Aspiring paralegal

March 24, 2009 10:53 AM

Advice for an aspiring paralegal? How to get a job without experience? How to get experience without a job?

I am looking into becoming a paralegal. I already have a B.A. in history, and although I graduated summa cum laude, it's been pretty worthless in terms of finding any real world work in the 3 years since graduation. I think I'd enjoy a paralegal career since I love research, have an interest in law, and am fine with clerical work.

However, I have a few questions.

First, I do think (from reading and speaking with a former paralegal) that I would like the work, but I also know that sometimes paralegals work as claims adjusters.... I was an auto claims adjuster for a few months, and I didn't enjoy it. It's a good job, but I thought it was boring and didn't like arguing on the phone with people from my cubicle; something that I spent about half my time doing. Constantly diffusing angry people was draining and reminded me of my job in a call center. If I hated being an auto claims adjsuter, will I hate all paralegal work?

If not, I would love to pursue this field. I've found an ABA accredited paralegal program at a community college that is affordable. My question is should I go full time or part time? Which would future, potential employers look more favorably on--- a part time student with no special day jobs who gets a degree over 2-3 years while working lowly office gigs or at a day care OR someone who hardly worked at all but earned their degree in 1-1.5 years? I have a temp job now, but it ends in a month, and I don't have any great prospects. Which brings me to my last question....

How can I get enough experience to get a job? I've applied for legal secretary positions, but no one's called. I know the economy's bad right now, but I also noticed that with paralegal and legal secretary jobs, they want candidates with 2-5 years experience. How can I get this? I plan to volunteer with the local Legal Aid Society after a semester of law classes. I also would like to intern or volunteer with the ACLU. But a lot of classified ads ask for specific experience like previous work in criminal law, taxation, or just work in a corporate setting.

I am excited about the thought of this new career but am also nervous because, although I can get a loan for school, I really can't afford another degree that doesn't lead toward a job.

Any advice on how to get a starter job in a law firm? Or how to get experience beyond LAS and ACLU? Anything I could do to stand out? Anyone out there who had no experience in a law firm but got a job with a paralegal certificate?

Thanks for any guidance. Thanks for reading this long post.

posted by roxie5 to Work & Money (13 answers total)

I'm in law school now, but did some work as a paralegal at a firm. I found the position through a family friend, which is obviously suggested as a first line of offense. Beyond that, I'd knock some doors, with a resume in hand. Lots of these positions aren't advertised, you need to sniff them out via networking, the same way as any other job.
posted by craven_morhead at 11:17 AM on March 24, 2009

Umm, not to rain on your parade here, but you do realize that this is possibly the worst time in recent history to start out as a paralegal?

Look at the data in that link. In the past fifteen months, the big firms have laid off almost ten thousand non-attorney staffers, a significant percentage of which were paralegals. The layoffs aren't slowing down much either. Wolf Block, one of the biggest firms in Philadelphia, is dissolving, joining Morgan & Finnegan, Heller Ehrman, Thelen, and potentially Cadwalader, the oldest continuously-operating firm in the country. Bonuses are being cut, salaries frozen, start-dates pushed back, and every firm-wide meeting is potentially another round of layoffs.

You really want to think about whether this is the kind of environment you want to be joining.

As far as getting experience, most programs will have some way of connecting you with job fairs, etc. They'll also have resources about job postings and the link, in addition to just connecting you with their network. Networking is gonna be huge here, as it is in most semi-professional and professional fields. But honestly, with thousands of recently laid-off paralegals who already have experience, the demand for newly-minted paralegals is going to be pretty weak for quite a while.

I wish I could be more encouraging here, but things suck right now.
posted by valkyryn at 11:19 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm an attorney at a firm, and we have a legal secretary who has a similar background. I know paralegals do more than legal secretaries, but she is given responsibility for drafting simple pleadings.

Before she came here, she worked as a sales assistant in a jewelry store. She also hasn't finished college.

She applied at the firm as a receptionist, and after doing the job diligently for a few months, the partners noticed she was bright and could be given more responsibility. So, she became the secretary for two of the attorneys here. They taught her the ropes and she's doing really well now.

