Legal Assistant - Pointers on Finding the Right University
The origin of the legal assistant 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 legal assistants now perform many duties once only performed by lawyers they still cannot do things like give legal advice or present a case in court.
Crucial benchmarks to gauge when examining the standard of a legal assistant 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 legal assistant 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. Who are the participants running the show? In other words, who were the people that put together the legal assistant schools curriculum and who are teachers? Does the teaching staff and legal assistant program director have outstanding educational credentials and the field experience to bring their book knowledge to life? Minimally, the program director should have a law degree or other type of advanced degree and the faculty must have real-world experience working with legal assistants but preferably as a legal assistant and they must be an “expert” in the subject matter they are teaching.
3. Distance learning, also called online learning is becoming all the rage but is getting your legal assistant degree or legal assistant certificate from an online legal assistant school right for you? Online learning is clearly different than traditional campus based learning but regardless of how the information is delivered (i.e. interactive video, tele-courses, etc.) the student / teacher interaction isn’t the same. Plus, online learning takes more self-discipline and motivation than campus learning and you have to make the determination that you have what it takes to complete the assignments.
You want to become a legal assistant. Sounds like a great career and it is, but like any profession your natural born skills and personality traits need to match up with the job requirements in order to be happy and successful. So what traits do you need to succeed as a legal assistant? Well, you must enjoy research; have the ability to write in legal ease, have above average communication skills and not fold under pressure. If this sounds like you, then I hear a legal assistant degree calling your name.
