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I am thinking about studying to become a paralegal - any insights about the profession?
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Anonymous
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What are the hours like? Is it possible to work part time? Are there government positions for this career? How much do paralegals make on average?
Any other insights? |
Anonymous
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I am a paralegal. I have a Bachelor's in Elem Ed and a Masters in Legal Studies.
The hours completely depend on the specific job. When I was a litigation paralegal, the hours were insane. I worked long, long days. And many weekends. I also had to travel for out-of-state depositions and trials. When I worked for a small, two person firm, my schedule was pretty much my own unless we were in court. The attorneys didn't care when I worked as long as the work got done. And I scheduled initial interviews with clients on days that worked best with my schedule. I had a lot of control over my schedule and basically worked part-time while my kids were in school and sometimes at home. The government does employ paralegals in several different roles. Many work directly with the attorneys. But there are also paralegals working for the FBI as analysts, just as one example. Pay?....Totally depends. I was making about $90,000 plus bonuses when I worked at large firm in Memphis. I made much less working in the smaller practice. But I still made more than the junior attorney many months. His salary was dependent on the firms income. Mine was a set hourly rate. The attorneys billed my time at $85 an hour. I made $25 an hour plus bonuses. But it was worth it because I didn't have to worry about daycare. I was able to be at home when my kids were at home. During the summer, I worked mostly from my home office. I love paralegal work. I initially thought I wanted to go to law school. After interning with an attorney while I was in school, I realized that I was more interested in what the paralegals were doing than the attorney work. I love the investigation. I love the client interaction. I love the pre-trial work. I enjoy the research. I like that I can offer support to apprehensive clients by spending time preparing them for depo or trial. I love mediation and did a lot of that when I worked in family law. And when I worked on Criminal Defense cases, I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to find ways to destroy the prosecutor's case...especially mistakes by law enforcement. Sounds bad, but at the time we were living in an area with a very corrupt police force. The police chief and his assistant were eventually arrested by the FBI...it was that bad. I don't like to be in the spotlight. And I don't like feeling like the outcome of a case is solely my responsibility. I am not good under intense pressure. And I didn't want to go into debt for law school. Paralegal work was a perfect fit for me. If you have strong analytical skills and enjoy research and writing, then you'll love paralegal work. You have to be good at thinking and analyzing information. And you have to be meticulous about deadlines and attention to detail. Good Luck! |
Anonymous
That was very helpful pp, thanks! And exactly did you begin working as a paralegal? Did you go to school for it specifically? Did you have an internship job while at school? Or just graduated and applied for jobs? How was the process exactly? |
Anonymous
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"I am a paralegal. I have a Bachelor's in Elem Ed and a Masters in Legal Studies. "
WTF is a Masters in Legal Studies? How long have you been out of the work force? "I don't like to be in the spotlight." Hard to believe, considering how often you post on DCUM. |
Anonymous
I'm not the OP but I'm also considering becoming a paralegal and was wondering if the PP could elaborate on the education requirement: How important would you say the Masters in Legal Studies is for actually landing a job? I only know one person who has been a paralegal and she started right after college. I have a Masters in Library & Information Science and while I enjoy many aspects of being a librarian, my particular position (in a public library) isn't very intellectually stimulating. I love working with the public but I need to be flexing my research skills more, which is why a paralegal position seemed like a potential possibility. So I guess my question is do you feel that the legal studies degree is a necessary step or would someone like myself who already has a Masters degree and specialized research experience be in a position to make a case for themselves? Thanks! |
Anonymous
woah snarky, what crawled up your butt? |
Anonymous
A masters in anything is not necessary to becoming a paralegal. Most places only require a B.A or B.S. in anything. With no previous paralegal experience though, you'd have to get in on the ground floor and the pay is not much. As with a lot of jobs these days, prior experience will get you in the door quicker, without it, it'll be difficult. |
Anonymous
Ok, this is good to know. When you say that the pay is "not much" what kind of range are you talking about? I'm at the beginning of my career and make around 45K-50K so not exactly raking it in. I don't mind getting in on the ground floor (I'm 27) just as long as there is room for growth. |
Anonymous
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I actually went back to school to get my Masters because I knew I needed it to stay competitive as a teacher. I chose law because I had always had an interest in it. I figured I would end up teaching high school civics or political science. I had to intern as part of the degree program. After spending several weeks interning, I was hooked! I worked with a paralegal doing mostly discovery work and legal writing. I realized that she had much more contact with clients than did the attorneys. And I was really impressed with the way she went out of her way to reassure stressed out clients, whether they were people accused of crimes, or those going through a divorce. I watched her mediate a custody agreement and thought it was amazing that she was able to get an agreement that both parties could live with despite the volatility of the relationship between them. They walked in with such hatred and left actually having a civil conversation.
