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Paralegal Recruitment

Leading Paralegal Headhunters in NYC

For over a decade, Rutherford has built an expertise in placing top legal talent into the financial services sector, from asset managers to fintechs to hedge funds. We are known as the best paralegal recruitment agency because of our extensive database, our paralegal headhunters' deep market knowledge and our strong network. For years, our team of legal headhunters have been identifying the rising stars of the industry and following them along their professional journey, placing them along the way into world-renowned financial services firms.

Our paralegal headhunters' unparalleled connections, market knowledge and understanding of the financial services sector's intricacies have helped Rutherford secure its reputation as one of the best legal headhuntyers in NYC. Our paralegal recruiters are known to meet the highest of standards, and our clients often come back to us to build out their wider legal team.

Please note we offer both contingent recruitment services and retained search services.

One of The Best ​Paralegal Recruitment Agencies in The US

​Our greatest pride is our people. Rutherford is a boutique paralegal recruitment agency which is made up of some of the best legal headhunters in the financial services space.

If you are actively seeking a paralegal profession in the financial services sector, head over to our current vacancies and peruse your options. You can alternatively reach out directly to one of our Paralegal Recruitment Consultants who will be able to walk you through live vacancies or even provide some insights on the market.

A simple conversation with one of our expert paralegal recruiting headhunters will show you why Rutherford is known as one of the best paralegal recruitment agencies in New York.

What Is a Paralegal Job?

A paralegal will often sit with a lawyer in meetings or in Court to take notes or otherwise assist a lawyer in their day-to-day duties. Most paralegals have either undertaken a law degree or are working towards finishing one. You can think of them as apprentice lawyers. When lawyers start their professional journey, they often enter the market either by becoming a paralegal, a legal assistant or an intern.

Paralegals are unregulated in most jurisdictions, meaning they don't need a license to assist the lawyer they work with: as long as there is a lawyer there to supervise their work and have final sign-off on any work they produce.

 

Paralegal Jobs in Financial Services

A paralegal job within financial services is all about providing support to the in-house legal team on different legal matters. The position's usual key duties include undertaking legal drafting, perusing documents and legal research, liaising with a firm's other internal teams (whether that is front office, operations, compliance, etc.), assisting with the review, drafting and negotiation of certain trading agreements, coordinating the execution of specific documents as well as maintaining document management systems and databases.

Paralegals will also usually be asked to assist with other legal projects as required by the most senior legal member of the team.

Rutherford’s paralegal Headhunters have prepared a Salary Survey covering hiring trends and salaries for in-house teams, including paralegals. 

 

The Key Required Skills For a Paralegal Job in NYC

Good paralegal talent will need to present numerous soft skills in order to perform well at their job. Most companies looking for in-house Paralegals will want candidates to have the following skills:

Excellent communication and organisational skills

Strong academics, degree educated

Legally trained

Able to work on their own, independently, and as part of a wider team

Ability to prioritize tasks for execution

Ability to exercise judgment

Ability to manage a generous workload

Strong attention to detail

How to Find Paralegal Jobs in New York?

If you are interested in an in-house legal career and want to kickstart your journey as a Paralegal, there are different routes you can take to get there. If you are looking to find Paralegal jobs in the USA, and more specifically for a financial services firm, you may want to consider two distinct avenues: doing a lot of research and applying directly or getting in touch with a specialist Paralegal recruitment agency such as Rutherford.

Both avenues present pros and cons - and a serious amount of time. You may wish to carefully analyze each option as you will spend considerable time either customizing your CV and approach for each role applied to or engaging with a paralegal recruiting firm.

Unsure about which route to take? Have a look at the below as we provide more details on the process of applying directly and then on engaging strictly with paralegal job recruiters.

Applying Directly to The Best Paralegal Firms in New York

This is the route that will require the most work on your part. You should start by asking yourself what are the companies you would like to work for. Are there any firms on your wishlist? Which businesses have values aligned to yours - and career paths that you find enticing?

After creating a list of your dream firms to work for, you can start looking at each of their websites - and more specifically at their career hubs. If there are no available Paralegal jobs advertised, put reminders in your diary so that you keep an eye out frequently.

Some company websites allow you to set up job alerts: if that is the case, ensure you activate the option and select entry-level in-house Paralegal jobs in New York.

If one of the firms has an open Paralegal job on their website, make sure you are presenting yourself in the best way possible. The paralegal recruiters at Rutherford have created an article to help you prepare a strong CV in the legal space.

 

Reaching Out to Paralegal Staffing Agencies in New York

There is a large number of paralegal recruitment firms in NYC, which all specialize in specific niches. For example, here at Rutherford, we focus on placing paralegal talent within the financial services industry. Our typical clients will therefore range from asset managers to hedge funds, to private equity, to cryptocurrency companies to fintechs.

If you are thinking about finding a paralegal job in New York City, peruse the internet to find the best paralegal recruitment agencies that focus in the industries you are interested in. Look at the jobs they advertise and identify the Consultants who are overseeing them: you should reach out to them directly on LinkedIn and by email to indicate your interest in finding an in-house paralegal job in New York. If you have a strong CV and the right skills, they will contact you on a regular basis to present you with their latest Paralegal roles.​

Recruiting Paralegals in the Financial Services Space

There are numerous reasons why there are so many paralegal recruitment agencies in the market. One of them lies in the fact that hiring managers struggle to find string paralegals which have the exact background and skillset required within the financial services space.

Some many think that Legal Assistants - another common title used to describe Paralegals - are easy to find and hire because of the entry-level nature of the role. This couldn't be further from reality. Paralegals deal with a large number of important information as the main purpose of their position usually gravitates around taking care of legal documents and documentation. This means that they need a strong set of skills and aptitudes, as well as an overall understanding of the intricacies of the financial services sector.

This type of profile is not easy to come by - hence why financial services firms partner with paralegal job placement agencies to secure the best legal assistants in a given industry. Working with a paralegal staffing agency allows a business to tap into a wide pool of candidates which have been pre-qualified and meticulously vetted by an expert team of paralegal headhunters.

Meet Rutherford's Paralegal Recruitment Specialists

​In need of a paralegal staffing agency that has some of the best recruiters in the field? Then get in touch with Rutherford's specialised paralegal headhunters, which respectively have numerous years of experience in the legal space - some of them being ex-lawyers themselves. If you wish to find the best paralegal jobs in the USA, or perhaps to secure a trusted paralegal staffing agency for your upcoming legal hiring needs, get in touch with our paralegal headhunters today for a confidential conversation. 

jackson baker paralegal recruitment consultant at rutherford in new york

Jackson Baker
Director and Head of US
jackson@rutherfordsearch.com

Lucy Phillips
Consultant, US
lucy@rutherfordsearch.com

Tevia Kretzmer
Consultant
tevia@rutherfordsearch.com