staff attorney

attorney

handler

paralegal

senior paralegal

The Legal Aid Society

A typical day involves reading and acting on lots of email, creating and storing information in line with strict formats, using an antiquated/non-user friendly database, drafting emails and materials for review by superiors, helping others troubleshoot and learn, identifying issues and helping to brainstorm solutions, reviewing supervisees' work, attending meetings, and passing information between groups not allowed to communicate directly.
I have improved and broadened my technical skills and knowledge, learned to troubleshoot difficult systems, learned new processes, and gained confidence in my ability to master any task and to innovate solutions across new domains.
Management is hierarchical. There are no mechanisms for 360-degree evaluations. Information is siloed, which inhibits cross-team collaboration. Micro-management is encouraged as a management style. Experimental innovations, deep analysis, and autonomy are discouraged. The union and managers are constantly at loggerheads. Some managers exhibit paranoia.
The workplace culture is congeniality among ones peers, desire to help and support each other, and commitment to the cause of the agency. But there is fear of information sharing not explicitly sanctioned and monitored by management, and fear of reprisals if managers perceive that employees have exceeded the limited scope of their authority and responsibilities. Some managers act unprofessionally such as by bad mouthing other employees.
The hardest part of the job is dealing with mercurial managers who set unrealistic expectations, fail to appreciate initiative, prohibit flexible management styles, constantly reschedule meetings, undermine work product by refusing to standardize an approach or uphold true quality control, delay approval needed to move forward, and refuse to acknowledge their own weaknesses or mistakes.
The best part of the job are the small victories in improving work processes and quietly acquiring expertise on one's own initiative and time.

It would be difficult to provide an account of a typical day at Legal Aid because the different practice areas involve very different life styles.  What can be said is that the job culture is mostly collegial, but  it is also highly politicized, mostly leftward leaning and highly cliquish.  If you want legal input into a case you are working on, people are not selfish about information and will give you whatever you need.  If you want to have a social life, best look elsewhere.  Younger Legal Aid attorneys are not especially friendly unless you inhabit their social sphere and older attorneys are family oriented and simply have no time for socializing.  Medical benefits are great.  The pension plan is not.  Whether you have reasonable hours depends entirely on which practice area you are in.  Because of the politicized nature of Legal Aid, it is best to avoid the political fray, especially if you are not on the far left of the political spectrum, because you will surely be burned.  Memories are long and, for a purportedly humanitarian institution, both forgiveness and, dare I say, caring for one's colleagues, are virtues that are in short supply.  Management will never protect you from your colleagues and you can never protect yourself from management if you do not have the support of your colleagues.

Legal Aid Society is a not profit organization dealing with family Law and helping victims of Domestic Violence. It is a great place to start if you are interested on working with Family Law. 

A typical day for a paralegal can vary from the demands of the clients. It might include, but not limited, to speak with potential clients, find elements of Domestic violence to determine if they meet the standards of the Utah Statute, report the incidents to the attorneys, provide feedback to the client in regards with representation, do the pleadings for the clients under the attorney supervision, e-file with the Utah Court System the pleadings. Once the proper documentation has been signed by the judge, assist the client until the moment of the hearing; be present during the hearing and assist the attorney and the clients.

If for any reason one of the clients is denied for representation, the paralegal will assist the client to go Pro Se and will provide the proper legal direction to find a solution to their concerns. 

Legal Aid is a very rewarding experience with a lot of ups and downs when you learn to manage the stress and deal with a lot of different clients from many several backgrounds. A great place to start!

Not a very good organization  to work for.  They provide poor management. They split you in so many different directions, they make it hard for you  to do your job. Not to mention moral is so low no one even speaks to each other, and when they do speak, all they do is complain.

The attorneys there are a bunch of hypocrites who portray themselves as holier than thou. In fact they treat their support staff, particularly the people of color in a condescending, paternalistic manner. As if we are too stupid to know what is best for us.  They act like they are the saviors of all mankind when in reality,  they are drowning in their own arrogance. 

My experience with management is so negative just the thought of them gives me a raging migraine. Not to mention we have not had raise in 8 years, while those at the top relish in their high salaries. 

If management had their way all of us long term employees would just drop dead so they could replace us with newbies who won't be the wiser for at least two years. And then if they are smart they'll jump ship for obvious reasons. 

I am tempted to ask to be terminated because if I quit I'll forgo my unemployment benefits.

