Career Crossroads: How Paralegal Skills Open Unexpected Doors
By When I began working as a paralegal, I envisioned spending my entire career in a law office. I dreamed of working at a big firm and specializing in family law. I had found my calling and loved the work I did because it gave me a deep sense of purpose – I knew I was helping people through some of their most difficult life experiences. I sought a paralegal degree after navigating the process to get custody of my niece and nephew without legal help. I remember feeling lost and overwhelmed, with no money to hire an attorney. Since I didn’t have a computer at that time, I resorted to doing research at the local library to learn how to draft a custody complaint and serve it. That experience fueled my passion for helping others in a similar position who feel as helpless as I did.
This desire to help others also set me on the path to getting involved with pro bono work and my tenure as the Paralegal Division’s Pro Bono Committee Co-Chair for five years. Incidentally, my role in pro bono was also the catalyst to my transition out of a traditional paralegal role and into the nonprofit world. Networking and volunteerism are the two driving forces that catapulted my career into something more fulfilling than I ever could have imagined when I first began working in the legal field.
The Unexpected Path to Nonprofit Work
Ironically, my career transition began when I started a business in October 2020 to offer freelance paralegal services. I left my full-time job as a paralegal at the Wilmington City Attorney’s Office when I secured a contract position through the NC Equal Access to Justice Foundation. In that role, I used my legal knowledge to manage a statewide pro bono program and help launch the Legal Support Center in the Wake County courthouse. After two years of contracting, including freelancing as a paralegal, I joined the Foundation full-time as a Finance and Project Manager. In this role, I developed technical experience specific to nonprofits that shifted the focus of my business contracts to solely nonprofit consulting.
In September 2024, I began working as the Program Coordinator for Frontline Justice, a national nonprofit focused on legalizing community justice worker programs throughout the nation to help people access the legal services they need at places they are already going for help. It’s interesting that my career has come full circle from providing legal assistance under the supervision of attorneys to advocating for other legal roles to be able to provide assistance to people in situations like I was in years ago. Without my legal education and legal experience, I would not have been qualified for my most recent positions.
How Paralegal Skills Transfer to Other Careers
If you are thinking about transitioning out of a paralegal role, you may wonder how well your paralegal experience translates into other positions. I found that my skills were transferable in the following ways:
- Assisting with equitable distribution prepared me for finance-related responsibilities.
- Interviewing clients prepared me to serve on hiring panels.
- Working at a City Attorney’s office familiarized me with employment law, which prepared me for human resource responsibilities.
- Supporting a police attorney strengthened my research and legal writing skills, which are crucial in grant writing and policy development.
- Preparing PowerPoint presentations for the City Council, overhauling a city ordinance with public input, and coordinating a citywide ADA transition plan honed my project management and stakeholder coordination skills.
- Learning the ins and outs of starting a business as a freelance paralegal, I researched how to start an LLC and how to file business taxes and contracted with attorneys to provide my own technical support. These skills have been crucial in working with small nonprofits where multi-faceted experience is a plus.
When thinking about transitioning from a paralegal role, it is important to list all your skills and then reframe them in the context of the position for which you are applying. You can consult a resume builder or a large-language model, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot, for help in tailoring your resume to a specific job description.
The Importance of Staying Connected
Since my positions with nonprofits have kept me in the legal realm, I prioritize maintaining my connection to the North Carolina Bar Association’s Paralegal Division. In many ways, I owe the trajectory of my career to the connections I made and the training I completed through the division. I also believe my paralegal certifications through NALA and the North Carolina State Bar helped me stand out among other candidates, particularly before I completed my bachelor’s degree in 2024.
Final Thoughts: Your Skills Are an Asset!
Working in a paralegal role prepares us to be meticulous, multi-faceted, skilled in procedural processes, familiar with project coordination, and confident in legal knowledge. These skills are transferable to almost any kind of administrative position and beyond. If you’re like me, you may have thought you’d be a paralegal forever. And if that is still your goal, that is great! But if, like me, your life circumstances and career have drawn you down a different path, I want you to be confident that your experience as a paralegal has equipped you to take that leap.
You may also find it valuable to remain connected to the legal field and the Paralegal Division specifically because of the benefits it offers. It not only provides all the CLE credits you may need to maintain any certifications but also keeps you connected to a community of resources. And you never know – life may lead you back to a paralegal role at some point! It is much less time-consuming and potentially less expensive to maintain a certification than it is to reinstate it. This is why I always pay the fees to renew my CP, NCCP, and notary. I worked too hard to get them to let them lapse, and they provide a sense of security in case I ever need to transition quickly to a role that requires them.
Additionally, I stay involved with the Paralegal Division so I can continue to serve with the Pro Bono Committee to help with pro bono opportunities and the Communications Committee to write blog posts like these to (I hope) encourage and inform others. In short, you never know where your career will take you –but staying involved and being prepared gives you the flexibility to embrace new opportunities with confidence.
Rachel Royal, CP, NCCP, graduated with honors from Carteret Community College in 2017, as the Paralegal Graduate of the Year and completed a Bachelor of Science with a concentration in Legal Studies at Charter Oak State College in 2024. She has been in leadership with the North Carolina Bar Association Paralegal Division since 2018, including co-chairing the Division’s Pro Bono Committee. Rachel has worked in family law, insurance defense, and municipal law and has been owner of Royal Touch Project Solutions as a freelance paralegal and project management consultant since 2020. She currently works for Frontline Justice as the Program Coordinator. Rachel has volunteered for multiple legal services organizations over the past eight years and has been instrumental in developing and coordinating several pro bono projects and pro bono-focused CLEs. She lives in Wilmington, North Carolina with her husband, two sons, and toy Australian Shepherd.
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The Paralegal Division Blog is managed by the Division’s Communications Committee. Via the blog, the Communications Committee provides information written by attorneys, paralegals, and other experts designed specifically for paralegals in the areas of substantive law, ethics, technology, paralegal practice advice, and more. If you are interested in signing up to submit a blog post on a future date, you can do so here. When you are ready to submit a blog post, you can do so by using this form.
You may also wish to participate in the Division by using our virtual suggestion box to submit suggestions/ideas to the Division Council, nominating a paralegal for Paralegal Spotlight, or completing the Paralegal Spotlight Questionnaire if you are nominating yourself. If you are interested in volunteering with the Communications Committee, please contact the Communications Committee Chair at [email protected]. If you are interested in joining other division committees, you can review a list of committees and sign up here.