Preparing for a Paralegal Job Search

A paralegal job search is a little like a baseball game. You’re the batter; the prospective law firm is the Pitcher. Each pitch is different; each has a succession of pitches to deliver, depending on the game.You need to be prepared for whatever pitches you receive fast balls, slow balls, screwballs, even a nice, slow, easy pitch. You can’t always know what’s going to be thrown next, and you must be ready to hit that ball and get to first base.

But unlike a baseball game, a job search is a contest that both you and your prospective employer can win. You need to concentrate on your homework and preparation to get that home run. Once you know what is expected of you, you will know how to respond. In the job search game, however, your real competition is all the other batters, not the pitcher.


If it’s time for you to start your search for a new paralegal job, then continue reading. Whether you are entry level, experienced, or just thinking about getting into the field, you need to know the ins and outs of landing your ideal position. We will show you how to be the best player possible to beat out the competition, how to understand what is expected of you, and how to respond accordingly. Your game objective is not only to be the best candidate possible but also to get that message across to those hiring authorities who have access to the job that you want.

Where Are They?

Paralegals today are everywhere. In a rapidly changing legal environment, paralegals are at the forefront for today’s most cost-effective method of delivering legal services. Because of escalating client demands for lower legal costs, lawyers are becoming increasingly aware that the quickest, most efficient manner in which to deliver those low-cost services is to hire and retain good paralegals. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (1998), there are more than 136,000 paralegal jobs in the United States. We have reason to believe this is a glaring underestimation of the actual number of paralegal positions in this country. That belief is based upon the reality that innumerable positions do not bear the title paralegal, yet duties and responsibilities are the same. This belief is further evidenced by the many, many paralegal-related titles, such as litigation support manager, case manager, legal assistant, and legal executive that may be unaccounted for in any census or surveys.

Private law firms today employ the vast majority of paralegals; most of the others work for in-house legal departments of corporations, for not- for-profit organizations, and for the various levels of government. You can find paralegals in almost any practice specialty: litigation, corporate, criminal, tax, employee benefits, intellectual property, maritime, high-tech, administrative, real estate, bankruptcy, admiralty, insurance defense, environmental, and personal injury are only a few. Paralegals are found in nearly every federal government agency. The Departments of Justice, Treasury, Interior, and Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration are the largest employers. Even the FBI hires paralegals. State and local governments and publicly funded legal service projects employ paralegals as well. Banks, real estate development companies, insurance companies, high-tech companies, entertainment and venture capital companies, and major accounting firms also employ paralegals. You’ll find paralegals in not-for-profit organizations such as The Salvation Army. In your job search, you’ll discover organizations with political causes that have strong legal departments, such as Greenpeace. Some paralegals own their own businesses, and there are many freelance paralegals contracting their services to attorneys or corporate legal departments.

And that’s not to mention the paralegals who have entered “alternative” or nontraditional careers. These paralegals are employed with or own their own companies as vendors to the legal community, are high-ranking corporate secretaries or vice presidents of corporations, have interesting positions with publishers or legal aid agencies, or hold teaching jobs in paralegal schools. The opportunities for paralegals are endless. And that’s just the beginning.

Other paralegals have moved up what used to be an invisible career ladder. Some have moved into paralegal or office management, case management, litigation support, training, MIS (manager of information systems), or IT (information technology) positions; others have gone on to be lawyers, and still others have captured new and exciting specialty areas such as Internet Research Specialist, Trial Specialist, Patent Prosecution Specialist, International Business Legal Assistant, and more. Opportunities have even opened up in the military, where paralegals are placed all over the world.

Paralegal Hiring World

In the hiring world, there are two overall categories of hires: career paralegals and transitional. Career paralegals are those who have decided to make this field a career and stay in it for some length of time. Mostly, they are those who have chosen to get training either through a paralegal institution or on the job. Transitional paralegals are hired generally by large law firms. These law firms hold to the belief that a paralegal position is more of a transitory: someone who has recently graduated college and within 18 months to two years will be on his or her way to law school or graduate school. This type of hiring is generally found in large metropolitan areas. Presently, the majority of law firms and in-house legal departments are leaning more and more toward the career paralegal. Fewer and fewer firms have the resources or people power to train on the job. They want you to arrive with at least some training.

The job outlook for paralegals is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2008. These opportunities are expected to expand as employers become aware that paralegals are able to do many legal tasks for lower salaries than lawyers demand and at lower costs to the client. New jobs created by rapid employment growth will create most of the job openings for paralegals in the future. Other job openings will arise as people leave the occupation. More opportunities have been found in the past few years in the in-house legal departments of corporations of all sizes. This change has been welcomed by many paralegals who have been through the billable hours wars in law firms.

Although the number of job openings for paralegals is expected to increase significantly through the year 2008, so will the number of people pursuing this career. Thus, keen competition for jobs should continue as the growing number of graduates from paralegal education programs keeps pace with employment growth. Still, job prospects are expected to be favorable for professionals with bachelor’s degrees who graduate from well-regarded paralegal training programs.
The outlook is bright for paralegals seeking to enter the public sector. Community legal service programs that provide assistance to the poor, aged, minorities, and middle-income families operate on limited budgets. They will seek to employ additional paralegals in order to minimize expenses and serve the most people. Federal, state, and local government agencies, consumer organizations, and the courts are also expected to continue to hire paralegals in increasing numbers.

