Paralegal?

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Paralegal - good or bad job for Aspie, and why?
Am thinking about going back to school.

Pros....if you like research and detail work, it has that. Good pay if you work for a good firm.

Cons....you get all the grunt work, and a busy firm may see no end of it. An issue if you have "limits" of how long you can do something before you need to get away.

Better than being a lawyer in that it's lower pay (in theory), but you get paid as an employee of the firm. Lawyers have to have clients to bill before they get paid.

My 2 cents....get an internship with a law office to see if you like it or not. Don't spend money on an education program you wind up hating once you start doing it.

Research, details, paperwork....I love that stuff. What I DON'T want is to be the lunch-order-fetcher or receptionist. Does a paralegal get stuck doing those kinds of things?

They shouldn't but depends on the office. You might get stuck doing errands as you're on an hourly rate.

Again, get some hands-on in a real law office before committing to this. Reality and perception can be two different things.

I would try shadowing a paralegal for a while at an office. I would suggest this to people considering many different careers, actually.

I don't know any paralegals, unfortunately. And the whole Aspie thing makes it unlikely I'll be meeting any or randomly calling law offices to find one.

First off, It's going to depend where you are - paralegals have different licensing requirements in different jurisdictions.

Paralegals do a lot of different things. Generally speaking a paralegal can give legal assistance but not legal advice - however, in some jurisdictions (like mine) paralegals can also act as agents and represent parties in small claims court, on minor criminal offences, and in some quasi judicial tribunals. I've encountered paralegals who do collections work, specialize exclusively in traffic offences, etc. Others manage the more process oriented aspects in a larger law practice (though in my firm this is largely done by law clerks). Most paralegals can also act as notaries, commission documents, etc. (but it would, I think, be hard to make a living doing just that).