VIEWPOINT

VIEWPOINT
Fall 2015
Must Reads for Paralegals continued
Not having slavish hours and getting satisfaction-helping
clients (who hopefully pay well) does sound like a
dream come true? The exchange of time for a paycheck and
trying to find work/life balance and get the work done can
be a challenge for most professional paralegals. It would be
great to see a future where we paralegals can work when we
want and on what we want.
The future?: “Dependent Contractor”
The question of whether or not you’re a professional or
even an employee has taken a new twist in the age of smart
phones and apps. Corporate Counsel magazine’s November
2015 cover story leads with: “Is She An Employee? Companies
Like Uber Call Their Workers Contractors. But the
Workers Beg to Differ.” The article, “W2 or 1099? The future
of the so-called sharing economy may come down to how
courts answer that question,” by Rebekah Mintzer (p. 54-
60), opens our eyes to what the future will bring to workers
who want the benefits of a flexible schedule and the benefits
of a W2 employee all in one. Mintzer’s excellent exploration
of the “on-demand economy (aka the sharing or gig economy)”
describes the new type of worker and how businesses
are redefining what it means to provide services to customers.
Using court cases involving Uber and Lyft to paint a picture
of how technology is changing how the courts perceive
independent contractors, she offers a possible new category
of worker, a “dependent contractor.” Mintzer describes the
dependent contractor as:
“A category in employment law that gives workers some
of the rights and protections afforded to W2’s, but still allows
them to maintain a flexible schedule doing on-demand
work for multiple companies.” (P.58)
The best find in the Corporate Counsel may be the
overview of the legal career of a Boston attorney, Shannon
Liss-Riordan of Lichten & Liss-Riordan. She is called “one
of the on-demand economy’s greatest legal foes” in connection
with her representation of clients against Uber and
other employment cases. Check out the cases on her firm’s
website here: www.llrlaw.com/ca_icm.htm.
Just for fun, I went to the American Institute for Economic
Research’s website (www.aier.org/cost-living-calculator)
and searched how much $100 from 1975 would be worth
in today’s economy: $2393.38. The 1975 average salary was
$8,730 (www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/COLA/AWI.html).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the average
paralegal salary to be $46,990 in 2012. As the character, J.J.
said on the 1975 hit TV show “Good Times”: DYNAMITE!
Here’s to another 40 years of job growth, better work/life
balance, and flexibility!
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