Military Paralegals: Army 27D and Moving to a Civilian Firm

We can't give you a verified list of paralegal job titles by branch.

Searches on this topic surface several names — Army 27D, Navy legalman, Air Force and Marine Corps equivalents — but official detail is uneven, and our research found a summary of recruiting material for only one of them (Army 27D), which we could not verify directly either.

The Army's role is Paralegal Specialist, MOS 27D, with a training path at Fort Jackson, South Carolina per a summary of Army recruiting material we could not verify directly — the next section has the figures and the caveat.

For the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, the official sources we checked did not confirm current rating or specialty designations, so we won't guess them here — check each branch's official recruiting site for the current role name, training pipeline and entry requirements.

Whatever the uniform, the civilian definition of the job travels with you.

The ABA House of Delegates adopted the current definition of paralegal in February 2020, and it names three ways to qualify: "qualified by education, training or work experience."

It describes the work itself as "specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible" — work experience, in other words, counts by design.

Titles blur after you land, too.

NALA treats "legal assistant" and "paralegal" as synonymous, but many firms use "legal assistant" for a secretarial role, so read postings carefully instead of filtering on the title.

Our paralegal career guide breaks down how the civilian role is defined and where the titles diverge.

Per a summary of the Army's recruiting material, MOS 27D is the Army's Paralegal Specialist role.

The training figures we have come from that same summary: 10 weeks of Basic Combat Training plus 10 weeks of Advanced Individual Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

That provenance deserves its own caveat: goarmy.com blocked our direct checks while researching this page, so the figures rest on a summary, not on the goarmy.com pages themselves.

Treat the 10-and-10 structure as a starting point, not a verified fact.

We also can't give you a verified 27D duty list, promotion timeline or security-clearance picture — none of it came from a source we could read.

If you're weighing 27D against a civilian entry route, our guide to how to become a paralegal covers the civilian path step by step, and the next section shows you what civilian employers actually screen for.

Start with the structural fact: there is no paralegal license to transfer.

NFPA, a national paralegal association, states that no single authority oversees the paralegal profession in the U.S. and that, as of its writing, no state has paralegal licensure.

Your record moves on the strength of what you did, not a credential you carry over.

So map the record onto what employers screen for.

BLS lists typical paralegal duties as investigating case facts, researching laws and regulations, gathering and organizing documents, drafting correspondence and documents such as contracts, obtaining affidavits, helping at trial with exhibits and notes, filing documents with courts and agencies, and scheduling interviews, meetings and depositions.

BLS names communication, detail orientation, interpersonal skills, organizational skills and research skills as the qualities that matter.

Write your military duties in those terms and a civilian hiring manager can score them.

Context for where you're aiming: in 2025, 75% of paralegal and legal assistant jobs were in legal services, the BLS industry that includes law firms.

BLS notes that in small firms paralegals may work all aspects of a case, while in larger firms they may work on one phase, such as preparing witnesses for deposition or trial.

On pay, BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook reported a median annual wage of $62,890 for paralegals and legal assistants (SOC 23-2011) in May 2025, with legal services at $61,770 — and federal government, at $81,470, the highest of the industry medians BLS lists.

That federal figure is worth a second look.

The federal Paralegal Specialist series is GS-0950, and OPM lists no Individual Occupational Requirements for it — agencies use the Group Coverage Qualification Standard for Administrative and Management Positions instead, so qualification details sit with each agency's posting rather than a series-wide rule.

On the student-loan side, studentaid.gov counts U.S. government organizations at any level — explicitly including the military — as PSLF-qualifying employers, with forgiveness after 120 qualifying payments and full-time defined as averaging at least 30 hours a week.

Private law firms are not qualifying employers, and studentaid.gov has flagged rule changes for loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2026, so check the current rules there before you count on it.

Then translate on paper.

Rebuild your resume around the duty list above in plain civilian language — our paralegal resume guide covers structure and wording.

It also helps to know the door isn't only open to degree-holders: BLS notes some employers consider candidates with a high school diploma and experience, and some hire people with no legal education and train them on the job.

Browsing current paralegal jobs is the fastest way to see how firms actually phrase these requirements.

We'll be straight about scope: our research did not verify branch-specific transition or veteran-hiring programs for legal support roles, so we won't list programs we can't confirm.

Check with your branch and the VA for what's currently on offer.

What we did verify sits on the certification side, and it's concrete.

Certification is voluntary in this profession — BLS says paralegal certification is not required, but some employers prefer or require it.

NALA's Certified Paralegal (CP) has two required sections taken in order: a Knowledge Exam, three hours and 120 multiple-choice questions offered year-round, then a two-hour written Skills Exam offered in February, April, July and October.

The credential is valid for five years and renews with 50 CLE hours per five-year period, including at least 5 hours of legal ethics.

The veteran-relevant part: NALA says the VA will pay the CP exam fee for qualified veterans, and NALA gives a 25% application-fee discount to active-duty service members, veterans, guardsmen, reservists and their spouses.

Its fee schedule also lists a military application category — $240 for members and $280 for non-members, against $325 and $375 at the standard rate, as of October 2026.

Eligibility runs on experience and education.

If you've built at least five years of paralegal experience and completed at least 20 hours of substantive CLE within the two years before applying, NALA's Category 3 requires only a high school diploma or equivalent — with an attorney or employer attestation.

Whether your military service counts toward that five-year figure is NALA's call, not ours: ask NALA before you apply.

Newer entrants have other routes: Category 1 covers paralegal program graduates, and Category 2 covers a bachelor's degree in any field plus either one year of paralegal experience or at least 15 semester hours of substantive paralegal courses.

NFPA's exams work differently — they require substantive paralegal work experience, and NFPA says someone without it is not eligible for either of its exams under its current criteria.

Career information, not legal advice — confirm training details with an Army recruiter or goarmy.com, and certification details with NALA and the VA.