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Boca Raton — Associate Job# 1163 Small Firm; 1-3 yrs exp.; Labor & Employment Recruiter: Robin Dubowitz Boca Raton – Legal Recruiter Job#1040 Recruiter for the LSSI Temporary Division Recruiter: Harold Diamond
Fort Lauderdale – Legal Secretary Job# 1138 Bankruptcy / Ch 11 – Large Law Firm Recruiter: Robin Dubowitz
Miami – Paralegal Job# 1152 Bankruptcy – Chapter 11; Regional Law Firm Recruiter: Bill Karp
Miami – Paralegal Job# 892 Commercial Litigation – Mid-size Firm Recruiter: Bill Karp
Miami – Legal Secretary Job# 995 Insurance Defense – Boutique Firm Recruiter: Bill Karp
Miami – Legal Secretary Job# 908 Personal Injury – Small Law Office Recruiter: Bill Karp
West Palm Beach – Bookkeeper Job#1145 3yrs+ exp.; Large National Firm Recruiter: Sherry Zabriskie
West Palm Beach – Paralegal Job#1063 Personal Injury & Workers Comp – Mid-size Firm Recruiter: Sherry Zabriskie
West Palm Beach – Bookkeeper Job#976 Experience w/ Juris—Mid–size Firm Recruiter: Sherry Zabriskie
Click here for our full listing of current open jobs in South Florida
Miami • 305-358-3337 | Broward • 954-523-7600 | Boca Raton • 561-391-3331 | West Palm Beach • 561-653-9990 LSSI Website | Contact Us | Register | Legal Resources | Attorney Jobs | Paralegal Jobs | Legal Secy Jobs
JANUARY 2010
Harold Diamond, Partner [email protected]
William Karp, Esquire, Partner [email protected]
Pat McCoy, Director [email protected]
Robin Dubowitz, Esquire Director of Business Development
Attorney Recruiter & Broward Perm Recruiter
Patrick Farley, Associate Temporary Recruiter
Sherry Zabriskie, Associate Palm Beach &
Treasure Coast Perm Recruiter [email protected]
Kristen Mack, Associate [email protected]
Miami • 305-358-3337 | Broward • 954-523-7600 | Boca • 561-391-3331 | West Palm • 561-653-9990
Let’s start with the best news first: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for paralegals is excellent, with an
expected growth rate near 33% through 2018. Compared to other profes-sions, the leap in the paralegal field is dramatic. Court reporters should also have excellent job prospects; the number of jobs in court reporting is ex-pected to increase by 25%. The legal secretary outlook is positive although does not look to be fairing as well as the aforementioned jobs. The ex-pected growth rate of legal secretarial jobs nationwide is projected to be around 18%. As for attorneys, the Bureau is estimating around a 12% in-crease in attorney positions through 2018.
Why the disparity in job growth for attorneys and that of paralegals? The paralegal profession is expected to grow so much because of contributing economic factors. First, more law firms are hiring paralegals to do some of the necessary legal procedures such as research and paper work. This frees up attorneys for court appearances and for developing client-attorney relationships. Second, having experienced a tough go of it the past couple of years, firms are leaning to paralegals because they can do much of the work of both attorneys and legal secretaries, in addition to their own duties, saving both the client and the firm money.
While the paralegal job market looks great, competition to work in the paralegal field will likely become tighter. With more competition, the best way to make yourself marketable as a paralegal is to get all the training you can. In years past, paralegals were trained on the job. There was no real professional training to prepare someone for a paralegal career. With many paralegals now retiring, the lawyers and firms for whom they’ve been working the last several years want replacements that are trained and able to hit the ground running.
In this difficult economic time, demand for some legal services, such as trusts and estate work, wills, and real estate transactions has declined. Cor-porations are often hesitant to begin certain types of litigation when lower
sales and profits give rise to belt tightening. As a result, many full-time legal employees working with offices negatively affected by the recession have been downsized or have been given reduced hours. On the flip side, more corporations and individuals have had to face problems that require legal assistance, such as
bankruptcy, foreclosure, and divorce. In addition to new jobs created by employment growth, more jobs will open as people leave the occupation. There will continue to be a demand for paralegals that specialize in areas such as bankruptcy, medical malpractice, product liability, and even real estate as that market continues to heal. Community legal service pro-grams, which provide assistance to the poor, elderly, minorities, and middle-income families, will employ additional paralegals to minimize expenses and serve the most possible people. Job opportunities also are expected in government agencies, consumer organizations, and the courts.
As the economy improves, some projected growth in the employment of legal secretaries is expected. Traditional secretarial duties, however, such as typing, filing, photocopying, and bookkeeping are now often being done by admin assistants or by the attorneys themselves. Newer attorneys are increasingly doing their own word processing and handling much of their own correspondence. In many law offices, paralegals are assuming some tasks formerly done by legal secretaries. This new “hybrid” position usually requires a paralegal willing to do administrative tasks, or a legal secretary with some paralegal experience.
No worries, the job of legal secretary is not going away any time soon; many secretarial duties are personal and interactive. Duties such as plan-ning conferences, working with clients, and scheduling require strong com-munication skills. Because technology cannot substitute for these personal skills, secretaries will continue to play a key role in most firms. Additionally, organizational restructuring will continue to offer legal secretaries additional and changing responsibilities. With paralegals assuming many of the re-sponsibilities historically given to secretaries, firms will continue to replace the traditional arrangement of one secretary per attorney with secretaries who support several attorneys, groups, or firm infrastructure. This means that legal secretaries will probably begin to assume some new and added re-sponsibilities.
Approximately 26 percent of attorneys are currently practicing either as partners in law firms or in solo practices. Most salaried lawyers hold positions in government, law firms, corporations, or nonprofit organizations. Competi-tion for attorney jobs should continue to be extreme because of the large annual number of law school graduates. Graduates with excellent aca-demic records from top tier law schools will see the best job opportunities. As has been the case, many recent graduates may have to accept posi-tions outside of their field of interest or for which they feel overqualified. As a result of competition for attorney positions, lawyers are often finding work in less traditional areas for which legal training is an asset, but not a require-ment.
As the door to employment begins to swing open a bit wider in 2010, many firms and corporations will gently ease back into hiring mode by bringing on temporary staff until they are comfortable that the economy is indeed turning around. Attorneys, paralegals, legal secretaries, and other legal staff who have been unable to find permanent positions are finding that temporary staffing offers them an opportunity to maintain and enhance current skills, while at the same time providing income and networking opportunities. On occasion temporary positions do convert to permanent positions, so you should always give a temp job the same commitment as you would a permanent job.
-P. Farley
Jan 18, 1644 – Very perplexed pilgrims in Boston witnessed the first UFO sighting in America!
Jan 20, 1841 - China ceded Hong Kong to the British
Jan 28, 1887 - The world's largest snowflakes were reported at Fort Keogh, Montana. How BIG? 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick! That’s a BIG FLAKE!
Jan 29, 1951 - Liz Taylor got her first divorce - from Conrad Hilton, Jr.
Jan 25, 1964 - The Beatles "I Want to Hold your Hand" was the band’s 1st US #1 hit!
Jan 30, 1973 - played their first show at the Coventry Club in Queens, NY
Jan 05, 1996 - Miami Dolphin coach Don Shula announced his retirement
Jan 08, 2002 - President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law.
Jan 22, 2008 - Heath Ledger’s unexpected death shocked the world!
Happy Birthday Capricorn and Aquarius!!!
