While in law school, Paul was a member of the Dean’s List and participated in both the law review and moot court. After graduating from law school in 2000, Paul reported to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California for duty as a judge advocate (military attorney). While at the Recruit Depot, Paul was the officer in charge of the legal assistance clinic, overseeing a practice that specialized in family law and consumer protection law for service members. Paul also served as the head prosecutor for the Recruit Depot and the Marine Corps Western Recruiting Region. As the head prosecutor, Paul both supervised other attorneys and personally litigated drug, sexual assault, and attempted murder cases.
In 2004, Paul left the Recruit Depot to attend the Army’s advanced attorney training in Charlottesville, Virginia where he received his Masters of Law degree (LLM). Recognizing the need for the military to improve its treatment of sexual assault victims, Paul wrote an article for the Military Law Review on the need to establish a victim-victim advocate evidentiary privilege within the Department of Defense (DoD). This article was cited in military law treatises and DoD ultimately established this evidentiary privilege in 2012.