Paralegals

At Skadden, our paralegal team is composed of senior professionals with diverse employment and academic backgrounds. These seasoned members bring highly specialized skills to support specific practice areas, leveraging their extensive years of experience and advanced project management capabilities. Many of our senior paralegals have been with Skadden for decades, serving as invaluable resources to the firm’s attorneys and as mentors to the firm's junior paralegals.

Our paralegals have the opportunity to develop specialized skills in areas such as complex discovery workflows in litigation and intricate corporate filings for transactional clients.

Skadden offers a distinctive Legal Practice Assistant (LPA) program tailored for recent college graduates who aspire to pursue legal careers and seek to gain invaluable, first-hand experience in a prestigious law firm before attending law school. As the entry-level position within our Paralegal Services Department, LPAs provide diverse case and deal support, engaging closely with attorneys, paralegal colleagues and other business services professionals.

Our LPAs undergo an extensive training program during their first month of employment, ensuring they are well prepared for their roles. Additionally, they receive continuous training and mentorship throughout their tenure at Skadden. After a successful first year, LPAs are eligible for promotion to the position of paralegal. We expect our LPAs to commit to a two-year tenure at the firm, during which they will develop critical skills and gain substantial legal experience.

What do former paralegals, now associates, have to say about the Skadden paralegal experience?

• Reading case law and discussing things like procedural posture as a 1L came relatively easily after my time at Skadden, where my work evolved concurrently with the lifespan of my cases. Moreover, applying myself and being attentive to detail while in law school felt like an extension of what I learned from working at Skadden. – Associate
  
  
•  Working as a paralegal at Skadden gave me the opportunity to observe and experience what it means to work at a large, international law firm, and it cemented my decision to become a lawyer. I found both mentors and friends through Skadden’s paralegal program, and those relationships built the foundation for my career today. – Associate
  
  
• After working as a Skadden litigation paralegal for two years, I was familiar with the litigation process, how to read different litigation documents and how big law firms operated. These tools helped me succeed during law school and during the daunting recruiting process. Ironically, after two years practicing litigation at Skadden and three years studying litigation in law school, I chose to become a transactional attorney. – Associate
  
  
• Being a Skadden paralegal exposed me to a diverse array of practice groups and helped me figure out what kind of an attorney I wanted to become after law school. It confirmed that I wanted to work at a big law firm with a big personality. – Associate
  
  
• The relationships I made with staff, attorneys and other paralegals were the highlight of my time as a Skadden paralegal. When you ask someone why they stay at Skadden, the answer is usually “the people,” and I could not agree more. – Associate

How did working as an LPA/paralegal prepare you for law school?

• Working as a paralegal and being surrounded by talented attorneys helped improve my organizational skills, multitasking abilities and attention to detail. Each of these skills are essential for success during your first year of law school. – Associate

Do you feel you are a stronger associate for having started out as a paralegal?

• As a paralegal, you learn the ins and outs of Skadden’s internal system, from Outlook tricks to all the skills you need in Power PDF to make your work more efficient. You’ll also learn about Skadden culture and how to interact in the environment. Something as seemingly simple as learning email etiquette gives you a distinct advantage when you come back as an associate. – Associate
  
  
• I felt much more confident as a new associate for having started out as a paralegal. My experience provided me with a sense of familiarity and capability when I was faced with new challenges. – Associate

How did working as an LPA/paralegal prepare you for law school?

• It helped me set a new standard for high performance. Through my work in supporting complex and sensitive corporate transactions, I had the opportunity to develop important practical skills such as agility and time management. – Associate

Can you speak to the relationships you formed as an LPA? With partners, attorneys and/or colleagues.

• My most valuable relationships developed with the junior and mid-level attorneys who turned towards my expressions of interest. Those who took the time to thoughtfully explain projects and put discrete tasks into the broader context of commercial and legal objectives definitely elevated my experience. – Counsel

Litigation paralegals work closely with attorneys in various litigation practice areas including antitrust, intellectual property, international arbitration, mass torts, insurance and consumer litigation, supreme court and appellate litigation, and white collar defense, among others. Paralegals provide support during all phases of a litigation, arbitration or investigation. They are an integral part of supporting litigation matters. Common tasks and responsibilities are to:

• Prepare court filings, including proofreading, record checking, preparing exhibits and liaising with managing law clerks.
• Support document review, production and privilege log preparation workflows in close coordination with Skadden’s Legal Technology team.
• Prepare for and attend depositions, mediations, hearings, arbitrations and trials.
• Perform factual research.
• Maintain and organize key documents and client files.

Corporate paralegals work closely with attorneys across various practice areas such as, but not limited to, banking, capital markets, energy and infrastructure projects, financial institutions, intellectual property and technology transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate. They perform a variety of tasks throughout a corporate transaction such as to:

• Conduct due diligence and research.
• Create and manage online data rooms where voluminous sets of documents are shared during a deal.
• Assist attorneys with drafting and filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and various other regulatory agencies.
• Assist attorneys during a signing or a closing, often with drafting agreements, compiling documents and collecting relevant signatures.
• Maintain and organize key documents and client files.

Skadden strongly believes in its commitment to serve the community by providing pro bono, or free, legal services to community members. LPAs and paralegals have the opportunity to take part in a wide variety of pro bono matters handled by the firm. Our paralegals attend and assist with the screening process in the pro bono clinics that are hosted by the firm. In addition, paralegals provide translation services in a variety of different languages for our non-English speaking clients. For more information about pro bono at Skadden, click here.

All new hires are required to attend a rigorous New Hire Training program during the first few weeks of employment with Skadden. We cover the basics of litigation and corporate legal work, break down the role of the paralegal, provide a professional development series and teach new hires how to use our various applications. Our training program is robust, as we set up our new hires for success from the start. We also provide ongoing training and professional development opportunities throughout the tenure of our employees.

We are often asked about the essential skills necessary for success in this role. To name a few:

• Exceptional attention to detail.
• Customer service skills.
• communication and collaboration.
• Enthusiasm and energy.
• Flexibility and dependability.
• Organization and time management.
• Problem solving and critical thinking.

Skadden provides LPAs and law school-bound paralegals with a formal mentor program, pairing our paralegals with attorneys at the firm. The attorneys become their mentors and can be leaned upon to provide guidance and advice as our young professionals navigate demanding roles, applying to law school and beyond. The mentor/mentee relationships are very special and speak to the camaraderie inside Skadden. Group-wide events are also held throughout each year, such as an attorney-led panel titled Law School Q&A for Paralegals which is conducted each spring.