Paralegal Education - Positives and Drawbacks

A Real Role in the Midst of the Legal Fray

25 years ago, I got an paralegal certificate wondered aloud whether becoming a paralegal, as a male of 35 years of age, would lead to an actual "career". Back then the young baby boomers with liberal arts degrees they had garnered in the 70's, were wondering whether those degrees were going to be worth anything. So many were hoping that one could combine the degree with the certificate and actually have a working life in a true growing profession. Happily, most found that was indeed a working formula. Many have worked since the mid-1980's as paralegals all of this time.

In 1995, 10 years later, paralegal textbooks were declaring "Yes, there is a place for men in the paralegal world, and all paralegals regardless of gender are going to be working, not only in law firms, but in government and corporate settings."

Now in this present day, there is no doubt about its viability as a professional niche that thousands of people work in. A paralegal really does have a viable role in the midst of the Legal Fray.

A History of Morphing with Need and Technology -

As technology changed and the expansion of legal skill needs grew, a place for a paraprofessional to work "above" the legal secretary and "below" the attorney/lawyer became obvious in the 70's. Yes, it started as a female dominated profession, and it still is. But fears aside, males have been come into this niche and established themselves probably in a greater way than ever thought. However, it still is a young woman's profession. Are there still boomers working in it? Yes. There are 30 to 40 year plus paralegals in addition to all of the 10 year plus paralegals. Keep in mind, whatever your vintage, the "get smart with technology" message has always been there.

How are you at Excel -- Word, Outlook, Power Point? Software programs and specialized proprietary properties are all there to be embraced, trained up on, and improved upon. Another warning. Don't over promise your sophistication. Many electronic applications these days ask "just how good are you at" ----. It is important to know that these exist because there are vast areas of difference between a person who can handle EXCEL on indexes and informational spreadsheets, and someone who can handle all the formulas embedded in Excel. The specialized programs that now populate the world of Litigation are sometimes required of the applicant. Bankruptcy software -- EZFILING will be asked for and demanded of a beginner and semi-experienced paralegal.

Technology Rules The Day - "There's an app for that."

It used to be a question, especially for men, "Can you type? Are you sure you can type? But the world has changed mightily. With the internet and software proliferation, and the big move to 'paperless' in the law, the new and the old paralegal has to be ready, willing and skilled in specific requirements. EFILING is changing the whole legal world. This is a "goes without saying" aspect, but the aspiring paralegal has to realize more and more that if they do not have a specific technological program under their belts, they might not get the interview.

Willingness to Learn -

The watchword for paralegal character and skill profile is the willingness to learn. They must be adaptable, trainable and teachable. These are all aspects to emphasize as you craft your resumes and prepare for your interviews. If you are pondering this profession, these word processing and information processing talents are more of a natural for the younger applicants who have grown up in a new world of technology. However, the young may not be as prepared for the reality of pay and promotion.

Pay and Promotion - Upward and Onward?

Because the paralegal is sitting between the secretary and the attorney, the "upward and onward" part of the pay and promotion issue is special to itself here. Before talking about the lows, I should mention that there are exceptional highs. people have made very high paychecks corporation, especially during the "dotcom boom". When there is not an in-house attorney, a paralegal can stand out with pay and responsibility. It is a distinctive advantage. One can be paid at the level of a new attorney. This example points to how the paralegal profession has become quite interesting outside of the law firm. Inside the law firm pay has been respectable. The longer you work for a law firm, the more your pay will slowly rise. Larger firms do pay respectably, but the pressure is intense and the hours can be long and demanding. So pay is hard to generalize about without also talking about the exceptions.

At the lower end, pay can still be puny. Small law firms, sole practitioners and smaller companies can keep paralegal pay quite low. One can make $12 to $15 per hour very easily in many of those settings. $30,000 per year is a reach in some of these situations.

To be pointed about it, $40,000 to $45,000 can be considered quite high. Then mid 50's and even the 60's are attained by proven, long-term, highly-skilled and specialized paralegals. But, to generalize this profession does not really have an upward and onward aspect to it. When you see requests for experience, you don't see ads that request 10 or more years experience. You can get 25 years of experience, but no one asks for it. "3 to 5 years" is what you see in ads. Why? Would they like 10 years? Sure. There is just no pay for a 10 year paralegal. There is entry level pay, experienced pay and senior pay. Think in terms of $30K to $50K if you want a broad range - with outliers at both ends.

