Why Freelancing In The Role Of A Legal Assistant Might Be The Answer To Boost Paralegal Salaries

If you ever wondered how to increase the paralegal salary you take home, have you thought about becoming self-reliant contractor? While not suitable for everyone, becoming a freelance paralegal could only be the way to significantly increase your take home pay.

Why? There is a need for well qualified legal assistants who are willing to work on an agreement basis. Law firms may suddenly become very busy for example, during the middle of a trial. They need help but don't have the time to move through the recruitment and training process used to find a permanent staff member.

What they desire is somebody who can start working straight away. As a freelance paralegal you are able to fulfill their requirements. You can charge an hourly rate depending on the area of law, your location and your experience. When you are just starting out and struggling to build up a client bank you may have to offer your services at a lesser rate. But if you work hard and are good at what you do, you should be able to increase your rates very quickly.

Is there any draw back to becoming self-reliant contractor?

There are plenty of downsides. The main one is the aspect that as a self employed person you are solely responsible for your business tax returns. You must pay your federal and if applicable state taxes on time and in accordance with their plan. You should keep proper accounting records detailing all your incoming payments and outgoing overheads. Quite a lot of normal business expenses are tax deductible so you may require to read up on this further. Alternatively it can be good idea to seek the services of a CPA.

You require to be organized. When you are working for yourself by providing paralegal services and charging the hourly rate you cannot afford to waste time at the water cooler. As we all know certain things can happen to delay us that are outside of our control. You cannot afford for this to happen too often and your rates must reflect an element of permitted time for unforeseen emergencies. Every firm you work for will become more impressed if you finish a job ahead of time frame as opposed to you finishing it late. If you work in litigation and it isn't feasible to give them an estimate of when the job will be completed you might want to work on the hourly basis instead. You can arrange with the firm to pay you a retainer and then on timely intervals until you leave. This will make your cash flow simpler to manage than having one bill at last.

You need to have money to tide you over and cover your living costs mainly when starting out. Some firms are better than others for clearing outstanding invoices. You should aim to have savings equivalent to a minimum of six months worth of expenses before you begin freelancing.

In addition to increased paralegal salaries are there any benefits to freelancing?

One big but often overlooked benefit of freelancing as a paralegal is the fact that it opens doors. A lot of an independent contractor became a full time employee when the firm they were contracting for made them deal they couldn't decline.

So if you are wondering how to increase your income why not give freelancing another look?

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