Center For Advanced Legal Studies

A Paralegal is a person, qualified through education, training or work experience to perform substantive legal work that requires knowledge of legal concepts and is customarily, but not exclusively, performed by a lawyer, according to the National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Inc. This person may work, either as an employee or a contract employee, for a sole practitioner, a law office, a governmental agency or other entity or may be authorized by administrative, statutory or other court authority to perform these tasks. Substantive means any work that requires identification, analysis, organization, evaluation, and communication of related data and legal issues.

As per the American Bar Association, a legal assistant or paralegal is anyone who has the proper education, training or work experience that works for an attorney, law firm, corporation, public agency, or other entity and who completes substantive legal work that an attorney is responsible for.

Basically, knowledgeable and experienced paralegals are capable of performing legal work that is usually completed by an attorney, and for which an attorney is, in due course, held responsible for. Paralegals, however, are responsible for providing their supervising lawyer and clients with ethical, timely, concise and accurate work.

Statistics gathered by survey companies indicate that paralegals are most commonly involved in the following activities:

• Interviewing Clients
• Performing Legal Research
• Investigating Case Facts
• Locating and Interviewing Witnesses
• Participating in Trials
• Drafting and Filing Petitions
• Managing Court Dockets and Correspondence
• Generating Correspondence and Pleadings
• Attending and Summarizing Depositions
• Attending the Execution of Wills, Real Property Closings, Court, or Administrative Hearings and Trials

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