Entire Issue - National Association of Legal Assistants

to whom I report attended law school in the United States and
practiced in New York for many years. She knows what professional
paralegals can do and decided that it made sense to add
a paralegal to her staff, rather than another attorney.
My main responsibilities include management of our
trademark portfolio, preparation of contracts for the products
and services we provide to our clients, and general corporate
matters, including mergers and acquisitions. My experience in
IP, business organizations, and transactional work prepared me
for the diverse legal matters of a large global corporation.
par élans
The attorneys and I must continually educate others within
the company and third party contacts as to what a true paralegal
is and does. In addition, as all HR records are in French,
there was the question of how to translate the word itself into
French. After several attempts, it was decided to simply use the
English term. French language purists may not be happy about
another Anglicism creeping into their language (e.g., le marketing,
le chewing gum, etc.), but the decision was not mine.
Our offices are just outside the center of Paris, in a modern
non-descript building. Since English is the official working
language, and the two attorneys I work with are American, I
sometimes can forget that I am in Paris. However, there are little
reminders throughout the day—such as someone walking
down the corridor with a cigarette in hand (yes, an employee
can smoke in his or her private office), lunch in one of the
nearby cafés or bistros, or a conversation with someone from
another department who prefers to speak French rather than
English (and I welcome the opportunity).
In addition to housing the international legal department,
the Paris office serves as the EMEA regional offices. We have
expatriates who have transferred here from all over the world,
which makes for a rich multicultural environment. We are also
hosts for many company-wide events, so there is a constant
stream of visitors from our other offices throughout the world.
My department regularly conducts a Legal Workshop
designed to help our sales people and account managers with
the contracting process and increase their awareness of legal
matters important to the company—such as trademarks,
domain names, corporate issues, etc. Each Legal Workshop is a
great occasion for me to polish my presentation skills in general,
and concentrate on the special concerns that arise when presenting
to non-native English speakers. The cross-cultural
exchanges I have experienced during these workshops are
enlightening and enjoyable.
Learning the ins-and-outs of French labor laws and the
social security system has been a bit less enjoyable. French
workers have employment contracts for either a set time period—contrat
durée déterminée, (CDD)—or, for an unspecified
period of time—contrat durée indéterminée (CDI). When I try
to explain the at-will arrangement that most U.S. workers
have, I usually elicit horrified looks of incredulity.
My contract is a CDI. An example of a provision that
might seem unusual to an American is the termination clause.
In order to lay me off, my employer would have to meet the
statutory criteria and provide me with three-month’s notice. I
can decide to terminate the relationship for any reason, but I
would be required to also give a three-month notice.
Whether covered by a CDI or CDD contract, enrollment
in the French national health care and pension systems is compulsory,
and both employee and employer must pay into these
plans. The total mandatory contributions that an employer
must make on behalf of an employee are equal to about 55
percent of the salary.
le revers de la médaille
French labor laws dictate the minimum amount of paid
vacation for all employees, which is currently 25 days per year.
With regard to paid sick time, there is no limit provided you
have a written excuse from a physician. You will receive your
full salary and you cannot be terminated (if covered by a CDI
contract) as long as you are absent pursuant to a doctor’s orders.
These generous benefits and safety net come with a price. The
fact that the costs (on top of the salary) associated with adding an
employee are high, and the difficulty involved in laying people off
in the event of an economic slowdown, hinder the creation of new
jobs and place a downward pressure on salary levels in general.
With regard to paralegals, I find that total compensation
(after adjusting for differences in time worked) is not competitive
with that in the United States because the profession is in its
infancy here. There are no salary surveys or governmental
resources to rely on when negotiating a starting salary or raise as in
the United States This is a disadvantage, but I try to look at it as a
challenge and an opportunity to increase awareness of the value
that paralegals can add and act as a sort of “ambassador” of the
profession. And, of course, this is Paris! Money isn’t everything.
jour de congé
Weekends and some of that generous vacation time are
spent exploring the city that I fell in love with on my very first
trip here many years ago. The language, a rich literary heritage,
culinary delights, and seemingly endless cultural offerings, are
just some of the reasons I find Paris wonderful. The cost of living
is high, but my New York friends tell me that housing in
Paris is a bargain compared to Manhattan.
An efficient subway and bus network does a good job (when
the transportation unions are not on strike) of getting Parisians and
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FACTS & FINDINGS / AUGUST 2003 27