Volunteer working

[Rahamir]

Where and how can I work as a paralegal or legal assistant volunteer in law firm?

 

[RANDOTRON]

Where and how can I work as a paralegal or legal assistant volunteer in law firm?

As for paralegal roles, you can have a look at openings on LinkedIn, and getting in touch with paralegal recruiters at recruitment agencies like Ryder Reid, Larbey Evans, Robert Walters, etc. You can also signup with FlexLegal for paralegal roles, or with firms directly (eg, Dentons LDC, Pinsent Masons Vario, Womble Bond Dickinson). As for legal assistance volunteer, I personally don't know any law firms that offer volunteering positions, but I do know that some nonprofits organisations take volunteers (eg, Lawyers without Borders, Citizens Advice Bureau). You can look at this for more volunteering positions.

For more on paralegal roles, I have attached the following posts:

Hi! You can sign up for email alerts for various agencies - Larbey Evans and Ryder Reid. They are usually not very good at updating their website, but I used to find I got an email about once or twice every week with a new position!

@zizszhplum
@Ghassen

LinkedIn job adverts have always been my best bets, as well as direct on firm websites on their job pages. It is also useful to apply to administrative jobs in firms if you don't have paralegal experience and work your way up. I started on a slightly rogue admin job at a magic circle firm and managed to move internally to a paralegal role there

Hi @Ghassen @M0M007 @zizszhplum

I'll add onto the information provided by @laurabeaumont and @OB that you can also reach out to someone who currently works at the recruitment agencies via LinkedIn to directly ask about a paralegal position (or ask if they have any openings), and send over your resume. So let's say you find a LinkedIn job post for a Funds paralegal position advertised by EJ Legal, the post might show who is responsible for this role (ie, the specific recruiter). If it doesn't, you can search for recruiter who work at the agency – they usually have "consultant" or "recruiter" in their job title (you can double-check this by clicking into their profile and see what they specialise in recruiting for). In any case, you can send them a connection request with a personalised note referring to the position.

In my experience, I find that I get a lot more responses when I do send them a note than just simply submitting an application – if they connect with you, they'll usually ask to see your resume anyways. Usually, if you have what they look for re the paralegal position, they'll ask to schedule a quick telephone call with you to speak more about the role and your background. Even if you don't get the position or they don't have any, they'll usually keep you on an email list.

Also as @OB said, you can totally work your way up from an admin role, just like how firms also recruit internal paralegals for training contracts (not every firm does this though).

 

[Jessica Booker]

Where and how can I work as a paralegal or legal assistant volunteer in law firm?

Volunteer roles in law firms are highly unlikely - firms prefer to make sure that someone is fully employed to ensure they are not breaking any employment laws/regulations.