How did you get your legal assistant/paralegal job? Forum

stuckinthemiddle · Post by **stuckinthemiddle** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:19 pm

For those who decided to work at these kinds of jobs before going into law school, how did you find/get these? Did you just go to the individual firms' websites and apply through their online portals?

CaliAliLouise · Post by **CaliAliLouise** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:30 pm

I am working as a paralegal for a year between my undergrad and starting law school in the fall. I worked at my firm as an intern almost every summer of undergrad and got that job through connections in my community.

CaliAliLouise · Post by **CaliAliLouise** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:34 pm

CaliAliLouise wrote:I am working as a paralegal for a year between my undergrad and starting law school in the fall. I worked at my firm as an intern almost every summer of undergrad and got that job through connections in my community.

Sorry meant to add this. I just finished hiring my replacement and we almost exclusively went through a law recruiting company. Hope that helps!

062914123 · Post by **062914123** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 9:02 pm

jrsbaseball5 · Post by **jrsbaseball5** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 9:18 pm

bee wrote:
CaliAliLouise wrote:
CaliAliLouise wrote:I am working as a paralegal for a year between my undergrad and starting law school in the fall. I worked at my firm as an intern almost every summer of undergrad and got that job through connections in my community.

Sorry meant to add this. I just finished hiring my replacement and we almost exclusively went through a law recruiting company. Hope that helps!
I'm curious--would you mind naming the recruiting you used? Or please PM me if you're more comfortable with that.

I would be interested in this as well

magp90 · Post by **magp90** » Wed May 01, 2013 10:43 am

I asked a friend of the family who is lawyer if he had any connections in the area I was looking to live who would be willing to interview me. Luckily, he knew of one firm and the rest is history. I was also offered another position at a really great firm, and I got that because of an alumna from my college who put in a good word.

Definitely learned the value of connections

canarykb · Post by **canarykb** » Wed May 01, 2013 10:55 am

craigslist!

CaptainLeela · Post by **CaptainLeela** » Wed May 01, 2013 11:20 am

Welcome to TLS

paratactical · Post by **paratactical** » Wed May 01, 2013 11:31 am

I got both of my biglaw paralegal jobs through local legal recruiters, but I was in cities where if you googled "[city name] legal recruiter" or "[city name] legal staffing" you got dozens of results. In smaller cities, look for staffing agencies in general and see if any have a person dedicated to legal staffing. I didn't get a single bite from craigslist or direct applications, but by going through multiple recruiters, I ended up choosing between offers. My job hunts were in 2006 and 2010, so YMMV.

atay · Post by **atay** » Wed May 08, 2013 12:51 am

CaptainLeela wrote:
canarykb wrote:craigslist!
+1 shitlaw 4 lyfe

I found mine on Craigslist too. It may be Personal Injury, but guess who's been running 40 cases for the last year... I think maybe by shitlaw you mean "don't give a shit" if their paralegals do all the trial prep for them, lol.

hephaestus · Post by **hephaestus** » Wed May 08, 2013 12:55 am

Undergrad career services site & Craigslist.

CaptainLeela · Post by **CaptainLeela** » Wed May 08, 2013 10:45 am

Welcome to TLS

oaken · Post by **oaken** » Wed May 08, 2013 3:41 pm

undergrad career services site

efin12 · Post by **efin12** » Wed May 08, 2013 3:48 pm

Undergrad career services job board and going to individual websites and applying directly. I applied to ~30 firms, received 4 interviews and got one offer. The job I finally got was one where an alumna at my school I met at a networking event had just left the firm and recommended me. I found the whole process pretty competitive, but that could just be the DC market.

Jake Wyler · Post by **Jake Wyler** » Wed May 08, 2013 3:49 pm

I got my v20 job by just applying through the firm website. Super competitive though, the firm got over 1000 resumes, had over 100 screening interviews, then 3 different rounds of interviews before hiring 5 people.

TulipMelody · Post by **TulipMelody** » Fri May 10, 2013 1:57 am

I got mine through my undergrad career center website.

People who post there are clearly targeting newly grads or current students, so they expect you to not have a lot of professional experiences and they expect to "raise" you from the scratch.

If you go out to look on your own, you will stuck with requirements like "preferable 3 - 5 years of legal support experiences," "minimum 2 years of full-time experience in a high pressure law firm," etc.

Nova · Post by **Nova** » Fri May 10, 2013 2:16 am

For shit law, cold call everyone in the phone book.

banjo · Post by **banjo** » Fri May 10, 2013 8:15 pm

In before "struck out at OCI"

No seriously, I got my job over a T14 grad

y2zipper · Post by **y2zipper** » Mon May 13, 2013 10:11 pm

I've pretty much struck out trying to get one this go-around. Paralegal is basically an associate's degree I don't have where I live, but I'm not stressing it too much.

Lumieres · Post by **Lumieres** » Mon May 13, 2013 10:57 pm

monster.com for non-biglaw.

chugachjed · Post by **chugachjed** » Fri May 17, 2013 1:53 am

Craigslist legal section. My no office experience and an undergrad degree beat out other candidates with experience and no degree.

40andlegal · Post by **40andlegal** » Tue May 21, 2013 10:11 am

Got my current job via LinkedIn. Never thought I would make use of my profile on that site but glad I signed up. Lots of employers post jobs there.

Careful with legal recruiters. Not all of them are useful. They get you all amped with snazzy job ads (many of them are fake), bring you in to fill out lots of paper work and take tests and then nothing....or you get sent to interview for crap admin jobs. If you get called in to interview with a legal recruiter and they do not interview you for a specific position, don't expect much.

Biglaw will generally recruit on campus or post on their website.

leezabee · Post by **leezabee** » Wed May 22, 2013 11:41 pm

Not sure if this applies to you, since you specifically said "firms," but I am a legal assistant at a non-profit, and I had the best luck using Idealist. I used Craigslist and UG career websites to find postings, but nearly all my interviews and both my job offers came from jobs I found on Idealist.

princeR · Post by **princeR** » Sat Jun 01, 2013 10:40 am

I got my current paralegal job through craigslist. I work in a labor law/employee rights firm and I really enjoy the work we do. While I am a "paralegal" I still have to do quite a bit of the office bitch work, i.e. filing, and other random tedious tasks, but on the bright side my attention to detail has really grown. My firm has 8 lawyers, 2 paralegals including myself, and an office manager, so we aren't a big firm by any means, but it is GREAT to see lawyers that actually enjoy the work they do... Prior to this I worked as a legal assistant at a "creditor rights" firm, i.e., we collected debts and destroyed people's lives because the banks gave out credit to everyone, including those who never had the capability to pay it back.

But I disgres. Here is my own opinion on getting a LA/Para job; focus your resume and cover letter on the particular field of law you are applying for. I had to go through two rounds of interviews, and prior to that, just to get an interview, I had to do 3 separate "editing tests" on sample pleadings. My office manager told me that my editing tests and resume weren't the best out of all the applicants, but, I showed that I "cared" the most, and actually wanted to work in a labor law firm. I was able to do this not only because I actually am quite interested in this field, but I also DID MY HOMEWORK, like reading "Fall of the House of Labor" before my first interview so that I could come in and actually demonstrate my knowledge of labor law.

OP, I really do believe in catering your resume/cover letter to the specific law firms field of practice, and demonstrating that you somehow have experience or an interest in that field. Trust me, mass resuming sending will not get you the job.

Stonewall · Post by **Stonewall** » Sat Jun 01, 2013 10:55 am

Dumb luck. Dad was managing partner's roommate in college