I had an interesting inquiry from a paralegal student as part of her class where she asked if she could interview me.
Kristy Medo is a paralegal student at Madison Area Technical College in the ABA-approved fast-track program.
This interview was part of an assignment for her career-building class. She and I dive into my career path from student to business owner, finding balance, alternative career options for paralegals, and AI tools. Dive in below!
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My Start as a Paralegal
Q.
How did you get started in this field?
A.
Good question! There are two parts to it. Getting started in the paralegal field back in 1992, and then getting started with the Paralegal Bootcamp.
I didn’t know I was going to be a paralegal initially. I actually was getting my college degree because I wanted to go on to law school.
One of the professors had a criminal justice degree and it was in his criminal justice class. He had a friend who was the office manager at a local law firm, in Sarasota, Florida. I went and interviewed for the position.
He thought it would be good to do that in between going to law school. I ended up loving being a paralegal so much that I dropped the law school plan. So that’s how I got into the paralegal field. I spent 18 years as a litigation paralegal and a paralegal manager.
Being a Paralegal Manager
This is what led me into the education field of being a business owner for the Paralegal Boot Camp.
I was responsible for hiring paralegals and increasing the profitability of the paralegal group. One of the groups in particular, our Products Liability Team, had a pretty big negative number in terms of revenue in versus expenses and all that.
It was because the paralegals on that team were highly paid, but were working on reduced fee cases and could only bill the paralegals at X dollars per hour. When they wanted to hire more paralegals and I started running the numbers, I told them we couldn’t afford it.
We would have to start hiring new paralegals right out of school. I asked them to let me train them. I would train them from start to finish on everything they need to know for their litigation cases.
I did this for several years, putting them through what I called a one-year program. They were hired as case assistants. These case assistants reported directly to me and turned in everything they did on the cases as quote assignments.
Finally, at the end of that year, if I felt like they were competent and qualified enough then they were promoted to a paralegal position.
Read this if you’re still waiting for that on-the-job training.
How the Paralegal Boot Camp Began
I did that for several years and then there were no more to hire. I just thought that I could do it beyond my role as a paralegal manager.
I saw the joy in them when they had these great careers and were being called rockstar paralegals by the attorneys.
These attorneys were hesitant to hire them and went into the program kicking and screaming. They wanted someone who could hit the floor and start going with these cases.
To hear the attorneys talk so highly of these paralegals a couple of years in, and to see them happy, I thought, what if I could do this for everybody?
Ultimately, my decision to start the company was that I was old enough that I knew what it was to own a business, but I was young enough that if it didn’t work out and I lost everything I could go back to work.
And that’s how I started the Paralegal Boot Camp!
Q.
That’s the prime for success.
You had all that experience, and that desire and drive. Plus the timeframe to take a chance and rebuild yourself if it didn’t work out.
But it has worked out, and we’re all glad that you’re here and providing us with very professional insight and education that helps us advance ourselves, so thank you for that.
So that’s kind of the bones of how you got to leading the Paralegal Boot Camp, but what do you find most interesting now that you’ve been operating it for a while?
Developing a New Skillset
A.
I would say that it’s a totally different skill set that a lot of people don’t realize when you create something like this. Initially, I started it as live training and in-person events at law firms in 2010, but around 2013, I decided I wanted to put the course online so that it could reach more people.
This was way before online courses came to the forefront of education. It was almost like I had to convince people that they could get the same training through an online course back then, which is funny now, post-COVID. It’s a whole different skill set that I’ve had to learn.
Learn the paralegal skills required to succeed in your new paralegal career.
Adapting With What I Learned as a Paralegal
I do think that being a paralegal and working in the legal industry for all those years helped me. One of the things that you do as a paralegal is you have to learn to pivot no matter what practice area you go into.
For example, I did antitrust litigation and then I pivoted and learned all about construction litigation. You do this throughout your career as a paralegal.
I kind of look at it like the ability to pivot was a skill I was improving through all those years. When I pivoted from live to online training, I had to learn how to run a learning management system, accept credit card payments online, and more.
