Considering a paralegal role? This week’s Feature explores how paralegal work has become an increasingly viable route to qualifying as a solicitor, from building crucial work experience for training contract applications to counting towards qualifying work experience.
Paralegals are legal professionals who work in law firms but aren't qualified as solicitors, barristers or CILEX Lawyers. Traditionally, paralegals are support staff but, in reality, firms have become reliant on paralegals to do much of the fee-earning work previously done by solicitors. In practice, there’s often little to no difference in terms of work and skills between an experienced paralegal and an associate. The term ‘paralegal' is generic and can cover various roles, from administrative to fee-earning work.
Thanks to law firms' increased reliance, paralegals are now a distinct professional group in their own right. However, there are possible downsides for those considering this type of work. The heavy cost pressures imposed on law firms by clients' demands for lower fees makes hiring paralegals a more attractive option than hiring solicitors, because paralegals are usually paid far less. Being paid nowhere near as much as solicitor colleagues to do the same work is a factor worth considering when making your choice.
Many paralegals also don’t benefit from the same career progression as solicitors. However, this probably won’t matter as much if you’re using a paralegal role as a steppingstone before applying for a training contract or building up your qualifying work experience (QWE), but many firms see it as in their interests to keep paralegals in roles without much prospect of progression because they do the work of solicitors at a lower cost. This means that training contracts are much more competitive than paralegal roles – which is something to consider.
However, a paralegal role can be a great place to start to gain work experience, or even to build up QWE, making it an alternate way of qualify as a solicitor. To explain, as a paralegal, if your experience offers you the chance to develop some or all of the competencies required to practise as a solicitor, it can count towards your two years’ QWE.
