Opinions on 'Assistant Paralegal' Roles

[KyleWren]

I recently attended a law fair at my University and representatives from a national law firm explained that they were introducing a new "innovative" role - 'Assistant Paralegal'.

It had been explained to me that this role will be introduced exclusively to graduate students and will NOT be offered as a part-time role to allow students to obtain legal expertise alongside studying.

I believe that entry to the profession is already being lengthened in terms of expected experience and academic qualifications. I asked the law-firm's representative whether she believed that this role would act to delay entry to the legal profession - to which she replied "yes, but I think that is a good thing", perhaps not correctly understanding my question.

In your opinion, how do you feel about the potential that more law firms move towards introducing the role of 'Assistant Paralegal' as an exclusively graduate role?

 

[AvniD]

I recently attended a law fair at my University and representatives from a national law firm explained that they were introducing a new "innovative" role - 'Assistant Paralegal'.

It had been explained to me that this role will be introduced exclusively to graduate students and will NOT be offered as a part-time role to allow students to obtain legal expertise alongside studying.

I believe that entry to the profession is already being lengthened in terms of expected experience and academic qualifications. I asked the law-firm's representative whether she believed that this role would act to delay entry to the legal profession - to which she replied "yes, but I think that is a good thing", perhaps not correctly understanding my question.

In your opinion, how do you feel about the potential that more law firms move towards introducing the role of 'Assistant Paralegal' as an exclusively graduate role?

A new role means more opportunities for employment and gaining experience, which can be really good. I believe titles like junior and senior paralegal already exist in this space so assistant paralegal may just be another hierarchical addition as well. I don't believe it is clear how/if introducing the assistant paralegal role will delay entry into the legal profession as a solicitor, especially if paralegaling can count towards the work experience portion of the SQE. On the whole, it seems like a good idea but that's not to say that it won't have teething issues in its roll-out, which is to be expected imo.