Legal field entry question

[flowering]

Hello all,

I need to reach out for some “outside-of-my-box” advice. I am few months into 30, have an Arts BA (2019), light experience in journalism in mid-20s and most formatory work experience within collections in a corporate world environment. Since late 20s I envisioned myself in law as a natural career progression; I was equally drawn to the field out of deep curiosity for such studies, apprehension for legal intellectual work demand, possibility of a profound dive into one career field for life. In addition, I uncovered I am inherently drawn to speak up for others (and myself) and terminated+got dismissed because of disputing employment practices. I am considering the employment law of course, as of present.

Since late fall 2023, I have finally set onto a path. Plan was to receive a significant legal exposure (secure legal assistant position) + prepare henceforward for the LSAT. Unfortunately, even with valuable work experiences under my belt I was not been able to get myself into a firm or a court.

My results as of today: ~140 applications, 6/6 after-interview rejections, few in-person CV distributions (with rejections, of course), all close network with ability to open doors involved (no results, as of yet). My search region is broad. I am in a mentorship program with a known lawyer. Currently, also applying to non-legal roles.  

I am moderating my “desperados”, but now considering the option of volunteering as a legal assistant. It seems that the worst has come: more than 6 months without work + still no  exposure to the legal field. I clearly recognize the error of not selling my candidature more aggressively, the naïvete that experience + bilingualism should open the door into an entry-level legal role. I might have underworked my interview preparation, but this is being taken care of now.

My plan today is to write out solid cover letters for law firms I am interested in and volunteer being a legal assistant there. Then, promote myself into a paid position. Or just move into a different law firm.

If this option does not get me in, I will get a 1-year paralegal education.

I sense my case is not hopeless, yet I am beginning to panic (loss of time, organisation practices, people skills, etc).

Anything I am missing out in terms of a bigger picture of my legal field entry?  Search or presentation tactics I have yet to employ? Also, any thoughts on the paralegal education - is it a loss of time if one wants to become a lawyer ? 

Thank you for an advice and/or a bird’s eye view.

[Yogurt Baron]

Yeah, there's a lot going on here. I'm just responding because I suspect few others will. There's some sort of communication barrier, for one thing - I don't feel like I fully understand what you're saying. I don't mean to be unkind here.

But the best advice I can give is that you seem to have a very odd and indirect approach to pursuing your goals. The "legal field" is not a temple which one "enters". You develop the skills to get the job you want. Getting jobs is not always easy, but in most cases, it's very simple, and you seem to be having some trouble with the notion that you can just go from A to B. You're saying, "Well, I'm at A, and I'm trying to get to B, so obviously I went to J, so now how do I get from J to T?" And it's, like, you don't? You just go from A to B? 

If you would like to be a lawyer, the path is extremely clear: write the LSAT, apply to law school, gain admission, attend law school, pass the bar. The steps couldn't be clearer. If you don't have the grades or the LSAT, it might be difficult, but it's clear how you do it. You don't do it by getting a job as an assistant in a law firm. That's actually a completely unrelated job. I know very few lawyers who were ever legal assistants.

If you'd like to be a paralegal, again, there's a career path for that.

I'm a paraprofessional serving lawyers. There's, again, a very clear career path to get my job: you get the relevant education, develop the relevant experience, and then apply for the job, and then you get the job, because you have the education and the experience.

How it doesn't work is:

1. Work in collections, and then the law is a "natural career progression". It's really not. I mean, you can switch careers anytime. I could become a beekeeper tomorrow. But a job in collections does not inexorably, or "naturally", progress into a career in law. That's just odd.

2. Applying for jobs you presumably aren't qualified for (lawyers want paralegals who are certified paralegals, and legal assistants who are experienced legal assistants) to "receive a significant legal exposure". For one thing, if you're spamming out 140 job applications to things you're presumably not qualified for, that's not going to end well. I could apply for ten million jobs as a brain surgeon and I'm never going to get one. Second of all, you don't need a job as a legal assistant to become a lawyer. Plenty of lawyers are 24 and have never worked at a job before graduating from law school. Not only are you beating your head against a wall, you're beating your head against a wall that's completely unrelated to what you want to do.

3. Volunteering at what would ordinarily be a paid job is...look, I'm not a lawyer and I'm not going to speak to the legalities of it, but it is an extremely bizarre thing to do in most industries. If a law firm that's declined to hire you gets a letter from you saying, "I'm so interested in you that I'll work there for free!", they will think, "Well, this person is extremely bizarre." Being thought of that way is not usually the key to success.