"Are You Headed For Law School?" -

For those who are not sure they want the law, as a world to work in, becoming a paralegal has been a way to test the waters without plunging in. A young person in their 20's can get a lot of learning done and decide things for themselves, and then not go to law school and still not have "wasted" their time. or, they can go to law school and actually help themselves academically in law school and be much surer of their decision going forward. I have known many people who have done this and all have seen it as a real positive, no matter if the law school choice was a yes or a no.

I remember a woman in her 40's who after two years of paralegal work came into the Placements Office to say hello. She said, "Chris I am going to law school." I wished her well. then 10 years later I saw her being interviewed on a newscast for a high profile criminal case in Southern Colorado. So, the paralegal profession can also be a part of a lawyer's career path.

The Personal Relationship - The Career Housed in Professional Reliance

Many people are paid very well, and keep on getting raises because they have become a "part of the woodwork" at a small firm, or they are a key part of a litigation team at a large firm, or a Sole Practitioner relies completely upon this certain paralegal. It is truly the dimension of professional and personal reliance that constitutes the level of their pay and the continuity of their employment. If you can develop a relationship in which the attorney thinks you "walk on water", then this can help give you long term stability.

A warning, because as the years go on, you can't keep on demanding more and more dollars just because of your seniority, the edge goes to the employer in these circumstances. As long as these employment relationships stay positive and non-abusive they can be wonderfully fulfilling and satisfying. The way to keep these relationships positive is to take other benefits in lieu of constant pay raises -- more personal time, greater latitude with hours, more vacation pay are ways to make your life satisfying.

Teams of Paralegals -

Contract Administrators and Legal Managers and other titles now fill corporate, business and governmental ranks. The word paralegal can really mean - "Nonlawyer specifically required legal work for the particular milieu that we deal with in this company". Yes, that's right, it's still morphing. Yet, what's nice is that everybody generally gets what everyone else is talking about. A paralegal is what a specially trained nonlawyer does here!

All those Practice Areas -

Resumes can contain work in the financial services world, title insurance, construction, litigation, personal injury, intellectual properties, domestic and bankruptcy. A paralegal should be happy to develop depth of experience, but always willing to branch out horizontally. The challenge is to do both as you work, branching out, but developing existing strengths. This is what is fun about being a paralegal. It is what many were hoping for when they began. People are hoping that the profession will be full of variety and stimulating. Many will declare that it was all of those things.

If Its A World That Appeals -

If I were counseling a young person, or a mid-lifer about getting into this arena, I would ask one first big question. "Does this world appeal to you?" If you hate lawyers, don't get into it. If you are constantly throwing off the world of order and rules, don't bother. If you have a sales personality and want to let your personality expand, don't get into it.

Some Negatives -

It is necessary to throw some warning signs at your feet. Lawyers, while not a homogeneous group, and they are individuals, can have some common personality aspects. First, its not that they think they are smarter than you. Of course they think they are smarter than you. Attorneys can tend to think they are smarter than each other. They are not arrogant, like make-up that they put on every morning, they are just have strongly held self-opinions.

Its an arrogance of not brains, but style. They just have this abiding sense of superiority that tends to help them out in their daily work. And that actually is a positive, just not so much for the paralegal. Smile at this and enjoy it. Remember these people are the kids who went to school and did not want to be doctors because that was too hard, but they knew they were worthy, very worthy, even though they were not smart enough to be doctors. They also knew "All I have to do is get through law school, then for the rest of my life I can say I am an attorney. That is cool."

Because of this sense of inner strength, they can have an inherent laziness It is hard to work as much as they do. They do not anticipate that making money is as hard as it turns out to be. Then because it is the law, they will always be in a state of struggle. But, if you look at all of this positively, you will see the inevitability of the development of the paralegal profession in this context. Because they are under such constant pressure, there is much work that they can't get to. Because they have much weight upon their shoulders, they are happy to have paralegals help them. Because they have to struggle to make money and are in constant conflict, anything you can do to increase their bottom line and lessen their struggle is appreciated. See it all as natural. Look at the "big untalked about" - the fact that you have to work with attorneys -- as a positive, a big wonderful positive. If you can do this with a sense of enlightenment and non-bitterness, you will have a productive professional experience and work in a very stimulating and challenging world.

