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I'm a recent college graduate and I'm planning on taking a couple years off before going to law school. I'd like to find employment in a law firm and I'm wondering how difficult it is to land a BigLaw Project Assistant (PA) position.

Some background info about me:

I graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy from a small liberal arts school in the Midwest. My work experience is almost exclusively clerical work although I recently had an internship with a county court where I was given a lot of responsibility.

Some things working against me:

I don't have a marketable degree and I didn't graduate from an elite undergrad institution. My cumulative GPA is on the low end of what I think law firms will accept from their PAs. I live in a rural area in the middle of a state that doesn't have much going on -- the nearest BigLaw firm is about four hours away, so I would have to make a dramatic relocation. I don't have any connections who can get my foot in the door for an interview. I don't have any law firm experience.

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I have been applying to every PA opening I can find all over the country over the past couple of weeks. I don't know whether I have a strong enough profile to make it worth my time to continue applying to these positions. Any and all feedback is warmly welcomed.

Thanks,

SD

I was a biglaw PA before law school. IME your credentials don't matter all that much, but knowing someone at the firm helps a lot. I worked with several PAs who didn't have super impressive credentials, but had relatives or friends who were paralegals or secretaries at the firm. Contact paralegals from your alma mater and ask them about their jobs and how to become a paralegal/PA. At my firm, staff hiring was completely separate from attorney hiring, so having attorney connections wouldn't have been as helpful as having staff connections. Building connections that way is how I got offers at a few firms.

In your interview, be really enthusiastic about working at a law firm and make it clear you want to work hard and are ok with long hours. I think they like it if you're interested in law school too. Good luck! I learned a ton and I definitely think it helped me in OCI.

snapdragon25 wrote:I was a biglaw PA before law school. IME your credentials don't matter all that much, but knowing someone at the firm helps a lot. I worked with several PAs who didn't have super impressive credentials, but had relatives or friends who were paralegals or secretaries at the firm. Contact paralegals from your alma mater and ask them about their jobs and how to become a paralegal/PA. At my firm, staff hiring was completely separate from attorney hiring, so having attorney connections wouldn't have been as helpful as having staff connections. Building connections that way is how I got offers at a few firms.

In your interview, be really enthusiastic about working at a law firm and make it clear you want to work hard and are ok with long hours. I think they like it if you're interested in law school too. Good luck! I learned a ton and I definitely think it helped me in OCI.

Thanks, I appreciate the info. I'll definitely contact paralegals / support staff from my alma mater.

Moved to correct forum.