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Getting
a Job as a Paralegal
If you wish to become
a member and take advantage of our career counseling service please
click here.
To view/download the Department
for Consitutional Affairs pamphlet "Routes into the Legal Profession"
please click
here.
Working
For a Law Firm
Many law firms employ
paralegals. They do a wide variety of work: document preparation;
research; filing papers at the court or Companies House etc, corresponding
with clients, interview witnesses, preparing court bundles etc.
The type of work paralegals
do tends to depend upon what practice area they work in (crime,
property, family law, probate etc), the size of the firm and how
much experience the individual paralegal has.
Contrary to what some
training providers may imply, most law firms (NB: they are partnerships
not companies, so they are referred to as firms not companies) are
looking for experience more than anything else. Therefore possessing
a law degree, or having taken a paralegal course is rarely a guarantee
of employment in a law firm.
Legal recruitment companies
(which there are quite a few) tend not to be interested in anyone
who has not passed the Legal Practice Course and has at least six
months paralegal work experience. This is because it is not
worth law firms spending the money on finding and vetting less experienced/qualified
applicants.
However, please note that
people who have passed the Legal Practice Course are usually looking
for vacancies as trainee solicitors. in the larger commercial
firms therefore, paralegal jobs tend to be temporary posts lasting
approximately one year.
if you do not that level
of qualification/experience then you should contact your local law
firms direct. Smaller, local firms tend to have permanent
positions on offer.
Working
In-House
The Institute's own research
shows that the legal departments of companies employ, on average,
five paralegals. you should therefore consider contacting
the in-house legal departments of large local companies.
Unlike many law firms,
in-house legal departments are willing to take on people without
prior experience and train them.
Working
For Government & the Not-For-Profit Sector
Central and local government
and many other non-commercial organisations (from the BBC to the
Commission for Racial Equality) employ many paralegals. They
are rarely called paralegals: they tend to be called contracts assistants,
property advisers, case workers etc.
Regardless of job title
however, many offer good salaries and excellent paralegal experience.
They also tend to offer better training and career development opportunities.
Again, unlike many law
firms, these employers are usually willing to take on people without
prior experience and train them.
Maximizing
Your Chances of Success
- Try and get some experience of paralegal work, even if temporary
and voluntary.
- Identify the area(s) of law that interest you (property, commercial,
family law, personal injury law, criminal justice system, trading
standards etc) and approach employers doing that sort of
work.
- If you do wish to do a paralegal course first, then try and
choose one that (a) relates to your chosen practice area, and
(b) which is recognised by employers and (c) is not too expensive
(e.g. see the Institute's own BTEC in Law & Legal Work: click
here for more information).
- Do some basic research on your chosen practice area (e.g., if
property law then know the simple basics of what happens during
the sale of the house, the lease of a flat, etc.
- Think about what you can to demonstrate that you are seriously
interested in a career as a professional paralegal:
for example, do you have membership of the Institute
or other relevant organisation (for information on
joining the Institute click
here)?
- Remember initially
that employers will be looking for any reason
(regardless of how flimsy) to discard applications. That is
why small stuff counts, like typos, bad handwriting, use
of A5 paper for the covering letter, the use of "fun"
email names that risk making you sound immature, hassling
the employer to check your CV has been received, etc.
- Appreciate
that all contact with a potential employer creates an
impression - even phoning for an application form. Don´t
chat away like you have all day,
and don´t display self doubt. Do be professional and
friendly, and use the opportunity to ask a few questions to
get information that other
applicants won´t have (e.g. if applying to a
law firm ask who the interviewers will be then look them up on
the firm´s web site and in solicitor
directories - find out their specialties,
when they qualified, etc.).
- If
an advertisement invites you to phone someone to find out more
about
a job, phone them and treat it as a phone interview. It gives
you an extra opportunity
to shine and to stand out from the crowd. Again at
the very least you will probably learn some additional information
of value.
- Bear
in mind that most employers can tell when they are sent a pro-forma
cover letter and CV - pro-forma´s come across as stale and
send the message ´I don´t
really care about this job´.
- If
you can´t be bothered to make an effort to get the job,
the chances
are that the employer can´t be bothered to interview you.
- Research
the employer and the sector they work in. If the employer has
a web site you had better have visited it! Saying you found
it hard to get on-line
will be seen as a weak excuse.
- If
you can, visit the employer's office and pick up any brochures
in the reception area.
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Getting a Job as a Career Paralegal |
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