Identifying The Departments Commonly Found In Law Firms Today

Modern law firms operating nowadays are often found to have four specific departments within their structure. It is the aim of this discussion to take a look at these departments. We will be seeking to understand the role of each department. These departments will have their own personnel or staff; we will also try to look into them. 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.

The first department that you can expect to find in every modern law firm is the legal department (or the main operations department). This is where you will find the roots of the legal practice and definitely the area where the earnings and the profits come from. In this department, you will usually find two categories of workers: the partners and the associates. These partners and associates are the lawyers of the firm who do all the profit-oriented work: consultation with clients, representing their legal interests and working on legal documents, among others. It is also normal to find legal assistants and interns in this department. Unlike the lawyers, these legal assistants are not qualified to practice law even if they are 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.

The second department that you can expect to find in every modern law firm is the administrative and secretarial department. This is where you will find the secretaries attached to the attorneys, as well as the typists. Bigger practices have human resource officers who also fall under this department. Often, security guards, messengers and liaison officers also belong in the administrative department. In many cases, even the coffee and tea girls at the reception area are placed under this department.

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. Since these computers need maintenance, it is important to make sure there are people who are knowledgeable about keeping the computers on track.

Finally, it is a given that every law practice should have its own accounting and finance department in order to succeed. Cash flow and other financial transactions of the firm have to be kept track of and recorded properly. That is why this department is very important.

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