Paralegals and legal assistants are the backbone of the legal profession. While attorneys assume ultimate responsibility for the work and are the ones subjected to the consequences of legal actions, it is the attorney’s paralegal that provides much of the expertise required in the job.
These legal professionals are responsible for a wide range of duties and are taking on more and more in the modern law office. They draft motions and legal memoranda, identify and review relevant law and schedule appointments and meetings with clients and the court.
And, these opportunities are growing. Over the past few years paralegal jobs have ranked among the top opportunities in the workforce. The simple fact is that the law is a self-sustaining career field, because it is constantly changing and people will always need professionals who can interpret these changes and provide quality legal service.
It’s true that the recent economic recession has taken its toll in the legal sector. As predicted, law firms have entered into a period of retention and hiring cutbacks, and even layoffs in some severely impacted markets. Dwindling capital means there is less money to initiate legal actions as well as less to win if victorious.
The important distinction is that this downturn is impacting law firms; paralegal firms and contract legal professionals are rising up to fill the void that shrinking firms have left in the market. This newer niche combined with traditional paralegal opportunities increase job prospects for the qualified paralegal.
The obvious discrepancy in earnings leaves many prospective paralegals to ask: If being a paralegal requires specialized training and they do all of the work except give legal advice and appear in court, why do they earn less than attorneys?
There are a few reasons.
The first is that it takes three years to earn a law degree and can easily cost more than $100,000 in tuition and fees, in addition to the cost of the required four-year bachelor’s degree. Second, attorneys do assume all of the responsibility, which means they incur heavy costs for malpractice insurance. Finally, would-be attorneys assume the risk that they will actually pass the Bar exam and find jobs as attorneys, which is proving to be a very steep gamble in the current economy.
A paralegal education, by comparison, can be completed for less than one-third the cost and in less than two years, as opposed to the seven total years required for a law degree. Perhaps more importantly, there is a much better chance that a paralegal will exit his or her training with the guarantee of employment, with a yearly salary at a median of $46,120.
Reviewing these statistics and projections, it is easy to see that the ratio of risk versus reward is in the prospective paralegal’s favor, making this career field a wise choice for any ambitious high school graduate.
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Can any one please help where to start to get a job as a paralegal. I have a paralegal certificate and I can not find a job.