Can't speak for the big cities. Here in rural America, a good legal secretary/paralegal gets snapped up right away. My paralegal worked for a guy that had an office a couple of doors down street from me. When he died unexpectedly, she helped close down his office then we hired her. The criminal record would be the biggest issue for me. Absolutely no to someone with theft or bad check charges. If it was booze and long in the past I might make an exception.