paralegal vs. lawyer

[kaest4]

Would becoming a paralegal help or hurt when thinking about going to law school? I have heard that it is looked down upon? Any ideas?

[cooleylawstudent]

As a legal intern you are basicly a paralegal. I have known a few good ones to go to lawschool and even graduate. That being said, if you aren't one yet, don't waste your time, just go to lawschool. If you plan to work part time during lawschool, it would be better to do that than to do that than to work at tacobell. It may even get you a leg in at a firm to do your internship at latter. The old enlisted working up to officer deal.

[nealric]

Would becoming a paralegal help or hurt when thinking about going to law school? I have heard that it is looked down upon? Any ideas?

It's not a bad idea to paralegal for a year or two in order find out more about the legal profession before you dive in. I've never heard of anyone looking down on it.

[cooleylawstudent]

People mostly just "look down" on those paralegals who think they know more than lawyers, like a nurse who thinks she knows more than a doctor. That may even be true time to time, but they are a secretary and nothing more and need to realise that. Now, one who takes the step to become the real thing, I respect that, its just the idiots that make the good ones look bad.

[bigs5068]

I got a paralegal certificate before law school and those classes actually helped me a lot in becoming familiar with how to do IRAC in a less pressure filled way than learning IRAC in law school.

Working as a paralegal also gives you a little bit of an idea of what the legal profession is. I think law school is a lot more glamorous than actual practice is.  People female dog & mo*n at my school about having to do the legal writing and research assignments, but that is what you have to do once you are in practice. If you hate doing that kind of stuff as a paralegal then it probably won't be worth spending 100k and 3 years of your life getting a J.D. Obviously, being a lawyer has more perks than a paralegal, but they are similar. I almost compare being a paralegal as being on J.V. and a lawyer as being on varsity. At the end of the day you are playing the same sport, but it is a lot more competitive and demanding on the varsity end. However, with the higher pressure and demands comes more respect.

[CJScalia]

I don't think anyone looks down on people for being a paralegal; however if you were a paralegal and you bring up that every single time you speak in class, you can expect your class mates to be fed up with it. We had one paralegal-gunner in class that literally started every sentence with "When I worked at Sullivan ...", and needless to say that pissed people off to extremes. She was smoking hot though, so she got away with it, sort of.

Anyway, if you haven't been a paralegal and you're thinking about doing that for a few years first before going to law school, I wouldn't bother. It's not horribly relevant, it's not going to help you (much) in terms of employment.

[bigs5068]

So true about the gunner we have one that says that constantly and he is an idiot. Please don't be the person in class telling everybody what you did nobody cares and odds a substantial number of people in any of your classes probably worked as a paralegal . People are paying good money to be in law school and nobody cares where you worked or what you did before law school when you are in class. 

[the white rabbit]

Would becoming a paralegal help or hurt when thinking about going to law school? I have heard that it is looked down upon? Any ideas?

I don't think it's looked down upon since a large number of law students were at one time paralegals.  I don't think it helps or hurt too much really.