Boss Hiring Paralegals Tells Candidates To Only Take The Job To 'Make A Difference,' Not For The Money
Unfortunately grocery stores and landlords don't accept "making a difference" as payment.
Spiderstock | Getty Images Signature | Peopleimages.com - YuriArcurs | Canva Pro Our jobs have to give us a paycheck for a reason — that's literally what a job is: labor in exchange for money. Most people aren't making Excel spreadsheets for the fun of it. It's not a hobby or charity work, after all, and it seems like this should go without saying. Not for a lawyer online, however, who seems to have some very strange ideas about what a job is for — as it pertains to his subordinates, at least.
A lawyer told job candidates not to take his open position for the money.
The lawyer's diatribe was posted to the evocatively named subReddit "r/LinkedInLunatics," which is exactly what it sounds like: the internet's favorite place to share the most bonkers posts from online capitalist brainworms asylum, LinkedIn.
Reddit | Canva Pro
In the post, the lawyer shared that he is hiring a "paralegal / assistant," which is the first thing that raises an eyebrow. Those are two different things, and the former requires specialized training and at least a certification. An assistant is… well, an assistant. But it only got worse from there.
The lawyer told applicants to take the job to 'make a difference,' despite bragging about how successful his firm is.
Telling people to take a job for altruistic reasons is bad enough on its face, but if it was just some small-town, do-gooder law firm, it would be one thing. That is not the case here, however.
The lawyer described the firm as "one of the most groundbreaking plaintiffs'-side law firms to have ever existed," explaining that they "square off against — and kick the [behinds] of — the country's biggest corporate wrongdoers. And we've been doing it for decades." So he sues giant corporations for wrongdoing — which means enormous settlements.
It also means tons of work, and for the paralegal, this means tons of logistics that include dealing with bereaved clients suing over their loved ones' deaths — but also being "not too precious to manage my travel and expenses" despite being a specialized professional.
It's all rather insulting but not as insulting as the pay. "It's fine," the lawyer wrote, "but don't take this job for the comp, take it because you want to tell your grandma you're making a difference and really believe it." Wow, that is… audacious, sir! Hats off for the moxie, I guess!
Offers like this are insulting, and bosses like this are giant red flags.
It sounds like this lawyer and his firm are doing good work, and that's to be applauded. But the notion that workers owe it to them to help them do it for basically bragging rights or karma instead of pay is ridiculous.
It comes on top of the expectation that someone who's gone to school to be a paralegal should also be okay with being treated like an intern, which is outright insulting, especially given that the nature of the cases they try is so lucrative. Paralegals tend to be underpaid anyway, despite doing so much of the heavy lifting for legal cases, which makes it even worse.
It's astonishing that people have the guts to post something like this in 2025. Of course, it's possible that "it's fine" actually means a huge salary, and he's just trying to filter out those who don't have a sense of altruism. But asking people to jump through the hoops of interviewing in order to find out what "it's fine" actually means is just as insulting and unprofessional as the rest of it.
As one Reddit commenter put it, "I can ‘really believe it’ and ‘make a difference’ even if you pay me just an absurd amount of money." Fair pay and altruism are not mutually exclusive, as this lawyer very clearly knows from experience, given how successful he claims to be. Share the wealth, buddy. Or, at the very least, lower your expectations.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
