Chapter One
The Paralegal: An Overview
Paralegals are an essential part of the legal industry; without them, attorneys would be forced to work even longer hours, in turn, forcing them to charge their clients even higher fees. Attorneys rely on paralegals for a vast array of responsibilities. Indeed, paralegals often perform many of the same tasks as attorneys themselves.
While most people have certainly heard of the term “paralegal,” few probably know much about the extent of the role of the paralegal, or legal assistant, in the legal field.
First, what exactly is the definition of a paralegal? The National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA), an organization you’ll come to know intimately if you enter the legal field as a paralegal, first adopted an official definition of the legal assistant in 1986. A decade later, in 1997, the American Bar Association adopted its own definition of the legal assistant, which NALA would go on to officially adopt as its definition of the legal assistant in 2001:
“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 whop performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.”
Next: Chapter One: Responsiblities
Previous: Introduction
Table of Contents for the Paralegal Career Guide:
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