Episode 3B: I’m a Senior Legal Assistant… Now What?

Transcript

Tara Edwards 0:00

Hello, my name is Tara, and welcome to Sister-in-Law, the Paralegal Journey, a podcast about the careers behind the case files. Whether you work in law, work alongside the legal profession, or are thinking about a career in this space, or simply want an honest look at the paralegal journey, you're in the right place. Welcome back to Sister-in-Law, the Paralegal Journey. In this episode, I wanna talk to the people who rarely get centered in assistant growth conversation. This episode is for all the senior legal assistants who are. Training or mentoring new staff. Taking on practicum students, catching mistakes and identifying risks before they become problems. Naturally. Doing the next step on a file before your lawyer even asks, looking at or creating new systems to help your lawyer or department function better. Drafting documents to make your lawyer's job easier. Holding institutional knowledge and the shortcuts. No one ever documents. And quietly still asking yourself, where does your career go from here? The career ceiling. No one warns you about. At some point, most legal, assistants hit a ceiling. There comes a time when you feel ready to take the next step to work more independently, to take on less administrative work, and to engage more deeply with the legal substance of the files, or to look at other options beyond the desk. I remember reaching that point when I was working in Ontario after gaining experience in employment, labor, and human rights laws. I didn't know everything, but I knew enough to want to know more. I wanted to draft more to understand the legal side better, and to move from assisting to contributing in a more substantive way. At the time, I was working for a senior partner. Who, when I told her that I wanted to return to school to take the paralegal course, she's like, yes, why not? She then told me that she had taken her LLM and said that I would not regret further education. If your experience in the area or areas of law you work in, only you can determine what that next step looks like and whether you're ready for it and. If you are ready for the next step during this episode, ask yourself, am I staying in my current role because it's still growing me or because it's familiar? What am I doing to prepare myself to take the next step? Alberta informal authority, formal limits. In Alberta, many senior legal assistants perform work well beyond administrative tasks. They draft documents beyond letters and emails, work on files from beginning to end, communicate directly with clients to gather facts and support lawyers in meaningful and substantive ways. But titles and scope are often informal or hybrid. Larger firms may promote internally, but much of the authority senior assistants hold is based on unspoken trust. The question becomes, are firms fully utilizing senior legal assistants or leaving value on the table Are senior assistants time and skills being recognized, built and leveraged in a way that allows them to grow into clear paralegal roles. I once worked at a firm where I directly told the office manager that I wanted to take on more paralegal level responsibilities. I even asked the lawyer I worked with in Ontario to write a letter of support. I created a proposed employment paralegal role and carefully outlined how it would support the firm. I never received a response, but I later saw the exact role that I came up with posted on. Indeed, I've seen the same thing happen to others. When growth isn't supported for people who are ready and willing, it impacts morale. You begin to feel useless, overlooked, and stuck like you've reached a dead end. That's why valuing and supporting senior assistants who want to move into paralegal roles matter, not just for individuals, but for the profession as a whole. It creates a space for senior assistants, lawyers, and the firm to benefit and give high valued service to the clients that they serve. Ontario responsibility without progression. In Ontario, senior legal assistants often carry significant responsibility and work law clerks and paralegals typically manage complex files and draft more substantive documents. If you are a senior legal assistant who hasn't had the opportunity to move into a law clerk role, returning to school, to complete paralegal studies may be the next viable step, especially if you're asking yourself what's next? Advancement can be limited, but it's not impossible. Specializing, returning to school or stepping outside, traditional firm structures may be required. The work becomes more intense. Expectations increase. But as a senior assistant, you'll be challenged, stretched, and given the opportunity to build a deeper skillset. you may not always get immediate recognition, but you are building a skill bank and that skill bank is important for your career growth. The quiet burnout. So what happens when you're a senior legal assistant asking what's next? And there doesn't seem to be any clear answers. This is often where burnout and insecurity creeps in, not from the work itself, but from feeling like there's no path forward from being unable to take on more substantive work from being overlooked for promotion or from hesitating to return to school because of personal or financial adjustments that may come with it. You may feel indispensable because of your current skills and what you offer, the place where you work and those around you, yet you still feel irreplaceable because the impression you are getting is that there can always be another assistant who will do what you do. You are stuck between loyalty and ambition, and it all equals being unhappy. And because legal assistants are often expected to be the stable ones, this frustration often goes unspoken. So let's reframe the question. Instead of asking yourself, why isn't there a next step for me? Ask yourself, do I want deeper specialization? Am I staying because I'm valued or because it's familiar? What do I want my career path to look like? Have I sat down and mapped out what my options are? There's no single correct answer, but staying stuck out of obligation isn't a strategy. It's a fast track to burnout and disengagement. You are not invisible If you are a senior legal assistant wondering what comes next. You're not invisible and you're not alone. You're part of a profession that relies on you, but rarely plans for you. It's up to you to have the conversations needed so that the people around you are aware of what you want to do and where you want your career to go. So what can you do if you are a senior legal assistant considering the move into a law clerk or paralegal role? Here are some practical steps. One, have the conversation, speak honestly with your office or HR manager about your goals and your growth. Two, write it down. Use your performance review to clearly state that you want exposure to law clerk or paralegal level tasks. Three, evaluate if your current place of employment can meet your needs. Look at what your current place of employment looks like, and ask yourself honestly, can this place meet the needs of my career advancement and what I want my career to look like? Four, meet with a recruiter. I have talked about having conversations with recruiters in my previous episodes. It is important for you to talk to someone who sees what the market looks like and the trends that they are seeing. Having a conversation is not a commitment. It's exploring and understanding the world you work in. Five, consider education and mentorship. Explore law clerk or paralegal programs and connect with mentors already in those roles. Speak with teachers or department heads to find out more about the programs and do they align with what you want out of your career. Look beyond the titles. Roles such as case officer or review Officer may align closely with your skillset. Even if the title isn't paralegal. Focus on the job description rather than the title and assess whether your experience meets the roles requirements if it doesn't fully. But the work generally interests you. Consider applying anyway with a clear plan on how you would develop or bridge any gaps. Be prepared to speak to that plan during an interview. Seven, assess your market. Corporate government, or regulatory environments may offer clear paths than traditional law firms over the next few days. Sit with this question. As a senior legal assistant, am I staying because this role is still growing me or because it's familiar? what skills have I gained that can carry me forward and who is already doing the work that I wanna be doing that I can learn from? In the next episode, I'll be sitting down with someone who has seen the paralegal profession from multiple angles in Ontario as a practicing paralegal during the early days of licensing. And now from the education side, it's a conversation about timing, regulation and what it means to help shape our profession, not just work inside it. If this episode resonated with you, I invite you to follow the podcast on Apple or Spotify and connect with me on LinkedIn. Let me know where you're at with your journey. This is Sister-in-Law, the paralegal journey. Welcome to the conversation. I.