What is a Paralegal Internship?

Participants of this internship may assist with the preparation of legal documents for different cases. They receive practical work experience and skill development opportunities. They will learn court procedures and various court operations, functions, and activities. Also, they schedule appointments and meetings and make arrangements for them. Furthermore, they retrieve files and assemble documents for use by court staff. Asides from that, they perform basic administrative, clerical, and office support duties. Additionally, they assist in file cleanup by reviewing documents for either filing, archiving, or destruction.

Applicants must possess time management, analytical, attention to detail, organization, and communication skills. You must be eager and willing to learn. You must be currently enrolled in paralegal schools. Besides that, you must be familiar with legal procedures and be proficient in Microsoft Office. Paralegal interns make an average salary of $42,383 per year, equivalent to $20 per hour. This ranges from $17,500 to $72,500.

What Does a Paralegal Internship Do

There are certain skills that many paralegal interns have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, computer skills and interpersonal skills.

How To Become a Paralegal Internship

If you're interested in becoming a paralegal internship, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 39.9% of paralegal interns have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.0% of paralegal interns have master's degrees. Even though some paralegal interns have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Paralegal Internship

Top Paralegal Internship Jobs Near You

Paralegal Internship Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a paralegal internship can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as paralegal, progress to a title such as legal secretary and then eventually end up with the title account manager.

Top Careers Before Paralegal Internship

Administrative Assistant (65,769 Jobs)

11.9 %

Internship (51,064 Jobs)

9.7 %

Customer Service Representative (209,515 Jobs)

9.2 %

Top Careers After Paralegal Internship

Paralegal (5,177 Jobs)

33.6 %

Legal Assistant (9,560 Jobs)

17.5 %

Administrative Assistant (65,769 Jobs)

5.6 %

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a Paralegal Internship

Paralegal Interns in America make an average salary of $52,476 per year or $25 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $85,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $32,000 per year.

Average Paralegal Internship Salary

$52,476 Yearly

$25.23 hourly

$32,00010%

$52,000Median

$85,00090%

What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of Paralegal Internship

There are several types of paralegal internship, including:

Paralegal

Role:

A paralegal is in charge of substantive legal work. Typically, they serve lawyers who are so busy building a case that they need help sorting out all of the legal work. That's where you come in.

Paralegals take pride in their responsibilities by administering their knowledge of the law and legal procedures. It can be a great thing to have a paralegal on the case because the law will determine what direction a lawyer may swing a case.

While you definitely need a working knowledge of what the law is, you really only need to obtain an associate's degree for this line of work. Sure, you could probably spend your entire life going through and memorizing every single law out there, but laws change all the time so chances are you're going to have to look it up anyway.

Average Salary: $49,943
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Legal Extern

Role:

Let's rip the Band-Aid off, shall we? As a legal extern, you're probably not going to get paid. But what you take away from these opportunities may prove more useful in the longterm. What you'll take away from a legal externship will be experience and academic credit. Which really is priceless, if you ask us.

You'll have experience right off the bat within a legal setting. This definitely will give you an edge against your other colleagues. A legal extern is very similar to an internship, but is usually much shorter. So while you're getting the experience, you don't have to commit to it for as long.

Since being a legal extern won't last very long, it's a good way to see if you even want to work in the legal industry. It'll give you a glimpse into everything you will be doing, like conducting client interviews, making a court appearance, and even some legal research and writing. Just think of it as a very in-depth glimpse into "a day in the life" of a legal profession.

Average Salary: $47,238
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Law Clerk

Role:

Imagine this. You grab a cup of coffee and head to the court. With enough coffee flowing through your veins, you're now ready to chat with the judge about legal questions, granting orders and even the construction of documents. Who are you? You're a law clerk and this is just the beginning of your day.

The rest of your day may be spent going through complaints, looking at petitions or motions, and even reading through pleadings so you can help develop a case. Then, you need to type up some judicial opinions, decisions, or citations. There's lots of work to do as a law clerk, so you need to be organized so you don't waste a single minute.

As a law clerk, you'll probably spend a lot of time with judges. You're there to provide assistance on legal determinations while also writing up research-based opinions that are relevant to the court. The best part of becoming a law clerk is that you don't have to wait very long to become one. You could be a student by day and a law clerk by night. Unless you have night classes, in which case it might be switched.

