April 18, 2005
confessions of a corporate paralegal
i must say i was surprised that foxes would ask me to guest blog. afterall, he didn't ask me to recap the duke trip and he knows that i'm not funny. i think maybe someone told him that i had been working all weekend (approx. 33 billable hours thankyouverymuch) at my law firm and might have some choice things to say about paralegaling before going to law school.
i decided to be a paralegal for two reasons: (1) i wasn't sure why i wanted to go to law school and i knew that most people have to work in a large law firm to pay off their loans and (2) i had worked for three summers for the federal government and wanted to change to a job that had free sushi and paid well. my firm (herinafter referred to as "Firm X") lured me in with promises of a "friendly and collegial" work environment (pre-1Ls, do these words sound familiar?) and paid overtime.
for the first few months, i was in heaven. i worked fairly late and gorged myself on spicy tuna roll. i was doing a lot of photocopying-- but that is what a liberal arts degree is good for, right? then Firm X started getting busier. weekends were indistinguishable from weekdays and the receptionist's "happy friday!" greeting as i walked in the door on what should have been my last work day of the week was met with stony silence. i stopped making dinner plans. in my free time i bought expensive things because i "deserved" them. my refrigerator looked like i belonged on "cribs" -- all fluids and no real food because real food would go bad before i could eat it. the $30 steak that i billed to the client didn't taste so good in its metal to-go container while i shoveled it into my mouth over my computer. i took two vacation days total in my first year of work.
i know this is a horrible story, but my experience at Firm X has taught me so much. much more than photocopying, i've actually done all the non-legal work that a first-year associate would do. i've been pretty lucky. except for a few crazy-ass attorneys, most of the people i've worked for are awesome. demanding and stressed-out, but awesome. i showed them that i wanted to do as much substantive work as possible and they let me. i've edited transaction documents, talked to clients and assisted with SEC filings. part of my reasoning for going to law school is that i've gained so much responsibility as a paralegal, i might as well be an attorney so i can continue to move up. i've also learned that this sector of the law is interesting to me, not simply a means to an end (no debt), but good in and of itself. kant would be proud.
more importantly, i've gotten a taste of a first-year associate lifestyle. i watch my associates juggle new babies/old parents/significant others and work. i know that after law school i will face these same issues and i've really benefited from watching the different ways my attorneys deal with them. most people think it is the long hours that get to you, but its the unpredictability. if you make dinner plans, you'll probably have to break them. if you plan a vacation, you'll worry every single second until you get on that plane that it will get cancelled and while you are on vacation you'll either be working or worried that work is going to call.
i've made every single mistake that a first-year associate would make. at some point, you have to make dinner reservations and plan vacations and just know that everything is "subject to workload". (the whole thing gets a lot more complicated when children are involved though and i'm not going go pretend i understand what it is like to tell your child "i'm sorry i missed your school play, but mommy was working".) you need to put down that purse and back away, pay off your student loan debt instead. after you establish a good reputation at a firm, you need to know when to go home instead of staying late to work on something "just in case". try to cook on the weekends if you aren't working.
i really recommend paralegaling for anyone that isn't certain about working at a large law firm, but who may have to do it to pay off their student loan debt. i'm still not entirely sure what i will do with my law degree, but i now know that working for a corporate law firm isn't so bad and i not-so-secretly kind of like it.
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