I was a paralegal for my first couple years out of college, as a way of exploring whether I wanted to become a lawyer. Long story short, I decided against law school. I thought litigation would be interesting but I found that the whole adversarial basis for our system was something that I would rather leave to others. As others have said, it can vary widely depending on what area of the law you're working in, and then individually who you're working for. As in any field, there are nightmare bosses and there are bosses who treat you well and appreciate how hard you work for them.

CC, it may help for you to do some informational interviews to get a sense of whether or not it would have what you're looking for in a career. Try talking to people in a variety of specializations. If there are specific programs you're looking at, maybe ask if they have any recent grads that would be willing to talk to you?