Average Salary: $55,916
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Paralegal Internship Jobs

Number Of Paralegal Internship Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	California	415	$60,940
2	Florida	329	$41,276
3	New York	177	$68,135
4	Texas	177	$47,831
5	Georgia	142	$43,222
6	Illinois	137	$54,952
7	Massachusetts	121	$55,213
8	Washington	108	$66,450
9	Colorado	94	$51,180
10	Pennsylvania	92	$58,374
11	Virginia	90	$45,491
12	New Jersey	82	$64,971
13	Michigan	72	$51,231
14	Minnesota	72	$48,895
15	North Carolina	62	$51,670
16	Maryland	59	$48,511
17	Arizona	57	$48,885
18	Missouri	52	$41,999
19	Ohio	51	$46,342
20	Tennessee	49	$43,305
21	Oregon	32	$65,077
22	Indiana	30	$38,546
23	West Virginia	29	$53,480
24	Wisconsin	29	$44,333
25	Iowa	28	$45,061
26	South Carolina	28	$36,495
27	Arkansas	26	$39,251
28	Kentucky	21	$47,400
29	Connecticut	20	$61,757
30	Utah	20	$53,953
31	North Dakota	20	$44,183
32	Mississippi	20	$46,020
33	Alabama	19	$42,648
34	Louisiana	19	$41,212
35	Nebraska	16	$47,466
36	Alaska	14	$59,198
37	Wyoming	13	$40,921
38	Nevada	12	$59,480
39	Montana	12	$43,407
40	Delaware	11	$56,866
41	Kansas	11	$42,441
42	Rhode Island	9	$54,531
43	Idaho	9	$52,336
44	New Mexico	9	$46,719
45	Maine	9	$42,907
46	Hawaii	8	$59,922
47	New Hampshire	7	$60,009
48	Vermont	7	$45,550
49	Oklahoma	6	$41,491
50	South Dakota	5	$47,806

Paralegal Internship Education

Paralegal Internship Majors

Legal Support Services

51.6 %

Criminal Justice

8.9 %

Business

6.5 %

Paralegal Internship Degrees

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Criminal Justice

Business

Liberal Arts

Accounting

Marketing

Top Skills For a Paralegal Internship

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 20.7% of paralegal interns listed legal research on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and computer skills are important as well.

Legal Research, 20.7%

Legal Correspondence, 9.6%

Trial Preparation, 7.0%

Subpoenas, 4.4%

Real Estate, 4.4%

Other Skills, 53.9%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Paralegal Internship Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Paralegal Internship templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Paralegal Internship resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Paralegal Internship Demographics

Paralegal Internship Gender Distribution

Female

76%

Male

24%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among paralegal interns, 76.0% of them are women, while 24.0% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among paralegal interns is White, which makes up 60.4% of all paralegal interns.

The most common foreign language among paralegal interns is Spanish at 54.5%.

Online Courses For Paralegal Internship That You May Like

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How Do Paralegal Internship Rate Their Jobs?

Top Paralegal Internship Employers

Most Common Employers For Paralegal Internship

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	Paul Hastings	$89,146	$42.86	10
2	U.S. Department of Labor	$63,658	$30.60	9
3	State Attorney's Office	$62,907	$30.24	8
4	Social Security Administration	$62,800	$30.19	9
5	U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission	$56,710	$27.26	15
6	San Francisco Public Defender's Office	$54,474	$26.19	10
7	The Legal Aid Society	$52,145	$25.07	33
8	Legal Aid Society of The Orange County	$50,585	$24.32	9
9	Prairie State Legal Services	$49,716	$23.90	10
10	Bet Tzedek	$46,540	$22.38	12

Updated February 6, 2023

What is a Paralegal Internship?

What Does a Paralegal Internship Do

How To Become a Paralegal Internship

Paralegal Internship Career Paths

Top Careers Before Paralegal Internship

Top Careers After Paralegal Internship

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a Paralegal Internship

Roles and Types of Paralegal Internship

Paralegal

Legal Extern

Law Clerk

States With The Most Paralegal Internship Jobs

Number Of Paralegal Internship Jobs By State

Paralegal Internship Education

Paralegal Internship Majors

Paralegal Internship Degrees

Top Colleges for Paralegal Internships

1. Winona State University

2. Minnesota State University - Moorhead

3. Texas Wesleyan University

4. Ball State University

5. Post University

6. Northern Michigan University

7. Cedar Crest College

8. University of Cincinnati

9. Hamline University

10. Ferris State University

Top Skills For a Paralegal Internship

Choose From 10+ Customizable Paralegal Internship Resume templates

Paralegal Internship Demographics

Paralegal Internship Gender Distribution

Online Courses For Paralegal Internship That You May Like

How Do Paralegal Internship Rate Their Jobs?

Top Paralegal Internship Employers

Most Common Employers For Paralegal Internship

Paralegal Internship Related Careers

Paralegal Internship Related Jobs

What Similar Roles Do

Resume For Related Jobs