Legal Assisting - A Rewarding Career

2007-10-15 12:53:47

( Pharmeceutical-Medical )



Duties and Responsibilities of a Legal Assistant

Also known as a paralegal, a legal assistant provides assistance to lawyers in delivering legal services to clients. The functions of legal assisting include preparing legal documents, researching, interviewing clients, locating witnesses, summarizing depositions and testimonies, and communicating with various parties.

Legal assisting is almost like practicing law, except that you cannot give advice to clients, nor represent clients in court hearings. These functions will have to be executed by a licensed attorney.

Like licensed lawyers, legal assistants can bill clients, but at lower rates. The legal assistant must also clearly indicate his non-lawyer status during his communications with involved parties.

Like lawyers, legal assistants also have their own specialties in various fields of law.

Legal Assisting is a Promising Career

As there is always a continuing need for lawyers and legal consultations, there is also a steadily growing demand for legal assistants. Every legal case involves a lot of research and preparation before court hearings, and a lawyer may be just too busy to handle the finer details.

The profession of legal assisting has been growing faster than many other similar professions. As a legal assistant, you can easily find work not just in law offices but also in other business and government organizations.

Training and Qualifications of Legal Assistants

As with other professional jobs, legal assisting requires some training as well as passing a qualifying examination. In fact, there are four different levels of degree programs - the two-year associate degree, the regular four-year bachelor's degree, the certificate program for holders of associate or baccalaureate degrees, and the master's degree program. As an associate degree holder, you also have the choice of whether you want to pursue further study leading to a bachelor's degree.

In the training program, you will need to study the basic laws in employment, business organizations, contracts, wills, family, bankruptcy, and real property. You will also receive training in research, legal writing and document preparation. Other related courses include composition, accounting, management and speech. You will also need to take up some electives in order to specialize in civil or criminal cases.

After completing your training program, you may opt to take an intensive two-day certification exam to test your knowledge in the basics of legal assisting as well as the American legal system and four other specific fields of law. The certificate will give you an edge in employment opportunities.

Where to Find Training Programs

Local community colleges and universities offer legal assisting training programs. And as there are medical assisting schools exclusively for medical assistance training, there are also legal assisting schools that offer at least one of the four training programs.

Find and choose a school based on its reputation, as well as your budget and available hours for attending classes.


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