When is a semi-legal certificate better than a JD degree?

a question:

When is a paralegal degree better than a JD degree?

Answer:

For some people, maybe now. It depends on where you went to school. How well are you doing in school. Whether you have practical experience or specific skills that law firms need.

For example, if you hold a JD and haven’t been able to find a legitimate legal job in the past year, but the same law firms that turn you down for an associate position happen to hire one or two paralegals as a way to cut costs, the salary from the paralegal Much higher than unemployment benefits for a laid-off attorney. Well above zero salary – if you don’t have a job.

In recent years, major law firms have witnessed a bloodbath. Across the country, they’ve laid off thousands of highly qualified attorneys—some from “top 20” law schools. Many legal observers have described the current job market for lawyers as the worst they have seen in 30 or 40 years.

Big law firms are the “900 pound gorilla” in the room. When they cut payroll to the core, smaller firms and recent law graduates feel the immediate impact.

Professionally, this job downsizing by major law firms has had a Darwinian “survival of the fittest” effect on recent graduates from law schools, particularly from the weaker Tier 3 and Tier 4 law schools.

According to US News & World Report’s annual ranking of law schools, tuition fees at top law schools exceed $40,000 annually. In some cases, it’s close to $50,000. Although financial aid is available, for many students at the best schools it translates into student debt of between $100,000 and $150,000. Some of these “best and brightest” students were part of the bloodbath and lost their jobs. Their student loans haven’t gone away, so they’re excited to find work.

Weak law schools also have high tuition

More so, at Tier 3 and Tier 4 law schools, it is not unusual to find annual tuition costs in excess of $30,000. In today’s job market, when thousands of graduates of top law schools lose their jobs and cannot find another job at anything like the same salary, this means that most graduates of lower level students will have great difficulty in finding any legal job. There are only so many jobs to do.

The major law firms also delayed hiring the best graduates, and provided them with a loan to extend them until the date of employment several months after their graduation. This postponement of employment dates also serves as a “dam in the pipeline” for law school graduates next year. In terms of improving cash flow within the law firm, if the purpose of delaying the hire date for months is to avoid paying $10,000 or so in monthly salary to each member for 6 or 8 months to maintain cash flow for the business, odds are that the firm will Being flush with cash and ready to offer jobs on May 1st to new Associates next year doesn’t look promising. This thing is going to take some time to rectify.

Debt law school students can be ferocious

For the thousands of young attorneys with one to five years of experience who have lost their high-paying associate jobs at a large law firm, it is not unusual for them to still have more than $100,000 in school debt to pay off. It’s not a problem – if the lawyer keeps his high-paying job. This is a big event, when you are suddenly laid off.

Since school debt is not usually erased by bankruptcy law, this means that thousands of highly qualified attorneys have been forced to fill positions that used to be filled by graduates of middle or lower law schools. In competing for the few jobs available, “the big fish eat the small fish”.

Affordable paralegal training

For students still in college pre-law programs, paralegal training can be a realistic “Plan B”—especially for students who are only accepted by Tier 3 or Tier 4 law schools. The American Bar Association publishes a map of each state at A unit for all accredited paralegal programs, often at an affordable community college:

http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/paralegals/directory/

Some of these programs offer a one-year paralegal certificate to students who already have an associate’s degree in another field. Most offer a two-year legal assistant degree.

Obviously, no one can predict the future job market.

For current and future law students who make it into the top 20% of the “20” law schools, they probably won’t have a problem finding a job—although some of those have been caught off guard by layoffs or delayed hiring dates.

The real crisis looms for graduates of Tier 3 and Tier 4 law schools, who may have student debts close to $100,000, yet have no legitimate legal job waiting for them when they graduate—at least not at the starting salary levels one would expect for a lawyer.

The top students will eventually find work, perhaps at a lower salary than expected. For the other students, the future is bleak.

Which brings the discussion back to the training of paralegals.

Some law students graduating from weaker law schools—if they can find a legitimate legal job offer at all—are offered starting salaries not much higher than the starting salaries for senior paralegals.

An uncertain job market

Because no one can predict if or when the job market might change, some pre-law college students consider choosing a paralegal or associate degree as a low-cost way to “get your foot in the door.” They realize that many partners in law firms worked in another field before entering law school (such as nursing or accounting) and look favorably on that experience. A few of them started out as paralegals.

One thing is certain: If the economy goes south again, the $900-hour partners who run the big law firms will tighten the corporate belt, balancing the corporate books on the backs of the firm’s “small fish.”

If a law firm’s costs continue to exceed its revenues, sooner or later expensive associate jobs will be put on the chopping block. During this cost reduction, a high-quality, low-cost paralegal may be avoided when the associate (who may be twice or triple the company’s cost) shows up at the door.

If you look at the websites or handbooks of Tier 3 and Tier 4 law schools, you will rarely find a warning that graduates of the school had a great deal of difficulty in the most recent job downturn, or that few summer internships were available.

If a tier 3 or tier 4 law school charges $30,000 in tuition a year with an enrollment of 400 students, that’s a revenue stream of $12,000,000 a year which will pay a lot of high salaries at the school. This revenue stream, and the school’s continued prosperity, will be jeopardized if the school cannot fill their entry class with low-scoring LSAT/GPA students willing to take on about $100,000 in student debt, with little chance of making it high. Pay the job.

Looking at the cold realism, students who have only been accepted by Tier 3 or Tier 4 law schools may want to look at paralegal studies, or some other field. Carry less debt. You have a better chance of finding a job in an adverse job market.