So you're finishing college and your life plans don't extend much beyond dinner. Join the club. If you wanna kill some time before applying to grad school or just make enough money to avoid moving in with your parents, you should consider working as a paralegal for a few years, because if you have a college degree and decent grades, you're qualified to be an entry-level paralegal.

Don't I need a paralegal certificate?

Some paralegal positions require a paralegal certificate, a diploma you get after taking an accredited course in paralegal studies. But these certificates, and the positions that require them, are mostly for people who wish to be career paralegals. So don't fear -- there are plenty of positions available for recent college grads that don't require a paralegal certificate. And we're going to tell you how to get those jobs. (If you wish to be a career paralegal, check out American Bar Association for more info.)

1. MAKE SURE YOU REALLY WANT THE JOB

Legal work can be thrilling, spiced with the intrigue of courtroom drama and back-room dealing -- but not for a paralegal. Let's be serious. Paralegals exist to make lawyers look good.

So what is a paralegal?

According to the American Bar Association, a paralegal (or legal assistant) is defined as "a person qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible."

As a paralegal, you will perform administrative tasks such as filing, retrieving and organizing documents, photocopying, and the ever-popular numbering of pages. Depending on the employer, when taking a break from hole-punching, you may get to participate in more glamorous tasks such as interviewing witnesses or drafting legal documents.

Let's be a little more specific. There are essentially two major types of law that are practiced in America: corporateand litigation. Corporate law deals primarily with the dealings of companies, which may, for example, be looking to merge or to acquire new entities, and need lawyers to prepare all the paperwork; litigation is the more typical type of law, involving one party suing another.

As a corporate paralegal, you will probably put together record sets. These are large binders filled with primary documents associated with particular business deals. Say a company buys a shopping mall -- a record set of the deal might include the contract to purchase the mall, the leases of all the current tenants in the mall, and all of the myriad tax forms associated with such a purchase. You, as paralegal, would get to photocopy the documents, make sure that they are the final versions (i.e., no rough drafts or preliminary versions), and ensure that they are all in the proper order. Yes!

As a litigation paralegal, you will handle the documents associated with trials: motions, which petition the judge for favorable rulings; briefs, which set out the arguments supporting your motions; and depositions, which are interviews of witnesses taken under oath but before the trial begins. You'll spend hours making sure that the pages of all these documents are identical in each set. You'll also do a bunch of indexing -- describing the documents in a computer database, putting papers in boxes, and labeling them, so that attorneys can find them later.

What are the benefits of being a paralegal?

First of all, the experience may help you figure out what to do with your life. For instance, it might help you decide:

  • Whether you want to be a career paralegal.
  • Whether you want to go to law school.
  • Whether you want to avoid the legal profession entirely.

Second, being a paralegal might help you get into law school. Admissions officers may think that your experience as a paralegal demonstrates that you have carefully considered your decision to enter the field. Also, if you can befriend and impress an attorney or two at your firm, their recommendations could be huge. Remember: work hard and impress.

Third, being a paralegal may help you get another job. If you work as a paralegal at an investment bank, an insurance company, or any other major business, there are opportunities to move laterally within the company. So if your stint as a paralegal teaches you nothing other than the legal profession stinks, the years you spent working in it won't have been a waste.

Paralegal salaries fluctuate from city to city and, to a lesser extent, from firm to firm. Currently, the average starting salary for a paralegal in the United States is $21,000 - $22,000. This is a base salary for working from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with a one-hour lunch break, Monday through Friday. That's some of the good news.

The bad news is that many employers (particularly large law firms) won't let you escape with such normal hours. If there is work to be done on an important deal or trial, you may be expected to stay late, perhaps until 10:00 p.m. or so. You might also be expected to come in on weekends. Of course, these workloads and expectations vary. So ask before you sign up. And for a real answer, ask the paralegals who work there, not the person trying to hire you.

The rest of the good news is that you get paid extra for these hours. In major New York City and Washington, D.C. firms, paralegals are paid time-and-a-half for overtime - any hours over the basic 35 hour workweek. This amounts to $21/hour. Also, you can often make double overtime if you work really crazy hours - anything after 3:00 a.m. or on Sundays and holidays. So if you put in long hours, you're looking at a salary as high as $60,000 a year. And when you work those long nights, your firm will probably give you free food and a cab home.

All in all, being a paralegal is relatively flexible. Many non-law firm jobs do not require (or even permit) overtime. On the other hand, crazy hours are impossible to avoid at many large law firms. So you can opt for a cozy lifestyle with livable hours or make some serious cash. Your call.

2. DECIDE WHERE TO APPLY

If you are interested in making a lot of money or are considering law school, we suggest that you apply for paralegal positions at major law firms -- they provide many opportunities for overtime pay and have the greatest number of openings for paralegals. In fact, because of the annual turnover, most large law firms have a standing need for paralegals, whether they have advertised job openings or not.

Unless your friends or relatives are attorneys, chances are you don't know one law firm from another. You may not even know the names of any. Trust us, you'll want to learn some quickly; you don't want to work at any ol' firm. You need to find a job at a place where you're going to be happy, which means avoiding the large crop of firms where the attorneys are lunatics.

So, how can I find law firms I might like?

