Deep in the Heart of Texas, Where Lawyers Go to School to Become Paralegals

Many law school graduates are wondering how they can make themselves more marketable in light of their dismal job prospects. Hell, even graduates from elite law schools are having trouble finding jobs these days.

What can these would-be lawyers do to help themselves land a respectable job?

Some of these people are actually so desperate they believe that getting even more legal education will solve their employment woes. Maybe, just maybe, they think, an LLM from a better school will help them wipe the sub-T14 sludge off their résumés. Of course, money is no object, because really, after throwing $150,000 at a wall and hoping that it sticks, another couple thousand dollars is just a drop in the bucket.

But don’t sign up for that LLM just yet, because the masterminds at the University of Texas School of Law may have a solution for you. Education is the key, but it’s not the kind of education that you’d expect….

Yesterday, we received several tips informing us that the University of Texas at Austin Professional Development Center (UT PDC) blasted an email to all UT Law alumni, letting them know that they could “become a paralegal in less than five months!”

This just went out to UT Law alumni. I thought it was only to undergrad alumni (since I went there too), but my friend that only went to UT for law school got it, too. To his work email address. At Biglaw. UT deserves to be publicly shamed.

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Well, if the paralegal industry is going to grow 28 percent in the next few years and can help me to advance my existing career in the legal profession for the low, low price of $4,595, then sign me up!

Are the people at the UT Law Career Services Office and the UT PDC communicating, or even paying attention? UT Law is a member of the T14, which means that their graduates get to work as attorneys. Only in extreme circumstances would they be forced to work as glorified secretaries, like some graduates from other schools.

Now, we’ve written previously about the value of a paralegal degree for paralegals. Does a paralegal certificate have any value for a lawyer? My guess is probably not, even if someone is stuck looking for a paralegal gig as an attorney. And in that case especially, most employers would probably see a job applicant as just a little bit special if he went on to get a paralegal certificate after already having completed law school.

So, UT Law, if you knew this was going to happen, what kind of a reaction were you expecting from your graduates? Did you think that any of them be sending the email along to all of the paralegal candidates they knew? Sure, that would’ve been nice, but in reality, all you did was elicit a quick “what the f**k,” before your alums forwarded your paralegal spam to Above the Law and then hit delete.

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Earlier: The Value of a Paralegal Degree: Experts Weigh In
Pls Handle Thx: A Degree More Useless Than a J.D.?