For law graduates who haven't secured a training contract, a position as a paralegal may be equally as challenging and more readily available, reports Dominic Carman

Take a look at the student guidebooks on choosing a degree and you will find that law easily comes out near the top of the list, with 20 applicants per place at the leading universities. Most law students optimistically start their degrees cherishing an ambition to practise as a solicitor or a barrister. But the reality for many on graduation is different: the majority of tomorrow's law graduates are more likely to end up doing paralegal work instead. So what does it mean to be a paralegal and how viable is this alternative career choice?

Last year, there were 2,657 Bar Professional Training Course applicants – 1,432 were successful, competing for 460 pupillages. Most never find one. It's a similar story for would-be solicitors: 9,000 graduates are chasing fewer than 5,000 training contracts. "The marketplace is absolutely flooded," comments one City firm's head of recruitment.

According to Amanda Hamilton, chief executive of the National Association of Licensed Paralegals (NALP) the result is "a phenomenal number of graduates coming out of university, all competing – there are numerous graduates out there who can't move forward in their careers and who for that reason want to find alternative routes into the profession. One of those routes is to work as a paralegal." While the exact number of paralegals is unknown, their ranks have swelled, more than doubling during the last decade to over 100,000.

The three main paralegal bodies – the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX), NALP and the Institute of Paralegals (IOP) – have more than 35,000 members between them, with NALP and IOP expecting their memberships to double in the next few years. According to IOP director James O'Connell, 44% of the fee-earning population are paralegals. At the current rate of growth, he suggests they will soon be the majority.

In addition to graduates who can't find training contracts and do paralegal work as a stepping stone, there is a much larger group of paralegals who have worked in law firms for a long time, gaining specialised knowledge in particular areas of law. "Typically," says Hamilton, "they have no qualifications but through experience they have gained knowledge and specialisation."

diane-burleigh-ilexAt ILEX, the biggest representative body and provider of qualifications for paralegals, there are 7,500 legal executive lawyers – its numbers have grown by 2,000 over the last five years – and 14,000 members who are not lawyers. ILEX chief executive Diane Burleigh (pictured right) has seen an increased interest from universities in what they do: "It's driven by young people saying 'I can't afford to do the Legal Practice Course (LPC) if I'm not going to get a training contract.' Universities feel more obligated to look at career paths for their students."

The career path for paralegals in City law firms is reasonably well established, although firms are noticeably coy about the numbers of paralegals they use, with many being employed on a part-time basis. "The top law firms do have paralegals with career paths and progressive salaries; they have the capacity to do that," says Hamilton.

"Firms like Allen & Overy or Herbert Smith," says O'Connell, "often take them on a one-year contract. The unspoken agreement is that after a year you should be able to get a training contract with a lesser firm off the back of that. In a City firm, paralegals will always be back-office support people, but most legal aid firms would only survive by using paralegals." Some City firms take on bright law graduates and LPC graduates to do fairly low-grade work relatively cheaply – for example, taking on qualified Australian and New Zealand lawyers who are travelling through London to do paralegal work.

Hamilton believes that up to 80% of the work undertaken by many law firms is done by paralegals. The difficulty, she argues, comes with how that is relayed to the client, cost-wise: "Paralegals need to be recognised and remunerated accordingly. They are already doing substantial work at law firms that solicitors used to do. It's not reflected in the cost to the client." Burleigh adds: "Solicitors are very reluctant to confess how many people they use for fee-earning work who haven't got any qualifications."

But while the lack of recognition is a factor for many, remuneration can be good for some legal executives. The top 5% of ILEX's legal executives might expect to earn between £80,000 and £100,000 – more than many practising lawyers in the UK outside leading City firms. More typically, though, paralegal salaries start at around £20,000, rising to £30,000- £35,000 in most high street or mid-sized firms. The biggest practice areas for qualified legal executives are civil litigation, family, crime, conveyancing and commercial law. In general, paralegals tend to congregate in areas which are process and transaction-driven, like debt recovery or personal injury.

Hamilton says that paralegals can do everything a solicitor can do, bar restrictive practices: "We have members who run whole departments in large law firms. The pressure [on these individuals] is as intense as on a partner in the firm."

With more and more people going down the paralegal route, working as a paralegal is now a genuine career option in many City and national firms. O'Connell explains: "They can become experts quite quickly, but aren't required to do the extreme hours that come with some areas of transactional work. Their hours tend to follow the firm culture, though. City firms obviously work longer hours, and so do their paralegals."

So is there are any real difference in working as a paralegal compared to being a solicitor? "Our members would say there is no difference," says Hamilton. "Some do feel undervalued. There's no point working somewhere if you don't feel valued. I don't see any evidence from my members that they're asked to bring in less fees than their solicitor or barrister counterpart."

Burleigh agrees: "There is a huge range in what they do, how they are viewed and what they are paid at their respective firms. At the coalface, the only difference is the right to do certain types of work that legal execs don't have. On a day-to-day basis, I don't see any difference."

So Burleigh's advice to a new law graduate? "If in any doubt about getting a training contract, join ILEX and take a paralegal job. You are not cutting off the opportunity of being a solicitor. It's a choice to make if you are serious about remaining in the profession and you can't afford, or don't want to take, the risk of the LPC."