Should You “Paralegal” Before Law School?

          Many prospective law students wonder whether or not there are advantages associated with taking a job as a paralegal prior to law school.  In fact, this question came up last week when I sat on a panel with two other lawyers and a law student at Harvard University where a college student was thinking about spending a year after college working as a paralegal.  The panel members had mixed responses and here is a flavor of the discussion.  First, this post only addresses the specific question of whether or not you should work as a paralegal in order to increase your chances of getting into law school.  A job as a paralegal is a very respectable job and this post does not address whether or not you should select that as a career. 

Will a Job as a Paralegal Make Your Law School Application More Competitive?

          There was general consensus that a job as a paralegal is not going to make your law school application any more competitive.  In fact some felt that you may be at a slight disadvantage as many associate the role of a paralegal with administrative tasks.  If you really want to make your law school application more competitive, you might be better served to take a year prior to law school pursuing something that you are interested in so that you can passionately describe an interesting chapter of your life to the admissions committee.  If being a paralegal fits this description then that is fine too but describing your year as a paralegal will at best show a general interest in law and it is not certain that you will be able to talk about your experience in a way that will impress most lawyers or admission committee members.

Will you get Great Experience that Will Help Your Application?

          One college student at the panel discussion also wondered whether a paralegal job would provide him with valuable “legal” experience.  Generally, the consensus was that it would not.  This is especially the case if you are a paralegal in a large firm where the administrative tasks will far outweigh any substantive experience.  Some panel members did note though that they had jobs in the not-for-profit sector where paralegals gained valuable experience and performed tasks similar to tasks that lawyers perform.   I have also seen this in smaller companies where the paralegal was able to perform substantive tasks.

Will Being A Paralegal Help You Get A Job as A Lawyer?

          Generally the consensus was that taking a job as a paralegal prior to law school would not help you find a legal related job.  The results here could differ if you perform substantive tasks.  In addition one important thing to note is that many are under the mistaken impression that if you work as a paralegal in a large firm that they will hire you after law school.  While this is possible, I know many people who worked as paralegals at large firms and were not picked up by that firm during the recruitment process.  Even if you are hired, it will definitely be because you had great grades and were an attractive candidate.  I personally do not feel that being a paralegal adds much to make you an attractive candidate but opinions may differ here.  Also, I do know people who worked as paralegals for large firms and are now employed there. Again though, these students had excellent grades and were probably offered positions at other top firms.  That is, I doubt they got the job because they were a paralegal at the firm.  Also again, I know many more people who were not ever offered a job at the firm where they worked as a paralegal.  

What are Some of the Advantages?

          The key advantage associated with being a paralegal is that you get an up front look at what being a lawyer is like.  (mind you it will not show you what law school is like & for me a great part of being a lawyer was the law school experience)  A preview of the life of a lawyer can be particularly helpful if you are a “big law” paralegal because it may give you insight as to whether you want to commit to the big law life. (long hours, unpredictability, etc.)   I am not sure that this is a good enough reason to work as a paralegal though as you could get a good insight by speaking to people or perhaps doing an internship during law school.  Moreover, as a paralegal you may be exposed to one narrow area of law that may turn you off law altogether.  Lawyers often end up in numerous fields and this one glimpse may not be enough to make an informed decision regarding a career. 

Advice

          There are two pieces of advice here.  First, if you take time off after college (75% of Harvard Law School’s last entering class took a year off), focus on something that you have a passion for and something that you want to do.  This will make you happy and will also make for excellent material for your application.  With many good students applying to top schools, the schools are often looking at that time off to determine what the student is made of.  I am not sure that being a paralegal does a great deal to put you ahead of the person that say went to a third world country to feed the starving or build schools.   Second, if you do want to work as a paralegal prior to going to law school, sit down and talk to some lawyers who worked as paralegals prior to going to law school.  You should also speak to several current paralegals to see what they like and dislike about their jobs. 

          To conclude, I will repeat that being a paralegal is a very respectable job but if the question is will it help you get into law school or get a legal job, my answer is no.

This summary is one of many that are offered in the new book, Law School Lowdown (Barron's Publishing).  You can order the new book written by Harvard Law School graduate, Ian E. Scott, by clicking here.  

http://www.amazon.com/Law-School-Lowdown-Secrets-Application/dp/143800317X