I haven’t been here that long. But so far, I think it’s a good place to work. The salaries are about average, or a little above average. But the benefits put this place over the top. The health insurance, time off, and other fringe benefits are well beyond what you’ll get at most other places. That’s why a lot of people end up staying long-term at Legal Aid. You get work stability here because of the union protections. You never get swamped with too much work (you’re more likely to have the other problem, having too little work). They have a good infrastructure for getting stuff done effectively. Management really gives you your space, so you get a lot of autonomy.  Probably the only criticism I have is that the atmosphere gets a little too political for my taste. People here are always sending mass emails about some new protests, strikes, rallies, etc. It got to the point where I start rolling my eyes anytime someone sends those emails because it just never ends. And FYI - people here like to abuse the reply all button when they send emails. You can have trouble getting stuff done. A few people in the office are also rude and lazy (but every company has a few of those people)

Pros: 
This is a very large organization, so I recognize that everyone’s experiences vary. Throughout my career here, I’ve been fortunate to have amazing supervisors and colleagues who support my goals and ambitions. Folks here are collegial and collaborative and I find most staff to be passionate about the work. I also find that the culture is conducive to raising a family. There are a lot of lifelong career attorneys at The Legal Aid Society.
While there is certainly room for improvement on the pay/benefits front, the health insurance benefits are pretty great. 

Cons:
While I do find that upper management works hard to secure funding for our organization, some of the higher-ups are not as supportive as middle management. There is a lot of pushback and condescension surrounding telecommuting, especially coming from the CEO who doesn’t gel well with the union. 
Additionally, as is the case with many non-profit legal services organizations, caseloads can get overwhelming. Various teams in the organization are understaffed to meet the demands at a given time. 

If your aim is to defend constitutional rights and not become rich, this is the place for you. Same if you like independence to the point of fault; your peers may be your best support here. The sense of camaraderie amongst line attorneys is second to none. Immediate supervisors are usually smart and helpful. Attorneys receive unique levels of support from the brilliant minds in our training, appellate, and other units. Broader organizational issues make significant portions of the work more challenging than necessary. But fighting against the odds is what this work is about. Pay is low; vacation and health benefits are great. Great place if you believe in the work and do not need coddling; you'll have plenty of the former and none of the latter.

Doing my Internship at the Legal Aid Society was a life changing experience for me as I learned what it means to work in a group of investigators in an environment where the top management delegated assignments to the rank and file and gave them complete independence to get the job done. The lead investigators I worked with were very open as they made it very easy to ask as many questions as necessary and was fun working with them. It was always a great challenge to interview witnesses who were unwilling to cooperate with the defense team. Since a lot of people were not willing to talk, it was always a mission accomplished after successfully convincing an important witness to provide you with the information needed. In sum, I learned s great deal of Investigative skills at the Legal Aid Society.

I thik this is a great place to start if you would like to get your feet wet. I never intended to stay here as long as I have, most people that stay at the job long do so because of the health insurance (no copays, + pension). Other than that, there's no advancement, little pay increases ( the step system is unbelievable), no two people with the same job title do the same work, some people clearly have more work than others, management doesn't know what they're doing.... I can go on but on the bright side, I've learned so much and have helped save the homes of many clients. I have no legal background and did not go to college for this but I am thriving and I am very knowledgeable. The attorneys in my practice area are very open and helpful. Nothing more to say.

The work is manageable, the benefits are really good, management doesn’t cause issues (at least for us non-attorneys). I wish the base salaries were higher, but for a nonprofit, I guess it could be worse. 

They are left-wing to the point of lunacy. Example: they renovated the offices in Manhattan recently, and they seriously got rid of all the male and female multi-stall bathrooms. Now they have  signs that say, “anyone can use this bathroom regardless of gender.” And lo and behold - now everyone in the whole office uses one of the  single stall bathrooms because nobody is comfortable using the multi -stall bathrooms anymore. They also frequently issue press releases that promote these anti-police, open-borders, weak-on-crime policies.  Because of Legal Aid Society’s politics, I’m looking to leave this place as soon as I can

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Staff attorney 4 salaries reported	$118,250 per year
Attorney 7 salaries reported	$150,607 per year
Handler 1 salary reported	$78,978 per year
Paralegal 3 salaries reported	$46,655 per year
Senior paralegal 2 salaries reported	$72,371 per year

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