The other two jobs literally fell into my lap. When we moved, I started looking for a part-time position so that I could be home with the kids. I got a job as a paralegal at a large firm in Memphis. It was perfect. They needed me from 9-2. Exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, it didn't stay that way. My responsibilities kept increasing. I was doing exactly the same work that the junior attorneys at the firm were doing. I spent most of my time working on discovery, researching, and drafting legal pleadings. Of course, everything I wrote went to an attorney for review and signature. Then I got pulled into trial prep and pressured (literally) into taking a full time position. The pay was nice, but the hours sucked! I just couldn't do it. And I knew I couldn't go back to part-time. There was no way to work in that firm part-time. Every assignment required way more than part time hours. I left under really good circumstances. And the attorneys wrote me a wonderful letter of recommendation. We moved to a smaller town and a friend of a friend heard I was a paralegal. I wasn't looking to go back to work, but the attorney contacted me to see if I would be interested in doing some contract work. He was involved in a complex federal appellate case and needed help. I agreed, and after two weeks, he asked me to stay with the firm permanently. I told him I could only work part-time. We worked it out so that I could work school hours in the office and at home when the kids weren't in school. I didn't make as much money, but I loved the job! It was perfect. It was a small general practice firm, so I got experience in just about every type of law from criminal law to personal injury and workers comp. The attorneys were wonderful! I learned more working for them than I had at school or at the larger firm. Unfortunately, my husband was just transferred again. I'm not sure I'll find a job with such a flexible schedule again. |
Anonymous
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Entry-Level paralegal pay really depends on the firm. Some of them will start you right around $40k or a bit more, others may go higher. I work in BigLaw and at my firm, they usually start around $45K with no prior experience.
I doubt you'd get in with anything more than $55K but I'm not sure. |
Anonymous
Definitely true. You start out working under the supervision of another paralegal in larger firms. And as you learn, you progress. I know several paralegals who don't even have a Bachelor's Degree. But most of them have been working in the legal field for 20 years. The requirements have changed and most jobs require a Bachelor's Degree. Also, there are firms that require certification. |
Anonymous
| Are there specialized legal-related sites anyone would recommend for paralegal job postings? |
Anonymous
| I worked as a paralegal for a year after college when I was thinking of going to law school (I actually ended up in a completely different field) so I can tell you about my experience. This was the late 90's in a big-law firm. All of the junior paralegals were new college grads. The pay was pretty low, but with overtime we probably made an extra 15K or so. The hours were long and the work was pretty mindless. On the rare occassion, we did a bit of research in Lexis, but almost the entire day was spent at the copy/scanning/hole-punching machines or labeling documents. Back then, it was almost impossible to find an entry-level job that was not in a big law firm. From what I remember, one or two years experience was enough to land a more interesting paralegal position that some of the other posters describe. |
Anonymous
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I'll add that some states have specific laws governing the paralegal profession. You may want to keep that in mind if you ever plan on leaving the area. California for example requires that you have a certificate, degree or were grandfathered in prior to the law in order to be called a paralegal. If you are looking for education, I would recommend a program that has been approved by the American Bar Association. Having an ABA approved degree, business degree & national certification (test) through NALA started my salary at much higher than some of my collegues.
http://apps.americanbar.org/legalservices/paralegals/directory/ There are also paralegal associations that have job banks, but you have to pay to be a member: DC - http://www.ncapa.com/index.php?option=com_mc&view=mc&mcid=9 MD- http://www.mdparalegals.org/ VA- http://www.vaparalegalalliance.org/ National Association of Legal Assistants/Paralegals (NALA) - http://www.nala.org/ National Association of Paralegals - http://www.paralegals.org/index.cfm |
Anonymous
| ^ Excuse the grammatical errors. I started that post a few different times. Ay! |