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The origin of the paralegal 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 paralegals now perform many duties once only performed by lawyers they still cannot do things like give legal advice or present a case in court.

Critical aspects to remember when looking into the quality of a paralegal 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 paralegal 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. Real world experience and unquestionable scholastic credentials are key character traits any high quality paralegal program director will possess. They must also have the desire to take “their” paralegal schools program to the highest level and the curriculum must be spot on for today’s paralegal work environment. Similarly, the teaching staff must possess both the field experience and the scholastic background to be considered “experts” in their classrooms.

3. Is the tried and true campus classroom learning model best for you or is the so-called “modern” online paralegal training environment a better fit? An essential question that needs to be answered before you take the plunge and decide to pursue your paralegal degree via the online learning model. Another key question includes how you’ll receive the training. Will it be through web based courses or telecourses or interactive video or something else? Furthermore, one of the most important questions is very simple, “Can you learn online?”

You want to become a paralegal. 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 paralegal? 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 paralegal degree calling your name.