All of these things are beyond developing a PowerPoint presentation.
Become the rockstar paralegal in your PI firm with our Personal Injury Paralegal Training course in just 6 hours! It focuses on the pre-litigation phase of your personal injury claim files to help you master everything from case intake through the demand and settlement.
Q.
Absolutely, I have had the experience of taking so much education in person, including my undergraduate work. But now everything that I take is online.
I personally found in-person learning more challenging. With online learning, I get high level, high quality content and I’m not distracted by the hours of getting in the car and finding the parking garage and shuffling into a building.
At the university I went to, I had to park about a mile and a half from campus. I’d bring my bike on the back of the truck and I would take the bike off and pedal in.
Now I’m able to spend more time with the content and material, so I really appreciate courses online and have a high value for them.
That being said, what do you find the most challenging about operating the Paralegal Boot Camp?
The Challenge of Being a Business Owner
A.
Very good question. I would say finding balance. Sometimes I get completely wrapped up in a project.
If I’m putting together a new course, or I’m updating a course, and I’m really excited about it, before I know it, it’ll be eight o’clock, and I should have shut the computer down at six.
There’s also working on the weekends to get things done. I’ve always had the tendency to work too long and hard.
And when it’s your own company, it kind of is tenfold, so finding that work life balance is the most challenging part.
Here are some tips on practicing mindfulness to reduce stress and maintaining a healthy work life balance.
Q.
Yes, in this field in general, you can be on task on a project and it could completely consume your night and day. But it’s really important to optimize for life balance.
As a former business owner myself, I have found through the years, my nervous system seems to have adapted to that kind of stress where when I’m on a project, I will not quit until it’s done.
But I have developed a good way of taking the downtime in between those projects where I might work extremely intensely and then I will give myself a break for a day or two and it’s truly a break.
I do think that’s something that we all have to work on in our own way and I could see that being one of the challenges in putting content and course materials together.
If you had one more of yourself, a duplicate Ann, what other services might you offer or what other areas might you focus on with the Paralegal Boot Camp?
A Team of Support
A.
Wow, one other Ann. Well, first of all, I have to say, luckily, I have help. I have a great team of people.
I have Heather, who is a miracle worker. I create the content and decide what I’m going to talk about or write about and she literally uses her creative bones and gets it out to the world in a way that I just don’t have the talent to do.
All those social media posts and design things that you see, she’s doing that for me.
I also have Troy who does all my video and audio editing. I couldn’t get weekly podcast episodes out if not for him. I have someone that helps with website updates and Facebook Ads, as well.
But if it was an exact duplicate of me – I’d love to be able to do more live in person training events. I just don’t have the time for it now.
There’s so much that has to be done to coordinate them. From finding a venue to negotiating fees and all of that. I used to really enjoy that.
I did it for the first few years of the Paralegal Boot Camp, and I would go to California, New York, D.C., etc. and just open up the training to the public and fill a room full of people.
But it takes a lot of work that I don’t have the time to do. So that’s what I would do if there was a duplicate of me. I would send her around the country doing live trainings.
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Q.
That’s great. I could see where having that in-person contact and interaction is one thing that would take time when you build an empire that’s based on the virtual world.
Thank you for dedicating yourself to us virtually. And I know any of us who do listen to your podcast would love to work with you in person.
So let’s advance the world a hundred years and get that duplicate Ann. Now we’ve dove into how you got into the Paralegal Boot Camp, your experience, and what it’s like to currently operate it.
While you’ve been operating it, I know you’ve had contact with paralegals that have developed alternative paralegal careers. I know we would be interested in hearing about what types of job titles you’ve seen paralegals land that are maybe not the typical paralegal position. Can you tell us more about that?
A.
There are literally so many of them, Kristy. There’s a whole bunch of very specific titles I’ve shared in our blog article Alternative Paralegal Career Options of paralegals that I personally know, or have met, or have interviewed on the podcast with these jobs.
