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Paralegals & Legal Secretaries

: Practical Paralegalism

Legal Assistant Ordered to Go to Law School - or Lose His Job

By Lynne DeVenny

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Matt Schultz made more money for my law firm as a legal assistant than any lawyer who has ever worked for me. He's supposed to be a lawyer. ~ Dan Soloway, Attorney

The Pensacola News Journal has published an excellent feature article about highly successful Florida litgator Matt Schultz, a shareholder at Levin Papantonio. Schultz never intended to be a lawyer, but was so successful as a legal assistant that his supervising attorney, Dan Soloway, told him he'd lose his job within two years if he didn't go to law school.

Schultz graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in history in 1992, but went back to USM to get a paralegal education after he started a family.

Two weeks after Schultz started work as a paralegal for Soloway's firm, Soloway realized he'd hired someone with an unusually keen understanding of the law. "I knew that he was going to become one of the greatest lawyers I would ever know."

The irony is that after encouraging Schultz to go to law school, where he had an outstanding academic career, Soloway couldn't offer Schultz the salary level he could command as a highly sought after attorney.

While there are many extraordinarily talented and smart paralegals and legal assistants working today who love their jobs and don't plan to go to law school, Matt Schultz is a great inspiration for those who do want to become lawyers.

What about you - is law school in your future?

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on January 02, 2010 (boomark / email).