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| Posted By |
n/a on 9/18/2008 9:18:08 PM |
| Subject: |
RE: Vancouver BC Paralegals, Paralegal Mentors, and Office Fears |
| Message: |
Hi there. I just stumbled on your post and had to reply as I'm a senior corporate paralegal in Vancouver and am a grad of the Capilano program myself (albeit the part-time program).
It sounds like you're nervous about getting out into the office environment, but I think you'll be just fine. Just seeing the way you write makes me think you're very intelligent and detail-oriented. You didn't say what type of law you'd be interested in - the different areas of law of course have different responsibilities. As a new paralegal, you'd likely start with more of the junior admin type work, but if you work hard and prove yourself, the lawyers will probably notice your skills quickly and give you more responsibility. Good, smart, hard-working employees are hard to come by these days.
As for your worries about the aspects of the law firm itself, that will depend on the firm for which you choose to work. I, myself, prefer mid-size law firms. The staff is more cohesive and you get a lot of responsibility. Larger law firms have more politics and smaller cliques are formed, I find. Really small firms sometimes use paralegals as combination workers (ie some reception, accounting, secretarial, paralegal work all mixed together). Every office will be different - there will be some people you really get along with and some you don't.
I will warn you, however, that a paralegal's job is mostly document preparation. I don't know a lot of paralegals, especially juniors, doing tons of research and substantive law work. The articled students and associates generally do this. Capilano College is great for teaching substantive law so that we understand the legal background, but honestly I have rarely had to use it. That said, I'm in the corporate/tax field which I didn't study at Capilano and just learned on the job.
In any event, your practicum will be very helpful in giving you a hint of what is to come. Good luck! |
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