Legal Dopers: Is Paralegal a Viable Career Choice?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Mtgman, in my firm we generally bill on a per-project basis, not hourly, so if you’re efficient you can generally leave at a reasonable hour (barring emergencies).

Of course, my ability to leave on time generally depends on whether I can get hold of my boss to review and answer questions regarding time-sensitive matters in a timely manner, but that’s a rant for another day. If I could always talk to her when I needed to, I could complete my expected average workload in 40 hours a week, no sweat.

22

For example, right now my synapses are no longer firing and probably will not fire until I get some sleep, but I am waiting for my boss to come out of a meeting she didn’t tell me about so I can have her review and sign 3 cases that need to go out today. Otherwise, I’d be outta here.

23

I will point out that the Feds hire Paralegals- who start at GS5 and can go up to GS11 (GS9 is common). GS 11 - combined with job security, a 40 hour work week (OT is rare in Fed workers, and always voluntary unless you’re in some weird Law Enforcement job or such), not bad benefits and such- makes for not a bad career at all. They will often help pay for your Law school, or at the very least give you a few hours a week during worktime to study (at one office they got 4 hours a week- not bad as they were getting paid).

24

“Paralegal” is Latin for “typist.” Just IMHO.

25

And “False God” is clueless for “talks out my butt”.
There are positions that won’t require a lot of overtime or a strict billable hours schedule. These will most likely be in the public or non-profit sector, but, beause they do have to compete with the private sector for qualified people, the wages shouldn’t be that much lower–and the stresses should be less than at a high-powered litagation firm.

I may experence, I’ve seen paralegals treated in two ways. The first is a outgrowth of a legal secretary position–for years, legal documents had many strange formatting rules and a legal secretary was often a secretary that knew these formats, a specialized secretary. In some places, these positions are (incorrectly IMO) now called paralegals, maybe with a bit of researching and production of simple documents thrown in. The second way is as a research assistant/detail guru/case manager. Yes, they may have duties that include typing up documents, but if that’s what they do all day, they aren’t really paralegals. Yes, they may do 90% of the work on the case just to see the attorney sign stuff and take credit from the client, but that’s because paralegals can’t practice law and some people don’t give credit where credit is due 9a problem not confined to the law). Any assignment I would give to a second or third year law student, I should be able to give to a paralegal.

In short, don’t give up on the profession based on the stuff you’ve heard here, go do some research, gobear. There is an association of paralegals, get in touch with the local chapter and see if you can talk to some of them. Go to whoever runs the program you were thinking of enrolling in and talk to them and ask them what working conditions should be like, if they have placement services, options in different types of law, or in non-law settings, and if they have graduates you can talk to.

I really hate the attitude that finding a job you love is impossible, or that all jobs suck so why take a chance. If you have an interest in something, look into it (or jump blindly, I’m also a fan of serendipity), if you discover more negatives than positives (for you), so be it. But don’t give up looking.

26

Mistress, I cry your pardon. Just that’s what I’ve seen. You opinion, obviously, given the added value of your post, is more valid.

27

That’s not true. I got my paralegal job, at a telecommunications law firm in DC right out of grad school. I didn’t have any experience whatsoever. Is the job challenging? Well, here’s what I do:

First, let me say that I do do a lot of secretarial and administrative stuff. I didn’t used to, but the partners have become penny wise and pound foolish, so they fired/didn’t replace the secretary, receptionist, and office manager, so we’re all doing that sort of stuff now. But as for substantive stuff, I prepare FCC paperwork for our clients, I’ve bid in FCC auctions for them, I’ve researched regulatory and case law, I’ve even drafted rough copies of briefs. I do substantial work.

Not only that, but since we’re a small firm, with only a few clients, I know the clients, and I know their businesses. We have this one client who’s a cellular phone company, and I know where all of their antennas are, better than my attorneys do, because I’m the one who filed all the paperwork for those antennas. So, if I go into the partner’s office and say, “Hey, it’s almost time to file a notice of construction on site X” or “I think there’s something wrong with this license.”, the partner is going to listen to me if he knows what’s good for him. I’ve even suggested lines of arguments that he’s used in pleadings.

In a lot of ways, the job is dead end, and in a lot of ways, I’m over qualified for it, but I’m not just a glorified typist, and I’m not just doing menial stuff. If one of the attorneys spends an hour on a brief or a pleading, it’s because I’ve spent 2-3 hours on research for it, and if I don’t do my job, their job can’t get done.

28

Looks like we have a “One True Paralegal” fallacy. You saw it first in the SDMB, folks.

29

Well, there you go–you have a grad degree, but I don’t and I can’t afford to get one right now. I can’t find a decent job (above $30G) in DC --hell, I can’t even get any interviews.

Here’s my experience from the past decade (names of employers and years omitted):
Served as operations point-of-contact for advocacy organization of consumers, families, and friends of people with severe mental illnesses. Handled customer relations and fulfilled orders for books and pamphlets. Wrote book reviews for monthly magazine.

