I am a Texas civil trial and family lawyer. In the 42 years I have been practicing, I have found that very few paralegals actually choose to become attorneys.
First of all, many paralegals who do excellent work are not college graduates. The latter is a requirement for law school.
Second, many paralegals simply do not think sufficiently analytically to be able to obtain a good score on the Law School Admission Test. The LSAT is a requirement for applying to law school and a good grade on it is a necessity to be admitted to law school.
Third, even if a paralegal went to college, he might not have had a high enough grade point average to be admitted to law school.
Finally, many paralegals can today earn more money than many lawyers fresh out of law school. Jobs for lawyers are not in great supply, even for those in the top 10% of the class. Plus, law school is so expensive that a newly minted law school graduate could end law school with a huge amount of student loan debt.
-Linda Aland
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