RE paralegal to REPE

I think a relatively tough transition directly but your university brand should help. Maybe you could try to do a MSRED program and then transition over. It’s only one year. Columbia and NYU are great if you want to be in NYC.

For once a real question instead of "is it possible to transition from a $250MM fund to a $2B fund".

To be honest, I think this is going to be next to impossible for you without some sort of grad school reset or a networking miracle.

I've seen it done by a former coworker. Paralegal for 3 years then went to grad school to get a MS in RE. Now works in acquisitions in the same asset class they were a paralegal for. 

A lot of legal haters on WSO who know next to nothing about what the legal side of a transaction looks like and the work that goes into negotiating and pushing a transaction through. Depending on your exposure as a paralegal, you very well have some transferable and desirable skills to make the jump, it just depends on how you frame it. As others said, an additional degree would definitely help as it would dispel some of the initial doubts potential employers may have, but I actually would argue it's not absolutely necessary, particularly if you utilize your network.

I actually made a similar transaction (albeit more steps). I started off as a big law M&A paralegal after graduating (non-target). Spent 2 years there, decided law school wasn't for me and left for a legal analyst role at a large cap PE firm. Spent another 2 years there and had significant deal exposure - spent a lot of late nights with my deal team counter parts and really had the chance to observe what they were doing, while actively teaching myself the modeling and other hard skills required. Developed a great relationship with the GC at the firm, who I reported to, and let him know I wanted to eventually switch to the investment team. He ended up going to bat for me with a couple of the MDs, who gave me a chance to work with them in more of an investment capacity on a few deals. Learned a ton by doing so. I wasn't able to get an investment role at that firm, but one of the MD's I worked with connected me with a buddy of his who headed up the secondaries group at a smaller firm, who ended up offering me an associate position. 

TLDR it wasn't easy but it was possible. I actually think the legal work in some ways is more challenging, and it definitely teaches you about deals, so if you get good at that side learning the rest wont be hard. Build a network and put in the work and you can do it.