Offering to volunteer at a law firm as a legal assistant as a way of becoming a lawyer is just...it's strange. Did you get your job in collections by saying to the boss, "Hey, I really want some exposure the world of collections, so I would love to be a custodian in your building to help me work my way up to working in collections, and if you won't hire me, I'll clean your toilets for free"? No. Because that would be weird. You got the job by having skills the job called for. You want to be a lawyer, go do the things you need to do to become a lawyer. "Volunteering at a law firm as a legal assistant" is...the maximum amount of not being one of those things.

[flowering]

59 minutes ago, Yogurt Baron said:

Yeah, there's a lot going on here. I'm just responding because I suspect few others will. There's some sort of communication barrier, for one thing - I don't feel like I fully understand what you're saying. I don't mean to be unkind here.

But the best advice I can give is that you seem to have a very odd and indirect approach to pursuing your goals. The "legal field" is not a temple which one "enters". You develop the skills to get the job you want. Getting jobs is not always easy, but in most cases, it's very simple, and you seem to be having some trouble with the notion that you can just go from A to B. You're saying, "Well, I'm at A, and I'm trying to get to B, so obviously I went to J, so now how do I get from J to T?" And it's, like, you don't? You just go from A to B? 

If you would like to be a lawyer, the path is extremely clear: write the LSAT, apply to law school, gain admission, attend law school, pass the bar. The steps couldn't be clearer. If you don't have the grades or the LSAT, it might be difficult, but it's clear how you do it. You don't do it by getting a job as an assistant in a law firm. That's actually a completely unrelated job. I know very few lawyers who were ever legal assistants.

If you'd like to be a paralegal, again, there's a career path for that.

I'm a paraprofessional serving lawyers. There's, again, a very clear career path to get my job: you get the relevant education, develop the relevant experience, and then apply for the job, and then you get the job, because you have the education and the experience.

How it doesn't work is:

1. Work in collections, and then the law is a "natural career progression". It's really not. I mean, you can switch careers anytime. I could become a beekeeper tomorrow. But a job in collections does not inexorably, or "naturally", progress into a career in law. That's just odd.

2. Applying for jobs you presumably aren't qualified for (lawyers want paralegals who are certified paralegals, and legal assistants who are experienced legal assistants) to "receive a significant legal exposure". For one thing, if you're spamming out 140 job applications to things you're presumably not qualified for, that's not going to end well. I could apply for ten million jobs as a brain surgeon and I'm never going to get one. Second of all, you don't need a job as a legal assistant to become a lawyer. Plenty of lawyers are 24 and have never worked at a job before graduating from law school. Not only are you beating your head against a wall, you're beating your head against a wall that's completely unrelated to what you want to do.

3. Volunteering at what would ordinarily be a paid job is...look, I'm not a lawyer and I'm not going to speak to the legalities of it, but it is an extremely bizarre thing to do in most industries. If a law firm that's declined to hire you gets a letter from you saying, "I'm so interested in you that I'll work there for free!", they will think, "Well, this person is extremely bizarre." Being thought of that way is not usually the key to success.

Offering to volunteer at a law firm as a legal assistant as a way of becoming a lawyer is just...it's strange. Did you get your job in collections by saying to the boss, "Hey, I really want some exposure the world of collections, so I would love to be a custodian in your building to help me work my way up to working in collections, and if you won't hire me, I'll clean your toilets for free"? No. Because that would be weird. You got the job by having skills the job called for. You want to be a lawyer, go do the things you need to do to become a lawyer. "Volunteering at a law firm as a legal assistant" is...the maximum amount of not being one of those things.

1. "Work in collections, and then the law is a "natural career progression". It's really not. I mean, you can switch careers anytime. I could become a beekeeper tomorrow. But a job in collections does not inexorably, or "naturally", progress into a career in law. That's just odd."

The answer to this lies in myself expanding onto "why law? : "I was equally drawn to the field out of deep curiosity for such studies, apprehension for legal intellectual work demand, possibility of a profound dive into one career field for life." Such type of education as a BA in arts and a specific work background in collections could sometimes converge logically into an interest in law. Journalistic background can spark interest in law, as can the exposure to the collections case management (through seeing some legal intricacies within collections). 

