The attorney that I work for is a super nice guy, so I don't have any problems there. There are two other law firms on our floor of the large office building we're in, and each of them also has a paralegal, each of whom also seem very happy from what they've said to me. As stated below, it's going to be like any job, you'll find a range of people from the nice to the horrible.
What do I do -- well, it's mixed, because his practice is mixed. He is a CPA as well as an attorney, but doesn't do any actual accounting per se of the business type, i.e., he doesn't keep corporate books. We do some fiduciary accounting for estates, trusts, conservatorships, which is generally a pain because people often keep not very good records of how they've been spending money -- fiduciary accountings generally take a long time and cost the client a lot of money due to their own lax record keeping, and I get to play financial CSI, trying to figure out how they went from A to B to C. We do prepare tax returns of various types, 1040s, 1041s, 1120's, 990s, 1065s, 706s, some foreign account reporting returns, ec., for the clients who have had IRS issues, so Feb into April and again in October I do a lot of data input on tax returns, which is actually one of the things I like doing most, it's often time consuming but not hard, and other than a few strange situations or glitches, the software does all of the real work. Then, we deal with the IRS a lot, which is also not difficult once you learn the quirks of jumping through their hoops, IF you can get the clients to work with you. Most people facing IRS problems just want to resolve them and move past, but you get a few with a martyr/persecution complex that want to compound their problems by tilting against the windmills, most of which are self-created.
Then there is probate -- also not difficult overall once you learn the system, but there tend to be weird quirks because individual courts and judges interpret statute and court rules different ways, and what pleases one sometimes displeases others, so there are times when you are left standing there saying "huh???" And, it is a little sad at times, because most probate matters involve death or illness, and the situations and emotions can be sad and stress often brings out the worst in families, so it can get tense at times.
One of my biggest cases of the past 4 years was tending to the financial and medical affairs of a mentally ill disabled man who retained my boss because he had absolutely no family to help him, doing routine things like paying his bills and coordinating doctors appointments and in-home care and medical transportation, and he died suddenly last year, which was a blessing for him in many ways, because he was on a bad downward spiral that no one could seem to stop, but I would by lying if I didn't say it was more than a little sad since I had gotten to know him fairly well in about 2 1/2 years of dealing directly with him, and I saw him quite often because he lived only about 2 miles from the office so I would often just go over there to deal with things for him.
Drafting up estate plans is the last major category that I work on. This is mostly done via software -- input the data, and it spits out the documents. Some customization and modification is sometimes needed. Overall, its pretty easy.
I worked in an entirely different, totally unrelated field for about 20 years, but that basically dried up due to the economy here. I had a B.S. in my first field from one university, later went back and got a B.A. in political science with the possible intent of applying to law school but never did that, and then finally went through the one year paralegal program at a local university to get my certification. None of the classes was particular difficult except that ALL were held at night, so it was kind of tiring and I was basically doing 4 nights a week, every week, for a year with just a few weeks breaks between terms. I was also lucky in terms of job placement that it was really easy -- the final requirement of the paralegal program was an 80 hour internship, and after I did that, I was offered the job where I've been for almost 4 years.
And no, I'm definitely NOT getting rich. The attorney I work for can't afford to pay me all that much, its about comparable to what I made in the other field, which wasn't great. It's enough to get by, and it works for me because I have the freedom to tend to my own family matters as need be, which right now is more important to me due to circumstances. I could probably easily double what I make now after 4 years of experience if I wanted to go out and look for something, but it's just not in the cards right now.
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