What Most Freelance Paralegals Won’t Tell You About Creating a Successful Business

Do a quick LinkedIn search by typing in “Freelance Paralegal” in the search bar and select “people.”

Done?  Ok…

What your search results should have generated is 695,000 results of people that have both the word “freelance” and “paralegal” within their profile bio. 

Now, to be fair with our search results, one can assume not all 695k of these people on LinkedIn are or were successful in their freelancing career.  Let’s be extra generous with that assumption and say, for whatever reason, only 10% of them are.

Our new total is 69,500 paralegals that are successful in their freelance career.

Now, let’s talk about what most of these freelance paralegals won’t tell you when it comes to being successful.  I’m not saying all these paralegals aren’t telling you what you need to hear because they don’t WANT to tell you. Maybe they aren’t telling you because they simply haven’t been asked or they are too busy managing their own success. 

Maybe there are a couple out there that wouldn’t tell you anyway for no reason other than they don’t want to build competition for themselves (to be honest, it’s an understandable concern).

Let’s get into it with a story.

THE STORY:

For more than two years, I thought about starting a freelance paralegal business.  I had notebooks filled with business name ideas, services I would potentially offer, rates I would charge, and marketing strategies I would implement. Those notebooks would be stuffed under my bed collecting dust.

I played this back-and-forth torment game with myself where one day, I’d believe in the possibilities, and the other, I’d roll my eyes at my own dreams. 

• There’s no way any attorney is going to hire a paralegal living in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin with 5 years of general litigation experience.

• There’s no way any attorney would pay THAT rate for a paralegal.

• No way any law firm would be comfortable enough to give you access to files and perform work on them when they’ve never met you in person.

• You have a baby at home.  How could you possibly be a reputable businesswoman?  Plus, your Wi-Fi sucks and your computer is nearly 10 years old.

• You have no experience in marketing, no connections, and your experience isn’t strong enough where I think I could build up authority.  You’d feel like an absolute and total imposter. 

To be honest, these were the NICER versions of some of the things my own subconscious was telling me. 

I ended up connecting with a staffing agency that placed me in my first $12 per hour remote gig with a law firm out of Chicago scheduling IMEs.  Within that same company over the next two years, I was placed with several other law firms in different areas of the country performing a wide range of paralegal work in multiple practice areas.  My last gig there paid me $22 per hour if I can remember right.

This subcontracting work was a life saver not only for my family to have some groceries on the table, but also because it opened my eyes and provided some solid arguing points that I could throw back at my rude subconscious.

• Law firms in Chicago and Atlanta ARE hiring me, knowing exactly where I live.  Hell, I am even working with a Texas Supreme Court Candidate!

• Law firms ARE paying that hourly rate I once wrote down in my notebook to the company that is contracting me out.

• None of my firms have bat an eye giving me complete access to ALL their case files, management systems, and book of business.

• Although I am extremely tired and a bit mental most days, I am somehow managing my workload and raising my newborn without any help during the day. My Wi-Fi and computer (although not ideal) manage just fine. 

Here I stood.  Nearly every concern of mine proven wrong.  Nearly…

There was still that pesky reality that I DIDN’T get these clients on my own.  The company I subcontracted for handed them down to me.

• I still don’t know how to market. 

• I still don’t have any connections.

• I still don’t have the experience of some of these amazing paralegals out there to establish any expertise and authority.  I am in general practice… jack of all trades and master of none. 

• I am going to look like a total imposter.  People from my past will laugh that I am even trying.

 THIS WHAT HAPPENED ONCE I GOT OVER THAT

Now, the HOW I got through these last few blocks and limitations could justify an entire book (maybe I should take the time to write it?). 

I PUBLISHED MY FIRST ARTICLE ON LINKEDIN

30 DAY LINKEDIN TRANSFORMATION FOR MARKETING AND NETWORKING EFFECTIVELY

$19.99

I filed my LLC, whipped together a quick website on Squarespace, and off to the races I went.  Yes, my computer was soaked from my clammy hands as I did all of this with fear jumping on my back.

After I set up my LinkedIn profile (not nearly as optimized as I have it now and how I teach other paralegals to make theirs), I published my first article: “The Future of Small Law Firms Feels Right at Home.”  

Nowhere in the article did I try and prove that I was smarter than the attorney reading it.  Nowhere in the article did I try and prove that I could write better complaints or draft better motions.

I specifically addressed how to build up a law firm ready for remote work.  I then went on to discuss a couple of benefits adding a virtual freelance paralegal provides said law firm. 

Here was my conclusion of the article:

“As an experienced freelance paralegal, I have both an academic and professional background that can help your law firm increase its productivity and profitability. I would look forward to visiting with you regarding how we could partner together and how I could specifically support your law firm with the tasks that you need to be accomplished now, so that your law firm can continue to grow.”

OK, OK, OK… I KNOW this article was not my best work.  Far from it, to be honest.

The point is, I gained my first client off that article.  That client hired me to draft a motion for compassionate release to the Eastern District of California (I had never worked in California at that time, nor had I ever done anything federal). 

I gained a client because I wrote an article establishing authority and expertise in something that benefits attorneys immensely.

I did not have to write a thesis on drafting a complex motion for compassionate release to get that client.  I needed to publish something.  Something that said, “Here I am, here’s a quick tip, and here’s also a benefit of working with me.”

Of course, over these years I’ve dramatically refined and improved on my content marketing, digging deeper into problems, solutions, benefits and establishing expertise.  However, one post gave me my first client, gave me my first breath of confidence, gave me my first testimonial, and was the launching pad in which I went on to build a multiple six-figure paralegal agency and change my family and my life over the following three years.  

Phew… we made it.  All of that I just shared about my journey is to say, here is the one thing most freelance paralegals won’t tell you about building a successful freelance paralegal business:

IT IS SO MUCH EASIER THAN YOU’RE ASSUMING IT IS.