My gf is a skilled litigation paralegal. What other line of work uses these type of skill sets?

Question

She has plenty of experience, very organized and social skills like no other. Shes just hit a glass ceiling as a paralegal.

Answer 1

Off the top of my head:

*Law firm administrator
*Mediator
*Legal document assistant (self-employed) - laws regulating this vary from state to state
*Freelance paralegal
*Investigator

I, too, was a paralegal. Problem is, paralegals are restricted to working under attorney supervision only; meaning, no self-employment, unless you work as a contract freelance paralegal. You have to get off of the paralegal track. Otherwise, you're stuck being a billable-hour-machine with nowhere to go (and as you have noted, you top out in terms of salary).

I would encourage her to look into freelancing for attorneys. If she has that much litigation experience, she should be able to command pretty good rate - depending on your geographical area, I would guess $65-150/hour. Mediator is another very strong option - there's good money to be made.

Of course, she would then be self-employed and have her own overhead expenses, but those writeoffs can work in her favor if she has a good accountant (or knows a bit of accounting/tax codes herself). She could supplement that w/ work for the public as an LDA (if that is allowed in your state), notary, etc.

Answer 2

I'm thinking out-loud here.

It was said in a previous post from someone who was a paralegal: "You have to get off of the paralegal track." Encourage your gf to think outside the box.

Not look for a job as a paralegal, but someone who uses the KNOWLEDGE she has in litigation. I can't speak to whom that might be. I can only give you an example:

My sis was an Estates and Trusts paralegal. After she hit that "glass ceiling," as a paralegal, she went to work at a bank in their trusts department. Wasn't long before she became one of their VPs and has had a highly successful career.

Answer 3

Sorry. This is a highly specialized skill set. She could go to law school. After graduation, she could use the fact that she has seen so much paperwork and is thus familiar with the procedures to jump start a career because she has the practical knowledge most beginning lawyers lack.

By the way. I assume that you mean that she has reached her maximum earning potential. "Glass ceiling" refers to a potentially illegal discriminatory limit on the career of an individual or class of individuals comprising a subset of the employment pool.