How do I break into the paralegal field?

I've recently been laid off from my Finance job of less than 2 years (I held the post for only 18 months prior to being let go--fun stuff). And I literally took that job right out of school, so I can't even say that I'm an experienced professional, because with less than 2 years of corporate experience under my belt, I am clearly neither. In hindsight, I do realize that Finance is just not my cup of tea and that the job I had was not very suitable to my skills, as it was essentially a glorified data entry position and hardly involved any logic or critical thinking.
Anyhow, I would like to break into the legal field, but have no idea what that would require, aside from a (preferably ABA-approved) paralegal certificate, which I do not have for now. Getting a degree from an ABA-approved school like Suffolk U. seem to be terribly expensive (25K for a Paralegal Certificate??). I wouldn't mind volunteering for a law firm just to get my foot in the door, but I don't even know how and where to begin, since the idea of simply walking into any random law firm--only to be immediately turned down for lack of legal experience--is fairly daunting, to say the least. If anyone has any sound advice on what I should (or should not) do to get started, that would much appreciated. Thank you.