When is a paralegal certificate better than a JD degree?
Ask:
When is a Paralegal certificate better than a JD degree?
Answer:
For some people, maybe now. It depends where you went to school. How well did you do at school? Whether you have practical experience or specific skills needed by law firms.
For example, if you have a J.D. degree and have been unable to find legitimate legal work in the last year, but the same law firms that turn you down for an Associate position are hiring a Paralegal or two as a way to cut costs, the salary of a Paralegal is much higher than the unemployment benefits of a laid off lawyer. Much higher than a zero salary, if you don’t have a job.
In recent years, large law firms have been through a bloodbath. Across the country, they have fired thousands of highly-skilled attorneys, some of them from “top 20” law schools. Many legal observers have said that the current job market for lawyers is 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 bare minimum, smaller businesses and new law graduates feel the direct hit.
In a professional sense, this job cut by big law firms has had a Darwinian “survival of the fittest” impact on recent law school graduates, especially those in Tier 3 law schools. and Tier 4 weaker.
According to US News & World Report’s annual ranking of law schools, tuition at the best law schools exceeds $40,000 per year. In some cases, it is closer to $50,000. Although financial aid is available, for many students, even at the best schools, it translates to 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 motivated to find a job.
WEAK LAW SCHOOLS ALSO HAVE HIGH ENROLLMENT
More specifically, 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 the best law schools have lost their jobs and cannot find another job for the same pay, this means that MOST graduates of lower-level students will have a very difficult time finding ANY legal work. job. There are only so many jobs to go around.
Big law firms have also delayed hiring top graduates, offering them a loan to help them out until a hire date many months after they graduate. These postponements of hire dates also act as a “plug in the pipe” for next year’s law school graduates. In terms of improving cash flow within the law firm, if the purpose of pushing the hire date back by months was to avoid paying the monthly salary of approximately $10,000 per Associate for 6-8 months to preserve the firm’s cash flow firm, the odds that the firm will be flush with cash and prepared to offer jobs on May 1 to new Associates in the coming year do not look promising. This thing will take a while to correct.
LAW SCHOOL STUDENT DEBT CAN BE A BEAST
For the thousands of young lawyers with one to five years of experience who lost their high-paying jobs as associates at a large law firm, it’s not uncommon 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 well-paid job. That’s a great IF, when you suddenly get fired.
Since school debt is generally not wiped out under bankruptcy law, that means thousands of highly-skilled lawyers have been forced into positions that were once held by graduates of mid-level and lower-level law schools. By competing for the few jobs available, the “big fish eat the little fish.”
AFFORDABLE PARALEGAL TRAINING
For students still in undergraduate programs at the university, paralegal training could be a realistic “plan B,” especially for students who are accepted ONLY to Tier 3 or Tier 4 law schools. The American Bar Association publishes a state-by-state map of all approved 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 for students who already have an associate’s degree in another field. Most offer a two-year associate paralegal degree.
Obviously, no one can predict the future job market.
For current and future law students who end up in the top 20% of the “Top 20” law schools, they probably won’t have a problem finding a job, although some of them have been caught off guard by layoffs or hire dates. deferred.
The real looming crisis looms for those graduates of Tier 3 and Tier 4 law schools, who may rack up close to $100,000 in student debt and yet have no legitimate legal job waiting for them when they graduate, at least not at starting salary levels. one would expect from a lawyer.
The best students will eventually find work, perhaps at a lower-than-expected salary. For other students, the future is bleak.
Which brings the discussion back to Paralegal training.
Some of the law students who graduate from the weaker law schools, if they can find a legitimate legal job offer, are offered starting salaries that are not much higher than the starting salaries of the best paralegals.
AN UNCERTAIN JOB MARKET
Since no one can predict if or when the job market will change, some undergraduate college students are considering pursuing a paralegal certificate or associate’s degree as an inexpensive way to “get their foot in the door.” They understand that many law firm partners worked in another field before going to law school (for example, nursing or accounting) and they welcome that experience. Some started out as paralegals.
One thing is for sure: if the economy takes another dip, the $900-an-hour partners who run the big law firms will tighten the firm belt and balance the firm’s books on the backs of the “smaller fish” of the signature.
If a law firm’s costs continue to outpace its revenue, sooner or later expensive Associate positions will be eliminated. During such cost cutting, a quality, low-cost Paralegal could avoid being fired when an Associate is shown the door (which can be two to three times as expensive for the company).
If you look at the websites or brochures of Tier 3 and Tier 4 law schools, you will rarely find a warning that the school’s graduates had a hard time 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 per year tuition with 400 students enrolled, that’s a $12,000,000 per year revenue stream that will pay for many high salaries at the school. That stream of revenue, and the school’s continued prosperity, would be jeopardized if the school were unable to fill its entering class with lower-scoring LSAT/GPA students willing to take on student debt of about $100,000, with little chance. to get a high-paying job.
Viewed through the cool eye of realism, students who are accepted ONLY to Tier 3 or Tier 4 law schools may want to look into Paralegal studies, or some other field. Incur less debt. Have a better chance of finding a job in an adverse job market.