How Casetext Helps Paralegals Support Their “Internal and External” Clients As Their Role Evolves
We spoke with Baker Donelson paralegal Stephen Roques about how he is using Casetext to find what his attorneys need fast, while keeping costs low for his firm’s clients.
As Baker Donelson paralegal Stephen Roques tells us, “As time has gone by, paralegals have become more of a hybrid role.” Depending on the paralegal, the attorney, and the firm, a paralegal’s role may have evolved into a more complex role that is in many ways more like a traditional litigation assistant. “You kind of morph from your traditional paralegal role, where you’re part database management, part dealing with vendors, managing discovery, to even doing trial presentations.”
Along the way, paralegals are taking on more responsibility for their firms’ attorneys as well as their firms’ clients. “Now moreso than ever we are under the pressure to do things in a more cost effective, timely manner,” Stephen says. Baker Donelson in particular does not allow its attorneys (or paralegals) to bill clients for research, meaning there is added pressure to find the most relevant and impactful cases as quickly as possible.
Stephen says that one of the most important ways Casetext helps him respond to that pressure is by allowing him to automatically find materials his attorneys need, often before the attorneys even request them. For instance, whenever a brief is filed, Stephen will run the brief through CARA to automatically pull all the cases cited in the brief, print them, and put them in a binder for his attorneys. “It saves a step and helps get ahead on things — before they even ask, they already have the caselaw — and you get it all in one go and it’s done.”
CARA has also helped Stephen share relevant cases with his attorneys that were not cited in the brief. For example, Stephen was once helping with a case in which, as he says, “Our opposing counsel — I don’t want to call them disingenuous — but they were not exactly the most forthcoming or cooperative.” Stephen took their brief, ran it through CARA, and shared the list of recommended cases with his attorneys. He found cases opposing counsel strategically left out of their case documents and gave his attorneys a head start in researching their response. “That’s something that you’re not going to get or be able to do as easily through Westlaw. The head of our Business Lit department really liked that feature, and he was happy — which is good, because I really like keeping him happy.”
Stephen has found that CARA can also help him provide his attorneys with not only useful cases that may help them draft their briefs, but also potentially useful arguments. “One of the features that can be really helpful for associates — and as a paralegal, helpful for you to help them — is the ability to find similar pleadings on a specific topic. I can send that on to an associate so they’re not having to reinvent the wheel.” Stephen often shares relevant briefs with associates by uploading case documents to CARA, enabling them to see arguments similar firms have made and anticipate how opposing counsel may argue their side.
The reason Stephen says CARA gives him a unique advantage is that, much like Netflix, it knows what he and his attorneys specifically might want to see. “If it knows I like action movies, and I’m a big fan of Jason Bourne, if I do a search in Westlaw or Lexis, it will probably give me Jason Bourne 1, 2, and 3, but it probably won’t give me something like a new Jack Ryan series. Netflix knows other stuff you’d be interested in; I think Casetext does a good job of saying, ‘Look at this! You should check this out. I think you’d like this.’”
Ultimately, Stephen is leveraging CARA’s automated technology not only to find cases and share briefs, but to better serve his clients — both internally and externally. “As a paralegal, I have to treat my attorneys like clients (my internal clients), and then I also have to deal with [the firm’s] clients. The better I can do time-wise is great for my internal clients; the better I can do cost-wise is great for my external clients. Casetext absolutely does that.”
