I would love to hear from guest bloggers on the following topics:
- Are you happy or unhappy as a paralegal and why;
- What do you love or hate about the job;
- Your personal experience story – education background, field of law, salary, typical work day, and personal fulfillment and satisfaction in the job (including what you think about how you are compensated);
- What drives you crazy about working for lawyers;
- What would you change about your job and the lawyers you work for to make your job better;
- Have you ever thought about pursuing a different career? If so, what would you want to do? What is the obstacle involved with changing;
- Have you left the paralegal field? Tell us why, how, and what you are doing now;
- How you are treated by your lawyers and co-workers, and how you feel about them;
- Being disrespected or mistreated at work;
- Is your job difficult? Explain. Tell me what the most challenging/frustrating aspects are;
- Tell me your best and worst experiences you have had while working as a paralegal;
- What advice would you give someone who is thinking about becoming a paralegal;
- What you wish you could tell your boss.
Submissions should come via email to: recoveringlitigationparalegal@gmail.com
Please do not send attachments, I will not open these. I do not expect people to work for free, so if I choose to run your story I will pay you $15.00 for posts under 400 words, and $30.00 for posts over 800 words. I will use PayPal to remit payment. You can submit anonymously if you choose, or run with a short bio and up to two links back to your website.
Recovering Paralegal 
Hi recovering paralegal
I absolutely am in love with your blog. I am a “law clerk” in canada and I am truly disgusted with what the working environment I am faced with. I recently left a job at one of the biggest law firms in the world where I was a litigation assistant because the partner was psychologically abusive, yelled, swore at me and had impossible expectations to meet. I am going onto 3 months at a new firm and finding myself unhappy .
Get out now or as soon as you are able. It will not matter where you go, you will always be disrespected, regardless of your experience and/or vast knowledge. Lawyers are always going to be demeaning and rare are the ones who appreciate what you do. Move on, find something much better and you will be much happier.
Worst. Job. Ever.
It’s probably not as bad as customer service in a grocery store, but yeah, it’s right up there.
Rampant psychological warfare. Even more rampant quid pro quo sexual harassment. Working for Hannibal Lecter would be a welcome change. Making the jump into IT this year. I’m done.
Rampant psychological warfare. Even more rampant quid pro quo sexual harassment. Working for Hannibal Lecter would be a welcome change. Making the jump into IT this year. Scary, given my age, but I’m done. I’ll continue freelancing for my normal clients but my stint in CelL Block Pervy Sociopath is over.
I am happy to have come across Recovering Paralegal! I resigned from my position last month after 6 years as a Paralegal with an Associate Degree. I am glad to know I was not the only one feeling as though I was in hell every day. I must have enjoyed hell though because I was smart enough to resign shortly after being at the firm for 4 years and found a happier place only to be stupid enough to think anything would be better considering they were offering me a much higher salary and not only giving me back paid personal time they took from me on my 3 year anniversary, but giving me an additional 5 days on top of that.
In my situation it was not the attorney who owned the firm that was the bully, but the office manager. Unfortunately she is the attorneys wife and must have pretended her husband’s law school graduation was actually hers because she sure does act like an attorney, a very bad one who has no clue what she is doing. Upon my return, the once friendly Associate was behaving just the same as the office manager and also not far out of law school so not sure what’s she is doing, so the only diffence being she actually is a licensed attorney. I had to walk away because at the end of most days, I walked out unsure which end of the line the criminals were on since more often than not, it had become blurred.
Yes! Yes! Yes! This doesn’t get addressed often enough, and it should. In my experience in several law firms it’s the office manager who is the biggest problem. They are usually wives or other family members, or friends of one or more of the attorneys, and simply cannot be objective. Further, I’ve yet to meet one who actually had any experience doing any legal work. I suppose if they could order stationary or copier paper was qualification enough. They are totally ignorant of what the work actually entails. It got to be a deal breaker for me; I would ask in interviews if there were any family members working at the firm. The question always caught them off guard; and if the answer was ‘yes’, no deal, discussion over.
All of them behaved like high school mean girls, and could do so with impunity because they weren’t held to any sort of standard away. These days I’m in a corporate environment which is better by leaps and bounds, but there is a different sort of toxicity, where you are either part of the ‘cool kids’ crowd and therefore moving up the pay scale, or you are not, and doomed to your cubicle for all eternity.
I really wish I had gotten out of law a long, long time ago.
So glad to have found this and hope to contribute a story soon. I spent 15 years working as a Paralegal, naively clinging to the dream that someday I will no longer be exploited, oppressed and under-valued. Anyone who hasn’t experienced this first-hand just doesn’t get it. Thank you for writing this blog. It’s good to know I am not alone.
This article hits exactly how I feel currently in my job. I’m a paralegal at a medium sized firm that practices mainly corporate law. Right now I serve as a Legal Secretary/Receptionist at the front and a overflow paralegal. So basically three jobs for the lovely wage of $13hr (sucks)!! Previously I worked in Social Security Disability law and found it to be okay, but my attorney was terrible at managing the firm.
I took this job with hopes of a better wage, more organization and new opportunities. WRONG! I was offered a receptionist job that would turn into a paralegal job. Which it did, but I’m still doing the receptionist thing and now they threw me into being a Legal Secretary. Needless to say I hate it here. The Admin/Controller is constantly asking me how busy I am, wants me to make a checklist of everything I do in a day. Acts like i’m not doing all my duties and then complains if I don’t have something done. Can I be spread any further?? But enough of my rant.
My question to other paralegals:
Is it like this everywhere in the field? Are you constantly under paid for your work product. Underappreciated? Treated like second hand citizen by attorneys?
I’m seriously doubting my career choice.
Have I just not found the right area of law or place?
I’m pulling my hair out at this point!
I am 25 with a Bachelors degree in Paralegal Studies.
Thanks!!
Honestly, you are underpaid for doing all of that work, but that is how it goes when you are 25, and the firm’s business model exploits that intentionally. Once you have enough experience, you will either leave and move on to something better or talk yourself up the ladder in your current firm. There are “good” paying jobs (I guess, if $50-80k is all you ever want to make until the day you die) in the legal field, but they are hard to obtain until you have 3-5 years of experience under your belt (and you have to swallow a lot of shit and sacrifice your life in order to keep those jobs because the competition is FIERCE). I would put your time in, and then start applying elsewhere if that is want you want to do. If you are sick of the firm environment, then obviously I get that, because I thought it was a joke myself (and that is why I ultimately left). If you have the Type B personality (read: happy as remaining a servant/having a “steady” job slinging bullshit, but nothing more than that), being a paralegal can absolutely be a fit for you. If you are a Type A person who wants to achieve, contribute, build something of your own, etc., you are wasting your time as a paralegal. That isn’t what you are going to do! EVER. If you are Type A, you need to go be part of a real business that makes something, instead of perpetuating legal bullshit where you bill people for the bullshit you make up to do everyday, just so you can fill up a task list you submit to your boss so he can see all the bullshit you are capable of flinging in one day. Type A’s want to go do something real. Are you Type A or B? I don’t know.
I’m a type A personality. Scorpio lol leader, my own person, opinionated, strong willed, no drama, no petty Bullshit kinda person. So yeah I’m definitely thinking i chose the wrong field, however I don’t know what other job I could do with a BA in Paralegal Studies. Ugg. Thank you for your response. Its nice to talk with someone.
OMG, Corrine, you and I should hang our own shingle – I am the very same way and they look at me as if I’ve three horns on my head.
Right! It’s so very frustrating. The only other person I can relate to is my mother. She is a Scorpio as well and we are exactly the same person only age difference, I swear I’m just a younger version of her, lol!