The Most Common Departments In Law Firms Of Today5274447

If you take a look at the more modern law firms these days, you will notice that almost all of them have four departments in common. It is the aim of this discussion to take a look at these departments. In the process, we will try to gain some insight on what roles these departments play in the overall operation of the law firm. In our discussion, we will also attempt to understand the types of people who will be found in the staff of these departments. Worth mentioning is the fact that, in some law firms, these departments are not clearly delineated as departments, complete with their own departmental heads. But they do tend to exist in some form: even if, in the smaller law practice firms, they turn out to be 'one-person departments.' Similarly, we also find the roles of the departments merging into one department. As a result, one department could be performing the function of two departments. But in the bigger legal practices, the departments nowadays tend to be well defined, with each department having at least several members of staff, and with each department having a well designated departmental head.

Modern law firms these days make it a point to have a department where their main operations take place. That is what their legal department is for. This is where the practice makes money because this is where the legal practice springs from. The workforce that you will encounter in this department are the partners and the associates. Basically, they are the lawyers who are handling all the legal matters and main operations. They represent the clients in court and out of court settlements. Providing support for the partners and associates are often legal assistants and interns. They do not have the qualifications that the lawyers have. However, they have basic knowledge since they are currently undergoing legal training. For the more routine tasks that the lawyers cannot be bothered to perform; these tasks are left mostly to the staff members called the paralegals.

Every modern law firm is also expected to have its own administrative department. Sometimes this is also referred to as the secretarial department. The lawyers are often assigned specific secretaries to assist them. The secretaries all fall under this department, as well as the members of the firm's typing pool. This department also often include the human resource officers employed by the larger firms. This department is also where one would normally find the coffee servers, the messengers, and even the cleaners.

Many law practices have also seen the need for them to keep up with the changing times, thus establishing their own information technology or IT department. Modern law offices tend to be highly computerized, with networked computers. It becomes necessary, at some point, to have someone or a group of people in the bigger law firms to maintain the computers.

Finally, it is a given that every law practice should have its own accounting and finance department in order to succeed. Huge sums of money go in and out of the law firms on a day to day basis, and at some point, it becomes necessary to employ a person, or a group of people in the bigger law firms, to keep track of the cash.

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