Are you likely to love working in legal support?
If you’re considering a legal support career, or have just started on your career path, you may wonder how you can answer this question. Legal support professionals who love their jobs share many common traits. Here are five of them:
You’re fascinated by the work being performed.
Legal support staff who love their jobs don’t gather around the water cooler to gossip about the people they work with. They get together to talk about the work those people are doing: projects, cases, research, practice areas. They’re always seeking out the next major change or interesting development in the practice areas they support.
If you’re fascinated by a particular area of law or you find yourself excited to hear about the newest research tool, legal support might be the place for you.
You see legal support work as “I get to,” not “I have to.”
Every job has its “chores” – things that are less fun to accomplish. As a rule, however, your job should contain more moments of “I get to” rather than “I have to.” If you look at legal research, drafting briefs, and collaborating with a team on strategy as something you get the opportunity to do, you are more likely to thrive in legal support.
You enjoy being at the office (or picturing yourself at the office).
When you’re at work, or you picture yourself going to your first legal support job, the image fills you with joy and excitement more days than not. You’re not choosing legal support because “it’s a good paycheck” or “it’s a steady job”; you’re choosing it because it seems like an enjoyable and productive way to spend half or more of your waking hours each day.
If your response to being in the office is “it’s a living,” legal support may not be for you. If your response is “it’s a life!” legal support may be worth pursuing.
You think about winning, not surviving.
Any job in which your biggest concern is staying employed is not the right job for you. If you walk into your legal support position or the classes preparing you for that job, and your biggest concern is how you can achieve your potential and help your clients in the best way possible, you are on the right track.
At Kent Legal, our legal recruiters match legal support staff with law firms and legal departments throughout the greater Toronto area. For help finding a position that offers the career opportunities and cultural “fit” to help you thrive, contact us today.