The Career Diversity Of Paralegals
January 12th, 2016 / By Eastern College
Did you know that the average Canadian paralegal makes $50,000 per year? By contrast, the average Canadian lawyer makes $70,000 per year—but here is a critical difference: lawyers spend seven years in university, while paralegals only need to spend one year at Eastern College. Most people don’t have $30,000 per year to spend on law school, either. They have different responsibilities, but anyone interested in law needs to take note of that.
Paralegals assist lawyers in their legal tasks and help to improve a law firm’s efficiency, save lawyers time, and help provide a better overall client-centered service.
Entry-level lawyers need to spend six more years in school just to make $70,000 per year, and they still need to spend several years at a much lower salary before they become practising lawyers. On the other hand…
Paralegals get a quick start
You can start earning a solid salary after a year of studying as a paralegal. Paralegals are in high demand because they apply legal ideas and strategy to other ideas in the working world—you can bet that paralegals are working at cutting-edge companies like Google. Some even earn six-figure salaries at the peak of their careers by making company operations as legally smooth as possible.
Paralegals outside of traditional law firms work with company executives, human resources departments, and creative teams to make sure that their companies operate within the bounds of legal acceptability. Don’t be surprised to find paralegals having conversations with product managers about what a product can and cannot do, either.
Paralegals have professional mobility
Paralegals also see lateral movement in their careers. Lawyers only really get to move “vertically” in a single organization, whereas paralegals combine their legal knowledge with industry and product knowledge to become well-rounded professionals. They can contribute to product development, administration, and public relations quite effectively.
Companies need people who can think dynamically and synthesize information.
That’s why paralegals get to work in creative and managerial positions as they develop their skill sets. Legal expertise—and the skills that come with it—set the foundation to learn just about anything. Your options broaden as you gain professional experience—especially outside of law firms.
Companies can now let paralegals take care of the more routine legal work, which means that they don’t need to pay lawyers $200 per hour to do the same thing. With a short training period and professional mobility at a wide range of companies, today’s paralegals have an instant recipe for career success.
You can become a paralegal too!
Don’t spend seven years and tens of thousands of dollars preparing for an over-saturated market of young lawyers. Don’t spend months studying for the LSAT or a bar examination that limits where you can practice law. Spend just over a year training at Eastern College and get your career on track to success.
Demand for paralegals is high, and you can start your career training in a matter of weeks. For more information about the Paralegal program at Eastern College, visit the program page on our website.