We suggest that you begin your search by looking at one or both of the following two books: The Insider's Guide to Law Firms or The VaultReports.com Guide to America's Top 50 Law Firms. The Insider's Guide is offered on Amazon.com for about $45, but it really is an investment for the tons you'll make when you're hired!. All you have to do is register — for free — and you can look through complete entries on each firm. Of course, if you like the feel of a sturdy book in your job-seeking hand, you can buy either of these books for about $30.

These books provide useful statistical and contact information (e.g., total number of attorneys, starting salaries, minority representation, firm addresses, contact information for their recruiting coordinators, etc.) for many of the nation's major law firms. More importantly, they provide an evaluation of each firm. These evaluations explain things such as the firm's reputation, its high-profile cases, its culture, its political affiliations, and so on.

Look at the firms that have offices in the city/cities where you wanna work, and pick a few based upon factors that you consider most important to your stint as a paralegal. To be safe, choose ten firms. The Insider's Guide is probably the best source for this task, since it includes a greater number of firms. However, The VaultReports, which ranks firms, may be more helpful in ordering your choices - particularly if you are interested in reputation and prestige.

What about this "Martindale Hubbell" thing I've heard about?

If you don't wanna shell out the thirty bones for either book, and you don't like to register on-line for anything, you can begin your search with a less precise but less costly resource called Martindale Hubbell. "Martindale," as it is known in the biz, is a directory of every single attorney in America, organized by city and then by law firm. Yeah, it's a real page-turner -- but very useful. So go to your school or local public library, find the Martindale volume for your city, and start skimming. Read the abstracts at the top of each firm's entry, which describe the nature of each firm's work: corporate or litigation, entertainment or finance, and choose your firms, based on features that appeal to you. Remember: the larger the firm, the more likely that there are current openings for paralegals. And the more impressive your lies will be when you tell people you're actually a lawyer at the firm.

Isn't there a way I could do this on the Internet?

If using books makes you want to hurt things (heck, you don't wanna READ, you wanna paralegal) there is a terrific service on the web which will allow you to learn about firms that have advertised for paralegals. For free. Good places to start are www.monster.com and careerbuilder.com. If you go to these sites and look for paralegal openings, you'll be hit with a list of currently open positions.

If you are looking for a job with set hours and the potential to move laterally to a non-legal job, you will want to apply for paralegal positions at insurance companies, investment banks, or other private companies with in-house lawyers. Heck, even the U.S. Government needs paralegals. Go to monstertrak.com or the career resource websites mentioned above and select targets based upon your areas of interest.

3. SUBMIT A COVER LETTER AND RESUME

Once you've picked the firms where you want to apply, you will need to submit your request for an interview. All major companies have a professional staffer whose job is to oversee the work of the paralegals. You'll need to find out who this person is so that you can address your cover letter and résuméto him or her personally.

If you found the opening advertised on JOBTRAK or some other employment service, the contact person to whom you should send all correspondence will be listed there. If, however, you've used The Insider's Guide, The VaultReports, or Martindale, you'll need to do a bit more work. All of these books contain the main phone number of each law firm. Simply call that number and ask the receptionist for the name of the person in charge of hiring paralegals. Be sure to get the spelling and official title of that individual, as well as his or her phone number and e-mail. Be courteous on the phone, and treat the receptionist with respect - you may be working with him or her someday.

The cover letter and résumé you need to send are no different than ones you would use for any job. If, however, you are a wee bit anal retentive, and need to see some specific examples to use as models, you've come to the right place. Check out this paralegal cover letter and this paralegal résumé. And if you need more advice on these topics generally, check out SoYouWanna write a cover letter and SoYouWanna write an impressive résumé, courtesy of your friends here at SoYouWanna.net...

4. DON'T BLOW THE INTERVIEW

If things work out, you'll be called within a couple of weeks and invited in for an interview. If not, you'll probably receive a curt letter thanking you for your inquiry and politely suggesting you look elsewhere, although one guy we know got a postcard with a big "NO" on it. In crayon.

Once you do land an interview, you're well on your way. You can, however, blow your chance if you make a few basic mistakes.

The first cardinal rule, as important as not picking your nose, is to be effusive. Paralegaling can be involve some mindless work, and if the firm senses that you will not be up to slogging in the trenches, they won't waste their time with you. Assure them repeatedly that you know that the job isn't necessarily glamorous and that you're willing to work very hard at what may be repetitive tasks. They'll love that.

The second cardinal rule is to be prepared. For example, if you apply to law firms, know what area each firm specializes in, if any, and know a big case that each firm was recently on. This information is usually available on the firm's website or in their promotional brochures. Interviewers like it when you weave a tidbit about the firm into an interview answer. ("One of the reasons I wanted to work here is because you have a strong maritime law practice, which interests me because my father was a pirate.")

Sometimes you may interview with current paralegals and perhaps even a few attorneys. Above all, be relaxed. These people are testing to see whether they will be able be able to get along with you. They know the job isn't rocket science, so don't boast about your academic accomplishments or they'll wonder who let you out of your pod. Simply emphasize your work ethic and otherwise be someone fun to be around for hours on end.

If none of your top ten choices works out, you have three options: pick ten more places, change your focus, or give up. We aren't going to tell you how to give up. You can figure that out yourself.

Happy hunting.