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I was planning to enter law school this coming year, but I decided to defer a T14 acceptance for one year in order to earn some $$ and get some actual work experience in the legal field.

For this coming year, I was hoping to obtain a paralegal position. However, it seems like this may be harder than I expected - most firms seem to require a two-year commitment for paralegal positions, and very few of these positions seem to be entry-level in the first place.

I was hoping that some of you had tips on how to obtain a one-year paralegal (or case assistant, legal researcher etc.) position.

Lots of firms like paralegals who eventually plan to apply to law school, but if they already know you'll definitely be leaving in a year, it's probably not worth their time and money to train you. Exceptions might be if you have a valued skill (foreign language in an immigration firm), or if you have some kind of connection (your mom is great buddies with a partner).

You don't really need "actual work experience in the legal field" prior to law school -- that's what 1L and 2L summers are for. If this is your only year between college and law school, almost any experience is if it's tangentially related to law -- anything involving working in an office, writing, working with clients / the public, etc. If you have a particular field of law you're interested in, or a particular population you want to work with, you could focus on building some experience related to that too, especially for public interest. For example, if you're interested in anything related to representing low-income clients, women, LGBT people, immigrants, workers, whatever, then get some experience with that population even if it's non-legal.