When she founded Paralegal Resources Inc. in 1999, Lori-Ann Zannini didn’t intend to make her business a place where only women would work, but that’s how it has turned out. She makes no apologies for providing fellow female employees with the flexible schedules they need to take care of family matters while working as well.
“It works,” she said of her all-female, six-member, salaried staff at the Smithfield business. “If you can support other women, why not? If we have the ability to positively impact the lives of other women, we should.” The result, she said, is a “very dedicated, loyal staff. Everyone who works here is supportive and wants to see this business succeed.”
Now 48, the Lincoln native worked for 14 years as a paralegal with the Providence law firm of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP, which she called “a wonderful employer.”
“At the time [the business was started], I was 38 years old and I loved what I did, but I had gone as far as I could there,” Zannini said. “I wanted something with more independence.”
“I was a member of the sandwich generation,” Zannini said. She was the mother of a 2-year-old son, Eric, and both of her aging parents, who have since died, were ill, leaving her sandwiched between taking care of the young and the old. She started doing paralegal work from her home. “I worked every bit as hard, but on my own terms,” she said. “That flexibility helped me get through stressful times in my life.”
She had a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Providence College and, although she had no formal training in the paralegal profession, she had been successful at Hinckley, Allen & Synder. She developed a strong reputation among the lawyers there, so when she went out on her own, she had many contacts she could use to drum up business. “It was networking really, and timing,” she said. “It seemed as if I always called someone at the right time.”
She was aware that, in California, many paralegals were independent freelancers, working out of their homes as she was doing. The concept was relatively new in the Northeast, she said, and the thought struck her: “If you could have one independent paralegal, why couldn’t you have a company of them?” Two years after starting her business, she was able to hire one employee and, by 2003, had hired another and moved the business into an office. In 2005, the company moved to its current site in an office suite off Route 7 that is “double the size” of the first place, Zannini said.
Zannini’s company specializes in commercial real estate transactions across the country.
“Lori-Ann is in a field where mistakes can cost a company millions of dollars, where the omission of one sentence, or an erroneous word, can change the entire meaning of a critical legal document. For this reason, lawyers do not hand trust over to legal assistants easily,” said Amy Costello, a Brooklyn, N.Y., freelance journalist who worked as a legal assistant with Zannini at Hinckley, Allen.
“Unlike a temp agency, we don’t just sit at a desk,” Zannini said. “We develop relationships with our clients and we are staffed with very experienced paralegals. If you call here, there’s someone who’s done title work, someone who’s done document drafting, someone who’s done loan closings and leasing work.”
Although many of her clients are based in Boston or Providence, the deals that Zannini and her staff have handled for them include the transfer in one transaction of 250 properties in several states east of the Mississippi River, the sale of 25 properties in 12 states including Alaska, and the sale of 12 apartment complexes in the Maryland and Washington, D.C. area. “It’s amazing what a small staff, that is well-trained and who work together as a team, can do,” Zannini said. “Sometimes, small is better.”
A former president and board member of the Rhode Island Paralegals Association, Zannini defined a paralegal as a “legal services professional, and that word ‘professional’ is very important. It’s someone who supports attorneys in every facet of their practices, and really does everything other than provide legal advice.”
One aspect of her profession that Zannini particularly enjoys is the chance to mentor young paralegals on her staff and the young attorneys she deals with at her client law firms. “I frequently work with the young associates. I am able to help guide those young associates through the commercial real estate process,” she said, “and help them understand the impact of their decisions on the transactions.” She wants the new attorneys to realize that “an experienced paralegal is a good ally to have.”
As it has just about everywhere, the recession has bitten into her business. Her staff, in a joint decision, decided to cut costs by taking part in the state’s Work Share program, where unemployment benefits partly compensate for unpaid days taken off. They came to this conclusion after Zannini had researched the various options and put the question to her co-workers for resolution.
But she knows the recession will end and, when it does, she intends to expand.
“I see an opportunity when law firms are laying off lawyers and paralegals,” she said. “[When the economy recovers], firms will find they are short-staffed and they could be reluctant to hire a larger staff until they know things are stabilized. It’s very hard to find experienced paralegals and it’s very expensive to train them, it takes years.” She already has started “a tremendous amount of networking” in the Boston area and, “I do expect to expand within the next year,” she said with confidence. “I know I’m being optimistic, but if I were not an optimist, I wouldn’t have started this business.” •
