Large law firms are usually found in large cities. A firm with more than twenty lawyers is usually a more formal type of employer. The lawyers in a large law firm often have practice specialties and expect their paralegals to specialize in these areas. This increased structure sometime applies to the paralegals as well — large law firms sometimes use paralegal managers to make paralegal assignments. This may limit the opportunity to develop a personal working relationship with a supervising lawyer.

Large law firms offer higher salaries, more employment benefits, and assignments that may be more challenging than those in a small law firm. Paralegals in large law firms may have their own support staff and access to state-of-the-art technology. Offsetting these advantages are a stricter working environment and limited experience with a variety of legal matters.