What Does a Corporate Paralegal do?

Paralegals

A corporate paralegal is usually a part of an in-house legal team for a corporation, other type of business, or a law firm that has a business focus. In a corporation or other kind of business, a corporate paralegal will assist the business’s legal department with matters pertaining to corporate law. A corporate paralegal’s regular tasks often include things such as updating files, preparing legal documents, reviewing documents, and giving legal assistance. They may also be asked to handle executive summaries and directives. They may also be asked to work on company compliance issues and other matters that are specific to their company. 

Paralegals

As a general rule, paralegals are an integral and indispensable part of the legal system. They provide support to attorneys, law firms, government agencies, corporations and other types of businesses. Paralegals provide support in the form of researching legal precedent, performing investigative work on cases, prepare legal correspondence, update and maintain electronic filing systems, assist in preparing for trial, and prepare legal documents such as affidavits, contracts and wills, to name just some of the common things paralegals do. 

Corporate Paralegals

Corporate paralegals specialize in corporate litigation and other specific legal needs of a business. They often participate in corporate meetings, prepare corporate resolutions, log board minutes and manage other corporate legal needs. Different corporations have different needs and may need their paralegal(s) to have experience working on procedures and documents pertaining to finance, bankruptcy, securities, trademarks, patents and other business related issues. 

As with all paralegals, strong written and verbal communication skills can be especially necessary for corporate paralegals. They must be precise, accurate, detailed and efficient in their paperwork and other duties. In addition to good working knowledge of office equipment and technology, and general office procedure, more and more, corporations are looking for paralegals that are also skilled and experienced with computers and particular programs or apps.

Seniority  

Different corporations are different but in larger corporations that employ more than one corporate paralegal, there is usually a hierarchy amongst the paralegals. The more experienced a paralegal is at their corporation and the more responsibilities they successfully take on, will typically earn a corporate paralegal the title or status of senior corporate paralegal. The title senior has nothing to do with age but it does have to do with experience and skills. Senior corporate paralegals are often expected to be proactive in their roles and be able to identify and report problems, legal risks, potential liabilities and on other matters that may affect the corporation’s legal health.

Education

There are no specific education requirements that are specific to becoming a corporate paralegal compared to getting a paralegal degree or certification. Different corporations have different education requirements for hiring their paralegals but as of now, there is no specific corporate paralegal degree. In addition to a corporation’s particular education or certification requirements for their paralegals, many of them want new hires to have a certain amount of experience. 

Be informed of law career information and news with Top Law Firms.