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Law School After a Paralegal
It makes sense to go to law school after a few years of paralegal career for many reasons. Unless paralegal wants to change a career, there is no sense of staying paralegal for the rest of the life because paralegal is just an attorney support role. If legal work is what he or she wants to do for a living and if the paralegal is good at it, then law school after paralegal career is a natural step.
Being paralegal before going to law school has some advantages and disadvantages. The advantage may be that paralegal is already familiar with practical legal work and after obtaining an attorney license can jump back into a legal business-like good swimmer in the water.
Although there is a significant difference in work responsibilities between attorney and paralegal positions, often former paralegals can go back to their original area of law. Legal secretary probably fits this bill too.
I have heard one particular story when paralegal, a foreign-born guy, who worked for almost ten years at one of the boutique mid-sized law firms, went to law school, passed the bar exam, obtained his attorney license, and was hired back by the same law firm as attorney, at starting salary at about twice what he was making as paralegal.
The best thing – he was doing pretty much the same type of legal work as before, except now with more responsibilities and for better money. True story, but he was an exception because had good grades and went to good law school and fit law firm’s hiring requirements. There are no guarantees in the legal world.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage for paralegals in 2016 was $49,500. The median wage for lawyers is significantly higher, at $118,160. I do not believe in official statistics. But I still would expect on average a jump of 1.5-2 times the original paralegal salary in this job market, depending on the area of law, geographical location and size of the law firm.
Not all attorneys are making good money. To make good money as attorney sooner you may need to do specific education and career steps.
Being paralegal before law school
Becoming paralegal before law school makes sense for those who think about becoming attorneys but have no idea about what lawyers do. It is a good way to test the water and to see whether you can do this type of work well and whether you want to do legal work for the rest of your life.
Beware of being sucked into profession though. Once I became paralegal, I already knew that the legal profession was not so glamorous as they show on TV. As I already was in that rat race, and it now would have been more difficult for me to change my profession, and I was not sure now that I could do something else.
Only recently I tried other things and I succeeded. But back then, I simply made the next step. I do not regret going to law school I learned a lot. I only regret the cost. I should have done it cheaper.
Being a paralegal may help with law school admissions
In terms of admissions, law school admission officers are not necessarily more likely to consider your application if they see that you were a paralegal. But, they will if you have done years of actual legal work at a good law firm, not just administrative tasks.
Some specialists think that being paralegal is a disadvantage. I tend to agree kind of, but actual legal vs. administrative work experience makes a big difference. You are more employable after graduation with practical legal work skills.
Coupled with a solid undergrad GPA and LSAT score, paralegal work experience makes good leverage in the eyes of the admission officer. And being a biglaw paralegal most likely carries even greater weight in admissions.
The transition of a paralegal to law school is easier than a transition from other professions. I certainly felt some advantage in law school because I was more familiar with legal jargon. But I was surprised to see that law school studying did not have much to do real practice but more with purely theoretical concepts.
More thoughts
Let me tell you that getting a paralegal certificate before law school does not give many advantages in admissions or subsequent recruitment process. Some lawyers do not like paralegals turning into lawyers – lawyers are naturally competitive and biased.
But, years of actual practical legal work at which paralegal excelled can make a difference. Otherwise, there is no sense to go to paralegal school just as preparation for law school. Go and do something that you want – from accounting to engineering to singing or dancing.
And then decide if you want to go to law school. If you are paralegal, and surely practicing law as an attorney is what you truly want to do – go for it. Follow your natural desire and motivation. Source.
Law School After MBA – Law After MBA
Getting an MBA before law school may seem like an idea to boost your credentials to impress law school admissions officers and obtain good knowledge. Well, I agree with the knowledge part. I am not so sure about the rest.
Going into law after an MBA is not much different than after other graduate programs. I tend to think that graduate business program helps to develop certain study discipline as well as advanced writing, reading and analysis skills which can help you to study in law school.
But in terms of finding jobs, the MBA will not initially provide much value to finding an attorney job for several reasons. First of all, the MBA is usually a general program not specifically applicable to law and law firms like specific skills and background they can exploit.
But if MBA is from the top 15-20 universities then this may change and pedigree may play in your favor because when law firm bills clients, they can tell that client that this young smart lawyer also has MBA from to Yale or Harvard, for example. Law business is about extracting money from clients for solving problems and not much anything else.
If you do want to obtain a law degree after MBA think hard about why you need to do it. Are you sure you do not want to go into accounting? Going through law school after an MBA for jobs carries the same weight as after any other program. Here is my blog post about whether and which MBA is worth pursuing for career.
But in the long-term MBA may kick in as leverage once you have established yourself as a reputable attorney in a certain area having at least several years of specific legal practice behind your back. For example, being a corporate lawyer in-house or otherwise, or a bankruptcy attorney, your MBA will be viewed as an additional asset. First, you must become a good attorney and then use your MBA as an additional credential.
I obtained my MBA to fill in the gap in knowledge of economics, accounting, finance. I wanted to learn it. I received the best grade in my economics class after putting hard hours of study. I used those skills later to study in law school.
And my MBA credential helped me to get hired for an interesting and well-paying multi-year project a few years after law school. But I was an almost perfect match because I also had specific foreign language skills they needed.
Remember – education is a business with lots of marketing. You need to choose what you need for your career.
Does an MBA help you get into law school?
The short answer is not really unless you went to top MBA programs in the country. Getting into law school after earning an MBA will involve the same process with the same requirements as without it. Above, I said that two main factors are LSAT score and undergraduate GPA. Graduate education is a secondary consideration. If you have a good graduate GPA then it a plus. Post-graduate work experience too.
By the way, I think combined MBA/JD is a pretty bad idea on many levels. It is really bad to spread attention to two different programs at the same time. Law school requires complete focus because it supposed to brainwash students into thinking like an attorney. Any combination is simply a huge distraction and in my opinion, such combination is a waste of time and energy.
The point is, you can get an MBA for your knowledge, or even for a business career, but getting an MBA solely to boost your law school admission is a total waste of time. Better focus on raising your LSAT score and go straight to law school and save time and money.
What to avoid before law school
You may be tempted to be smart and shrewd and come up with some kind of interesting or even weird strategy to increase your chances of getting into law school or even getting into better law school.
Remember that 99% of all strategies have been developed already. Law school admission officers often are quite smart people and they have seen many tricks.
First of all – NEVER lie on law school application about your grades or anything else. I mean, puffing (making things look better – self-PR) is probably OK. But you never make up something substantial just for the sake of improving your application chances.
Take the truth, and spin it nicely, to make you look good. Do not use some obscure online universities to purchase a degree with all As because first year in law school will humiliate you real bad.
Second, whatever you think you want to do – think about the financial aspect of it. And about time. Money and time are limited resources, and I do not think you should waste either. Want to take pre-law? OK.
Want to go and obtain a super master’s degree from a small forest village college? Do not bother. Better spend money on LSAT preparation courses than on some useless degree.
Once you have your undergrad GPA – it is going to stuck with you for the rest of your studies. So, study well in undergrad.
For foreign students trying to get into law schools: law school admission officers are a little bit biased. Even if you have a good undergrad GPA from your own country, they know that due to language barriers you may not be able to compete well with native speakers.
A decade ago, it was difficult to enter law school straight from foreign undergrad. Nowadays it is somewhat easier because fewer Americans are applying for college. It is a good time to try to get into better law school due to a temporary fall in demand for legal education.