A Great Payoff -

Once you get all of these elements as a Picture that can be understood and appreciated, there is a great payoff. Its a fun world with challenge. The attorneys you end up working with will be the essential part of the world in which you labor and will and constitute the "flora and fauna" of the legal forest you are working and moving in. Its a truly fun and challenging professional status you can have. And guess what -- you don't have to go to law school to participate!

Ebook Marketing Strategy - Methods That Pull in Traffic

When you're involved in marketing online having an eBook marketing strategy that drives traffic to your site is significant. How successful you will be at finding people who are interested in your content or eBook ideas will depend largely on the methods you use to steer traffic.

While there are many ways to steer traffic to your site, becoming expert in a couple of online internet marketing strategies will lay the ground work for your online marketing success.

The process of marketing information eBooks online is not complicated. First, you must compose an eBook around some topic or particular niche. Second, you must find what strategy you'll use to get that information to your targeted audience so that they will visit your site.

This article is only concerned with the second part of the process, how to get targeted traffic to your site using a sound eBook marketing strategy.

1. Various internet marketing programs will tell you "article marketing" is a good method for marketing or promoting your niche, website, affiliate eBook or product. This style of marketing is particularly effective for individuals who have a small or nonexistent marketing budget.

When writing articles you have the opportunity to furnish usable information to your reader and provide links to your website, eBook or affiliate program. You will also be able to tap into the viral effect of article marketing by submitting your articles to article directories, third-party sites and ezine publishers.

Finally, allow reprinting of your articles as long as the promotional links are maintained within the article.

2. "Viral marketing" is another great method of advertising and driving traffic to your site. This is not a new method and is well suited as an eBook marketing strategy. It targets people who love to share ideas, network, and have a similar interest.

You can start a viral marketing campaign by simply making an attractive offer to customers on your mailing list; submitting an article that you've written, by giving away something for free, or offering a substantial discount.

At the same time give them the option of passing the information along to their family, friends and associates knowing they will know at least one other person that will have an interest in what you're offering. This strategy should allow you to see a noticeable increase in traffic.

Both of these strategies are excellent methods for marketing any product or service. But when combined they work together to unleash an extraordinary eBook marketing strategy.

The best way to attract visitors is to give away something for free. Produce an eBook that you can give away for free. Write an informational article about your eBook. Place that article on your website, in your auto responder, post ads giving away your eBook solution as free information.

Include an invitation for interested parties to pass your information around. This makes it very easy for your visitors to recommend your site to people they know.

Of course, these are not the only methods, but do represent a fairly easy eBook marketing strategy for driving traffic to your site. These methods have been used by scores of marketers with a great deal of success and, if done correctly, should prove to be equally successful for you, too.

Home Decoration And DIY

Home decoration and DIY is something that some people have a real interest in and are able to become quite skilled at. Although these two things are linked they are very different from each other and people will usually have a real skill for one and not the other. Decorating requires an eye for style and design whereas DIY is a much more hands on job that requires skill, technique and patience.

Decorating a home does not really have a defined right or wrong because at the end of the day it is down to the person who lives in the home to decide what suits them. However many people can define something as stylish and will appreciate something that is well put together as opposed to a miss match of personal touches. Being able to see colours and imagine them together in interesting ways is a skill that only some people have. Being able to envision an end product and know exactly how you will carry it out to get there is not an easy task.

Do it yourself jobs are followed through more carefully to instructions and have a much more definite sense of right and wrong. If something is not made correctly or the first step is input wrongly then the more you carry on with a project, the more the mistakes will become more and more apparent. If something does not fit correctly then you would have to keep going back and checking through each stage carried out. This could be fitting a door frame or moulding, putting up a shelf, putting up a fence etc.

