This degree program is designed to prepare students for transfer to a four-year institution in the legal field. 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. The American Bar Association states that the terms legal assistant and paralegal are used interchangeably. Paralegals may not give legal advice or otherwise engage in the unauthorized practice of law.
Paralegal work includes developing and modifying procedures used in the legal field, preparing routine legal documents, assisting in the preparation of cases for trial, investigating facts, researching, selecting, assessing, compiling, and using information from the law library and other references, and analyzing and handling procedural problems. Legal assistants may be employed by law firms, businesses, financial institutions, and title and escrow companies, or government agencies. Additional positions for which they may qualify include title examiner, trust officer, contract clerk, legal investigator, and law firm administrator.
Program Outcomes
Graduates will be able to demonstrate knowledge of legal terminology and analyze the history of the American legal system; demonstrate knowledge of court rules and procedures; understand attorney and paralegal ethics; demonstrate proper methods for conducting legal interviews and investigations; distinguish statutory law and case law; demonstrate the proper way to conduct legal research; prepare legal documents; classify the basic elements of and prepare an appellate brief; describe legal rights and duties of businesses; describe government regulation and the legal environment in which businesses operate; describe business organizations; describe and analyze varying types of legal research; locate legal information; and, depending on the electives chosen, demonstrate knowledge of the various elements and procedures associated with constitutional, contract, criminal, family, and bankruptcy law; understand and demonstrate fluency in elements associated with estate planning, victim advocacy, or alternative dispute resolution.
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