2. I am trying to test out more practically my interest in the legal field, therefore decided to start with a gradual exposure, not "an all in" and the highest level of responsibility possible. It is a big choice to be made, so for me it requires time and direct exposure to the field. That's why I am using this route and not going into "LSAT+law school+" yet. I want to test waters by being an assistant in a law firm or working as a court and client service representative with a choice still being in the making.

There are threads with stories of legal assistants even on this forum who pursued their law degrees following this type of work. I am not sure which "oddness"/inconsistence you are targeting here. 

And fortunately, firms that did interview me did not feel I was spamming and there was enough qualifications present to interview in the first place. It is possible to get into such role without relevant education, just harder.  

I agree that volunteering side might be of an odd turn, but not for all.

Thank you for commenting. 

[LMP]

I gotta echo the good Baron here, my first impression upon reading your post is "this person's very odd". 

That's not meant to be an insult! But I think it is a big part of why you aren't finding success in your job search (in addition to the factors mentioned above). 

My advice is to take it easy. Come off as less intense and maybe work a bit on how you communicate in writing. 

Also, don't get so defensive when you get advice you don't like. Someone spent a lot of time crafting a helpful and informative response. Respect their time and expertise (they know the industry and especially the areas you're applying to) and don't try and argue with them. 

[MyWifesBoyfriend]

Also an Applicant (now admit), but ‘sort of’ went down the path you’re describing here.

2 hours ago, flowering said:

I need to reach out for some “outside-of-my-box” advice. I am few months into 30, have a French BA in Literature (2019), light experience in journalism in mid-20s and most formatory work experience within collections in a corporate world environment.

 

2 hours ago, flowering said:

Unfortunately, even with valuable work experiences under my belt I was not been able to get myself into a firm or a court.

 

2 hours ago, flowering said:

I clearly recognize the error of not selling my candidature more aggressively, the naïvete that experience + bilingualism should open the door into an entry-level legal role. I might have underworked my interview preparation, but this is being taken care of now.

As someone who is currently in a senior/managerial position in a legal adjunct role that has dealt with hiring decisions, this stuff is going to stick out like a sore thumb. You’re gunning for entry-level positions with an overqualified resume. A prospective employer may see this as a flight risk and if you’re mentioning your law school aspirations in your cover letter or interviews, then there’s little-to-no chance you’ll be hired.

Part of hiring entails mitigating the risk for turnover, since it means wasted resources and time on training. This is especially true for smaller firms (not too sure about mid to large firms though). 
 

My only advice is to be mindful of this potential pitfall with your professional profile. 

 

I’d also echo @Yogurt Baron’s comments too - there’s no “outside of the box” advice for law school. Just sit the LSAT and prepare application packages.

Edited April 19 by MyWifesBoyfriend

[Psychometronic]

2 hours ago, flowering said:

is it a loss of time if one wants to become a lawyer ? 

Thank you for an advice and/or a bird’s eye view.

There is the opportunity cost of working as an LAA and being paid an LAA salary instead of applying to law school right away. I don't think working as an LAA is necessarily bad idea to get exposure to legal work. It will just be very limited since LAA work is mostly administrative. I would NOT recommend taking a volunteer position for a job that should be paid. Those type of employers are, more likely than not, red flags and are unlikely to treat you well. 

Most lawyers never worked as LAAs and many don't come from lawyer families. There are law-adjacent jobs if you get a law degree and decide not to be a lawyer.

Edited April 19 by Psychometronic

[Whist]

While it's entirely fair to want to see how working in a firm/being a lawyer is before shelling out a bunch of time and money for law school, I don't think becoming a legal assistant or paralegal for that sole purpose is the way to do it. It's just a completely different job. It's like trying to become a dental hygienist to get experience in a medical office before you decide whether you want to become a plastic surgeon. I'm exaggerating here but I'm sure you get the idea. I think the better way to hear about what being a lawyer is like is to research what lawyers say about their lives, read some case law, get coffee with lawyers if you can, that kind of thing. It's not that you can't go to law school if you're a legal assistant first, but you're adding in an extra totally different job between what you do now and lawyerhood when it's unnecessary. 

Depending on what province you're in, specific education for legal assistant/paralegal/etc roles may be required. It's great that you're getting interviewed, but that doesn't really refute the "spamming" thing, at least from my past experience interviewing for roles I had no business in. I agree that offering to volunteer in this context is a bit odd. Firms want reliable and knowledgable assistants. This isn't to say you're not knowledgable, but someone willing to take on such a role full time for free is odd, and someone doing it only casually wouldn't really appeal, so either way it comes across differently than I'm sure you intend.