With home decoration you will rarely need tools, only at the beginning stages once deciding to paint and wallpaper walls. You will of course need some paint brushes, wallpaper paste and a pasting table. Once this stage is out of the way the job becomes more about the accessories and finishing touches which will require no physical work. DIY requires a box full of tools including screwdrivers, hammers, spirit level and many more. You should ensure you have all you need before starting a project. There is nothing worse than getting into the swing of things to only find out you are missing something important and vital to completion. No matter which of the two of these, or perhaps both, you are interested in, keep carrying them out on your own home and experimenting to progress your skill.

A Media Planners Guide to a Kick-Ass Media Plan!

I am sad. I am sad that most agencies (big and small) under appreciate and often times, cheapen, the research, process, and work that actually goes into an effective media plan.

As I write this, I would like to share with all other media planners out there, that somehow we can proactively counteract this trend.

Try explaining to your clients the anatomy that goes into an effective media plan. Remember, anyone can learn to do a media plan but not anyone can master the art of creating an effective one!

Media planning is the combination of research and analytical talent, skill with numbers and, dare I say, tough negotiation chops!

So please, have a look through and feel free to shoot me an email for any comments and suggestions on how we can improve more on our craft. By the way, thank you to Mr. Harry Gold for being the inspiration of this column.

"Strategy and tactics. Remind your client of your agreed approach to the planning process.

1. Target audience. Set the stage by reminding all the players who you're going after in the plan.

2. Audience research. Be able to talk about all the research you did on your target audience's online and offline behavior. This will give more impact on your media planning process and choices.

Metrics for Success. Otherwise known as the Score card; These are the metrics and definition of success of the online campaign.

Performance Split. Some of your placements and campaign may be more for branding. Be able to

establish the branding metrics and institute the initiative that some placements (that you'll call out in the plan) can't be viewed through the same lenses applied to the campaign's performance portion (conversion, etc.).

Universe of Opportunities. Show the client all the sites you looked at, not just the ones in your plan. Demonstrate that you left no stone unturned in your research, and highlight the sites the client asked to be included.

Vetting process and RFP list. Explain the selection criteria you applied to all the sites in the universe of opportunities and show the sites you requested an RFP from. Factors often include index, Alexa rating (percentage of traffic within a category), competitive presence, editorial quality, and the like.

Examination and evaluation process. Before you jump from the RFP list to the plan you want, describe the vetting process you applied to the proposals you got. Factors here clearly differ from the factors that went into the building the RFP list. They include price, innovation, value-added placements, performance clauses, and so on.

Final plan summary. This is where the spreadsheet comes in. This is a roundup of all the sites that made the final cut. If you have branding and performance campaigns, split them up here. Include site names, impression and click levels, placement details, flight schedules, and price. Total and average everything neatly at the bottom.

Client schedule. Interject with a client schedule here to set up your flight schedule. Show anything that will impact your plan's flight schedule -- events, product launches, marketing/offline campaign calendar, seasonality, holidays, and so on.

Flight schedule. Create a line or bar graph (or other graphical representation) showing impression levels and clicks, and plot items from the client schedule. Break it in two if you must, as the performance campaign may have different peaks and valleys or consistency levels than the branding campaign.

Integration. Show any linkages you created with the offline portions of integrated buys you did with the offline planning teams.

Hero slide. This is where you show the client why they hired you. Did you get 40 percent of rate card on a site? Get $25,000 worth of value-added placements? Knock a competitor out of a prime slot? Bought something new and cool? This is where you call it out!

Up-sell slide. I've yet to have a budget where I could do everything I wanted to. Here you show what you would do if you had more budget. You never know if money can be freed up somewhere else. Why not have an online home for those funds ready to go?

Plan details. This is often in the addendum as it can be a lot of information. However, when you get questions on a particular placement or site, and you will, this is where you turn. I like to have my team show screen captures of the sections and positions we bought and sample ad units. We also include the site's description and the justifications as to why we selected the site.

Competitive placements and creative. Certainly competitive creative and offers need to be shared with the client and creative team as soon as possible so they can incorporate then into what's being done on the creative side. However, I often find it a helpful addendum item in the plan as well.

Don't forget to send well-worded rejection letters to the sites and reps who took the time to send you proposals. They will appreciate it, I assure you. Also, send thank-you notes to the sites that gave you a great deal and made you look like a hero."

