I’m Starting Over in the Legal Field at 58

I found a new field that I am genuinely excited about.

At 58 years old, I’m beginning a new journey into the legal profession. I’ve enrolled in a paralegal program, but I’ve also discovered something I didn’t even know existed until recently: Arizona’s Legal Paraprofessional profession.

This is not simply another name for a paralegal.

Arizona created a relatively new category of licensed legal professional called a Legal Paraprofessional, or LP. The Arizona Supreme Court actually compares the role to a nurse practitioner in the medical field.

That comparison immediately made sense to me.

A nurse practitioner isn’t a physician, but with the appropriate education and license, an NP can independently perform many services that people traditionally associate with doctors.

Arizona has created something similar in law.

Within the area of law in which they are licensed, Legal Paraprofessionals can do things that surprised the hell out of me when I first learned about them.

They can provide clients with actual legal advice. They can explain legal rights, remedies, defenses, options and strategies. They can prepare and sign legal documents. They can draft and file motions and other court documents. They can negotiate on behalf of clients.

And perhaps most surprisingly:

They can represent clients and appear before courts and tribunals.

They can do these things without being supervised by an attorney, as long as they are properly licensed and remain within the scope of practice Arizona allows for their particular endorsement.

They are not attorneys, and their authority is more limited than an attorney’s. They cannot simply practice every kind of law. Arizona licenses LPs in specific practice areas, which currently include areas such as family law, limited-jurisdiction civil law, criminal law, administrative law, juvenile law and probate law.

But this is a real, regulated legal profession.

And suddenly I could see a path for myself that I had never seen before.

My First Goal: Get Into a Family Law Firm

Yes. Family law.

I actually talked myself out of family law for a while.

I’ve seen how ugly family conflict can become, particularly when children are involved. I know what it can look like when someone is trying to co-parent, separate or divorce someone who is manipulative, controlling, narcissistic or simply determined to make everybody else miserable.

And then I realized something.

Maybe that's exactly why I care about it.

There are mothers going through this.

There are fathers going through this.

There are grandparents and children caught in the middle of it.

There are people walking into the legal system during one of the worst periods of their lives who have absolutely no idea what they're doing.

I would like to help them.

I don't know exactly what that ultimately looks like for me yet.

And I'm deliberately trying not to figure it out.

That sentence probably sounds strange, but it's actually important for me.

I have a habit of believing that before I can take Step One, I need to understand Steps 2 through 487.

One career idea becomes another degree. Then I need to investigate graduate school. Then salaries. Then certifications. Then licensing requirements. Then where I should live. Then what job I'll have eight years from now. Then what I'll do after that.

Before I know it, I'm trying to solve problems for a version of myself who doesn't even exist yet.

I think it's my way of trying to manufacture certainty.

If I can map the entire road, maybe taking the first step won't feel so risky.

Except life has repeatedly demonstrated that it has absolutely no intention of following my maps.

So I'm trying something different.

I'm only giving myself one goal.

Learn enough to get my first job in a family law office.

That's it.

Right now, I'm a student.

I'm going to learn legal terminology. I'm going to learn how the court system works. I'm going to learn litigation, legal research, legal writing and all the other things I currently don't know.

I'm going to finish my paralegal program.

Then I'm going to try to get myself inside a law office where I can start learning what this profession actually looks like in the real world.

Today, my eventual plan is to pursue Arizona Legal Paraprofessional licensure.

Maybe I'll discover some completely different corner of law that fascinates me.

Maybe this journey eventually takes me somewhere I can't even imagine today.

I don't need to know yet.

I'm also going to use this platform as a public study notebook. As I learn legal concepts, terminology and procedures, I'll come here and try to explain them in my own words.

Partly because someone else beginning this journey might find my notes useful.

But mostly because if I can explain something clearly, that's a pretty good indication that I'm beginning to understand it myself.

So this is Day One.

I'm 58 years old.

I'm starting over in a field I knew almost nothing about.

I don't have the next ten years figured out.

For once, I'm not going to try.

I'm just going to learn what comes next.