[flowering]

38 minutes ago, LMP said:

I gotta echo the good Baron here, my first impression upon reading your post is "this person's very odd". 

That's not meant to be an insult! But I think it is a big part of why you aren't finding success in your job search (in addition to the factors mentioned above). 

My advice is to take it easy. Come off as less intense and maybe work a bit on how you communicate in writing. 

Also, don't get so defensive when you get advice you don't like. Someone spent a lot of time crafting a helpful and informative response. Respect their time and expertise (they know the industry and especially the areas you're applying to) and don't try and argue with them. 

Arguing and clarifying a position was not a sign of disrespect at all. 

Thank you for pinpointing other aspects. 

Edited April 19 by flowering

[Conge]

9 hours ago, MyWifesBoyfriend said:

Also an Applicant (now admit), but ‘sort of’ went down the path you’re describing here.

 

 

As someone who is currently in a senior/managerial position in a legal adjunct role that has dealt with hiring decisions, this stuff is going to stick out like a sore thumb. You’re gunning for entry-level positions with an overqualified resume. A prospective employer may see this as a flight risk and if you’re mentioning your law school aspirations in your cover letter or interviews, then there’s little-to-no chance you’ll be hired.

Part of hiring entails mitigating the risk for turnover, since it means wasted resources and time on training. This is especially true for smaller firms (not too sure about mid to large firms though). 
 

My only advice is to be mindful of this potential pitfall with your professional profile. 

 

I’d also echo @Yogurt Baron’s comments too - there’s no “outside of the box” advice for law school. Just sit the LSAT and prepare application packages.

As some who has hired LAs and paralegals in the recent past, this is very good advice.

E.g., I had an excellent paralegal for less than 12 months because she ended up going to law school. She was just starting to get the hang of her job and take ownership of work when she left.

I don't think I would make that same decision again. I'd be looking to hire ppl who want to be LAs/paralegals. 

[Dinsdale]

Have to echo the above: stop exploring largely irrelevant tangents and get your LSAT done and applications in.  You will get a very good idea of what it takes to be a lawyer by going to law school (some aspects of it, at least).  If you don't like it, leave after first year.  Entering law school does not commit you to completing three years.

[flowering]

Thank you to all for evaluating my situation. It has been clarifying, appreciate it. 

[perryplatypus]

Bruh you need to write like a normal person. Your writing style is a huge red flag to academics and employers. 

[SNAILS]

From reading your post, @flowering, I suspect you do not even know what the day-to-day duties of a legal assistant are. Even I would have a hard time envisioning what a firm might need from a legal assistant without knowing a bit more about a particular firm and the area of law that you would be assisting in.

I have known legal assistants to have the role of essentially a receptionist (being the first point of contact when people walk into the office; scheduling appointments; printing, copying and sending out of materials). In Family Law, the term legal assistant is sometimes substituted for that of a Law Clerk, which in Ontario requires a one year education. Such family law clerks typically co-ordinate with clients to make sure affidavits and other forms are completed, collected, and filed. Some legal assitants have a great deal of bookkeeping duties and duties related to sending out bills.

If you told me that being a Legal Assistant was your end goal, then I would suggest  that it has a great deal in common with other forms of Office Administration work such as in a dentist's office or insurance firm. 

If you end goal it to be a lawyer, you should focus on getting into law school. While it is true that extensive experience as a paralegal or Law Clerk has helped some mature students get into law school, it is a very inefficient was to become a lawyer.

[Yogurt Baron]

On 4/18/2024 at 11:48 PM, flowering said:

Arguing and clarifying a position was not a sign of disrespect at all. 

Thank you for pinpointing other aspects. 

I will say that, while I completely stand by my advice and thank the others for agreeing with me, my natural tone tends toward snide and I'm sorry if that was unhelpful. I didn't mean to be unkind. Indeed, as I said in my first post, I was pretty sure your post would sink like a stone, and I thought mine might be the only response you'd get - and it might have been, if I hadn't started a bit of a kerfuffle with my response.

The thing is, if you're doing hiring, you're getting so many applicants that if someone's approach is odd, you're not going to invest the time in figuring out why. You're going to throw their application out and move on to the next one. If someone's sense of professional norms and communication style are off base, no employer is going to investigate whether they're a diamond in the rough - they're just going to keep moving.