Ethics Training for Paralegals: A Winning Situation for Clients

by William ("Bill") Weston, professor of law

"At the end of the day, ethics training for paralegals means that clients are better served," says Bill Weston.

Weston, chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Paralegals and chair of the Professionalism and Professional Responsibility Committee for the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division, spoke in anticipation of an Annual Meeting session on ethics training on utilizing paralegals.

Paralegals are professionals qualified by education, training or work experience who are employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is directly responsible.

Weston, who serves as dean of legal studies for a national for-profit university, along with his roles at the ABA, points out that attorneys, including solo practitioners, have a great use for paralegals. "Paralegals can complete forms, do research, interview clients and draft memos," Weston explains. He adds that in specialty practices, such as intellectual property, paralegals can appear in court under certain circumstances.

"Use of paralegals allows lawyers to maximize the productivity of their offices. They present another way for the client to feel taken care of. A common complaint among clients is that they never hear from their lawyers, and that's where paralegals can come into the picture. Paralegals can give updates to clients, ask clients to send in needed documents and assist them in completing forms.

"While doing these routine, but necessary tasks, they can gather information for the lawyer," Weston adds.

More importantly, he says, paralegals are giving the lawyer another touch point with the client, a factor that can help in client retention.

Like lawyers, paralegals are required to continue their education. But unlike lawyers, their continued education can be a mix of training provided by their supervising lawyers and CLE. Because CLE courses for paralegals can be authorized by one or more paralegal associations and because different lawyers fulfill their training obligations in various ways, there is real inadequacy in ongoing training on ethics for paralegals, Weston says.

He notes that ethical situations are rarely instances of black and white, right or wrong. "You might be a paralegal whose lawyer is out of town. You get a call from a client you've worked with who says he just received a letter from the IRS and asks what the letter means. You tell the client you will check with your lawyer and then you try to reach her, but she is not responding to e-mail or voicemail. The client calls back the next day and you can hear the distress in his voice. He pleads with you to tell him what to do. As a paralegal, it is wrong for you to answer the question without consulting with your lawyer."

It is up to lawyers to make sure their paralegals understand this issue as lawyers have fiduciary responsibility for anything the paralegal says as long as the paralegal is in the office. Even if the paralegal tells the client that he or she is acting independently, the lawyer is responsible.
Weston points to the fact that the profession has grown over the past 30 years to where paralegals are valuable members of the legal services team.

Weston hopes that the paralegal job expands throughout the legal profession. "We want to create a climate where legal services are available to more and more people and where clients feel as though they are being well served.

"After all," says Weston, "that's why we're all here—because of the clients."