So, you likely will have to work up to the position unless you have a certificate or a similar credential.
posted by reenum at 11:37 AM on March 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I have no problem working my way up and would love the opportunity to work at firm doing anything. I've tried and havent' been able to find a receptionist (or any) position.

reenum, if you read this--- what made your firm consider her for the receptionist position? Most of the ads I've seen ask for law office experience to do that as well...
posted by roxie5 at 11:43 AM on March 24, 2009

Agree with valkyryn that it's going to be extremely difficult to find a position at a firm right now because the market is glutted with experienced, laid off paralegals/receptionists/secretaries/etc. How long is the program you're considering entering? If you have a job, I would say go ahead and do that part time. I think the market will turn around, and if it takes you 3 years or so to get certified, firms will be looking for entry level paralegals again. Also, make sure that the program has some kind of job-placement/co-op assistance program, and make sure you rock your classes so you get considered through that type of program.

Our firm has a bunch of paralegals who fall into a lot of different categories. One that I work closely with I helped get hired because he had a bunch of knoweldge in a particular area I work in, including knoweldge on how to use a particular piece of software. Other paralegals are more like project assistants. If you do start a program, I would take as many classes in the big legal software packages as possible (I don't mean research like Lexis, I mean CaseMap, CaseSoft, things that summarize depositions and organize documents). I would also get real familiar with what metadata is, how it's used, and understand what the courts are starting to require about it, because it's going to be a Big Deal and a lot of mid- and small- sized law firms are not ready to deal. That's the type of specific knoweldge that could get your foot in the door.
posted by dpx.mfx at 12:30 PM on March 24, 2009

Response by poster: The community college doesn't have a job placement program. Just a one month internship, which may or may not lead to something. That's one of the reasons I'm planning (if I take this route) to volunteer with ACLU and LAS...

The only other ABA accredited school around here is Kaplan Career Institute. They're twice as expensive and also have one month externships. I was told by their recruiters that they have excellent job placement rates, but have been told different from two Kaplan graduates of the paralegal program.... it makes me hesitant to spend the extra several thousand dollars on that school.
posted by roxie5 at 12:43 PM on March 24, 2009

FWIW, only about half (maybe less) of our paralegals have such a certification. The others either started somewhere else in our office, or have some particular skill we were looking for, as I've discussed above.
posted by dpx.mfx at 12:47 PM on March 24, 2009

I started my working career as a paralegal in a HUGE firm doing corporate securities litigation defense. It was rather demeaning, gruelling, and the only thing I learned from it legally was that I never wanted to work at a big firm again. I was not, nor were any of the paralegals in my firm certified. I found the job through networking as suggested above. Mostly I made copies, filed papers, and made binders, yes, binders, endless binders. The highlight of my work was cite checking documents or filing things with the Court clerks who I got to know on a first name basis as well as the work schedules, personal styles, and demenor of every Court, judge, and clerk in town. Occasionally I got to go somewhere cool, all expenses paid, like New York (or shitty places like an industrial park in London, Ontario). Once there I would go from the usual 60 hour work week to, and I am not exaggerating here, 120+ hour work weeks. Yeah, they put me up in a luxury hotel in NY, but I never saw the bed. All night I worked on trial prep, all day I worked the trial, party time!

It wasn't like I was part of the team either. While I may have been in the room while the multi-billion dollar contract I wrote, typed, proofread, and cite checked was inked (though no credit or money given). I was the lackey. I got coffee. I ran documents. I made copies. I Fed Ex'ed things. I got yelled at when what I retrieved, though exactly what was asked for in writing, was not the thing that was desired. I had to be a human filing system, calendar, punching bag. And in the end, just to show they cared, they let me carry their luggage.

Now, I don't believe that my situation was comprable to all paralegals, or hopefully most, but I was certainly not alone. The money was decent, but the decency was lacking. I believe it was a symptom of the corporate culture of where I worked, so by all means check things out well before you commit!

Good luck!
posted by Pollomacho at 1:30 PM on March 24, 2009

Also: submitting your resume and declaring your interest is not sufficient to get you an internship or volunteer position with the ACLU. They're one of the most prestigious, best-organized legal advocacy groups in the country, and they've got hundreds to thousands of law students--and these days actual lawyers too--competing for positions there. Heck, most legal aid clinics aren't so hard up for relatively unskilled help that they'd take you out of the blue, as again, they've got lawyers and law students working for them. Consider that at any given time there are about 150,000 law students in the country, some percentage of which are actively looking for opportunities to gain experience, and you start to get the picture.

