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Cultivated content for legal professionals, the One Legal blog is a central resource for legal support matters, productivity tips, legal technology news, and more.

Paralegals are changing the world: 5 examples to prove it

Have you ever wanted to make a difference in your profession? Here are some examples of ways that paralegals are changing the world, one step at a time.

5 common grammar pitfalls for legal professionals

Do you fall into these common grammar pitfalls? Review these frequent mistakes made by legal professionals and brush up on your language skills.

8 steps to improve your interpersonal skills

Good interpersonal skills are one of the most important characteristics of a successful legal professional. Whether we’re meeting with clients, attempting to persuade a judge or jury, or simply negotiating law firm life, solid interpersonal skills are critical to career

Clerical or legal? The difference between paralegals and legal secretaries

A typical legal team is made up of a variety of individuals who fill a number of roles, including lawyers, paralegals, legal assistants, legal secretaries, and other staff members. The attorneys have the ultimate responsibility for the cases handled, and

The 7 PDF skills you need to successfully eFile in Illinois

You’ve probably heard by now that Illinois State Courts now require electronic filing of court documents almost without exception. As discussed in earlier posts, the courts are rather particular about the formatting of these electronic documents. Scanned PDFs are discouraged.

How the science of persuasion impacts the legal profession

It is undeniable that lawyers and other legal professionals rely heavily on persuasion. In fact, some lawyers refer to persuasion as an art form. But the person many people consider the foremost authority on this subject thinks that persuasion is actually a science. Robert Cialdini is

Certification requirements and CLE for paralegals

No matter how much experience they have, paralegals can no more consider themselves “experts” in the law than attorneys can. Changes happen every day, and the law is a moving target, so there will always be more to learn about

7 myths and misconceptions about the PDF

In the legal industry, and just about everywhere else, the Portable Document Format (PDF) is the gold standard of file formats, used globally to carry the permanence of a paper document into the digital space. Developed in 1992 by Adobe,

How is the role of legal support staff changing?

In the past, the duties of those who worked in the legal industry were pretty clearly defined. The lawyers represented the clients, the paralegals (sometimes known as legal assistants) assisted the lawyers with their cases, and the legal secretaries answered

The best free/low-cost CLE for legal support professionals

For legal professionals, part of the job is to keep up with changes in the industry, and education doesn’t stop after you get your first job. Continuing legal education (CLE) — which could cover anything from regulatory mandates, legal technology,

Shorthand is not dead: The power of effective note taking for legal professionals

In this age of computers, smartphones, digital voice recorders, and so on is note taking even a necessary skill for legal professionals anymore? Legal professionals attend numerous meetings and rarely show up in the conference room without a notebook (a

5 key skills attorneys look for when hiring a paralegal

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, the employment of paralegals is expected to grow about eight percent from 2014 to 2024. That means competition for jobs is expected to be strong, with experienced, formally trained paralegals

[New ebook] How to produce a court-friendly PDF

With more and more courts requiring that court documents to be filed electronically, most papers are being created, delivered, and read as PDFs. In order to aid the management and readability of electronic documents, the courts have put in place

[New ebook] Are you prepared for eFiling at a court near you?

The fact is that eFiling is rapidly becoming a reality in state courts through the US, including California’s superior courts. Right now in California, eFiling is available in 15 courts but during 2017 it’s very likely that more than half

What are the most in-demand paralegal skills?

The employment outlook for paralegals, legal secretaries, and legal assistants is positive. Right now — according to the Department of Labor — there are almost 280,000 paralegals in the US, but that’s projected to grow by 8% over the next

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