Protocol is the established, proper and correct order of business and business communications in a firm that must comply with state and federal laws and regulations. Every state in the United States has a state bar association that regulates lawyers and makes them accountable for their professional behavior. Firms create protocols that help keep them out of trouble with state regulators by requiring the staff [including paralegals] to follow the state laws within the firm and its operations.

Here is a short list of common protocols for firms:

The quick and easy scoop on law firm scapegoats is this: You're it. Let's face it, attorneys spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and about twice the normal college time to earn their law degrees in preparation for a career in law. The average rookie lawyer coming out of law school starts his first firm at anywhere from $90,000 to $140,000. By comparison, the average rookie paralegal starts her first firm at anywhere from $52,000 to $70,000 to graduate up the scale in 3-5 years to $65,000 to $95,000. These are not nickel and dime careers.

If an attorney has a situation where a state or federal law was violated, and someone starts snooping in wrong ways, who do you think is going to lose their job? If the firm is at risk of a state or federal investigation of all of its cases, who do you think is going out the door? Whenever a discrepancy is discovered in which a firm risks legal action, who do you think will be in the unemployment line? Yes, the lawyer's high paid scapegoats; the paralegals.

In reality this is more common that anyone will admit to in public. But it is also something to keep in mind as you negotiate your first paralegal salary. After all, your family will become accustomed to your nice salary, and will eventually have a spending habit that reflects your sweet salary. And jobs that pay this well are not out on the street, chasing down the unemployed.

So, you need to consider the financial and emotional risk to your family, and plan your salary negotiations accordingly. If you have four good years, but you are hung out to dry in a fifth-year firing spree, your sweet position is stripped of the benefits and you will begin to chew through your savings account and lose credibility with lenders. There are financial risks for you in a paralegal position and the scapegoat factor is one of them. Plan accordingly.

A final word on the scapegoat: If your attorney has slacked in checking the technical correctness of your firm's common practices, prepare to send out your resume. You may or may not be aware of what your attorney has done to protect everyone from an investigation, but it is in your interest to know as much as possible about the technical [legal] side of your firm, what they do, how it is done and what laws affect your daily work operations.

Even in the biggest and best firms there is a pecking order among paralegals. This is nothing to be winked at or ignored, because law firms are more political than other types of offices just by nature of the business. As in any business, the staff learns the intricate details of the product or service it pedals. The same holds true for law firms. Everyday folks learn better negotiating skills just because they now work in a law firm as a paralegal and have a constant exposure to the practiced tactics of lawyers. There are other factors too, but this one alone raises the politicking inside a law office to an otherwise unimagined level. So, pay attention as you enter, and go along.

Unlike other modern businesses, the pecking order in law firms remains traditional in the sense that paralegals with the most years of tenure are the top chicks. This normally small group of paralegals has the same status as that of a manager or junior partner in the firm.

This is a small list of the descending pecking order among firm paralegals:

In most instances, it is common to witness an attorney's ego rub off on his paralegal. In this regard, it is not unusual to see the pecking order rules apply outside of the one-on-one relationship with the attorney. Among paralegals, those who respect the protocol and the pecking order are those who will do the best.

Another important point to remember in the "how-to" of getting along with your competitors in a paralegal job: Never gossip – about yourself or anyone else. Everything you ever say to anyone in your firm environment, regardless of how insignificant the person or subject seems, will either help you in your career or it will bite you in the back side. Sometimes the most innocent remarks will bite you. Before you ever enter the world of paralegals and lawyers, practice, practice, practice learning to take care of your tongue and what you allow to come across it. As a practice, you can help yourself if you become sensitive to those in your private world [home, family and friends] who are positive, negative, and neutral in their communications with you about others. By sharpening your listening skills to what is being said in your primary relationships, you will help to prepare yourself for your days as a paralegal.

In reading business and sales books you will notice the frequency with which the writers address the issue of creating good habits. What is universally understood is that we tend to behave most like those with whom we keep the most company in our daily lives. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that you examine, and perhaps make some discriminating decisions, about those around you before you enter your first firm.

Very few people in your life will be neutral in their communications about others. You should be surprised if you find even one that is neutral. This fact alone should give you an idea of the size of this problem and its potential to destroy what you hope to build in your life. It is likely that you will find you have to begin to slowly eliminate certain people from "insider's knowledge" about the details of your life. In this way, you can begin to ease out those who would gossip about you, and you simultaneously help to reduce the impact of their bad habit on your life.

Other factors for getting along with your competition may be easier to practice, since almost everything is easier than taming the tongue. These other factors are pretty common sense to our everyday social lives. We simply need to make sure we practice the same rules in our close office relationships.

Here's a short list of the other rules:

The trial date dictates how quickly you must complete everything needed for the success of the case. You must organize according to trial date, or you will find yourself unprepared with your backside hanging out, and soon unemployed. Yes, trial dates can be bumped if needed, but that is not the way to handle your case load since it is an unacceptable case management practice.

In my first firm, I managed more than 600 probate cases per year; 250 of those were exigent cases. In my second firm, I managed 350 patent renewals and reviews each year. In both firms, these numbers represented an enormous case load. Without understanding the process of a case, the firm's priorities, and the priorities of each case, you will not effectively manage your case load. Simply put, there is no success without good case management.

Your attorney's name or position on the docket is another determining factor when managing your cases. The attorney's personality will come into play in how you manage your work in preparing the case for trial. His priorities must become your priorities, or you have no relationship in which to work. His place on the court's docket also figures into your management, and you can expect his treatment of his position on the docket to vary from time to time, or month to month, depending upon his personality and the particular court's protocol.

PRIORITIES AND MANAGEMENT STYLES

Remember: In law firms there are no rogue paralegals. Rogue paralegals are unemployed paralegals. Therefore, it is always in your best interest to learn and understand your attorney's priorities and, if your situation requires, his boss's priorities, as well. Your attorney is the hand, you are the glove. Your job is to make his brilliance shine through; you are his finishing touch. You are there to make him look good – just like a glove gives a hand a very attractive appearance.

When you first enter your new firm, try to think of yourself as a blank canvas for your attorney to paint on those things which are his priorities, likes, dislikes, pet peeves and hang ups. This is not to say you surrender your personality, but rather to say that your first job is to match your attorney, to get in step with him, and to fit him like a glove. Therefore, you need to leave your ideas of priorities at the door and let him guide you. You will have plenty of opportunity to come back and smooth things out. But in the beginning, avoid telling him how to do anything, especially set priorities.

You may choose any number of management styles for your work and your attorney. Yes, ultimately, a top paralegal will manage her attorney even though he clearly has authority over you, dictates things from the beginning, and has the final word in everything you do.

You will find that some attorneys are neat freaks, some are pack rats, some want everything in the email, and some want everything in writing. I have worked around attorneys who were sweethearts, and around others that ran off all of their good help because they wanted to stand over the paralegal's shoulder and point out her every error she made as she did her work, so she could go home and feel stupid and useless. It truly takes all kinds to make the world go around.

It is worthwhile to remember that you, too, have your own management style. Don't dump your management style to try to comply with the likes of others. How you manage your desk should really concern no one. Only your attorney should be concerned that he can count on you to produce what he needs, when he needs it, and that you won't let him get stranded. If you manage everything in the email [Outlook can be a paralegal's best friend], then keep doing that as long as it gives you the end result that everyone on your team is looking for in your work product.

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