Close to finishing a 35 year career. For the next phase...

considering becoming a paralegal. Anyone here done that? Any comments/suggestions?

I hope to semi-retire at 57, ten years from now :hi:

I hear it pays well if you get with the right group of lawyers.

Others who work for real estate and family law attorneys usually make about a third less. Read it somewhere when everyone was going back to school during the last recession.

I am an attorney for Legal Aid. I have dealt with paralegals (Which is a broad term within the legal profession, can be a secretary to a law student waiting to pass the BAR to a disbarred lawyer). If you are looking for something to do, Legal Services is always looking for Volunteers and will use you. When I have had paralegals I have them do legal research, come with me to hearings, and even talk to clients. Under Pennsylvania law Paralegals can talk to clients (Unless they are disbarred or suspended Attorneys) go to Social Security Hearings etc.

If you are looking for income, most attorneys do not use paralegals unless you are dealing with a larger law firm. The reason for this is most of one or two attorney law firms is show up for trial and argue for your client. Issues of law are rare, it is mostly an issue of fact (Did he rob the defendant in a criminal case? is he or she the better parent is a custody case). In larger firms, issues of law come up enough to justifying someone to do legal research (And I am talking an law firm of 3-4 attorneys or larger). Now this is guidelines not deadlines, some single law firms need paralegals to do legal research. Some large firms do not need them, for they take fact based cases only.

Thus the issue is are you looking for something to do, or Income? Legal Services always need volunteers but do NOT have the income to justify hiring anyone today let alone new Attorneys, Paralegals or Secretaries. Smaller law firms need someone with some legal background, but often they need someone to type in data (When I do Bankruptcies I could use a Paralegal to type in the data, the assets and debts of the client, the time to do so ties me up excessively). You do NOT need to be a lawyer to represent someone in a Social Security Case. I find it is better if a paralegal works under an attorney when doing so but it is a way for an attorney to provide a service via a paralegal instead of him or herself.

One last comment, if you are looking for income and need experience, I would still volunteer for Legal Services while you are looking for a job. Other attorneys will take note of the experience (And being a Volunteer, Legal Services will give you a good reference).

At best this new gig might equal half of my current salary, and that is being optimistic. More for walking around money, pay health insurance premium. Would also like something less than 40 hours per week if such a thing was there. Had already assumed that if I worked for lawyers it would have to be in a big firm.

I've been told by the university that has this program that my 35 years of healthcare administration and MBA might make me a little more marketable.

Yes, it varies by law firm, but it is a sad fact of the legal profession. On the other hand you bring with you 35 years of health-care administrative experience. I know that is NOT medical care per se, but you know how Hospitals operate and as such could be a good addition to a law firm that does medical mal-practice (Such firms tend to be located in larger cities, not small cities like the town I practice in). Just some remarks on your question more than anything else.

and more importantly give thought to what the future brings. I remembered today that for the past few years wife and I have been working to simplify our lives. Not sure this fits in with that, if for no other reason that it could just be another job and with it the associated hassles.

I also thought about that as a career, but the professor at the college says, that work is very
hard to come by even for her. Some attorneys are doing paralegal work here in Missouri. I would
love to do paralegal work, but I'm afraid to do it. Soon I will have to choose something and was
thinking of medical billing & coding? Don't really know what to do.

I have a paralegal certificate I earned in a six-week crash course, but have never actually been one (although it helped me in a later job). Now that I am unemployed I don't even consider using the paralegal certificate, because associates and paralegals in big firms are losing their jobs right and left. Even if you did complete a training course (they vary in length; some are two years but mine was six weeks!), you'd have no guarantee of getting a job, and no guarantee of keeping it if you did get it.

career choice, I'm a little more tolerant of the career risks. I still need to be convinced that there are jobs out there. Hell, I may just blow it off and work around the farm...

until a new director and I didn't get along.

Its not a bad field (if you can work with good people) but there aren't many jobs right now. Many libraries are cutting back, etc.

was way overcrowded then, IME, and I heard that from lots of other people, on the Internet and in RL.

Like most workplaces, libraries were then hiring part-timers and sometimes reducing the requirements for positions, such as requiring a bachelor's degree instead of an MLS. I imagine they still are.

"(if you can work with good people)"--that's a big 10-4, and in hard times, it's usually the crappiest jobs that become available.