To train to be a paralegal at 41

[Everytimeiseeher]

Iva had a 20year plus career in the hair and beauty industry but always wished I had done something else.
I worked part time in a administrative role in a bank for 10 years supplementing my income when I first went self employed to support the family when my kids were babies.
I always wanted to be a lawyer or something along they lines but thought I’d never be able to accomplish the studying.
I’m now 41 and decided that I have just over 20 years of working still to do and my hair/beauty career has an expiry date. Who wants a 50 plus doing their beauty/hair??? So I applied to do a legal services course at college and yay! I got accepted. I plan to do a hnc/hnd after the year long course. My worry is, at the end of the two years of studying and I apply for a trainee paralegal type job will I look silly going up against 20 something’s for an trainee job? Will any potential employer even consider me? Should I even begin this?

Erm.. Senior lawyer here. Do you know that paralegals are paid a pittance? Often minimum wage levels. They do the job because they hope eventually to get a training contract (in the vast majority of cases).

We don't tend to have career paralegals like on the US dramas (Suits and the like)

I don’t watch suits etc so don’t have any fantasies about high flying careers like that.
I just want a job where in my 50s /60s I’ll get around 20k which is what I earn now. But not standing on my feet all day and again he age thing.

Sorry I’m making kids dinner

The job satisfaction, I’m interested in law, more when I worked in the bank for the conveyancing side of things. I’m thinking I won’t get a job in a lawyers without this qualification.
Obviously I’ve left it too late to study to be an actual lawyer. I’d knly have about 5 working years by the time I retired.

I’m a lawyer too and agree with PP that paralegals tend to be early in their careers using that as a stepping stone to qualifying as a lawyer. That’s not to say you shouldn’t do it but salary is low. Not sure where you live. Outside London you might get £20K and the job may be largely administrative. Depending on the firm and area you work in you could be running:

a caseload of pre-legal debt recovery matters in your own name but it is almost an admin role of collections

case load of your own in, say, property matters, simply litigation matters or similar

or assist lawyers with their work in any given discipline which could be “juicy” legal work or photocopying and the like

It really depends what you want but if applying for such jobs you need to ask questions about what really is expected of you and what you can expect

People might want to employ you because you’re not just using it as a stepping stone to becoming a paralegal.

You’re likely to be looking at less than 20k and the reality is that you’ll be competing with people with degrees and law school on their cvs. It’s not easy to come by the roles since it’s currently very difficult for law school graduates to get training contracts and so they commonly try to get a few years of paralegal work to boost their cvs a bit. The reality is it’s often a glorified secretary role but paid less. You’ll probably be photocopying and doing very low level basic stuff.
I don’t think law is a good option at all but if you’re set on it you’d be better looking at ilex (legal executive)

Plus you have kids. How will you manage when you're regularly required to stay until the work is done?

Plus if your background is hair and beauty do you have good office skills, typing etc given that it is really a legal secretary type role.

Ah well back to the drawing board seems like going to college is a waste of time. I just dont know what else I want to do apart from that.

ILex would be a better option if you're set on it

If you get 20k as a paralegal you’re doing very well. 12-15k is probably more realistic as a starting salary. You’d likely be doing a lot of admin (photocopying, diarizing) or maybe have a simple, very samey, caseload of your own. I couldn’t honestly recommend it.

www.cilex.org.uk

Do be aware however that the legal industry has gone through a lot of change. Many firms are battening down the hatches in the expectation of tough times ahead and potential recession following brexit.

Until 3 years ago I worked in the banks mortgage department for 12 years part rtime

Given the ageing population, I would have thought that a hairdresser/beautician specialising in the 50+ bracket would have a lucrative client base.

You don't actually need the LPC to be a paralegal, though granted some firms want it. But you could theoretically be employed as one now. There's a lot of competition though. Is your bank experience something you could leverage, find a firm where this would be useful?

What part of the country do you live in? Are there a lot of large law firms?

Exactly you don’t need any qualifications to be a paralegal so you could speak to legal recruitment agents now and sound them out on salary and even give them a CV to see if there is any interest in taking you on.

But if you do that, be aware that there isn't really any such thing as a trainee paralegal since a paralegal is the lowest possible role. Plus it's unlikely anyone is going to be training you in anything. They will be too busy getting on with their jobs.

I'd be very happy to have someone in their forties or fifties doing my hair or nails, they'd be the same age as me and I'd like that.

It’s my age I’m worrying about. I don’t want to be standing doing hair at say 57 years old.
I’ve had a tough couple of years going through a divorce and my confidence is really knocked so thought the couple of years course would give me time to get myself back on the ball. I left my bank job because of how I was feeling with issues arising from DV. I’m not ready to go back to that type of environment just yet
My children are 12 and 14 so not young.

I’m in Edinburgh

How about a PA or EA sort of role?

I agree with the others- the majority of paralegal roles go to people looking for training contracts who will have a law degree and probably LPC as well.

I would have a look at the jobs being advertised locally to you now and see what kinds of requirements they have. I'd also speak to a few legal recruiters and ask for advice.

Another idea is to look for an admin/office manager type role in a smaller firm, if you just want to be in a legal environment. You won't need a specific qualification for that, but admin experience, IT skills etc (which is sounds like you have).

What is it you like about law? It might be worth thinking about that and then thinking laterally about how to achieve what you want. There are lots of jobs that have a sort of legal flavour but if what attracts you is actually practising law, I don't think paralegalling is going to give you what you want anyway.

Would you consider court service jobs? You have the right experience for admin officer or similar roles, the pay is about what you are looking for, decent civil service pension etc.

How about legal secretary, can always ask the firm about training to be a legal executive after a few years.

Legal secretary positions often require 2 years experience, typing etc.

Just seen that you are in Scotland- it may be that the legal jobs market is a bit different there from England so it's possible that there is more a role for career paralegals. I'd speak to some local recruitment people before signing up for a course and get their views on it.