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There is no wrong age to become a paralegal. Most employers -both corporations and law firms- appreciate people with the maturity and real-world experience that comes after having honed one's skills in the workforce.
As for training, it depends on a few factors: (1) where you want to work; (2) for whom you want to work; (3) what kind of law you want to work in; and (4) your background.
Now, here are the explanations.
(1) If you want to work in a big city, then you will want to amass educational credentials before being hired. Note that a first year's paralegal salary will not be much (it varies, however, on education, background, etc.). You must weigh the cost of a paralegal education versus your earning potential.
(2) Do you want to work for a sole practitioner, a large firm, the government (state or federal) or a corporation/bank? Sole practitioners, as well as smaller corporations/banks, will probably be needing a 'generalist' paralegal, one they can train to do a multitude of tasks in various legal fields; therefore, the importance of formal education vis-a-vis on the job training is lessened.
(3) In my opinion, this is the most important factor in deciding whether to invest in paralegal studies. If you want to work in litigation, then you should know that there are countless litigation paralegals. This means more competition and lesser pay. If you want to get into intellectual property, that is where the money is! Of course, a background in the sciences and/or engineering will trump any paralegal studies anytime. In other words, many paralegals are hired solely for their experience in the sciences/engineering.
(4) Your background is also important. If you already possess a bachelor's (or higher), then you may just want to take a few classes in legal writing, reasoning, etc. If you have worked in a particular field for many years, you may want to utilize that experience and translate it into a paralegal career (for instance, if you have worked in the sciences, then you may want to consider intellectual property).
In my case, I attended a community college for a two-year associate's degree in paralegal studies only because I had no visa to work in the US post college. As it happens, I fell into immigration law by chance and I've been doing this, now, for several years. Until recently, I worked at small and medium-sized law firms. Currently, I am working for a large well-known corporation known by its three-letter acronym that starts with I and ends with M :D
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