Not all legal work requires a lawyer's expertise. Paralegals work directly under the supervision of a lawyer. While the lawyer assumes responsibility for the legal assistant's work, a legal assistant is often allowed to perform all the functions of a lawyer other than accepting clients, setting legal fees, giving legal advice, or presenting a case in court.
Paralegals generally do background work for the lawyer.
To help a lawyer prepare a case for trial, a legal assistant investigates the facts of the case to make sure that all relevant information is uncovered. The legal assistant conducts research to identify the appropriate laws, judicial decisions, legal articles, and other material that will be used to determine whether the client has a good case or not. After analyzing all the information, the legal assistant prepares a written report that is used by the attorney to decide how the case should be handled. If the attorney decides to bring a lawsuit for the client, the legal assistant may prepare legal arguments, draft pleadings to be filed with the court, obtain affidavits, and assist the attorney during the trial. The legal assistant also may keep files of all documents and correspondence important to the case.