How do you check references for an attorney or paralegal?

An attorney reference check starts with the candidate's list — then maps each name to the working relationship behind it.

The calls worth your time are with the people who assigned, reviewed or were responsible for the candidate's work; a title alone does not tell you how closely someone saw that work.

A named partner who never saw a draft is a weaker reference than the senior associate who marked up every filing.

For both attorney and paralegal hires, the supervising attorney is the call to spend the most time on.

They can describe the matters the candidate worked, how much of the work product they personally reviewed, and how the candidate handled deadline pressure and revisions.

For a paralegal hire, ask about the working split: how far the paralegal could run with a task after the first instruction, and when they brought problems back.

For an attorney hire, ask what the supervisor eventually stopped reviewing.

Around that core call, three references from an attorney's career each answer something different:

• A judge the attorney appeared before. A judicial reference is a strong signal but a formal channel: ask the candidate to confirm the judge is willing to speak and to follow the chambers' preferred process for setting up the call, rather than telephoning a judge's chambers cold.
• Opposing counsel. They saw the candidate's negotiation posture, written work under deadline and conduct in contested settings — from the other side of the table. Treat what they say as one data point about how the candidate handles conflict, not a full account of the work.
• A peer who worked alongside them. Same-level colleagues describe the daily collaboration a supervisor doesn't always see: responsiveness, delegation, whether the candidate shared credit on a win.

For paralegal and other staff hires, add the people who saw the operational side: a firm administrator can speak to timekeeping and reliability, and the attorneys the candidate supported can tell you who got the hardest assignments.

Two or three referees who directly supervised the work tend to tell you more than a longer list of names — and a list with no supervisors on it is information too (see red flags below).

Closed questions collect polite nothing.

"Was she a good attorney?" invites a yes.

Open questions about work the referee personally saw produce information a candidate cannot stage.

Open each call by confirming the basics — dates, title, the relationship — then move to the work:

• Scope first. "What matters did they work on with you, and what did you hand them directly?" This establishes that the referee actually supervised the work before you ask them to grade it.
• A concrete episode. "Tell me about a deadline that collapsed. What did they do?" Stories about real work reveal judgment; adjectives do not.
• Response to review. "How did they take criticism of a draft?" The answer predicts what editing their work product will cost your firm.
• Where to support them. "What should a firm give them help with in the first year?" Referees tend to answer this more candidly than a flat weaknesses question.
• The closer. "Would you hire them again?" Listen to the whole answer — including the pause before it.

Paralegal reference check questions have two additions that earn their keep: ask the supervising attorney how the paralegal judged when to bring a problem to them rather than guessing, and how accurate the work stayed under volume.

For an attorney reference, ask what the referee would — and would not — delegate to them again.

Ask every referee the same core set.

Consistency is what lets you compare answers across calls, and identical questions about work are the ones least likely to drift toward territory a reference call should not enter.

When the answers come back vague anyway, verify the skill directly instead: a timed drafting exercise or skills tests will show you the writing a guarded reference would not describe.

Off-list references — a former colleague you know from a bar committee, opposing counsel from a matter your firm handled, a lawyer who recently left the candidate's current firm — can be the most candid conversations you get.

They are also the ones where consent matters most.

A reference on the candidate's list expects your call; a backdoor contact may not even know the candidate is looking.

Ask the candidate before you make an off-list call, and keep a note in the file that you did.

One call deserves a bright line: do not telephone a candidate's current employer without explicit permission.

A lateral attorney or a paralegal interviewing elsewhere may not have told their firm, and a reference call that arrives unannounced can cost them the job they still have.

If the current employer is the only place that can answer something you need answered, ask the candidate to arrange the conversation — with a supervisor who already knows about the search, or at a point in the process where the candidate can tell their firm themselves.

Confidentiality runs inside your own walls too.

What you learn in a reference call belongs to the people making the hiring decision — not to the practice group the candidate might join, and not to the hallway.