Good Times And Bad Times

To some extent, paralegals are affected by the economic cycle. In good economic times with a low unemployment rate, job opportunities are in more abundance than are available candidates. This cycle pushes up salaries, particularly for specialty paralegals, resulting in “candidate shortage.” In bad times with high unemployment rates, the rule of thumb is more candidates than job opportunities, creating stiffer competition and lower wages for more senior-level professionals. During a recession, demand declines for some discretionary legal services such as estate planning, real estate transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. Corporations are less likely to litigate when they are in the process of downsizing and saving their skins. As a result, full-time paralegals employed in offices adversely affected by a recession may be laid off. During the early nineties, this was the case across the country. On the other hand, the recession plays well for those corporations and individuals with other emerging legal problems such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, and divorces. Furthermore, the continuous emergence of new laws, judicial interpretations of existing ones, and new specialties such as high-tech and the Internet create new business opportunities for lawyers and paralegals regardless of the business cycle.

So, What Are the Dollars?

Paralegal salaries have risen over the years. Although the Department of Labor has declared paralegals nonexempt (meaning you earn overtime pay), there are still many firms that do not pay overtime. This issue has been hotly debated for many years and will probably continue for quite some time. Some law firms still offer bonuses, although generally speaking, these bonuses are not as large as seen in years past.

If you are an entry-level paralegal, you may find that your first job consists of routine and repetitious assignments. Hang in there! As a paralegal you will be recognized for the level of assignment you can handle. As you gain more and more substantive experience, your responsibilities will change. You should find yourself with a more rewarding and challenging position as the years go by. This is a different situation than in some other careers. Because the only activities paralegals are prohibited from doing are giving legal advice, negotiating legal fees, and presenting cases in court, rarely can you top out in task level unless you fail to pursue more challenging assignments.

And sometimes, it takes changing jobs to pursue the avenue of more sophisticated work.

There are paralegals who are earning the “big bucks” in the field. These salaries may be a result of total compensation package that is to say, base salary, overtime, and bonuses. Any paralegal who is in litigation in a major firm is most likely to have faced significant amounts of overtime. And for those of you looking to earn six figures it does exist in this field. However, before running off in an earnest search of the six-figure position, understand clearly that only a small handful of paralegals, to our knowledge, have reached utopia. These paralegals are generally found in highly specialized areas, such as transactional corporate, entertainment, or real estate practice specialties. Others have hefty bases and lots and lots of overtime pay. Still others may be in alternative careers such as sales to the legal community or own their own companies.

Why Paralegals Change Jobs

We have found in the past that stumbling blocks to moving on may have been a result of overindulgent guilt associated with the job change. “What will the firm do without me?” “How will they survive?” “1 couldn’t possibly leave now.” “We’re going to trial in two years.” Although you never want to burn bridges, you do have the right to move on!
The issue of loyalty in the general workplace has been at an all-time low in past years as a result of no loyalty from employers when downsizing struck. Bodies were everywhere. Some employees who have survived these massacres have had little trouble moving on. But others will hang on to a job even when it’s time to go. Factors such as low self-esteem, few local job opportunities, the appearance of job-hopping, salaries, benefit plans, and more all play an important role in keeping someone on the job. In fact, these considerations are designed to keep you in place.

So why do paralegals move on? Here are the top reasons:
 

• Salary
• Personality conflict
• Lack of opportunity or challenging work
• Location
• Change in management
• Downsizing
• Excessive billable hourly requirement or unreasonable overtime
• Lack of recognition
• Lack of appreciation
• Lack of feedback or evaluation
• Lack of control over work environment

While we can’t as yet rank this next reason for leaving as one of the top ten, our interviews with candidates in the past year or so reveal an awareness previously unheard of in the legal field. And that is, paralegals are leaving jobs because
 

• The firm lacks the latest or even acceptable technology.

Paralegals have grown to understand just how important it is to stay up- to-date in the latest technology. If they don’t, job opportunities at a higher salary level will be almost impossible to find, as computer skills are one of the most sought-after skill sets a paralegal can possess.

If You’re Ready To Move

Changing jobs can be a positive growth experience. If you haven’t switched jobs for quite some time, you might find the process somewhat intimidating. We can only tell you that it can be an adventure that can land you a better position or at least one that is more tolerable! There are no guarantees in this world. But if you do your homework and investigate your future employer carefully, you are more likely to choose wisely. And that’s what we’re here to help you do.

If we were sitting across from you and you were telling us your story, we might be likely to stop and confront you with a “reality check.” Because we’re not sitting with you, we’ve chosen to set these reality checks apart from the rest of the text. Pay attention to them. They are designed to force you to think through your job search process, and they are based upon many, many years in this field. Our “cases in point” illustrate examples of paralegals with good intentions. After you become familiar with the positive steps you can take to research job opportunities, write a great cover letter and resume, interview with a bang, and conduct a copious follow- up, you’ll realize the only way to get the job you want is to behave as a paralegal: find the facts, stay organized and detailed, and follow through.