As far as particular offices which might be looking for help: DA and public defenders' offices are almost always swamped with work and woefully understaffed. Unfortunately, most of them probably don't have any kind of program for this sort of thing, which can make taking you on at least as much of a hassle as it is a help for them.

So basically, network, network, network. Call any lawyers you or your family may happen to know. Ask them if they'd be willing to let you intern, or if not, if they know someone who might. Rinse and repeat.
posted by valkyryn at 2:14 PM on March 24, 2009

Response by poster: I'll give the DA office a shot, just in case they would consider me helpful.

I don't have any connections right now, or I probably wouldn't have had to post this.

Should I just contact every law office in town, explain my interest and capabilities and ask if they have any positions? Or is that annoying? I probably wouldn't get to talk the attorneys, but receptionists....

If this type of cold calling is the way to go, should I make phone calls or drop in in person?
posted by roxie5 at 2:20 PM on March 24, 2009

Best answer: Seriously, cold calling right now is not going to help you -- almost all law firms of all size are in a hiring freeze, laying people off, or hiring people who have tons of experience but were just laid off. If you want to volunteer, you might consider contacting very small firms -- solo practitioners or firms with two or three attorneys. There, you're likely to get to speak with an actual attorney, and you may be able to explain that you want to learn, etc.

Another resource might be local bar associations, although, again, they're likely to be overrun with people in job search mode. And while the ACLU is hard to get an internship with, there are probably other local organizations who need help -- think about legal aid societies, and right now in particular, urban areas are full of organizations that are trying to help people with legal needs like renegotiating mortgages/leases/getting on food stamps/whatever. While you can't perform the legal work, they might have some kind office work they'd be able to dole out to volunteers/interns. This can lead to networking. Your profile doesn't say where you are, but if you google "legal aid [cityname]" you should get some options. If you're in a rural area, consider something like ABLE.

If you don't have lawyers in your family, you might know someone who knows someone who is a lawyer who would meet with you to discuss this kind of thing. I've often met with people who were aspiring to be lawyers/law school students/paralegals and were sent to me by friends or colleagues who thought I might be able to help. If someone came to me looking for a job, specifically, I might be annoyed, but I'm always happy to have lunch, talk about the business and ways to break into the business, and, if I'm impressed enough, I might consider passing around a resume.
posted by dpx.mfx at 3:43 PM on March 24, 2009

BA in History, three years out of college, too.

I applied for a typist job on Craigslist once. When I got to the interview, it turned out to be a law firm and they were looking for a legal typist (basically a typist who works in a law firm). The interview went well, and they hired me as a paralegal assistant, basically the gopher for all the other paralegals, with lots of typing. After a few months, they promoted me to paralegal. I HATED how I got bumped up with no training and had to learn everything myself, while still being yelled at for making mistakes. I can pretty much relate to Pollomacho, although our law firm was smaller and much lower-pressure, but it's the general attitude that they have the law degree and are therefore infinitely smarter, better human beings, etc. I was lucky to work for two lawyers in the firm who didn't feel that way. The only paralegal who had official paralegal training/certification asked for a raise, and was basically told to F-off.

So, you really don't need the certification, especially with your BA. I think the paralegal certification is often what people get instead of an associates degree, not in addition to a bachelors. Every law firm's going to do their stuff differently, have different filing systems and whatever, and each area of law is pretty different, so there's always going to be a ton to learn even with a course under your belt.

And re: claims adjusting, my law firm was workers' comp, hired to represent the insurance companies, and often we were doing the work that the adjusters were supposed to be doing. Most of my job was getting stuff -- we need this employee, this witness, these records, this doctor, arrange arrange, fax fax, xerox xerox, etc. But I'm sure it HUGELY depends on the type of law you do.
posted by thebazilist at 10:58 PM on March 24, 2009

An attorney I work for occasionally volunteers at a local Spanish language community center and helps their clients with legal issues. Perhaps learning a foreign language and working with underrepresented communities is a good 'experience building' tactic. From the positive responses and continual referrals, it's easy to see this type of work does make a positive impact.
posted by kuppajava at 6:53 AM on March 25, 2009