Thank you again Harry. I will incorporate your thoughts in my future media plans.

YouTube Tips For Promoting Your Videos

Rarely do I get mad at an affiliate who is promoting one of my products. But just the other day, I did a search in the search engines, and I saw someone promoting my product blatantly, and the way that they did it made it look "spammy". I know these people will think that if someone does a search for my product, their YouTube video will come up as maybe second or third in the results.

I hate it when people take my hard work and makes it look terrible online. This is something that I detest. Whenever I tell one of my affiliates to take down a promotion like that... another affiliate pops up and does the same thing - as if it was some popular strategy to do online.

YouTube is a great place to promote your products and services, but you will want to strive to give good information first. Don't create a video that is all about advertising a product. Too many videos like this and YouTube may ban your account. So when doing your YouTube marketing, deliver excellent content, and if you want to get traffic back to your website... include a link at the bottom of your video so that people can know where to go for more information.

Now when it comes down to creating your video, you have a lot of options at your disposal. One of the fastest and easiest ways to create a video is to interview someone. And it's best if you interview someone in your niche that is very well known. This will only boost your perception in terms of authority to your readers - since you were able to convince your "big time" niche celebrity to agree to an interview with you.

You don't want to throw out any surprises to them. It's best to contact them, see if they agree to the interview, give them the list of questions that you want to ask them, and have them prepare for the questions. This is a great way to make things move seamlessly, and to have a successful interview.

After the interview, prepare the video and make sure your promotional links are intact onto the video. You will need some professional software to do this. One good software is something called "ArcSoft Video Impression". I'm not going to lead you down the wrong path... this software is expensive, but what you get from it is something that is totally amazing. This software even gives you the option to extract the audio from the video, and turn it into a podcast for you immediately.

After you're done with the video, send a copy of it to your interviewee so that they can use it on their site to promote to their prospects and customers. It's a win-win situation for the both of you. Strive to make your interview last around 60 minutes. Trust me, time will go fast - so a 60 minute interview won't take long.

If you're going to upload it to YouTube, break it up into 10 minute segments. So you will have a total of 6 videos, all tallying up to 60 minutes. You can get incredible views and traffic this way. Be sure to promote these videos everywhere that you can. People in your niche will surely benefit from it.

Good luck with using YouTube to market your website today.

Medical Answering Service Your Optimum Way to Respond to Your Patients

Health is considered as the most important asset of all. Life is useless without having a good health. That's why every individual need utmost healthcare attention from their doctors especially if they are not feeling better. However, it is not at all times that you are able to respond immediately the health care needs of your patients. Getting a medical service is very helpful for you in answering back your patients' inquiries the soonest. It will give you exceptional customer service with the most reliable, advanced technology available in the industry.

The medical answering service is expressly designed to meet the demanding needs of the healthcare industry. There are service representatives that will now respond to your patients and other callers on your behalf. Your patients will be answered in professional yet personalized way by this kind of answering service. Patients are put at ease while they take the appropriate action without delaying. Of course all medical calls are being handled by dedicated phone representatives all the time. They are well trained and experienced and know exactly how to respond to medically-related calls. This fulfills specific requirements of healthcare professionals who need fast and reliable response in their medical service.

In the event that you are not able to attend your patients call and needs immediately this answering service creates a seamless response to them. It will inspire confidence in your patients and professional contacts and enhance relationship with them. This is also the best way to use especially beyond your clinic hours because it offers also after-hours answering service. You will have complete peace of mind that it is there to answer the call and respond as an extension of your clinic.

Furthermore, a medical service is more likely handling every call as you yourself would handle it. Your patient will receive the service they deserve no matter when they call. Since patients reach out to their doctors by calling them phone answering service is commonly used by most doctors. Rest assured that your patients are assisted by the representatives after-hours, weekends, and holidays or whenever you can't.

If you are really concerned regarding your patients' health and want to be there to care for them your medical answering service is your best assistant and aid. It is always there to provide answering service to your patients while you're away, sleeping and when you're short staffed. Always remember that potential patients who will not reach you are extremely likely to just call someone else. Your existing will not be please with their level of care if they cannot reach you as well. So if you really want to give every patient of yours full attention then medical service is what you all need.