newbie

I'm struggling, I'm at a crossroads where I am seriously considering being a paralegal. If anyone was a former paralegal or a current one, why are you now considering law school?

My big fear is that Paralegals do most of their work while Lawyers get all the credit.

Please help.

Category: Pre-Law

sweetlg

My friend was a paralegal who was going to become an attorney until she went to law school. She wanted to be an attorney b/c attorneys make more money and were practically doing the same thing in her eyes (drafting motions, preparing rogs, drafting/review contracts) She also wanted to participate in negotiations/mediations. However, only attorneys with 7+ years experience get the luxury of doing anything fun like a real mediation (you can always get a divorce mediation case, but to get the kind she wanted, like international business mediation, it was really hard.) She also learned that it's easier to get a job as a paralegal, and a paralegal in a big law firm gets paid more than an attorney from a small law firm...
So go to law school if you want the experience and the respect. Also go if you think you will do really well and can actually get a job you want, but that's impossible cuz' we all thought we can do well at one point, but not everyone does.
you can get a paralegal degree fairly easy, and if you get to do all of attorneys' work and get their clients for them, believe me, you will get paid the way they do...that's another post I can expand on tho..

lawelder

newbie - I worked for years after college before going to law school, and the main thing I'd have done differently is become a paralegal for the time before law school. Law school is extremely competive, the experience is not at all like the work you will do as a lawyer, and the debt level is around $80,000. If I'd gone the paralegal route, I'd have understood the work better, struggled less with the material, and had a higher paying job than the business position I worked in the interim at a bargain level of debt. I'd have still chosen to go to law school when I did, but would have been better prepared for both school and career and made more money during my "family years" between college and law school.

It depends on where you are in your life. Do you want to work for a while and have kids before law school? I'd go for the paralegal position. If you have a great GPA and LSAT and have a chance at a top school, I'd go for law school immediately. Think hard about issues like relocation and family time as well as money and prestige. Think very hard about incurring $80,000 of student loan debt if you aren't sure you want to go to law school.