Edited academic books and promotional texts for publishing arm of civic education foundation. Used Quark to finalize text layout and photo placement of documents. Conferred with authors regarding text changes and pre-publication queries. Researched primary historical documents on the Web. Registered ISSNs, ISBNs, and publication copyrights with Library of Congress. Negotiated with government officials, including the Department of State, the Office of Homeland Security, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to obtain photo publication permissions.

Edited health care and information technology documents. Edited Web-based newsletters, visitor surveys, and medical information for Federal and state health care projects. Worked with proposal submission teams to obtain contracts according to RFP specifications. Wrote and distributed company-wide newsletter containing writing tips and corporate style standards.

Served on textbook development team. Developed teaching materials and tests used in elementary school English classes. Led training seminars for new teachers. Designed lesson plans for and taught multi-level conversational English classes. Designed intensive English curriculum for advanced learners who had repatriated to South Korea after living in English-speaking countries.

Skills:
Desktop Publishing:
Quark, Photoshop, MS Office 2000

Web Development:
ColdFusion
MS FrontPage

I might as well have just worked at 7/11 for the last 20 years.

30

You’ve got better than a grad degree. You’ve got easily transferrable experience. You wrote book reviews and edited text, which, along with the earlier curriculum development and your teaching of ESL shows you’ve got a good mastery of the English language and that you should be able to read, understand, and summarize law.

You’ve negotiated with the government and have contacts there, but more importatantly, know “bureaucratese”, and that’s going to come in handy if you’re a paralegal, especially if you’re dealing with regulatory law. You don’t want to know how much time I spend on the phone with the government. Further, you have experience working with teams.

You’ve got web research experience, which is where 95% of my research takes place. Any firm that knew what they were doing would be glad to hire you. I know it can be tough to find a job in DC nowadays…I’m trying to do it myself, but trust me, you’re more than qualified to be a paralegal.

31

Like I said in my email, I landed a paralegal job at a major firm just a year out of college. No certificate, no grad school, no nothing.

How I did it was pretty simply. I found a list like this, went on the internet, and located the New York offices of many of these firms. I sent out about fifty resumes on bond paper, and within a week, the phone calls started coming in. If you really need a change but don’t quite know where you want to go yet, then go for it. Call these firms, ask for the paralegal supervisors, and send them resumes. There is such a highturnover in paralegaling for big firms that you are bound to find something very soon.

Good luck.

32

Don’t underestimate the “knowledge of bureaucratese” bit. I had zero practical experience drafting visa petitions before I started working here 5 years ago. My qualifications at that time:

B.A. in Spanish, minor in Russian
Mostly completed M.A. in Russian & East European Studies
3.5 years as Immigration Court interpreter/court clerk
1 year as vocational counselor for Soviet refugees
1.5 years as an export sales administrator
Assorted random crappy admin jobs
Typical computer skills that go with that sort of experience: word processing (I’m not a fast typist, BTW), spreadsheet, PowerPoint, Internet research, and that sort of thing

Never underestimate the power of research and writing skills for a paralegal job. Literary criticism experience comes in very handy for the persuasive writing that is needed for this job, and research skills gained by doing something as seemingly unrelated as a master’s thesis on bilingual education policy in the Russian Federation come in handy when I research any of the innumerable things my clients do, and on which basis we hope to get green cards for them. Your ESL experience would come in very handy in translating complex concepts into language understandable by a layperson.

As for worrying that all paralegals do is fill out forms and make photocopies: yes, there are firms that treat paralegals like legal secretaries. However, there are also firms that treat their paralegals like junior attorneys. When I interviewed for my current job, I just came right out and told them that I was extremely interested in the latter, but not at all in the former. My soon-to-be boss respected that, and continues to value that. It’s much more cost-effective to hire a smart person without a law degree to do the grunt writing work, and in return I didn’t have to go through three years of law school hell and $100k-plus in student loan debt. To me, it’s a win/win situation.

33

** gobear** although there are a few paralegals who get to do “fun” stuff like Eva, I’d say 90% of paralegals do boring stuff that can be learned quickly. You soon hit a plateau knowing you could do more and knowing you are smarter than some of the lawyers and that can get frustrating.

Generally paralegals don’t get to do research. You can bill more if an attorney does it and technically, an attorney is more qualified to do it. You will be more likely an organizational assistant, going through documents, subpoening records, noticing depositions and scheduling (this I PROMISE is a nightmare of epic proportions).

Paralegals are very important to the practice of law, but is generally an unfulfilling way to make a living–especially if you’re really a frustrated lawyer. And the pay is not that good. It’s acceptable at first, but there is somewhat of a ceiling level.

My recommendation gobear is to go to lawschool (42 is NOT too old). I think you’d make an excellent lawyer! Although student loans are hefty there are scholarships. Even if your grades are mediocre, if you test well and kick ass on the LSAT, you can even sometimes get a full ride scholarship!!!

Good luck and if you want more info email me at bottledblondjeanie@yahoo.com.

34

Thanks for the encouragement, all. I’m going to put this 3-day weekend to good use by polishing my resume and getting some job apps out.