Thursday, June 30, 2011

Would you go to law school to become a Paralegal?

It's about that time of year again...

ARE..

YOU....

READY....

FOR ....

MORE PROBLEMS IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION THIS YEAR???

Just when you thought the legal profession would not hit a new low, you are wrong:

The University of Texas at Austin has now launched a 5 month paralegal program and sent brochures to its law school alumni, telling them of this wonderful new program!

WOW! Imagine, spending 3 years of your life, tuition, room and board and lost wages only to get an invitation to a paralegal program after you graduate!

If you want to learn more about this debt for diploma program read about it here:

Go to Law School to Become a Paralegal!

I have a friend who is working in document review, graduated from UC Hastings school of law and we both were talking about this hilarious new article in Above the Law. UTA is a very well respected school, but if a top 15 law school is telling its graduates to become paralegals, what does that tell you about the legal profession? UNDERGRADUATES BEWARE!

My friend said "Lawyers working as paralegals, what’s next ..lawyers working as cops?" It reminded me of a funny video I once saw a while back. I uploaded the video below for your viewing pleasure. Usually the Bailiff/Sheriff keeps order in the court and protects civilians from violence, but in Pakistan a group of lawyers started to beat the police. The world is changing...

-The Poor Paralegal


10 comments:

  1. "My friend said "Lawyers working as paralegals, what’s next ..lawyers working as cops?"

    That's already happening. The town where I live in, one newly minted police officer is a Brooklyn Law Grad, and one fireman graduated from Albany two years ago.

    I have worked as a paralegal for most of my career and the adverts I am seeing for JD's is scary. Point in being a paralegal was to assist the attorney to help off set costs for the client. I am now seeing a trend that paralegals are becoming legal secretaries, which leaves many legal secretaries who spent their lives in law, now scrambling for work. Oh yeah...some attorneys also hate paralegals. Law is such a great field, isn't?

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  2. Plenty of people graduate from law school each year and work at Starbucks.

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  3. Quick Question.

    Why would you need a paralegal certificate to work as a paralegal if you have a law degree? I feel like The University of Texas is double dipping or working some sort of scam here.

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  4. I sincerely doubt that the University of Texas was trying to encourage their law school alumni to take their paralegal certificate course. Someone just did a bad job with the email campaign. They probably just wanted to get the word about this new program, so they included law school alumni on the email list. It was a good idea to inform lawyers of the program in case they have family, friends or co-workers who are interested in becoming a paralegal. Also, they may want to recruit an entry level paralegal out of the program. They made a mistake by not stating on the email, “Do you know someone who wants to be a paralegal?” Errors like this happen all of the time with direct mail and email campaigns.

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  5. Sorry, Anonymous @July 6 at 6:19pm: I know many law grads who would jump at the chance to become a paralegal. 50% of my fellow law grads are working in retail after spending $100K in law school. Becoming a paralegal might be a way for them to break into the legal field. The law schools know their grads are working in retail and this ad was sent specifically to those individuals who don't yet want to give up their dream of working in the legal profession, but, do to the glut of lawyers in the profession, know that they will have little chance of ever getting a lawyer job. You must be truly blessed in this field if you think that newly graduated 'lawyers' would never have to consider becoming paralegals and that this message wasn't marketed to new, unsuccessful graduates. Either that, or you haven't yet tried to get a job as a new, recently graduated attorney...

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  6. @ 3:45 - I never said a recent grad wouldn't take a job as a paralegal – that is a completely separate issue. I said I doubt UT intended for its alumni to enroll in their paralegal program. A law school grad does not need to go thru a 5 month paralegal course. Paralegal courses teach legal theory, like civil procedure. They are like easier abbreviated law schools. They don’t even teach office skills like how to use certain types of software. It would be pointless to take courses like contracts and civil procedure at paralegal school if you just graduated law school. A JD can get a job as a paralegal without getting a certificate.

    However, it does make sense to me that UT would want to get the word out about their program. A recent law grad working at a firm may know people who want to be paralegals. To market their program, UT would want to target people who want to be paralegals as well as professionals in the legal field who could recommend a course. Also, UT would want to let legal professionals know about the program in case they want to hire a new paralegal grad.

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  7. Anonymous@July 9 at 4:51PM:

    I respectfully disagree. I think UT fully intended to market the paralegal certificate to its alumni, because, as I stated in my original post:

    "Becoming a paralegal might be a way for [a recent graduate] to break into the legal field. The law schools know their grads are working in retail and this ad was sent specifically to those individuals who don't yet want to give up their dream of working in the legal profession, but, due to the glut of lawyers in the profession, know that they will have little chance of ever getting a lawyer job."

    Your statements that "a recent law grad working at a firm may know people who want to be paralegals" and "UT would want to let legal professionals know about the program in case they want to hire a new paralegal grad" assumes that there are enough recent grads working as attorneys and in positions to hire paralegals that UT would anticipate benefitting from such marketing - something that runs contrary to what I (and UT) see going on in the legal market today: most recent grads I know are competing for legal secretary and paralegal positions in order to move into the legal field and away from the retail jobs they currently hold. Having a paralegal certificate (which most paralegal jobs require) along w/ the JD degree just might help them edge out the next competitor to get that paralegal job.

    Your explanation would only make sense if there were actually a significant number of recent graduates working as attorneys to whom UT could market. As I said in my previous post, you must not have recently tried to get a job as a recent grad or you would have known how valuable this certificate, in and of itself, would be to recent grads who have little hope of obtaining attorney jobs in the next few years. Few are actually working as attorneys or are in a position to hire a paralegal, and UT knows that.

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  9. Having done a year of law school myself, I have been thinking about obtaining a certificate in paralegal studies (you can't imagine the work I've been forced to take). But employers are so picky and fickle nowadays, you may be "overqualified" if you have an Associates Degree in General Studies

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  10. In fact, this industry is getting pretty competitive each year and holding a certification or degree in paralegal training is the best way that a candidate can set himself or herself apart from the crowd. http://techniciansalary.net/paralegal-salary/. Click here

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