A candidate's search should never become gossip at your firm, both because it is the same harm you just avoided causing and because word of how you treat candidates travels the same bar committees your off-list references came from.

Watch for these patterns:

• A supervisor who cannot place the work. If a listed supervisor cannot describe what the candidate actually did — the matters, the tasks, what they reviewed — the title on the resume may outrank the relationship. Ask how they know the candidate.
• Facts that do not match the resume. Dates that shift, a title that was "senior paralegal" in the interview and "paralegal" on the call, a role in a matter the referee never heard of. Take discrepancies back to the candidate before you decide — an unexplained inconsistency is a question, not an answer.
• Praise with nothing behind it. A call's worth of "wonderful to work with" without one matter, task or example in it tells you the referee is being kind rather than candid — or barely knew the work.
• Reluctance on the rehire question. A redirect, a long pause or a deflection on "would you hire them again?" is worth one gentle follow-up: "What would have to be different for the answer to be yes?"
• A list with no supervisors on it. Referees who all sat near the candidate but none who managed them — or who all left the firm long before the candidate did — can mean the story is scripted. Ask for one more name, someone who reviewed their work, and notice how the request lands.

Two habits keep the process clean while you probe.

Ask every referee the same work-focused questions, so the conversation stays on performance rather than personality.

And when something you hear conflicts with what the candidate told you, put it to the candidate and hear them out — a reference check produces leads to verify, not verdicts to hand down.

Two sides sit on every reference call: what the employer giving the reference may disclose, and what your firm may lawfully pursue while asking.

The federal guidance your firm can point to addresses the asking side.

Under the joint guidance of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it is generally not illegal for an employer to ask questions about an applicant's background, or to require a background check, except for certain restrictions related to medical and genetic information.

The same guidance tells employers not to ask medical questions before a conditional job offer has been made — that rule is about what you ask about the candidate.

As a practice, keep referee calls on the work too, so nobody's health comes up in either conversation.

A reference check is also not the same event as a formal background check.

The FCRA sequence the FTC describes — stand-alone disclosure, written permission, pre-adverse and adverse-action notices — is for a report your firm gets from a background-check company; if a vendor or recruiter runs any part of your reference calls, ask employment counsel whether those steps apply.

If your firm's screening includes a purchased report, our guide to background checks walks the steps and the notices.

The giving side is guarded for a reason.

The anti-discrimination laws the EEOC enforces protect former employees — and job applicants — not only current employees, at employers the statutes cover: Title VII, the ADA and GINA apply to private employers with 15 or more employees who worked at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or prior year, and the age discrimination law, the ADEA, applies at 20 or more employees on the same measure.

A reference call feeds a hiring decision about one of those people, and a short answer — dates, title, little else — can reflect that caution rather than a problem with the candidate.

One state-law line the research did check sits squarely on a reference call: pay.

New York (Labor Law 194-a), Illinois (820 ILCS 112/10) and Massachusetts (G.L. c.149 §105A) bar employers from seeking a candidate's wage or salary history from a current or former employer, subject to any exceptions the law sets.

Those three are verified examples, not a complete list — other states and cities may have their own rules — so leave the candidate's pay off every referee's question list.

Beyond pay history, state law adds a layer this page cannot map.

The research behind this page did not compile state and city credit-check or reference-immunity rules, or a full list of fair-chance laws — so nothing here is a jurisdiction list.

Whether your state shields an employer that gives an honest reference, and whether it restricts what that employer may say, are questions for employment counsel where your firm hires.

The same question has a receiving end your firm will one day sit on: decide who may respond to a reference request about a former associate or staff member and what that person may say, write it down, and have employment counsel review the policy — before the first call arrives, not during one.

Reference checks are one step in hiring for your law firm; the guides there take the rest of the process, from roles and rules to pay and onboarding.

Employer information, not legal advice. Reference practices and state law vary — confirm your firm's reference questions and policy with employment counsel.