<p>I attended a panel discussion at school last week. Current law students discussed their paths to law school. Someone asked if they'd paralegaled as undergrads. </p>
<p>Almost every student said that they'd done it just a couple of years ago. But, has the state of the economy affected opportunities in this sector? How difficult is it for undergraduates to find paying summer work as a paralegal?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes. Staffers are usually the first to go when lay-offs happen.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In my opinion, summer paralegal positions are difficult to get. When I was looking, most jobs required a 2-year commitment.</p>
<p>Shiitake.</p>
<p>Paid internships are few and far between. I’ve even considered staying in New York City over the summer. Though, I don’t know if it’ll make a difference.</p>
<p>As you can imagine, I was really hoping that I wouldn’t have to go back to waiting tables this summer.</p>
<p>Welcome to the economic crisis.</p>
<p>Contrary to what you heard at the panel discussion you attended, I don’t know of a large law firm that hires summer “paralegals”. I do know of firms that used to hire a few college interns for the summer here and there, but never as paralegals.</p>
<p>Most large law firms have two types of paralegals – those who are career paralegals, and who are particularly knowledgable about a particular area of the law (and who often know quite a bit more than junior associates), and those who recently graduated from college and who have pledged two to three years to the law firm to work as a paralegal. Typically the latter category of paralegals is working at the law firm as a prelude to law school.</p>
<p>If you attend an elite school (Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Duke, etc.), getting an internship at a top law firm in NYC isn’t that hard, especially if it’s during a non-summer term.</p>
<p>Sally, I do know of at least one firm that hires summer paras. It puts them through a training course the first summer and does ask a two year commitment–or at least did a year or two ago. It offers permanent jobs after graduation to those who complete two summers satisfactorily. It’s not unlike the summer jobs for securities and IB firms.</p>
<p>^ Viola! Precisely what I was talking about. Yes, all of these students attended higher ranked ivies. All of them were quick mentioned that their paralegal work was paid. Of course, that’s the part sounds particularly enticing.</p>
<p>All of my peers go on to so legal analyst work in NYC. Immediately after graduation, and it seems like many as early as the fall term before, they set to work in the legal field - with limited abilities/liabilities/etc. Apparently, after a couple of years, it’s customary for some of these young analysts to head off to law school. Is this something exclusive to New York City?</p>
<p>Again, in this economy, I just don’t think these positions exist, and if they do, you don’t want to rely on them. </p>
<p>IvyPBear mentioned, somewhat elitistely (yes, I made up that word), that it isn’t hard getting such an internship. A) In a good economy, such internships weren’t hard even for non-elite students; B) with firms laying off staffers left and right, I strongly doubt there’s a huge market for newly minted graduates looking to begin their paralegal careers.</p>
<p>The number of these position definitely has greatly decreased over the past couple of years. It’s much more competitive now. Three years ago, getting such a position at an elite law firm in NYC was probably among the easiest things to do for a student at an elite school because 1. top students, even ones pursuing med school and law school, aim to make $12000 over ten weeks in ib and management consulting 2. top students don’t pursue positions at law firms that pay $6000-7000 since law school admission offices don’t value these experiences much anyway.</p>
<p>jonri, I’m sure you are correct. Thank you for the information.</p>
<p>To the OP, were you looking for a summer paralegal position that would require that you commit to working two years full-time for that law firm after college graduation?</p>