How To Become A Paralegal

My name is Tim Welsh. I'm a university law lecturer, barrister, and a law teacher at City Law Tutors, and I'm going to talk to you about how to find legal jobs. I'm going to talk to you about how to become a paralegal.

Becoming a paralegal is relatively easy to do, as long as you have good qualifications; although, as I'll mention in a moment, there are no specific requirements as to your educational background. You will also need to know where to find jobs, and how much paralegals earn. What paralegals do will depend on the firm they work in and the area of law they work in.

So for example, typically a paralegal will assist a lawyer in carrying out his day-to-day tasks. This will often, in a city firm, involve making bundles to courts, which are documents used for barristers when appearing before a court. Or they may do a lot of photocopying, or otherwise assist lawyers in meetings where in conference with barristers and solicitors and clients.

This will also involve note-taking, and you've got to be able to write quickly and accurately, and often paraphrase what the conversation is about. In criminal law firms, your paralegal role may be altogether different. It will involve working with different types of people.

It will often involve going into prisons or youth offender institutions and taking instructions from the lay client. This will involve a particular type of skill. For example, you may be working with vulnerable people in difficult situations.

You may also go into court, and this will typically involve sitting behind a barrister and taking notes of the proceedings and assisting the barrister in any way you may be able to do. As to the educational requirements of a paralegal, technically, there are none. However, when looking for paralegal jobs, you will face immense competition from people who are very well qualified and are very well legally qualified.

And therefore you will do well to have the relevant qualifications and experience in order to obtain a job. Often this will mean having a law degree. Most of your competitors will have law degrees.

It will also often mean having qualified from a vocational legal course, such as the Legal Practice Course, or the Bar Vocational Course, now called the Bar Training and Professional Course. You will also need to have some experience. Most city firms will be looking for people who can hit the ground running and take on the work immediately.

They don't want to train you, they already have trainee solicitors who they spend their resources on training. So you'll do well to have a) legal qualifications, and b) some experience paralegaling. In terms of finding jobs, you can either target the law firm directly through their recruitment pages, or often, particularly in the city firms, they may recruit through specialist paralegal agencies, recruitment agencies, such as Prolaw or totallylegal.

com, are both places where you'll find paralegal positions. Or indeed lawcareers.net, which is a law society website and that also has immediate vacancies.

As to the money you will get as a paralegal, this will vary depending on the firm and the type of law you go into. For example, a criminal firm may pay you as little as 12,000 pounds per year, whereas a city firm may pay you thirty. It will depend on the firm, how big it is, and the type of law they do, particularly the type of clients who they work with.

To find out more information about training as a paralegal or finding a job as a paralegal, visit our website at www.citylawtutors.k.

uk, where you can find information about how to become a paralegal, and also, you can call us, as we actually train paralegals in-house. .