding of clients’ experiences as they go through this transitional period in their lives.
