Law Department Management Blog
There are probably survey results that limn the distribution of paralegals in law departments by practice area, but I can’t locate one. A clue might be gleaned from an article in Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 14, Dec. 2006 at 53. A vice president of Special Counsel, Jodi Nadler, offers some thoughts about paralegals, and lists “practical tasks that paralegals can manage on a day-to-day basis in common practice areas.”
Under litigation, she includes 21 tasks, under corporate 8; for real estate she lists 9 tasks and for intellectual property 5. It would not surprise me if that distribution of tasks suggests accurately the distribution of in-house paralegals by practice area. That is to say, there may be as many litigation paralegals as all others combined and also that corporate and real estate are the next two practice areas most likely to have paralegals.