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The Paralegal Profession & Employment
The Paralegal Profession
Paralegals or legal assistants are highly skilled paraprofessionals who work with attorneys in all areas of civil and criminal law. The American Bar Association defines this occupation as follows: A legal assistant or paralegal is a person, qualified by education, training or work experience, who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible. Paralegal functions are diverse and wide-ranging, including drafting legal documents, interviewing clients, conducting legal research, and investigating and preparing cases for trial.
Paralegal Profession Links
Paralegal Employment & Qualifications
Paralegals are employed in private law firms, public interest and legal aid organizations, corporations, banks, and government agencies. Some paralegals work as independent contractors providing their services to lawyers on a contract basis. Others work independently as non-lawyer advocates representing persons before administrative agencies. In large law firms, career paths from document and case clerks to senior paralegals have been developed. Because of the growth in the need for legal training for employees in all sectors of the economy, new avenues of employment are being created on a continuous basis.
California Legislation on Paralegals/Legal Assistants
The state of California has adopted legislation that defines the titles "paralegal" and "legal assistant" and sets educational criteria and continuing education requirements for paralegals. The San Francisco State University Paralegal Studies certificate program meets the educational requirements of the law by virtue of being offered by an accredited institution and consisting of more than 24 semester units of paralegal coursework. We also offer a series of paralegal continuing education courses to meet the continuing education standards established by the Business and Professional Code Section 6450 et seq.
The statute defines "paralegal/legal assistant" as "a person who contracts with or is employed by an attorney, law firm, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs substantial legal work under the direction and supervision of an active member of the State Bar of California..." The statute is intended to differentiate paralegals who work under the supervision of an attorney from persons who provide services directly to the public and are required under California law to be registered as legal document assistants.
Paralegals perform a wide variety of tasks, some of which are set forth in the new law. Among these are "case planning, development and management; legal research; interviewing clients; fact gathering and retrieving information; drafting and analyzing legal documents; collecting compiling and utilizing technical information to make an independent decision and recommendation to the supervising attorney; and representing clients before a state or federal administrative agency if that representation is permitted by statute, court rule, or administrative rule or regulation."
Standards are high in the legal profession and most law firms require some college background and formal paralegal education. Large firms usually require a BA degree. Employers also require paralegals to have highly developed oral and written communication skills, plus organizational and computer skills.
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