A paralegal’s career can lead to just about anything. Most of the titles in that blog article are from people who have worked in the field for a few years before they switched to that particular position. But there are also titles, that can relate to new graduates first starting out.
Legal assistant can be an alternative title to a paralegal, but there is a difference. The ABA now says there is a difference, but for the last two decades they said that the terms were synonymous which can be very confusing for new graduates as some firms called their paralegals legal assistants and some firms called them paralegals.
Non-Traditional Job Opportunities
But if you were talking about just non traditional alternatives, like maybe even outside of a law firm – there’s legal compliance, data security, etc.
I actually had someone on the podcast who was a healthcare compliance and data security officer. Check out her interview here.
I knew a paralegal who had graduated from school and her first job out of school was working for the Georgia Department of Transportation doing research for them.
I know some paralegals who have gone to work for corporate, like cell phone companies, with their background and education in understanding real estate and corporate law.
One of them was working for a cell phone company where she goes out and negotiates leasing land where the cell phone towers are going to go. The list could be endless.
I would suggest going out and finding some job descriptions online for an area that you might want to work in. Let’s say it’s litigation.
Go find some litigation paralegal job descriptions. Take those bullet points and copy and paste them into an AI tool like ChatGPT and ask it what are some alternative job opportunities that would require these same skills or education? It’s amazing what you can find.
I really think that with a paralegal certificate, and it’s not just because I was a paralegal, your career options are literally unlimited.
Here’s why continuing education for paralegals is important.
Q.
I am observing that as I begin to explore different ideas. It’s very overwhelming as a student. I am trying to be on the lookout for alternatives just so I can broaden the scope of what I think I can apply my experience and skills to.
That being said, do you have an idea of what paralegal positions, maybe in particular fields of law, or some of these alternatives that might have the highest salary potential?
A.
I don’t want to guess and it would really be guessing, but one of the things I can tell you is that compliance, data security, anything to do with technology is usually going to be the fastest growing and highest paid.
Q.
This is the last question that I have for you as I have heard paralegals express concern about what might happen to their positions as AI develops.
Do you have any commentary or feedback toward the question of will AI replace paralegals as the tools develop?
Or should we be considering our usage as a means to integrate it more into our work to keep us a valuable asset because we know how to use the tools? What are your insights there?
The Future of Paralegal Work
A.
I would say most definitely learn to use the tools.
It’s funny that people are saying that. Now, there is a reason to have a little bit of concern that AI could take paralegal jobs, but back in the late 90s, when eDiscovery was coming out, they said the same thing. Is eDiscovery going to take litigation paralegal jobs?
Look at what’s happened. It expanded the litigation paralegal career and field in general into a whole other job market that’s available to litigation paralegals now.
I don’t agree that paralegal jobs are going to be taken by AI. I think the paralegal who knows AI, is going to be the one getting the paralegal jobs.
In other words, everybody has to become more efficient. It’s like everybody who got left out of the eDiscovery technology curve when that started coming in.
The litigation paralegals who didn’t know eDiscovery had less job opportunities than somebody who did. It’s going to be the same thing with AI.
Most attorneys just want to practice law. They don’t want to have to learn new technology. They want their paralegal to know how to use it to its fullest extent.
Yes, there’s always going to be the tech attorneys who dive real deep into it, just like they did with eDiscovery. But a majority of the attorneys that you’re going to work for, they’re going to want you to know how to use AI and for you to use it.
They’re not going to want to learn how to do it. They just want to practice law. I think that a paralegal who jumps on AI now and learns everything they can about it, and how to use it, and how to let it help you become more efficient, you’re going to be in high demand in the market.
Meet our Guest Interviewer
Kristy Medo has been self-employed for the past 17 years, simultaneously managing rental properties, working as a contract business process consultant, and providing wellness services to businesses and individuals.
Through her personal and professional interactions with attorneys and the court system, she discovered her passion for law and began her career change.
Kristy has since enrolled in the ABA Approved Paralegal Program at Madison Area Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin, and is seeking remote work as a paralegal.
