| Topic Name: |
Too Late? |
| Message Name: |
No school necessary |
| Date Posted: |
06/06/2000 |
| In Reply To: |
With a college degree, you can go to a paralegal school for a few months (go to an ABA-approved school with a certificate program) and become a paralegal. You will have some earning power with that credential. Your obstacle, though, is that if you intend to quit a year from September, you will not be of the most benefit to the firm for which you work. From what I read on message boards, opinions are mixed on the virtue of paralegal work while you await law school. Some paralegals find actual practice experience as a paralegal makes law school easier. Some paralegals find that it is a fairly thankless job in which you don't do enough sophisticated things to make an evaluation of a lawyer career. Some paralegals find, to their relief, that they do not wish to work with lawyers. Some paralegals never go to law school after all, as reduced work commitments plus a steady paycheck seems less hassle than law school.
I have heard of some folks getting paralegal jobs without the formal training, but (apart from those who transfer over from legal secretary) in my experience, that is rare.
Best fortune to you in finding what works for you. |
| Message: |
While Gurdonark's advice is usually right on, in this case, he may be a little behind the times. In New York, practically every prestigious firm's staff of Legal Assistants (or Paralegals) is made up entirely of recent college graduates, none of which have been to paralegal school. Most of them come from Ivy League, or other top tier, schools. I would assume that the system is pretty similar in Chicago. If you came from a top tier school, all you need to do, really, is show up with your resume. You'll get an offer (base salaries are generally 28-35k in NY, with overtime pay being the opportunity to make real bucks). It is also pretty common for paralegals now to stay for only one year, although firms usually prefer if you stay for two or three... but in the current job market they have trouble competing. One warning-- the work is not real interesting, and most paralegals you'll meet get pretty discouraged from going to law school. I disliked my experience as a paralegal and would suggest trying something else out for the year; I don't really thinkbeing a paralegal adds that much to a law school application, but I definitely could be wrong about that.
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