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Paralegal - tell me about this career



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amother
OP


 

Post Tue, Nov 26 2019, 3:23 pm
I’m 41yrs old. I worked as a high level Executive Assistant for many years before having kids at 35 when I stopped working. In about a year, my 2 kids will be in school full time and I plan to go back to work. I feel like I’m out dated in my field, want more flexibility in schedule for kids/holidays AND want to be doing something I’m more fulfilled by. I’m analytical, detail oriented, like structure, ISTJ (Meyers Briggs) personality type. Someone suggested I look in to the Paralegal career.

Can anyone tell me about it/their experience? I know there are many different areas of law to practice and many different settings in which one can work as a paralegal (ie law firm, Corp, gov, private business, etc) - which areas are recommended or discouraged? I live in Los Angeles. I’ve read descriptions on line. TIA!!
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amother
Sapphire


 

Post Tue, Nov 26 2019, 3:28 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
I’m 41yrs old. I worked as a high level Executive Assistant for many years before having kids at 35 when I stopped working. In about a year, my 2 kids will be in school full time and I plan to go back to work. I feel like I’m out dated in my field, want more flexibility in schedule for kids/holidays AND want to be doing something I’m more fulfilled by. I’m analytical, detail oriented, like structure, ISTJ (Meyers Briggs) personality type. Someone suggested I look in to the Paralegal career.

Can anyone tell me about it/their experience? I know there are many different areas of law to practice and many different settings in which one can work as a paralegal (ie law firm, Corp, gov, private business, etc) - which areas are recommended or discouraged? I live in Los Angeles. I’ve read descriptions on line. TIA!!


I'm going to be following this. My DD is also an ISTJ (!) and she says law is the only field that interests her, that she would go to school for. She took a Gallop test that is supposed to zero in on her strengths, and it recommended she become a policeman or a judge - neither of which is practical for her right now as a frum young lady.

For the time being, she's actually doing really well as a medical biller - which also requires that attention to detail, and knowledge about lots of laws related to medicare and insurances. But paralegal keeps coming up as something to look into.

One issue is that she feels that a paralegal doesn't earn much more than she's making already...so wondering if schooling is worthwhile. Something to consider - what is the average salary where you live, and is it worth it for you.

Sorry I'm not being helpful here and just chiming in and following.
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amother
Seashell


 

Post Tue, Nov 26 2019, 3:55 pm
amother [ Sapphire ] wrote:
I'm going to be following this. My DD is also an ISTJ (!) and she says law is the only field that interests her, that she would go to school for.

It's very important that your DD understand that being a paralegal is fundamentally a different job than being a practicing attorney. Being a paralegal is not a reduced or simplified version of being an attorney. I won't elaborate on this here and now, because it's OP's thread.

OP, as an attorney, I can't directly speak to the paralegal experience. But if you were an excellent executive assistant and you are very attentive to detail, you have the potential to be an excellent paralegal. Excellent legal secretaries becoming paralegals is a common career progression and the ones I've known have been happy with the change.
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Nov 26 2019, 4:00 pm
I was a paralegal for many years. I worked in estate planning, eviction court and commercial collections. I enjoyed the work very much but I did not find it particularly flexible. Its very 9-5 work since you are supporting attorneys with very erratic schedules. I have a friend who works full time from home but she has a niche and she worked for them for years before she moved so they were comfortable letting her keep working remotely. Sometimes a small firm will need part time employees but I would not rely on it when choosing a career.

The pay can be great. If you work big law you can easily start in the 50k range and go up from there. I googled a few large law firms in Chicago and average salary is in the 60k range. I know experienced paralegals making in the 80's and you often have no debt from law school.

I will say that I am older and was very very used to the secular world. My best job was the one when I was the youngest employee by 10 years so it was a very family friendly office. No pressure to socialize out of work etc but there was a lot of swearing and a culture that may be shocking to someone who is very sheltered. You are often experiencing people at their worst moments in life and it does not bring out the best in clients or their attorneys. You need to be very thick skinned.

When I worked in estate planning, I worked for a frum woman which was great but I knew the private business of half my community and there is a lot of legal grey area. Especially when your doing medicaid planning, you have to kind of tune out what feels morally icky and just do your job.

For me, I found that as much as I liked it, I was better suited for other fields and wanted more flexibility so I went into another field.
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amother
OP


 

Post Tue, Nov 26 2019, 7:00 pm
Mha3484- thank you for the insight! What field did you change to? Is there any area of law you enjoyed more, or less?

Thank you everyone! Keep the info coming.
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amother
Salmon


 

Post Tue, Nov 26 2019, 7:11 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
I’m 41yrs old. I worked as a high level Executive Assistant for many years before having kids at 35 when I stopped working. In about a year, my 2 kids will be in school full time and I plan to go back to work. I feel like I’m out dated in my field, want more flexibility in schedule for kids/holidays AND want to be doing something I’m more fulfilled by. I’m analytical, detail oriented, like structure, ISTJ (Meyers Briggs) personality type. Someone suggested I look in to the Paralegal career.

Can anyone tell me about it/their experience? I know there are many different areas of law to practice and many different settings in which one can work as a paralegal (ie law firm, Corp, gov, private business, etc) - which areas are recommended or discouraged? I live in Los Angeles. I’ve read descriptions on line. TIA!!

Being a paralegal is a lot like being an executive assistant.
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FranticFrummie




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Nov 26 2019, 7:24 pm
A lot of it really depends on the culture of the law firm, and the size. I've worked in many law firms in records management, and I've been a fly on the wall to a lot of different situations.

New paralegals are usually treated like cr@p. They make coffee and photocopies, get looked down on by secretaries, and are generally just go-fers. You will also be asked to empty garbage cans and clean up conference rooms after a big meeting.

Some attorneys will never be nice to you, because they are just not nice people in general. If the attorney's secretary is jealous of you for any (or no) reason, she will sabotage your work in little ways that are impossible to prove. Basically, you are diving into a shark tank with a steak tied around your neck.

You have to work your butt off to earn the respect of the attorneys you work for, because many of them will assume that you are incompetent until proven otherwise. Established paralegals can carve out a niche for themselves, but only if they know how to make themselves absolutely indispensable, and have excellent rapport with both their attorneys and the staff supervisor. If a person thrives on challenges, it can be an extremely interesting choice of career.
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amother
Khaki


 

Post Tue, Nov 26 2019, 7:37 pm
I'm not sure where anyone gets the idea that paralegals have flexible hours or usually work 9 to 5.

We don't use paralegals at my current firm, but when we did, they often worked late hours. In fact, two young paralegals are often at the gym at the same time I am, and they talk about working until 10 or 11 at night.
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amother
Peach


 

Post Tue, Nov 26 2019, 8:04 pm
I worked as a paralegal for Snider LLC (https://www.sniderlaw.com/ ) for many years. It was a very flexible job and I worked from home. (Unions/ FLSA/ Overtime laws ). The pay was not great but it was good for a growing family.
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