You are HR director for a growing law firm, which currently has need of writing

Question

You are HR director for a growing law firm, which currently has need of writing 24 legal briefs every hour. Each of your company’s attorneys can write on average four briefs per hour. You are considering hiring four paralegals to shoulder the load; each paralegal is a bit slower than the attorneys and can write on average only three briefs per hour. You scan the current wages in the Shreveport-Bossier area (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_43340.htm) and notice that the attorneys in your company earn the local occupational median wage of $35.93 per hour, but that the prospective four paralegals will likely want to get paid their local occupational median wage of $21.84 per hour.

a.   Would your company save money in the writing of the 24 legal briefs by hiring the four new paralegals and firing some attorneys?

b.   The local Shreveport-Bossier Paralegal Union has observed that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment of paralegals over the next decade will rise considerably faster than the employment of lawyers (https://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_107.htm), and suggests that all paralegals now push for wages of $25.39 per hour. Feeling like their future is safe, most paralegals now reduce the stress in their lives by only writing on average two briefs per hour. If the other values remain the same (attorney wage and writing speed, need for 24 briefs per hour), would the company save money in the writing of the 24 legal briefs by hiring the four new paralegals and firing some attorneys?

Explanation / Answer

a.) Total writing requirement= 24 legal briefs every hour

If each company attorney can write upto 4 legal briefs every hour then we need 6 such company attorneys. The wage for an attorney per hour=$35.93. So, the total cost per hour for the 6 attorneys=($35.93)x6=$215.58

If the company hires the four paralegals then they share the burden upto 12 legal briefs an hour given that each of them finishes upto 3 legal briefs an hour. So the remaining work load is 12 legal briefs which can be shared by 3 attorneys given that each attorney has a capacity of 4 legal briefs an hour. So now we can calculate the cost to the company:

4 paralegals=4 x($21.84)=$87.36

3 attorneys=3 x($35.93)=$107.79; Total cost is the addition of the two previous figures( $87.36+$107.79) which is $195.15

So by hiring the four paralegals and firing 3 attorneys the company saves a total of $20.43 per hour.

b.) Given that the attorneys write 4 legal briefs an hour, there is a need for 6 such attorneys. The total cost to the law firm=($35.93)x6=$215.58

If the law firm hires the four paralegals then together they write upto 8 briefs an hour. Given the total requirement every hour is 24 legal briefs we will need 4 attorneys since we know each attorney has a capacity of 4 briefs an hour. The total cost to the law firm is as follows:

Cost of paralegals= ($25.39)x4=$101.56

Cost of attorneys=($35.93)x4=$143.72

So, the total cost to the law firm=$101.56+$143.72=$245.28

So by hiring the four new paralegals and firing 2 attorneys the company actually has to spend more, to be precise $29.7 per hour.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse Y
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.