Becoming a Paralegal – Education v. Experience

I have been a paralegal for about 30 years.  Did I go to school to learn how to become a paralegal?  No.  I went to school – and got my master’s degree in social work.  I became a paralegal because of the experience I had in working in legal offices and the work I had to do there.

When I have looked at the job listings for paralegals that some firms, and other business have, here and in other cities, I’ve noticed that some – not all – want the paralegal they hire to be “certified.”  Why?  Paralegal certification is voluntary and not mandated in any state (that I know of), and two, what paralegal – or attorney – for that matter, knows how to do their respective job when they first get out of school?  Book learning is far different from doing the actual  job.  They still have to be trained by whomever they go to work for.

When I worked in the bankruptcy practice, we periodically took on an intern from one of the area paralegal schools.  While we respected each intern’s enthusiasm and confidence, the expectation they had to literally walk in the first day and interview a prospective bankruptcy client, for example, which involved getting all of his or her pertinent information, determining whether or not a bankruptcy was possible based on that information, and if so, preparing the paperwork, without so much as having watched an interview being done or having prepared a petition, was jaw-dropping.  I guess I believe in the policy that UPS® has – everyone who works there, including the people in the highest echelons, has to start at the bottom and work his or her way up, so they can learn and be knowledgeable about every aspect of the company.   For example, do you need to know how to file or put a file together to be a paralegal?  No, but if you can’t, you and the attorney you work with will have a hard time locating the documents needed to efficiently work your cases.

Most of the paralegals I know began working in law offices as legal assistants and were then promoted to paralegals once they showed that they were capable and knowledgeable about the areas of the law in which they were working.  Many legal assistants that I know do work that most would consider paralegal work; the difference is that they don’t (have to) bill their time for doing it.

I’m not trying to say that going to school to become a paralegal is not a viable and sensible thing to do.  Of course it is.  But going to school and taking the test to become a paralegal does not make you one – actually doing the work and being willing to listen and continue to learn is what makes a paralegal.  It’s similar to a resident working in a hospital who has done all of the schooling and then becomes, per Wikipedia, a doctor in “a stage of graduate medical training,” i.e., working in a hospital to actually learn how to do what he or she learned in all of the medical textbooks.

I am planning to take the paralegal certification test, not because I need it to be a paralegal or because I hope to get a job with a firm where being certified is a requirement.  I am planning to take the test in order to expand my knowledge base because I will HAVE to study, and much of it will be in areas other than those I have been working in for many years.  Oh, and if I pass, I would get to put a couple of letters after my name.   Wish me luck.