Lawyers/Law Students: What's the best way to prepare?

Is the job market just as bad for a person with a bachelors in legal studies looking to become a paralegal? I ask because that is what my girlfriend is going to school for.

 

Maybe, I do know a lot of people with J.D.'s are now forced to do paralegal work to survive.

 

My gf graduated August '09 with a 3.96 gpa Legal Studies degree. The program she was in did not have any kind of internship program, so after about 6 months of looking and going on a few interviews for legal asst. positions, she found a boutique firm with one attorney and worked unpaid for two months. She was then hired part time (full time for a month when they added a partner and subsequently got rid of them) at $15/hr. She was basically paralegal, legal assistant, secretary all rolled into one.

He let her go and she luckily found a job working for another firm, this one with five attorneys ... still at $15/hr but full time. She's applying to law school and would start in the fall.

I don't think the job market is necessarily good right now, and my gf really was fortunate to get even the unpaid experience. But it's not hopeless. A lot of firms and businesses in general shy away from hiring people that are overqualified, so JD's are going to have a tough time finding paralegal jobs.