Career Opportunities for Paralegals

Career Opportunities for Paralegals

Paralegals have a wide variety of options when it comes to choosing their career. Being a paralegal does not necessarily mean having to work in a law firm. There are many different large corporations that hire people with paralegal degrees, such as banks, insurance companies, governmental branches and agencies, etc. There are also numerous resources available to help with employment searches. Some examples include legal staffing companies, who specialize in job placement just for legal professionals, online career search websites, local newspapers and their websites, and the good old fashioned way of personally taking your resume into different businesses.

Using some of the job search websites, I found various postings for job openings throughout North Carolina. I believe it would be fair to say that there is definitely something out there for each paralegal's different interests and specialties. While many of these postings were for different types of law firms, there was still a good number for other types of businesses. One in particular that caught my eye was posted by BB&T, right here in Wilson, for a "Special Assets Bankruptcy Officer Assistant". Under the desired requirements section of this post it states, "Associate's Paralegal degree or two years of legal secretarial or bankruptcy paralegal training". So for paralegals that are interested and enjoy working in bankruptcy, there are other options for them besides just working for a bankruptcy law firm. I have personal knowledge of what it is like to work in the bankruptcy department at BB&T. A few years ago, before I even started school for my paralegal degree, I was hired on as a temp there for about 6 months. It really is a great job to have and a wonderful work environment. I found everyone there to be extremely kind and welcoming. During my time there, I was always looking at the internal job postings they would put up on the board in the break room, and I noticed that right many of the positions required either so many years' experience or a paralegal degree. That is what gave me the idea to go back to school to pursue my paralegal degree, although it took a few more years after that before I actually followed through with my goal. BB&T not only has positions like this available in the bankruptcy department, but also many other departments within the operations center. So there is a wide variety of options just in that 1 company.

Another posting I found was one for a "Business Development Director" in Charlotte, NC at a legal staffing agency called "Special Counsel". The description for this job is described as, "Exciting legal staffing opportunity for a legal professional with outside sales experience or one with strong business development aptitude". This would be a great career for someone in the legal field who also has a passion for the sales field. Their requirements are however, a little different than those of BB&T, in that they are looking for either an attorney or paralegal with at least 2 years' experience of outside sales or a sales professional with at least 2 years' experience selling to the legal community. Also, this company requires a four year degree, preferably a JD or paralegal degree, instead of a two year associates degree.

The 3rd job listing that I researched is for a "Corporate Paralegal". This is posted by Smith Anderson, which is a Business and Commercial Law firm in Raleigh, NC. Their job post states that they are looking for "a highly qualified and ABA certified corporate paralegal." The requirements this company seeks are also a little different from the other two in that this company is looking for a paralegal with a BA degree and who is also ABA certified. They also require the candidates have 7-10 years' related experience. The description of responsibilities for this job include, "Support all aspects of merger and acquisition transactions, and other strategic transactions, to include due diligence, preparation of corporate and commercial