The origin of the paralegal dates back to the late 60s and early 1970s. The position was created to free-up time for lawyers to focus more of their time on key aspects of their clients’ cases like trial preparation. Although paralegals now perform many duties once only performed by lawyers they still cannot do things like give legal advice or present a case in court.
Important aspects to keep in mind when analyzing a paralegal program:
1. Paralegal school curriculum should focus on teaching practical job skills alongside a solid legal theory foundation. Concentration courses should revolve around topics like litigation and legal writing, legal ethics, contract and business organization. In addition to developing a usable knowledge of the law, a high quality paralegal college training program will emphasize creative and critical thinking, organizational and computational skills. The overall development of the student should also be a critical objective along with some type of real world experience like an internship before graduation.
2. Commitment by the faculty and the paralegal curriculum director to the importance of the paralegal in the whole legal system is a must. Additionally, they must have the proper academic credentials to be able to teach the subject. Ideally, the paralegal program director should have a law degree but if not, they should have some type of advanced paralegal degree. As for the instructors they should be experts in the subjects they are teaching. How they came to become an “expert” can be debated as to what is the best path but regardless of the journey they need to have the proper expertise.
3. An increasing number of higher educational colleges and universities are now making paralegal courses and/or entire paralegal degree programs available online via the internet. Potential students need to find out what type of delivery system will be used and how much training will be provided in using the system whether it’s all web-based, video based or a combination of the two. Another key factor for one must ask themselves is if they are properly suited for online learning because it takes a strong level of commitment and discipline.
Even if down the road your goal is to become a lawyer, starting your professional life in law as a paralegal is a wise initial step. Earning your paralegal degree will allow you to get a foothold into the legal field, which in turn will expose additional opportunities. And then, down the road you can make a more informed decision as to whether or not to pursue your law degree or to keep working as a paralegal. In any case, opportunities will be many.