Presentation for reseasrch seminar at Exeter Law School, February 11th, 2015

1. Being liminal? Researching the
experience of paralegals operating in
a liberalised legal services market
Julian Webb
julian.webb@unimelb.edu.au
University of Exeter
11 February 2015

2. Who are the paralegals?
• Significant definitional problem
• primarily non-admitted individuals undertaking legal
activities in both LSA-regulated and non-regulated
entities
– Trainee legal executives
– Graduate paralegals
– Legal apprentices
– Legal secretaries?
– Unregistered foreign lawyers?
– Law Centre, CABx advisors, McKenzie friends?
• IER data
• NALP ‘guesstimate’ - ca. 200,000 (incl non-regulated)

3. The project – work in progress
• Stage 1: LETR data
– Questionnaires [1128 + 19], focus groups and
stakeholder interviews [307]
– Specific focus group/interviews [10]
– Paralegal questionnaire responses [24 +10]
• Stage 2: additional data gathering
– 15-20 individual interviews (in progress)
– Graduate paralegals with experience of work in
regulated law firms
– Convenience + snowball sampling

4. Paralegal themes from LETR
• Structural change
• Access and diversity
• Experience/career development
• Professional identity and expectations

5. Structural change
There’s a lot, you know, there’s a lot of graduates out
there doing effectively paralegal positions, and in the
commercial firms too, you know, as a recruitment
partner, why are you going to spend ₤30-40K on
someone when you can get someone in – you know,
graduate – for ₤20-25K.
solicitor [recruitment partner]
…what we’re interested in, its providing the client with
an effective service and if someone, you know, is cheap
but good then that – if they hit that benchmark then
that’s fine.
solicitor

6. Paralegals and structural change
• Employment trends
– Un/under-employment
– Precariousness (McKeown, 2005)
– ‘Edge work’ (Francis, 2011)
• At least three distinct groups in regulated firms
– ‘Career’ paralegals
– ‘Default’ paralegals
– ‘Legal technicians’
– (+ other support workers)

7. Legal technicians
…you can convert these kids into specialist case
handlers - rather than lawyers or paralegals. They don’t
even need a title. But they will be able to run cases, or
assist a litigation team. They’ll become an integral part
of that team, whether they’ve got a legal qualification or
not.
Solicitor

8. Paralegals and structural change
Competition, commoditisation and ‘deprofessionalisation’
[S]ome firms are running a very clear pyramid structure with only a few
qualified people allegedly supervising this bottom rump of the pyramid who
are paralegals, [who] may not even have any legal qualification at all and
they do the case really at a low unit cost and therefore they make a profit
on these high volume cases.
Solicitor
Innovation and new business entities
... with the advent of ABSs I see that there will be fewer training contracts
because they will have less of a necessity for qualified solicitors. There’ll
be higher use of paralegals in that context ...
Solicitor
ABSs broaden the possibilities for paralegals with the introduction of high
street companies offering legal services - they will require the services of
paralegals. Also means that sole paralegal practitioners or paralegal firms
could apply for ABS licences from the SRA.
Paralegal representative body

9. Impact on access and diversity
[I was told] “Your CV looks good, but you don’t speak enough languages.
You haven’t travelled.” I can’t afford to travel places, I’m trying to pay
debts… I’m sorry I couldn’t go to Cambodia!
Paralegal
Many firms are doing that. They call it ‘internships’ and they’re taking on
graduates, people with law degrees who have paid the fees for a 3 or 4
year course and are going into voluntary unpaid work. And this benefits
only middle-class people, because as a person from a working
background, you need to live. You can’t go into voluntary work for a very
long period of time and it’s obviously going to appeal to people who have
got ... wealthier parents, who can actually work for free for that long period
of time. So, basically, it ... sifts out the working class in a really indirect
way. And loads of firms are doing it now. So even to get a paralegal role,
people are first working as paralegals for free.
Paralegal

10. Experience/ progression
… you’ve got a lot of individuals who have a law degree, with or
without the LPC, who are taking these jobs because it’s their foot in
the door and hope they may be told “Well in a year or two, who
knows, if you work really hard you might get a training contract”.
solicitor [recruitment partner]
Q: And is it your expectation that you would move to a TC?
A: Normally I think that is what happens here but several paralegals
have just been made redundant, so I’m just trying to cling onto my
paralegal position at the moment.
Paralegal
A number of my contemporaries are now a year and a half,
approaching two years into paralegal work… [and] they’re just
struggling to get, you know, to jump that final hurdle to get a
training contract…
Trainee solicitor

11. Professional identity and development
Most students of my institution are solely concerned with the desire
to obtain a training contract. ILEX, paralegal, is seen initially as a
second choice. If they do not secure a TC whilst at university they
may well look at alternative professional routeways once they
embark on the LPC. Students are made aware of alternative
qualification routes, however the types of firms that visit campus
perpetuate the TC routeway.
university careers advisor
I always wanted to work in legal aid; there isn’t much legal aid
available any more right? So what I’m going to have to do is finish
these two years, these very expensive two years, probably find a
paralegal job so that I can build up the skills before someone will
even consider taking me on for a training contract . I don’t think
that’s very, it doesn’t work.
LPC student

12. Once in a paralegal role…
• Paralegal > TC: a better approach?
• But
– Lack of status
– Guarantees of work/career progression
– Limited obligation to train
– Inequalities with those on TCs
The paralegal market’s not really regulated. You’re just
there....
I am effectively a non-qualified solicitor…
Graduate paralegals

13. Implications
• For recruitment practices in firms…
• For regulation….
• For education and training providers…
• But what about the impact on those
already caught on the paralegal hook?

14. ‘Phase 2’ hypothesis: liminality
In organizational literature, liminality is commonly taken
to mean a position of ambiguity and uncertainty, being
betwixt and between….
Beech (2011:287)
Liminality [serves] not only to identify the importance of
in-between periods, but also to understand the human
reaction to liminal experiences: the way in which
personality is shaped by liminality, the sudden
foregrounding of agency, and the sometimes dramatic
tying together of thought and experience.
Thomassen (2009:14)

15. Demographic profile of stage 2 group
No FEM MALE BME LLB GDL
36 29 7 9 30 6
Russell Pre 92 Post 92 Overseas Private LPC
7 9 19 2 2 22
Lond SE SW Mid NE NW Wales
UG 9 6 6 10 1 1 1
Work 19 2 6 6 0 2 1

16. Current work experience
Comm
pty
Res
pty
Other
comm
PI Clin
neg
Fam Reg/
compl
Const
r
Prob In-h LPO
11 5 4 5 1 3 2 1 1 2 1
No of employments:
Range 1 – 9
Mean 2.75
Total paralegal experience:
Range 6mths - 7yrs 5mths
Mean 31.69mths
Median 29mths

17. References
Beech, N. (2011) ‘Liminality and the Practices of Identity Reconstruction’ Human
Relations, 64(2), 285.
McKeown, T. (2005) ‘Non-Standard Employment: When Even the Elite Are
Precarious’ Journal of Industrial Relations, 47(3), 276.
Thomassen, B. (2009) ‘The Uses and Meanings of Liminality’ International Political
Anthropology, 2(1), 5.
Webb, J. et al, (2013) Setting Standards: The Regulation of Legal Services
Education and Training in England and Wales, www,letr.org.uk/report
Wilson, R.A. (2012). LETR Briefing Paper 2/2012: Future Workforce Demand in the
Legal Services sector. letr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/The-Changing-
Demand-for-Skills-in-the-Legal-Services-Sector-Full-v2-2.pdf