Legal Assistant - Bright as a Full Moon
Paralegals are represented by a number of professional organizations. One, which has only been around since 2003 but is making a big splash in the field, is the American Alliance of Paralegals Inc (AAPI). The AAPI was the first organization with national scope that became involved in setting up minimum educational requirements and guidelines. They also require that voting members meet certain work experience or educational guidelines.
Intrinsic fundamental yardsticks to be aware of when assessing any legal assistant program:
1. Teaching applicable, useful work skills in conjunction with cornerstone legal theory is an indispensable aspect of any quality legal assistant school curriculum. Additionally, a solid legal assistant degree program should also embrace everything from torts and business organizations to ethics and legal writing. Furthermore, legal assistant courses should focus on enhancing students’ critical thinking abilities, improve and hone communication skills and prepare them emotional and psychologically to handle ethical issues.
2. Unquestioned belief to the value of the legal assistant position within the legal field, from both the program director and the faculty, is essential. Plus, both the legal assistant school “dean” and the teachers need to have the desired scholastic accreditation to run the program and to teach the curriculum. In a perfect world, the “dean” would have a law degree and the teachers would be considered “experts” in their fields with an advanced legal assistant degree and measurable experience.
3. An increasing number of higher educational colleges and universities are now making legal assistant courses and/or entire legal assistant 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 legal assistant is a wise initial step. Earning your legal assistant 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 legal assistant. In any case, opportunities will be many.
