The End of the ‘Lawyer Priesthood’?

Fortunately true legal power is no longer in the hands of a selected old money few ordained by a dying inbred class of elite lawyer priests and their brethren.

My practice now includes a lot of pro per civil defendants involved in federal trademark lawsuits. Most of my clients have already spent a fortune with an attorney before they see the light and come to me. In big cities like Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Century City, Culver City and throughout California, there are a lot of attorneys who are looking for paralegal jobs. It is a simple matter of supply and demand. The supply of lawyers far exceeds the number of people who can afford lawyers. However the amount of people who want paralegals is far greater than the current supply of qualified paralegals.

The best part of the current economic crises is that more and more people are turning to paralegals and legal document assistants to solve their legal problems instead of using expensive attorneys. There is a solid transformation of power taking place as individuals take responsibility for their own legal power by going it alone with the help of a paralegal. Attorneys are even trying to get jobs as paralegals either because they can’t get a job as a lawyer or because they want to learn more about how a one-man paralegal business can deliver high quality legal products at a very affordable price. Well to do cities like , and that have high concentrations of lawyers are seeing a decline in their economic health as the Lawyer Priesthood hegemony declines in proportion.

The Lawyer Priesthood created a complex court system using the foreign language of “legalese,” detailed ritualistic procedures and an old boys network. For hundreds of years only lawyers could navigate the treacherous waters of the American court system. Then somewhere at some unknown time, some unknown genius legal secretary became the first hybrid legal secretary-paralegal. “Para” means next to or alongside in Greek. This first legal secretary-paralegal was learning so much about the essential nuts and bolts operation of the legal system by working alongside an attorney that the transformation from legal secretary to paralegal was a natural and necessary evolution. Many paralegals go on to actually become attorneys. Many paralegals, this writer included, have taken a few law school classes and decided to remain paralegals. What can paralegals do? Lots! NALA’s web-site, located at www.nala.org lists these duties:

A legal assistant may perform any function delegated by an attorney, including but not limited to the following:

• Conduct client interviews and maintain general contact with the client, so long as the client is aware of the status and function of the legal assistant, and the legal assistant works under the supervision of the attorney.
• Locate and interview witnesses.
• Conduct investigations and statistical and documentary research.
• Conduct legal research.
• Draft legal documents, correspondence and pleadings.
• Summarize depositions, interrogatories and testimony.
• Attend executions of wills, real estate closings, depositions, court or administrative hearings and trials with the attorney.
• Author and sign correspondence provided the legal assistant status is clearly indicated and the correspondence does not contain independent legal opinions or legal advice.
• Professionally, a paralegal’s time for substantive legal work (as opposed to clerical or administrative work) is billed to clients much the same way as an attorney’s time, but at a lower hourly rate.

Many of the most meaningful transformations in life occur as the result of overcoming a crises. In crises we are forced to reevaluate and think anew. In crises we are reborn. The alcoholic hits bottom and finds sobriety, marriages that no longer work are ended for a new beginning, a dead end job is left behind and a new entrepreneurial venture is begun. With money tight people begin doing things for themselves, like exercising their constitutional right to represent themselves in legal matters. However the court system is still that same complex beast created by attorneys for attorneys, and the help of a paralegal can help smooth the way to an affordable solution to one’s legal problems. And in the current economic crises a legal problem is transformed into personal empowerment to the people!